What American Accent Do You Have?
One of those quiz websites has a feature, What American accent do you have? The page is sponsored by Delta and Georgia Natural Gas. There is something icky about those two sharing a link.
The quiz is 13 questions. Most of them give you two words, like cot/caught and don/dawn. You are asked in they sound the same, different, and “Same, no wait I mean different, well, I don’t know…” Other pairs include stock/stalk, collar/caller, pen/pin, and feel/fill.
The result was the South. “That’s a Southern accent you’ve got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don’t have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.” The answers matched 84%.
Curiously, the answers given today were an 81% match for Philadelphia and The Midland. The biggest difference was with Boston (26%) and North Central(20%).
That was so much fun, PG decided to take another one. Youthink has “version 4 of the famous quiz that tells you what accent you have. But it still won`t tell you if you have a Pittsburgh or Vermont accent (sorry).” This one is also sponsored by the gruesome twosome, Delta and Georgia Natural Gas.
The second result was Neutral. You`re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up."
A third alternative is What Kind of American English Do You Speak? This is sponsored by Methproject.org, which should get you up to speed. This is 20 multiple choice questions, like “You call sweetened, carbonated beverages: Coke Soda Pop.”
This quiz said that the tongue spoken here is General American English. This was a 55% match. Other scores include: 30% Dixie, 10% Yankee, 5% Upper Midwestern, 0% Midwestern. These results are followed by a link: “God chose your birthday for a reason. Instantly learn 12 shocking secrets your birthday reveals about your future!”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is written like Dan Brown.
Make The Cuts
Today is number two in the chamblee54 series of edited facebook graphics. Here is the original. The sanitized version is below. A spelling error was corrected, and the picture is now in grayscale. 
The salary that elected officials is a tiny part of their income. The real money in public service comes from other sources. The “johns” supporting BHO invested a billion dollars into his reelection. The pension noted on the sign is .022% of that. The same dynamic applies to the other officials on that graphic.
The salary of a soldier in Afghanistan is likewise a small percentage of the total cost. Having a war of choice, paid for with a tax cut, has had a devastating impact on the economy.
This is the first place a cut should be made. This soldier needs to come home. With the money that will be needed for his/her medical care, there will likely be little money saved.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Having An Unusual Name
PG would rather work on his computer than watch the oscars. This is a choice. It is made less dangerous by facebook, which can alert PG to every twitch of the ism police. It seems like some racist, sexist, misogynist, and ablist things were said Sunday night. PG would be a terrible person if he were not offended by this behavior.
One of the players is Quvenzhané Wallis, who is getting scads of career boost at the moment. Some speakers did not want to pronounce her name, and got in trouble as a result.
An observer throws this opinion out there: “Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right … Give your children difficult names, so the world may learn how to unfurl its tongue in the direction of our stolen languages.”
PG was known for most of his life as Cam. This is short for Campbell, his middle name. Whenever he was introduced to someone, he had to explain this name. Yes, it is just like a car cam, whatever that is. No, it is not Cal or Kim. It is Cam, C A M. After a while, it became a giant pain in the ass.
The parents responsible for this are kind, loving people. People make mistakes. Who knows what they were thinking when they decided to name their firstborn after an automobive part.
So, go ahead and give your baby an “unusual” name. They might like it. It may also be a source of embarrassment. Being a living human being is tough business. Giving an kid a weird name just might make it a bit tougher. It might be a very selfish thing to do.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
The Trial Of Lenny Bruce
Towards the end of his Booknotes chat, Nat Hentoff talked about censorship. As a journalist, his views were predictable.
Mr. HENTOFF: Any words at all. Words are–I mean, there is a great–there was a great scene in New York once when Lenny Bruce, who was a friend of mine, was on trial for his words. And Richard Cue, the assistant district attorney, was making a name for himself trying to blast all of the witnesses for the defense. And he got Dorothy Kilgallen, who was a very famous then syndicated columnist, a devout Catholic, a conservative and a great admirer of Lenny Bruce. And he con–he strung together, Cue did, all of the words in Lenny’s monologues that could be considered terribly offensive, and he hit her with them. It was a barrage. `What do you think then, Ms. Kilgallen?’ `Well,’ she said, `they’re words. They’re words. That’s all. Words.’ That’s the way I feel.
