Dorothy Parker and Thomas Jefferson
BigO is a site with mp3 downloads. Most of them are concerts. PG found one exception. It was a 1960 interview, STUDS TERKEL WITH DOROTHY PARKER/BOB NEWHART – CHICAGO 1959/1960. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Dorothy Parker is somewhat of a legend. There were the funny sayings, a few poems and stories, and her life. Mrs. Parker was well known as a witty person during the twenties. She drank, a lot, and talked often of suicide. It was surprising to find a 1960 interview.
In fact, Dorothy Parker died in 1967, at the age of 73. By 1960, she was in decline, living at the Manhattan’s Volney Hotel. “Edmund Wilson … paid occasional painful visits to her at the Volney. (“She lives with a small and nervous bad-smelling poodle bitch, drinks a lot, and does not care to go out.”) … She was still revered, a legend, but she had also become a pathetic relic. Yes, “you might as well live,” but for what? And on what? Not only was she running out of old friends, she was running out of money, though uncashed checks, some quite large, were strewn around her apartment (along with the empty bottles), not helping with unpaid bills.”
There were some zesty quotes in the interview with Mr. Terkel. “I can’t call myself a critic. Honestly. I can only put down what I think and pray there isn’t a libel suit.” “I’m not a poet, you know, I just write verse” “The beat boys aren’t saying anything except look at us aren’t we great … I don’t think the beat generation is much worth worrying about. Very soon, in the very near future, they will be as forgotten as mah jongg.”
Towards the end of the interview, Mr. Terkel said “i know some people would want me to ask, did she really say all those things that she was quoted as saying” “… no, no, and it was a curse on me, it was simply awful the things that were attributed to me. I wouldn’t have minded if they had been good. I was, in effect, the shaggy dog of my time.”
Another quote magnet for the meme generation is Thomas Jefferson. PG saw yet another inspiring quote on facebook today. Mr. Google was consulted. It turns out the quote is real.
Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, 22 April 1800 is the source. Vice President Jefferson was going to be elected President later that year. It is not known what effect that had on the quote in the meme. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” It is not known whether a twenty first century Jefferson would unfriends anyone who says anything unappealing.
Sunday Motivation
This is a repost double feature. It is on the general subject of motivation, inspiration, and manipulation. Such things are like perfume…nice to sniff at, but dangerous to swallow.
Back when I was at redo blue, we traded some printing for a motivational speech. The speaker was D. J. Harrington. He came on stage with a telephone handset, demonstrating how to answer the telephone. There were a lot of statistics, like you get 50 percent more information when you use your left ear. (This is a made up example, not a quote. I don’t remember any of his examples.) It reminded me of something a teacher said once…: ” The best way to win an argument is to use statistics. The best way to get statistics is to make them up”
On the all important issue of what to say when you answer the squawk box, he suggested “How may I direct your call?” Now, I like to identify the company and myself as briefly as possible, and quit wasting the customer’s time. Mister customer knows why he called. HMIDYC is seven unnecessary syllables that do your customer no good.
As some of you know, I have a sensitive BS detector. This gets in the way of being “motivated”. When confronted with a entertainer motivational speaker, I try to glean one or two worthwhile tidbits. I give D.J.H. credit, he did make one good comment. “You must sell yourself first, your company second, and your product third” There are some idea mongers who feel I owe them my trust. I beg to differ.
Mr. Harrington used to call his dog and pony show “C*** U* F*** T** N*** U*.That phrase is currently a registered trademark of the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario and may be used with permission only. The link no longer works.
Redo Blue was a diverse company. I suspect D.J.H. toned down some of the good ole boy touches from his presentation. Towards the end, he described a speech he gave in Oklahoma. “The only Catholics they have ever seen are Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne” He proceeded to tell a tasteless story about the Catholic Church. I was almost motivated to walk out.