When PG heard this, he remembered reading about this trial. With the aid of Mr. Google, a transcript turned up. If you like to read about lawyers saying dirty words, this is the place for you.
Dorothy Kilgallen was, to put it mildly, a piece of work. She wrote for the N. Y. Journal American, and stepped on more than a few toes. A biography, Kilgallen, tells a few of the tales. Today, Miss Kilgallen is best known as one of the original panelists on “Whats My Line?”
The People v Lenny Bruce (Cafe Au Go Go Trial) was tried June 16, 1964 to July 28, 1964 in New York City. The Per Curium Opinion of Judge John Murtagh sets the tone. “All three performances of the defendant, Lenny Bruce, were obscene, indecent, immoral and impure within the meaning of Section 1l40-a of the Penal Law. While no tape is available as to the first performance [past midnight, March 31-April 1], this monologue, according to the testimony, was essentially the same as that of the second [April 1, after 10:00 p.m.] and third [April 7, after 10:00 p.m.] performances. In the latter two performances, words such as “ass,” “balls,” “cock-sucker,” “cunt,” “fuck,” “mother-fucker,” “piss,” “screw,” “shit,” and “tits” were used about one hundred times in utter obscenity. The monologues also contained anecdotes and reflections that were similarly obscene.
Dorothy Kilgallen was called as an “expert witness”. In lawyerly fashion, the prosecutor claimed she was not a genuine expert. After her credentials were established, there were questions like “Will you tell us what the artistry, or the social value, or the merit, or the good is, in the Bruce story of sexual intercourse with a chicken?” After the testimony described by Mr. Hentoff, Miss Kilgallen talks about something that does offend her.
Q. I wouldn’t take much time, but we did discuss before Lenny Bruce’s use of the words ‘mother fucker’ at his audience. Can you tell me when James Jones or Norman Mailer or Arthur Miller has called his audience ‘mother fucker?’
Mr. Garbus: Your Honor, may I object? We are talking about books against monologue. It’s completely an irrelevant question.
Judge Murtagh: We will allow it. Objection overruled.
A. I can’t tell you anything verbatim from the books, because I read them a couple of years ago or more. I would imagine–this would be my best guess–that they did not call their audiences anything. There’s another book called The Naked Lunch which I couldn’t even finish reading, but it’s published, and I think the author should be in jail and he used–
Q. Unfortunately we can’t do everything at once, Miss Kilgallen. Are you judging the non-obscene quality and the artistic quality of Bruce by the fact that The Naked Lunch is a book which, as of this date, is sold in the community?
A. No, I’m not. I just mentioned it because you asked me for some books.
Q. And The Naked Lunch is a book you found impossible to read, is that correct?
A. Yes, I found it revolting.
Q. What was revolting about it?
A. Just the way it was written.
Mr.Garbus: Objection, your Honor.
Judge Murtagh: Objection overruled.
A. It seemed to use words for shock value, not for any valid reason, and I object to that.
Q. And when Lenny Bruce–I ask you to turn to the April 1st tape . . . and read the portion starting–‘tits and ass, that’s what is the attraction, is just tits and ass and tits and ass’–and goes on all through the page, and ask you if you find some shock value in that?
A. No, I don’t think it’s particularly shocking, it’s just a word.. . .
Q.. Do you, in your column, use the words tits and ass?
A. Never.
Q. You know exactly what Lenny Bruce was talking about?
A. Yes. . . . I think there he’s being critical of the monotony of what is on view in Las Vegas.
Dorothy Kilgallen died November 8, 1965. Lenny Bruce died August 3, 1966. Kilgallen biographer Lee Israel was convicted of selling forged celebrity letters. Nat Hentoff was laid off from the Village Voice. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These images are Union soldiers from the War Between the States. The spell check suggestion for Kilgallen is Millennial.
Definition Of Racist
The unpronounceable one, Carl Hiassen, had a feature recently, “Another boondoggle in the works.” Someone wants to government to contribute eight, or nine digits to the renovation of a football stadium. A lot of people don’t think this is a good idea, but their opinions don’t matter. The role of the taxpayer is to pay the bills, and keep quiet.
Eight degrees north, a similar discussion is going on. The forces of evil want the taxpayers to help pay for the Blank Bowl. Jim Galloway noted a few days ago that this affair has gone through a subtle shift. The talks have gone to the Atlanta City Council, away from the Georgia Lesterslature. When a deal is too odious for the gold dome bandits, the public should be concerned.
The affair has also moved away from the attention of the press. This is where the players want the deal to be done. Arthur Blank is on the board of directors of Cox enterprises. He can turn the publicity spigot off when he wants to. Stadium deals are like mushrooms: they flourish in the dark, and live on a diet of animal waste.
The second part of this double feature is borrowed from WTF Japan Seriously. HT to World Class Stupid. The facility has a picture of a woman in a mask shop, holding up some product. This is a white woman, holding up a mask with POC features. People in the comments are buzzing. Most of these thoughts are from AnonymousFebruary. It is not noted where AF lives.
One of the comments has a super sentence. The definition of racist does not encapsulate the entirety of what racism is. It is not known if the commenter is a POC. Some say that only POC are qualified to render judgements on the racisisicity of a entity, so this is an important distinction. 
yes you are a racist if you think this is racist, like the chick in the picture holding it up, ignoring the other types of masks of the the types of races
Its a Bobby Ologun Mask. He is kind of famous in Japan. So i wouldn´t call it racist.
Look up the definition of “racist” and explain how it pertains to this photo. Some people are just way too uptight and would probably crap a diamond if you shoved coal up their bums.
I don’t understand what people see racist in these things, its just a caricature. It simply exaggerates the obvious visual charakteristics of somebody, here of a black person. Yes, some are just stereotypes, like the hooknose in caricatures of jews, but so what? Is somebody less of a human being because he or she has prominent lips, epicanthic folds or freckles? It’s just comedy, these are carnival masks, if somebody finds that racist they are either oversensitive or closet racists, I can’t think of any other reason why one would find offense in these.
100% racist. The japanese barely tolerate the “white devil”, so it is no surprise they do stuff like this with the “black shit”.
Yes, this is a mask of Bobby Ologun. Can’t make somebody’s mask? Aren’t there lots of Obama’s in US?
In the eyes of some sort of bleeding-heart, liberal, vegan, pro-life, white american softee then, yes, unfortunately this is probably seen as terrible and racist. To the rest of us, its funny, harmless and the last thing in our minds is skin color. (This comment got a reply.) “pro-life” is not like the others
i want a mask of her face. its hilarious and just as ‘offensive.’
yeah, let’s go to a country with a completely different culture and a different view on lot of things like humor and racism, and complain that it’s not the same like ours… i don’t see a problem, stop being oversensitive PC wussies…
After reading these replies, I wonder if the people crying “racist” even know what that word means or are they just the overly-sensitive, politically correct fools who are ruining society?
It’s racist. The definition of racist does not encapsulate the entirety of what racism is. This mask is an example of what’s known as blackface.
It’s Racist. The character that is well known is also a racist depiction. A hooked nose depiction of jews is also racist. Just because it maybe done for comedic effect, or its a carnival mask doesn’t make it not racist. It’s essential a mask of character done up like an American minstrel show.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Friends Of Hamas
There is a tasteful trending topic in Twitterland, #FriendsofHamas. If you have a life, and don’t follow all the news, you might have missed this. There is a story that a politician recieved an honorarium from a group called “Friends of Hamas”. The story was widely repeated. The fact that FOH does not exist is not a problem to many in Twitterland.
@ChuckCJohnson Naw, #Hagel’s just friends with the Jew-hating, suicide bombing Iranian regime.
@Rightwingpolok #FriendsofHamas: Hezbollah, Islam, Barry Obama, Chuck Hagel, Iran, N. Korea, Russia, China, Hillary, John Kerry, The entire Dem party.
@AlecMacGillis And here I was wasting a lot of time trying to figure out if my end-of-year donation to #FriendsofHamas was tax-deductible.
@Xultar I’ve dated all the #friendsofHamas
For a while, there was a promoted tweet, at the top of the heap, when you looked up Friends of Hamas. It is not there now, but you don’t want to miss out. Wendy’sVerified account @Wendys Which taste from the Right Price Right Size Menu is the perfect sidekick for Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy? pic.twitter.com/Y7XxO54x
Currently of top of the heap at #FriendsofHamas is ‘Friends of Hamas’: My role in the birth of a rumor. This is a confession from a writer who set the wheels of rumor and intrigue spinning.