In an early morning discourse, I said that Martin Niemoller was rolling in his grave looking for the royalties from his poem, “First they came…“. For those of you with very short memories, here it is.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was the son of a Lutheran minister. In World War 1, he served on a U boat crew. Harold Marcuse tells this story: “Niemöller was a commander of a German U-boat in World War I. A seminal incident in his moral outlook, … occurred when he commanded his submarine crew not to rescue the sailors of a boat he torpedoed, but let them drown instead. “
After the war Mr. Niemöller became a Lutheran Minister. Mr. Niemöller was originally a supporter of Mr. Hitler, but became an opponent. Mr. Niemöller was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945.
After the war, Mr. Niemöller began to speak out. The famous poem was derived from these speeches. It was never written down in typical poet fashion. There are several versions of it from him, and many more as the years rolled by. It has been quoted, updated, and quoted again.
In addition to the four groups mentioned above, the Nazis also came for mentally ill, incurably ill, or people in occupied countries. The legend is that when asked if he included Catholics, Mr. Niemöller said “I never said it. They can take care of themselves.” (If you have a few minutes to spare, the page that quote came from is worth looking at.) When the McCarthy fever hit America, he declined to mention Communists. Maybe Mr. Niemöller was a pre-mature anti-facist.
With regard to the royalties, I could not see that it was ever copyrighted. I do not know who “owns the rights”. Some have even speculated that the poem was not composed by Mr. Niemöller.
Recently, there was a blog post that quoted “First they came…” The post was about gay marriage. With all due respect, to the people affected by this, the ability to marry someone of the same gender does not come close to a government killing six million Jews.
There is the Rebel looking for a cause syndrome. Many people just want to fight about something, and the cause is secondary to the lust for battle. When a poem like this is used to fire up people for a shaky cause, it brings discredit to the poem.
There is the matter of the “Next Hitler” argument. During the run up to the first war against Iraq, Saddam Hussein was routinely called the next Hitler. While this may be a valid argument at times, it often sounds like the boy who cried wolf. The “Next Hitler” argument is covered by Godwin’s Law. On August 13, 2017, Mike Godwin updated his law. @sfmnemonic “By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I’m with you.” Whatever dude.
Maybe a general moratorium is needed on the use of “First they Came…” This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress.
45 Rules For Life
This post was published on June 15, 2010. The last eight years have seen a few changes, and a few things that are the same. The post is a list of rules for life. It was inspired by a lady, Regina Brett. She is still alive, and cranking out text. That she is still alive is noteworthy, since the chain e-mail said she was 90 years old. Chain e-mail is something we don’t see much of these days.
01- Fair is when a baseball is hit between first and third base. Sometimes it is a tough call.
02- When in Georgia, just take a drink.
03- Life is too hateful to waste time on religion.
04- Family and friends might help, your job might help, insurance might pay the bills,
and the government might bail out the insurance company.
05- Interest on credit card debt is a bad investment.
06- Only argue when it is worthwhile. Don’t argue just to have fun. Better yet, don’t argue.
07- Cry because you are happy.
08- Getting angry with G-d is like getting angry with standard time.
09- You don’t have to spend all your money at once.
Save a bit now and then, and think of a reason later.
10- The sugar and chemicals in commercial chocolate covers up most of the taste.
11- Make pizza with your pasta so it wont screw up your salad.
12- It’s OK to let your children see you watch TV.
13- There once was a band called Journey. They played corporate rock, and made lots of money.
14- There was a TV game show, “I’ve Got A Secret”. It did not relate to anything.
15- If you turn your back on G-d, she will still be looking you in the eyes.
16- Take a deep mind, it calms the breath. If that fails, use mouthwash.
17- Politicians, like diapers, should be changed frequently.
18- Some sayings should be outlawed. They have been used too much, and no longer mean anything.
19- The trouble is, some people are on the third and fourth childhood.
20- Is the pleasure something gives you, worth the pain it causes your neighbor?
21- Burn the fancy lingerie and wear the candles. One size fits all.
22- A river goes with the flow without preparation. The water is still polluted.
23- If you have to ask permission, you probably don’t need to.
24- Elbows, armpits, and neck scruff disagree with claims made about the brain.
25- If you charge your happiness, pay the bill at the end of the month.
26- Your reaction to a disaster cannot wait five years. Act now, using the best judgment you have.
27- Cheerios taste better than Life cereal, and People magazine has better pictures than Life.