This is featured at the New York Daily News, an intellectual organ. One of the “editors picks” leads to an uplifting story, New York mom charged with child endangerment after hiring strippers to perform lap dances at her 16-year-old son’s birthday party. Judy Viger, 33, faces up to a year in jail after the party, which had guests as young as 13. A 15-year-old’s mother saw photos of the lap dances by Tops in Bottoms strippers on Facebook and alerted South Glens Falls authorities.
In the Daily News story, it is repeatedly mentioned that FOH is not a real organization. The person who wrote the seminal piece about FOH is quoted: “Reached Tuesday, Shapiro acknowledged “Friends of Hamas” might not exist… his story used “very, very specific language” to avoid flatly claiming it did.”
The story of FOH brings to mind an old story about Lyndon Baines Johnson. “And his sense of the bizarre knows no bounds, as in this ‘ancient and honourable’ story of how Lyndon Johnson first got elected to Congress in 1948 when his opponent was a wealthy and politically favoured pig farmer: ‘Lyndon was running about 10 points behind, with only nine days to go… He was sunk in despair. He was desperate… he called his equally depressed campaign manager and instructed him to call a press conference at two or two-thirty (just after lunch on a slow news day) and accuse his high-riding opponent (the pig farmer) of having routine carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children… His campaign manager was shocked. ‘We can’t say that, Lyndon,’ he said. ‘It’s not true.’ ‘Of course it’s not,’ Johnson barked at him, ‘but let’s make the bastard deny it.’
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is written like Stephen King.
Beating Heart
people say
I firmly believe
I work to live
I don’t live to work
is there a difference?
does your heart stop beating
when you clock in?
do you get hungry before lunch?
Pete Hamill says
live your life, don’t perform it.
Pictures: L.O.C.
Knee Jerk Jokes
Yesterday’s post was a scratch pad printout. The thoughts in progress were collected, edited, and illustrated with historic pictures. A problem arose when a comment was used, and there was no link to the article it was discussing. An effort was made to find this article. The phrase “After the knee jerk joke in the first comment” was submitted to Mr. Google. The results were a lot of fun.
wiseGEEK contributes the educational part of today’s entertainment. “A knee-jerk reaction is an emotional rather than an analytical response to something. The term is named after the response usually caused by the medical reflex test in which the leg jerks forward when the tendon below the knee is struck with a rubber mallet. This is medically known as a patellar reflex and was documented in Sir Michael Foster’s 1877 Text Book of Physiology. As early as the tenth century, the term knee-jerk reaction was used figuratively to refer to an unthinking reaction.”
Some results were subtle. tptacek: “I don’t understand why parents feel the need to be so politically correct. As ‘yummyfajitas is sure to point out shortly, every empirical study ever conducted has shown that males have a statistically significant advantage in slaying Octoroks and Peahats.”
There were other results. There were youtube comments to Sarah Silverman. There is the Christian school discussion about a wife, and submission to her husband. A third was about male politicians discussing rape. If you have too much free time you can follow those links. Then there were the jokes.
A young ventriloquist is touring the clubs and one night he’s doing a show in Arkansas.
With his dummy on his knee, he’s going through his usual dumb blonde jokes when a blonde woman in the fourth row stands on her chair and starts shouting: ”I’ve heard enough of your stupid blonde jokes. What makes you think you can stereotype women that way? What does the color of a person’s hair have to do with her worth as a human being? It’s guys like you who keep women like me from being respected at work and in the community and from reaching our full potential as a person, because you and your kind continue to perpetuate discrimination against, not only blondes, but women in general…and all in the name of humor!”
The ventriloquist is embarrassed and begins to apologize, when the blonde yells, ”You stay out of this, mister! I’m talking to that little jerk on your knee!”
A man goes into the doctor.He says, “Doc, you gotta check my leg. Something’s wrong. Just put your ear up to my thigh, you’ll hear it!”The doctor cautiously placed his ear to the man’s thigh, only to hear, “Gimme 20 bucks. I really need 20 bucks.””I’ve never seen or heard anything like this before. How long has this been going on?” The doctor asked.”That’s nothing Doc. Put your ear to my knee.”The doctor put his ear to the man’s knee and heard it say, “Man, I really need 10 dollars. Just lend me 10 bucks!!””Sir, I really don’t know what to tell you. I’ve never seen anything like this.” The doctor was dumbfounded.”Wait Doc, that’s not all. There’s more, just put your ear up to my ankle,” the man urged him.The doctor did as the man said and was blown away to hear his ankle plead, “Please, I just need 5 dollars. Lend me 5 bucks, please, if you will.””I have no idea what to tell you. There’s nothing about it in my books,” he said, as he frantically searched all his medical reference books.”I can make a well educated guess though,” he continued. “Based on life and all my previous experience, I can tell you that your leg seems to be broke in three places.”
This was written like William Shakespeare
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Flag Lapel Pin Upside Down
As you may notice, this blog sometimes puts up collections of quotes. There is usually a document on the desktop, which serves as a recycling bin. This document also serves as a writing station for comments. The idea is to write the comment out, include all the salient links, before you enter your tidbit of wisdom. Often, a moment of discretion will occur, and the comment will not be posted. Comments never die, at least at Chamblee54. Today, we will have a collection of recent thoughts, some of which are smarter than others.
A typical night in Brookhaven sees PG editing pictures, while listening to “something”. When literally hundreds of regular podcasts, PG can only follow so many. One favorite is Bloggingheads.tv. The viewer at BHTV allows you to make a video clip. This device was invented by Greg Dingle, and is sometimes known as a Dinglelink. It is not known if this is connected to Dingleberries. This device allows the listener to illustrate a comment, with a quote from the discussion. PG even wrote a poem … Imagine a world without David Corn, ~ in which he had never been born, ~ Bob said without any scorn, ~ without a beard that is shorn.
This blog post is interrupted to listen to radio. Every Friday morning, porcine radio whiner Mike Gallagher has Chris Wallace on the show. Today, Mike is heartbroken over the election, asking if it is appropriate to wear his american flag lapel pin upside down as a sign of distress. When Mr. Wallace talks about problems with Hispanic voters, Mr. Gallagher says the Hispanics need to reach out to the republicans, not the other way around.
Getting back to dinglelinks, there is one that stands out. Last summer, certain Atlanta communities were having a group hissy fit about racism and white privilege. While this was going on, Glenn Loury said that African Americans were an extremely privileged people. PG nearly fell out of his chair.
Here is the rest of the collection. Some are calling the POTUS wannabe Money Boo Boo. ~ The Buford/Clairmont Kroger has perhaps the worst parking lot ITP ~ An unnamed source says that Fox News is going to be renamed Wolf News Network, in honor of the little boy who cried wolf. ~ After one hour and fifty seconds of chatter, there was a kumbayah moment. The contestants today kept saying “read the transcript”. Has BHTV started to provide transcripts? This would certainly benefit lazy bloggers who like to discuss your show. ~ Without any effort at coordination, here are the three loose dinglelinks that remain. tongue for truth ~ stupidity of wmr strategy ~ good person.
1- This show , with Dr. and Mr. Loury, was great fun to listen to. There were a few sound recording shortcomings, and Mr. Loury could have been better photographed. 2- Religion is a highly individual affair. Dr. Loury chose to attend a church, and it makes him feel good. I have had the church experience shoved in my face, and it made me unhappy. 3- Mr. Loury made a very insightful comment about politicians co opting a narrative politicians co opting a narrative to get elected. I don’t know whether all politicians do this, but the vast majority do. Certainly the chameleon ex Governor of Massachusetts is borrowing a different narrative every day. 4- Dr. Loury has some great comments about the “black identity” that BHO has assumed. Yes, this is the experience of the descendents of slavery, which BHO is emphatically not. (Did the ancestors of Ann Dunham own slaves?) 5- Dr. Loury had a long list of things that Jeremiah Wright is not. I cannot make a clip for everything. I found myself saying, though, that he might not be this or that, but that the public personality that I have seen is one of an asshole. You should not force white people to listen to that style of preaching and react with anything other than disgust. 6- No discussion of religion is complete without the baby and the bathwater. 7- If you disagree with the basic beliefs of a religion, you are unlikely to change your mind because they condemn your sexuality.