28- Christians: the more they talk about forgiveness the less they practice it.
29- If you don’t want someone to hear what you say, keep your voice down.
30- Time wounds all heels. This is especially true in North Carolina.
31- There was a man from Mississippi, who went to New Orleans.
He took a ten dollar bill and a white shirt. He did not change either one.
32- Mr. Roebuck did not take his partner Sears-iously.
33- The middle three letters of the word Believe is LIE.
34- G-d is a neutral. She loves and hates in equal measure.
35- Show up, Stay awake, and don’t kill anybody.
36- If youth is wasted on the young, is maturity wasted on the mature?
37- When you make a list like this, don’t worry about contradicting yourself.
38- The hokey pokey really is what it’s all about.
39- Never wrestle with an pig. You will get dirty, and the pig will enjoy it.
40- Be careful when you ask for something, you might get it.
41- A man thought he was green with envy once. It was really gangrene.
42- The pest is yet to come, but she will go away later.
43- Put your pants on one leg at a time, and put on a dress the same way.
44- Smile, and people will wonder what you are up to.
45- Use spell check, and try to use correct grammar. You will sound smarter than you are.
That is embarrassing. Some of those are worthwhile thoughts. Some are just plain stupid. The commodity wisdom racket is tougher than ever. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
This Is Your Life
An all caps graphic washes up on the digital shores from time to time. The author, and copyright status, are not known. It was not written here. Reading it can be a chore, even though it looks cool. It is also selfish… the only opinion that matters is the individual reading it. It doesn’t have a good beat, but you can dance to it. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
This is your life.
Do what you love, and do it often.
If you don’t like something, change it.
If you don’t like your job, quit.
If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV.
If you are looking for the love of your life, stop:
They will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.
Stop over analyzing, life is simple
All emotions are beautiful.
When you eat, appreciate every last bite.
Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people,
We are united in our differences.
Ask the next person you see what their passion is,
And share your inspiring dream with them.
Travel often, getting lost will help you find yourself.
Some opportunities only come once, seize them.
Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them
So go out and start creating.
Life is short. Live your dream, and wear your passion.
“Do you have to be a poet? If you don’t have to be a poet, be a prose writer. You’ll get further faster. Poetry — there’s probably more poetry published today than any time in the history of the world. Nevertheless, there is this — people think they have this blindness when they see a line in the typography of poetry, and it just blocks them. So if you can say the same thing in prose, you’ll probably be better off” Lawrence Ferlinghetti
War Stories
Recently, when I went to McDonald’s I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. ‘We don’t have half dozen nuggets,’ said the teenager at the counter. ‘You don’t?’ I replied. ‘We only have six, nine, or twelve,’ was the reply. ‘So I can’t order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?’ ‘That’s right.’ So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets. (Once, I asked for sweetener, and she said they only had Splenda and sugar.)
Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, ‘I’m almost out of typing paper. What do I do?’ ‘Just use paper from the photocopier’, the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five ‘blank’ copies.
A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid had eaten ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and he should be fine. Mother:’I just gave him some ant killer……’ Dispatcher: ‘Rush him in to emergency right away’
I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those ‘dividers’ that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn’t get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the ‘divider’, looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code, she said to me, ‘Do you know how much this is?’ I said to her ‘I’ve changed my mind; I don’t think I’ll buy that today.’ She said ‘OK,’ and I paid her and left.
A woman at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM ‘thingy.’
I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. ‘Do you need some help?’ I asked. She replied, ‘I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can’t get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?’ ‘Hmmm, I don’t know. Do you have an alarm, too?’ I asked. ‘No, just this remote thingy,’ she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, ‘Why don’t you drive over there and check about the batteries. It’s a long walk….’
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Milo Gets Edited
Milo Yiannopoulos is getting attention again. It seems as though the the editor’s notes for his book have been leaked to the press. Many of the comments are unkind. If you have ever wanted to see bad writing dissected and disembowled, this is the time. PuffHo, which knows a thing or two about recycling free product, has a helpful list of some of the zingers. “No need to drag the lesbians into this!” “Three unfunny jokes in a row. DELETE.” “This is definitely not the place for more of your narcissism.” “So much inappropriate humor is irritating.” “Can you really prove a causality between [Black Lives Matter] and crime rate?” “DELETE UGH.” “Too much ego.”