1- Another thing to consider is that a lot of things get posted, and sometimes some people miss a few. I honestly don’t have a clue what this discussion is about. I am not sure that I want to know. 2- Many of the race oriented discussions get very heated. There is a lot of people typing first, and maybe thinking later. You take a real chance when you comment in one of these discussions. Life is short, and I am not sure I want to spend part of mine being attacked on facebook. 3- There is an element of supremicism in anti racism. There seems to be a bully element, of people whipping up on others because they don’t like their attitudes about race.
The Chris Stevens who was killed was a diplomat. ~ “And so then I told her, I ain’t eat none of that pork or fish or whatever– all I trust is chicken and Jesus!” ~ Is there anyone who doesn’t want to march, but would like to find a spot to sit down and watch the parade? There is going to be a faerie viewing area in front of the Fox Theater during the parade tomorrow. All are welcome to join, especially those that bring snacks. ~ “A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat, which isn’t there.” – Charles Darwin ~ The phrase I heard was “you throw like a girl”. There is an active/passive duality in throwing and catching. ~ E-Mail Filter effective immediately: Dear friends: In order to avoid repeating the last four years of discussion and anxiety please be aware that we have added another filter to our e-mails: Filter name: OBAMA contains OBAMA begins with OBAMA ends with OBAMA Send to: SPAM
After the knee jerk joke in the first comment, I felt obligated to read your feature. It seems that atheism is more closely related to Jesus Worship Religion than many realize. They are both belief based systems. You replace one set of beliefs with another. You seek validation through the conversion of others. I have my experience with the belief/disbelief cycle. To me, the goal is to live a compassionate life, and block out as much noise as possible. Sometimes my body chemistry looks for a reason to be unhappy, and Jesus is always there to remember. I don’t know what the answer is. I have written about this many times at my blog, chamblee54. I find that often when I write about these issues, I feel more unhappy than before I started. At least I can put some pictures up. The theme of chamblee54 is pretty pictures and ugly opinions. At least expressing these opinions in a written form allows the target to skip over the text. It also allows me to finish my sentence without being interrupted. Perhaps the number one problem with Jesus worshipers is the eagerness to interrupt and say things that please themselves. This is another function of the belief paradigm.
To whom it may concern, You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein, including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other “picture” art posted on my profile. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee, agent, student or any personnel under your direction or control. The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE!
For the record, the name is pronounced BAH decker.(spell check suggestion:pecker) Just remember Bah Humbug. ~ I made a comment, regarding this comment. A man says, referring to abortion, that all life is precious. “How can you say all life is precious, but make an exception for someone in Iran, because you say the dictator wants a nuclear weapon.” “Wanhope” replied… “All life is precious … except when the life in question is being lived in a nation that does (or seems to) threaten America. It is then still precious, but must go away. ” ~ This was written like David Foster Wallace. Mr. Wallace should not be used as a role model. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Inspiration Is For Amateurs
PG was listening to an interview with a fiction writer. Someone said “Inspiration is for amateurs.” PG has always been more impressed by action than beliefs, and this phrase made sense. If nothing else, this is a good excuse to post some more pictures from The Library of Congress.
The phrase is from a painter named Chuck Close. His output is expensive, and widely enjoyed. A spinal injury left him paralyzed, but did not stop him from producing. Here is the full quote about inspiration:
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
A man once made pottery. It was said that the man only worked with passion, and that if he didn’t feel this passion he did not work. When PG heard that, his thought was that if PG worked that way, he would never finish anything. Most of the sticker pictures take a while to finish. PG always gets tired of the picture before it is through. The idea is to go to the studio, start to do stuff, and before long the enthusiasm will return. Any image requires a certain amount of time with the belly pressed against the work table, or the digital equivalent.
The formula for writing is ass plus chair. A teacher once said to not stare at the blank page, waiting for a bolt of lightening. Start to write something, and the ideas will start to sputter out of the pipeline.
It is not enough to have a bright idea. You have to work the problems out. Sometimes, you spend more time finding out what does not work, than what does. You have to do it wrong before you can do it right. Genius is ninety nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration. If any cliches have been overlooked, please add them to the comments.