Two things should be noted. Milo did not actually write Dangerous. Miloproduct is produced by a crew of interns. One of these drones got in trouble: Milo Yiannopoulos Speaks Out About ‘Bonkers’ Former Intern Arrested for Murdering Dad. Nobody seems to know who gets the copyright credit, or blame, for Dangerous. It might be a good trivia question.
@DALIAMALEK “Simon & Schuster: We were ready to give Milo’s perfectly acceptable racism a voice, but it was poorly written & structured Twitter: Look at the witty editor that worked to normalize white supremacy slaaayyy” Some people think Milo’s book was cancelled for moral reasons, like being politically incorrect or badly written. Actually, the deal was trashed after Milo opened his mouth once too often, and became too controversial.
Simon & Schuster is not opposed to selling bad books to make money. In 1981, S&S published HOW TO STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS— AND WIN! This tome was written by Roy Cohn, who probably would have thought Milo was too old. The NYT review notes “Despite his reputation as a playboy bachelor, Mr. Cohn believes that a marriage should be ”kept intact” if there are children.”
Chamblee54 has written about whatshisname one two three four five six seven times. The pictures are usually better than the text. In one episode, Bill Maher said “Stop looking at the distractions and the clown show and look at what matters.” Then, without a trace of embarassment, Mr. Maher introduced Milo, who is both distraction and clown show.
The first time chamblee54 wrote about Milo had a prophetic quote. “This is the first time many have heard of Milo Yiannopoulos. Unfortunately, it probably will not be the last. He authored a piece at Breitbart, where he said “Trump’s critics have accused him of being over-the-top in his response. Surely, say his critics, insulting a rival’s wife for being too ugly is simply crass, classless, and rude. I agree. It’s all of those things. But that’s a good thing. … In the process, he’s certainly lowering the tone — but it badly needs to be lowered. Only by totally ignoring people’s feelings can we end the left’s culture of grievance, offense, and victimhood. …”
@FrankConniff “The editor’s comments on Milo Yiannopoulos’ manuscript were harsh, but if Milo had been willing to take constructive criticism, the result could have been a whimsically racist book that everybody loved.” Many of the naysayers are calling Milo, and his product, racist. This is a reflex action to many SJW, who seldom miss an opportunity to scream racism. The ironic thing is that Milo talks loudly, and often, about his fondness for black men. (Those who talk the most do the least.) On page 96, Milo says “”I love black people. Indeed, I love black people so much that my Grindr profile once said “No Whites.” I’d considered “Coloreds Only Served in Rear,” but that was a little too edgy, and Grindr once deleted my profile once for writing: “Don’t contact me if you’re under seven inches or you know who your dad is.”
Hopefully, Milo’s fifteen minutes will be over soon. There will always someone else to call racist. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
John Waters’ RISD Graduation Speech
It was a rainy thursday morning. The horrible election is over, with a horrible woman the representative elect. Philando Castile is still dead, as is, presumably, Coach Casteel. The later was the eighth grade gym teacher at Cross Keys, a sadist who got off on making eighth graders run endless laps around the baked clay field. The world can be a muddy place sometimes.
Facebook comes charging to the rescue. A fbf posted a story, John Waters’ RISD Graduation Speech: Real Wealth is Never Having to Spend Time with A-Holes. There is a video, and, praise the loud lord, a transcript, aka the lazy blogger’s friend. The cisscript is courtesy of a promising blog, TELL YOUR PUP YOU LOVE HIM. A recent post is Questionnaire for left-wing hacks. “Are there topics you refuse to cover because doing so would make you a pariah among your journalist friends?”
When you listen to something while multi tasking, you wait for the moment when you have to pause the show, and take notes. This only happened one time with this product. “Never be like some of my generation who say “We had more fun in the ’60s.” No, we didn’t! The kids today who still live with their parents who haven’t seen them in months but leave food outside their bedroom doors are having just as much fun shutting down the government of foreign countries on their computer as we did banning the bomb.” The crowd laughed on cue.
What “the People’s Pervert” does not mention is that the bomb was never banned. Nuklure weapons are just as popular as ever before. Countries like Israel and Pakistan have the bomb, and wonder why caught-in-the-middle Iran are nervous. Do today’s keyboard warriors really shut down foreign governments? Only if you work for the Russian/Republican partnership.
The message was entertaining enough. John Samuel Waters Jr., hereafter known as JSW (too bad his grandfather did not put Samuel first) says a lot of things. Infiltration of the *establishment* is suggested, to make “really devious” product like “Hairspray.”
“I’m also sorry to report there’s no such thing as karma. So many of my talented great friends are dead and so many of the fools I’ve met and loathed are still alive. It’s not fair, and it never will be.” Fair is a baseball, it between the foul lines. If you try any of the stunts suggested in this address, good luck getting funding for your next project.
Youtube has the predictable fawning, punctuated by dangerous clarity. “Good lord! There are few things in life more irritating than fake bravery. Here’s a guy whose SJW views are so firmly part of the mainstream that they’re shared by most of the government, the media, and 95 percent of our colleges and universities, yet he still acts like some kind of defiant rebel whose views are somehow iconoclastic and brave. They’re not, though. Not for decades. Just turn on the TV sometime, John. Your views are 100 percent Establishment now. God help us all.”
Maybe we should focus on the multi tasking. The pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The distraction from SJW was taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in June 1918. “Relatives visiting a wounded French soldier in American Military Hospital No. 1 at Neuilly, supported by the American Red Cross.” These three images are the last ones shown today.
Snob Supremacy
This is a double repost. There are quotes from a defunct site, Owldolatrous. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This was written in the style of H. P. Lovecraft.
What is a snob? PG always thought it was someone who thought he was better than others. This is one of the “sins” that most people denounce, and then practice. Who doesn’t see someone that is just a few notches below you on the scale of human coolness?
A trip to the dictionary yields this: 1-a person who imitates, cultivates, or slavishly admires social superiors and is condescending or overbearing to others. 2-a person who believes himself or herself an expert or connoisseur in a given field and is condescending toward or disdainful of those who hold other opinions or have different tastes regarding this field: a musical snob.
The origin of the word is amusing. Snob was a nickname for a cobbler, or someone who makes shoes. This is a working class occupation, but one that is needed by all people. How this would become a label for someone who “puts on airs” is a mystery.
There are snobs in a book PG is reading, “The city of falling angels” by John Berendt. An American writer goes to live in Venice, and has tales to tell. At one point, there is a dispute in an organization devoted to restoring stuff in Venice, and some of the players are labeled snobs. On page 318, there is a definition of a snob. You can be a snob upwards, by working the people on a level above you. Or, you can be a snob downwards, by being rude to those on a level below you.
The reader may have figured out by now that this post is going to ramble for a few paragraphs and not really go anywhere. The practice of “uppity”, or “putting on airs”, is hard wired into the consciousness of almost everyone. Like telling the truth and lying, no one wants to admit to being a snob, and yet almost everyone plays the game on some level.
“Supremacy is the habit of believing or acting as if your life, your love, your culture has more intrinsic worth than those of people who differ from you. Supremacy can be about race, but it doesn’t have to be. Supremacy and hate aren’t identical, but they often go together. Some people turn supremacy into an over-arching philosophy. For most, it’s just a habit of mind. As a habit of mind, supremacist ideas can spring up in anyone. Being liberal doesn’t make you immune. Being gay doesn’t make you immune. Being a minority doesn’t make you immune.”
There is more, but this is enough for our morning discussion. Supreme, Supremacy, Supremacism, Supremacist. It is not just for white people. The whole business of thinking that you are somehow better than your neighbor is part of being a human being. Think about it, aren’t there some people that you think you are better than? Of course there are. You are a competitive animal, and you have to win sometimes. You, and your tribe, are just better than that other tribe.