One thing that is helpful is to be focused. The internet can be a problem. When you should be thinking about your product, it is very tempting to see the latest on Facebook. The same can be said for twitter. Even when praising a bit of anti-inspiration.
@tom_peters “Inspiration is for amateurs.” Success is hard work.
@Doctor_V @tom_peters Inspiration/motivational books are my fav way to procrastinate.
@mkarun99 @tom_peters very true. Thanks for sharing one of the life-changing tweets
Here are a few more thoughts from Mr. Close. I’ve always thought that problem solving is highly overrated and that problem creation is far more interesting. ~ “What difference does it make whether you’re looking at a photograph or looking at a still life in front of you? You still have to look.” ~ It doesn’t upset artists to find out that artists used lenses or mirrors or other aids, but it certainly does upset the art historians. ~ It’s always a pleasure to talk about someone else’s work. ~ You know, the way art history is taught, often there’s nothing that tells you why the painting is great. The description of a lousy painting and the description of a great painting will very much sound the same.
This was written like H. P. Lovecraft.
The “Desiderata” Story
There was a poem , of unknown origin, found in a Baltimore church in 1692. It was revived by a Lawyer, who lived in Terre Haute, IN. He liked to read it his friends, and his lips were moving. The attorney, Max Ehrmann copyrighted this poem in 1927. Another persistent rumor has it that the manuscript was in an ambulance Mr. Ehrmann was following. How the accident victim came to possess this document is a mystery.
Mr. Ehrmann,(the poet laureate of Terre Haute, ) wrote in his diary “I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift — a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods”. The poem is “Desiderata,” and is a favorite of gift shops the world over.
In 1956, Rev. Frederick Kates became the rector of Old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, MD. He had found a copy of “Desiderata”, without the copyright notice. He printed a handout for his congregation on church stationary. At the top of the page was the notation “Old St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore A.C. 1692”. As the sixties devolved, the poem became famous.
“Desiderata” was the text of a recording made by Les Crane, who found the poem on a poster. He thought the text was in the public domain, when in fact it is copyrighted. Mr. Crane was taken to court, and forced to pay the owners of the copyright. The matter has been in court on other occasions. It seems that Mr. Ehrmann used “Desiderata” in a Christmas greeting, without citing the copyright. Later,during World War II, Ehrmann allowed a friend – Army psychiatrist Dr. Merrill Moore – to hand out more than 1,000 copies of the poem to his soldier-patients, without the copyright.
PG admits to confusion on this issue. Don’t copyrights expire, get renewed, and then expire again? If a work was written in 1927, doesn’t it go into the public domain 83 years later. The wikipedia article about copyrights is long and confusing. Remember, we are dealing with a legal concept as it relates to a poem written by a lawyer.
A site called fleurdelis says the matter depends on your point of view and place of residence. ( Shcredo says flatly that “Desiderata” is public domain.) (Robinsweb tells of being forced to remove “Desiderata” from her site because of a complaint by the copyright owner.) If you want to be inspired, click on the videos embedded in this post.
In 1972, the National Lampoon produced a new translation, Deteriorata.
Desiderata belongs to a category that might be called commodity wisdom. It sounds good, and may inspire some people. To others, the D-poem is a lot of nonsense. PG typed the words “Desiderata skeptic” into google, and saw what came up.
There is a forum, The skeptics guide to the universe. On March 17, 2012, mwilley contributed “Skeptical Desiderata.” It begins “Go skeptically amidst the lies and the guile, and take comfort in whatever rationality there may be. As far as possible, without being an asshole, question established orthodoxies and fatuous argument.” As a fortune cookie said, “Few things are as bad as enthusiastic ignorance.” A few spots down is the text of “Deteriorata.”
There is the possibility that desiderata is plural. Maybe the famous text should be desideratum.
One result is a copy resistant google book, Beyond “Justification”: Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation By William P. Alston “Part II Ultimate Questions: The Epistemology of Epistemology” i. The Demand for a Final Settlement ii. The Inevitability of a Regress iii. Attempts to Avoid the Regress: Doxastic Practices iv. Epistemic Circularity v. The Pervasiveness of Epistemic Circularity.”