PG saw a sign over a desk once. I have never met a snob who was not a born liar. Above this sign was a plastic case. In the plastic case was a white dress shirt, with an ink stain in the front pocket. Like telling the truth and lying, no one wants to admit to being a snob. Still, almost everyone plays the game. Maybe the sign should have read “I have never met a human being who was not a born liar.“ Many of those lies begin with “I am not a ___.”
There is a concept, mythos over logos. The idea is, when you present people with information that contradicts a long held belief, the person will ignore the information and stick to the belief. This is related to the concept of supremacy. What happens when you think you are better than a person, and you get evidence that the person is better than you? You will ignore that evidence, and continue to believe the person is inferior to you. It helps when your magic book agrees with you.
Is Anti-Racism a form of supremacy? PG associates with a so called “radical community”. There has recently been a rabid discussion about racism. Now, this is a pretty enlightened bunch. The type of virulent racism that PG saw growing up in Georgia is simply not there. This does not stop the Anti Racist Supremacist Egophile (ARSE) from looking for racism to combat. The ARSE will expand the definition of racism to include every PWOC, except him them and his their immediate tribe.
One root word of Supremacy is Supreme. There were once three young ladies performing as “The Supremes.” Four videos are embedded into this post. That is not real hair.
Putting Us On
It all started innocently enough. There was a tasteful meme. A picture of Mark Twain graced these words “Sometimes i wonder whether the world is being run by smart people, who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.” PG decided to do due diligence research.
Before you could say Samuel Clemons, there was evidence that the quote was not genuine. According to the word detective, the phrase “putting us on” was not used before 1958. Several helpful people attributed the quote to The Peter Principle. A written source is handy in these situations.
The fbf had a familiar reaction. ” I’ve never really cared if a quote attribution was authentic, if I like what the quote us expressing.” This got PG thinking, which can be dangerous. If something makes people feel good, does it really matter who said it? It is like singular they…there is a gut feeling that something is wrong, but articulating a reason is tough.
PG asked Mr. Google “does it matter if the quote is real.” The top result was All Fake Buddha Quotes. “we have a sister site, Real Buddha Quotes, where you’ll find other genuine quotations from the Buddhist scriptures.” Most people in America equate scriptures with the Bible, where the supreme content provider is Jesus. The Biblical words of Jesus are accepted as “Gospel truth” by some, though not everyone. The idea that Siddhartha Gautama, who lived a few hundred years before Jesus, could have verbatim scriptures is probably open to dispute.
The Fake Buddha Quotes site has some good links. “It doesn’t matter who said it, as long as it’s inspiring.” has a tasteful meme: “Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much, Adolph Hitler.” A seeker-of-truth opines: “Why do I care, you ask? Because it’s a waste of time. Because I want to believe that the people around me aren’t knee-jerk emotional reactionists willing to dispense with logic because the internet is such a shining bastion of quality information. Because it takes no time at all to stop, consider, and question. Because truth is better than bullshit. Because right is better than wrong…”
The rest of the first google page is devoted to goodreads and Brainy Quote, two of the worst offenders in the commodity wisdom market. (One spell check suggestion for goodreads is goo dreads.) Goodreads has Quotes About Real Love (126 quotes,) Reality (2669 quotes,) What Matters (29 quotes,) and Authenticity (317 quotes.) Brainy Quote has Real Thing Quotes, Confucius Quotes, and Real Man Quotes. Pictures for your reality based entertainment today are from The Library of Congress. These men were soldiers in The War Between The States.
Prayer Shaming
Prayer shaming entered the vocabulary this week. Some moving lips were offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the latest commodity shooting. Some pundits thought it odd to offer T&P. Many of the people offering T&P are shameless attention mongers.
Many religions have prayer. The idea is that you talk to G-d. Sometimes it is a public ritual, sometimes it a private conversation. The star of the Christian religion, Jesus, is quoted as favoring private conversations. This does not stop his believers from making a grotesque spectacle of prayer.
The sad truth is that many of the prayer perpetrators talk too much. Telling them to talk is like telling an alcoholic to take a drink. Talking is seen as taking action, while listening is seen as being passive. This is just one of the problems in our culture.
Whenever there is a mass shooting, people say a lot of silly things. They argue the semantics of terrorism. There is two wrongs make a right rhetoric about race. In america, if you can’t say anything worthwhile, you whine about race. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
25 Things About Georgia
These daze, there is more media than messages. People need things to write about. One popular theme, at least in itp/otp, is lists about life in Georgia. A web facility that should know better, thought catalog, recently put out 25 Things You Need To Know About Georgia.
25TYNTKAG was written by Jeremy Populus Jones. He seems to be the CEO of something called GAFollowers. (@GAFollowers on twitter) From the fine print: “GAFollowers was created on a “strength in numbers” foundation, finding a creative way to use free online social networking sites to strengthen the “bond” between people in Georgia to help better form this state. … GAFollowers is one of the largest twitter accounts in the state of Georgia that spans nearly every corner of the region.”
These lists about Georgia life usally have a few common comments. There is the heat, the bugs, the traffic, the multiple Peachtrees, and southern accents. They seldom mention the shameless corruption, religious mental illness, rampant obesity, or racial pandemonium. Lets take a look at 25TYNTKAG. Mr. Jones will be in blue, and Chamblee54 in green. This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
1. The weather here is just as inconsistent as your ex-girlfriend. Not really. It gets cold in January, hot in July. Your ex-girlfriend is staying out of this.
2. We call all interstates in Georgia, “The Highway”. Most people use the number.
3. Only in Atlanta is everything named “Peachtree” without a single tree with peaches around. Peachtree is all over OTP.
4. Terio and Honey Boo Boo were born and raised here. You couldn’t do this without google. Terio is a chubby kid who dances. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
5. “Knuck if you Buck” is the song we will always get hype to no matter the age. Yuck.
6. White girls wear Nike shorts with big t-shirts covering their shorts. (How many can you spot?) Maybe there was a sale on big t-shirts at Walmart.
7. Zaxbys is what you eat. The TC comments said this is not accurate. They mentioned a certain spelling challenged company, that specializes in overpriced chicken sandwiches. At least the son of Mr. Zaxby doesn’t run off potential customers with his big mouth.
8. We call it a “rag” not a “washcloth”. Do people up north say a woman is on the washcloth?
9. Going outside at anytime during the summer instantly guarantees a minimum a 7 bug bites. This is mostly true. Who is counting?
10. In Georgia when someone ask, “Where you from?”, people usually reply with a county not a city. In Atlanta, when you say “Where are you from?” it is almost always somewhere outside of Georgia.
11. The speed limit is 65 mph but if you’re not going at least 80 mph you’ll be ran off the road. This is also true on surface roads. In hilly Atlanta, there are few places to pass on two lane roads.
12. In Georgia it’s not a shopping cart, it’s a buggy. Do people really say shopping cart? At Kroger it is a bascart. The stores have a bascart corral.
13. We get more inches of pollen in a week than inches of snow in a full year. Pollen season hits in early spring. It is rough for many people. The rest of the year gets relatively little pollen. There is a good ice/snow storm every ten years or so. This one is probably true.
14. You say Georgia, we say Jawja. Others say George-ah. To untrained ears they sound the same.
15. Sweet tea is our water. Very few people wash cars with sweet tea.
16. The night has been a success if you ended up at Waffle House. This is especially true if you are scattered, smothered, and covered.
17. In Georgia it’s necessary to look at the weather before picking out an outfit. A reason not to do numbered lists. Just think of what you have to say, write it down, and hope it is not copyrighted.
18. We pray that we get snow during the winters. The people who pray for winter storms are merchants. They have an inventory of batteries, milk, ice, and eggs to sell.
19. We are the creators of, “Turn Up”. You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.
20. Here in Georgia white girls can twerk. No Miley Cyrus. Ditto reaction to number 17. What was PG thinking of when he decided to do this post?
21. You will usually be 30 minutes away from just about every destination that you’re heading to. 22. There’s a Waffle House in walking distance of every Waffle House. These two have been combined, for obvious reasons. Do people proofread these lists before sending them out?