One of the results was profiles, that mention desiderata, at OK Cupid.
kahmiel 25 / F / Bi / Single Denton, Texas
This is my life philosophy:Max Ehrmann Desiderata Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
Ebonheart 24 / M / Straight / Seeing Someone Birmingham, Alabama
My real name is Desi, as in the poem Desiderata as it were, i try to live according to the guidelines this poem sets because i believe that it is the best way to live peacefully.
Anhkah 45 / F / Straight / Single Murphy, North Carolina
There is no life guide better than the Desiderata .
GLilyDances 46 / F / Bi / Single Virginia Beach, Virginia
“- Friedrich Nietzsche My Woo Jack from cresal :Desiderata
filosof 32 / F / Straight / Married Krasnoyarsk, Russia
“— Sparkling gems of wisdom that I live by, from Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann .
SC_PrinceOfTide 53 / M / Straight / Single Columbia, South Carolina
And if you’re that special someone who also knows the words to DESIDERATA, we’re Kindred Spirits!
B_cubed 27 / M / Gay / Seeing Someone Chicago, Illinois
Like poetry but dont read it much; Desiderata and A certain slant of light = the favs.
nightbirdflying 28 / F / Straight / Single Tucson, Arizona
I believe in the poem Desiderata even if I can’t abide by all it’s suggestions.
Andrinara 25 / F / Bi / Seeing Someone Chicago, Illinois
I like getting tattoos and have many, the most recent being a few stanzas of Desiderata down my ribs.
oriondreamdance 58 / M / Straight / Available Ladson, South Carolina
If you believe that Heinlein was a visionary, Desiderata is your bible, or Richard Bach’s Illusions spoke to your soul.
Part one of this feature is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These are Union Soldiers from the War Between the States. They were not concerned with Epistemic Circularity. This was written like Ursula K. Le Guin.
Send This To All Of Your Friends
The following is chain email. The message has been altered slightly. This reply was not sent out in less than an hour, so the beneficial effects may not kick in on schedule. It is hoped that the voluminous traffic at Chamblee54 will make up the difference. The pictures are from a variety of sources. Many are from an appearance by Sarah Palin in Atlanta. The speech was a rally for Karen Handel, who was running for Governor. Mrs. Handel became notorious later as a bungling executive at the Susan G. Komen Foundation. For the Buckhead rally, Mrs. Handel wore a pink suit.
AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH
May there always be work for your hands to do;
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you..
OK, this is what you have to do…Send this to all of your friends! But – you HAVE to send this within 1 hour From when you open it! Now…………..Make A wish!!!!! I hope you made your wish! Now then, if you send to: 1 person — your wish will be granted in 1 year ~ 3 people — 6 months ~ 5 people — 3 months ~ 6 people — 1 month ~ 7 people — 2 weeks ~ 8 people — 1 week ~ 9 people — 5 days ~ 10 people — 3 days ~ 12 people – — 2 days ~ 15 people — 1 day ~ 20 people — 3 hours ~ If you delete this after you read it . You will have 1 year of bad luck! But .. If you send it to 2 of your friends you will automatically have 3 years of good luck!!! )
I had to forward this, my mom swears it works. The day after she sent it, they got an offer on their land on the Swannee river, they haven’t even seen that land since 1987. It came out of the blue. So you know that I’m going to try it. Love Kim ~ Not sure if this had anything to do with it but it was shortly after I sent this out – I got a call to say our bond was approved – against all odds. ~ I don’t know if it works but I won a new fridge full of various cool drinks from Beyer and Beyer last week. ~ I do not know if it works, but I won a microwave yesterday Seems like it Hey !! ~ I hope this works my son could use a really good job!!!!!!! ~ Good luck to everyone! And may all your dreams come true!! ~ This may sound nuts, but my husband got this the other day and sent it off. About 10 minutes later a really good financial windfall happened for his son Sean who he had sent it too as well. One of the people he sent it to was responsible for the windfall. ~ “Do or Do not. There is no try.” Yoda ~ “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.” Albert Camus
No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG – http://www.avg.com/ Version: 9.0.930 / Virus Database: 2441.1.1/5296 – Release Date: 09/28/12 04:22:00 This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. multipart/mixed. This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. multipart/alternative. This was written like James Joyce.
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