23. Any dark soda is simply called “Coke”. Many say Cocola, without the second syllable.
24. We pronounce it “Atlanna”. Whatever. Sometimes the second t is audible, sometimes not. It definitely is not the ATL, except to radio shouters.
25. Braves, Falcons & UGA are the teams we really care about. Tech fans may disagree. Ditto taxpayers, who don’t care if Rankin Blank gets a new stadium.
Hocus Pocus Part Two
A few minutes ago, this second, and final, section of the book report on Hocus Pocus, by Kurt Vonnegut, was moving along. The formula for the magic number was being calculated. Then a power surge hit, and the unsaved product went to the digital graveyard, never to be seen again. If this had been Slaughterhouse Five, someone would say “so it goes.” However, this is Hocus Pocus, and SIG had been worn out by then.
The number in question relates to the protagonist, Eugene Debs Hartke. The number represents the number of women Mr. Hartke fucked, and the number of Asians killed by Mr. Hartke. A philosophical connection between the two acts is implied. One gets the impression that Mr. Hartke is a fantasy character for KV, whose life and death stats are not as impressive. The number is 82.
HP is, sad to say, not very good. It has the feel of contractual obligation. The satire is forced, and in some cases badly dated. When HP was written, smart people said a new ice age was coming. Today, the smart people are saying the opposite, except for the really smart people, who are on the oil industry payroll and poo poo global warming.
KV is one of those writers who like to throw “facts” in the fiction. The inside front cover of HP has a list of pages, where PG will stick his curmudgeonly nose. The first one is on page 92. (Page numbers in the section are from the peedeeff.) “Do I resent rich people? No. The best or worst I can do is notice them. I agree with the great Socialist writer George Orwell, who felt that rich people were poor people with money.” When a google search shows HP, and a meme, as the source of a quote, then you suspect hogwash. Does hogwash produce clean bacon?
Wikiquotes does not have this quote. The search words used were money, poor, and rich. FWIW, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” is “disputed.”
There is a lovely quote about Mr. Orwell. “He could not blow his nose without moralising on conditions in the handkerchief industry.” Cyril Connolly, The Evening Colonnade (1973), in John Rodden, Every Intellectual’s Big Brother: George Orwell’s Literary Siblings (2006)
This quote is not in HP, but it is a fun story. @SlavojTweezek “”Communism doesn’t work,” Frank Zappa said, “because people like to own stuff.” Idiot. What do people’s likes have to do with communism?” This quote is plausible. Frank Zappa was a capitalist. He liked owning stuff, especially his own music. It should be easy to find a source. However, the best google can come up with is a compilation, “Quotes of Zappa,” in W. C. Privy’s Original Bathroom Companion. “
KV has become somewhat of a liberal icon, a Pall Mall smoking gargoyle of grooviness. Sometimes things that are written in 1989 are not as appealing in 2015. One example is using “oriental” to describe people of Asian origin. Another is this tidbit(p. 95): “She discovered in midlife that she was a lesbian, and ran off with the high school’s girls’ gym teacher to Bermuda, where they gave and probably still give sailing lessons. I made a pass at her one time at an Annual Townand-Gown Mixer up on the hill. I knew she was a lesbian before she did.”
Central to the action in HP is a prison outbreak. In the aftermath of this, the liberated prisoners crucified people they found in town. KV describes nails being driven into hands, which is not how the Romans did it. (p. 83) In Roman/Jewish crucifixions, the nail… really more like a spike, pulled out and used over and over … was driven into the wrist, into a space between two bones. These bones keep the arm securely attached to the cross. KV says (p. 103) “Crucifixion as a mode of execution for the very worst criminals was outlawed by the first Christian Roman Emperor, who was Constantine the Great.” Mr. Google seems to confirm this.
The rest of the cover notes are not as interesting now. It is ironic that a book, published in 1990, would have the main drag, in a key location, called Clinton Street. The only other thing to mention is the book mark that PG used on this book. It is from DeKalb county, and is designed to promote efficient water use. When you look at the corrugated plastic from one angle, the blue hippo says “you will save tens of gallons of water.” When viewed from another angle, the plastic says “take short showers, or half full baths,” while the blue hippo works out with a shower brush.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
1 comment