Mrs. Fenton
There is a bit of urban legend mongering on the innertubes these days. It shows a letter. It is from the manager of a Kmart in Reno, NV. It tells “Mrs. Fenton” not to go shopping there anymore. It seems as though her husband has been misbehaving.
Here is the text of the letter. Mr. Fenton: August 4: Went to the Service Desk and asked to put a bag of M&M’s on lay-buy. October 4: Looked straight in to the security camera; used it as a mirror, and picked his nose. December 23: Went in the fitting room, shut the door and waited a while; then yelled, very loudly, “There is no toilet paper in here!”
The wet blankets at snopes say the letter is a fake. This page is sponsored by an ad for a book, Journey to the Cross: Reflecting on 24 Hours That Changed the World. You can’t make this stuff up.
Mrs. Fenton lived at 35 Rasmussen Street, Moores Park, Reno, NV, 89503. Google maps has never heard of this address. Kmart Store 4855 was located at Summit Ridge, Reno, NV, 89503. This is a side street, with no current signs of Kmarttage.
The letter is good for a laugh. The problems might come when some person is inspired to try one of the pranks. After all, an earlier title of the piece was “Things to do at Wal-Mart while your family is taking forever to finish shopping.” The person who has to clean up after “Make a trail of orange juice on the floor to the restrooms” will not be amused. Maybe you should tell this person to lighten up, and get a sense of humor. Do not try this in a stand your ground state.
A similar lack of respect for humanity is seen in fake crime videos. In the one linked to, two men try breaking into a car. One is treated more rudely by the police. This video inspired much hand wringing about unfair treatment of minorities.
With all the real crimes being perpetrated, why are these pinheads staging a fake crime? They are making a video, to illustrate their social commentary. Police should be fighting real crime, not playing the bad guy in a youtube adventure. This makes about as much sense as “While handling guns in the hunting department ask the clerk if he knows where the anti-depressants are.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Your Life On Text
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 a repost.
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
#WhiteManMarchProtestSigns
Did your conversation with “Steve” really happen? It seems a bit off. We have to take your word for this. There is no way to prove it really happened. After your post about the Marilyn Monroe quote, I have to wonder about your integrity. ~ What about the people, who do not agree with your religion, who are attacked by preachers? ~ I was attacked for seven years, by a co worker, after I asked him to turn down his radio. Before this, I had made my peace with Jesus. I didn’t agree with most of what was said about him ~ I see Jesus through the people that believe in him. My experience has been horrific. Since I don’t agree with the scheme for life after death, I see no reason to make excuses for Jesus. ~ I have read that carburetor is french for do not touch ~ @lexiconvalley blog post about accents, based on a lexicon valley episode ~ don’t play leapfrog with a unicorn ~ bad lip sync videos are funny ~ This must be chatter about religion day. I suppose it is better than a hokey buzzfeed video about crime and race. ~ If the text is boring you can always look at the pictures. ~ It might be a trap. ~ Maybe a better question would be, Why do you think? ~ when poc use the n word, pwoc haters don’t have to ~ poc trash themselves by using n word ~ @chescaleigh when poc use #nword, , pwoc h8rs don’t have to, the poc are doing it for them ~ Aren’t most reviews written from complimentary copies? ~ I read an interview once with Christopher Isherwood. There is no online source. The concept is that you are drawn to a religion by the people you meet in that religion. The beliefs are more or less irrelevant. Religion is about people, not beliefs. A corollary notion is that if someone can attract you to a religion, then they can also drive you away from it. This is a big deal in jesus worship, with it’s intense interest in recruiting new followers. As to the matter of where you fit in if you have decided, after repeated exposure and painful contemplation, that you don’t agree with these beliefs …. I don’t have all the answers. ~ would you like a pepsi? ~ In the few days I have been reading your blog, you have had material posted every day. This gives me a reason to come here. If you keep the quantity up, the quality will take care of itself. ~ Is it ethical to modify an adjective for the purpose of creating a noun? ~ Just as you should never go grocery shopping hungry, you should never shop for clothes naked ~ It might save time in fitting rooms. ~ I would say more, and perhaps will later. Now, I have to get on the road to my job. The problem of what I call “positive facism” is not exclusive to Hollywood. Many people like to glorify the positive, and deny that anything non wonderful exists. Jesus worshipers are some of the worst. The trouble is, when the going gets dull, many people think it is a sign of weakness. If their role model does this without boredom, it must be something wrong with me. This is a problem. ~ The good news is that the “church” is located in Harlem. I think the “found in Atlanta” business is a mistake. We have enough weirdos already. ~ All we know about Jesus is what the bible tells us. It really isn’t very much. We choose which parts to focus on. What you think about Jesus says more about you than it does Jesus. ~ ” dude who is the most popular person everywhere he goes” One exception might be the place where they screamed “crucify him”. ~ You should be careful when you say americans should quit consuming stupid cultural material. They might quit reading your blog. ~ Actually, they are Irish. It should read the O’Nomatopoeia empire. ~ It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. The formerly homeless man had some good stories. Unfortunately, only so much can make it into one conversation. The next time an *official blogger* comes to a coffe shop with free parking, I will think about stopping by. ~ What goes around comes around. A lot of preachers say hurtful things. People like to get even with the hired entertainement.~ Holy straw man. Did you write the “Rachel” letter, so that you could reply to it? ~ changing the c, at the end of his name, to o … was a stroke of genius ~ 1-The bearded man currently lives in Americus GA. This is in south Georgia. It is just down the road from Plains. He calls Jimmy Carter “Cousin Jimmy.”2- I have written at great length about the concept of prayer. While it may have some value to others, it is a casualty of my horrific experience with Jesus. I just don’t know what to make of it. 3- It is said that prayer is talking to G-d, while meditation is listening. It has been my experience that many Jesus worshipers talk too much. 4- It would be a wonderful thing if people were as proud of their ability to listen as they were of the clever things that they say. ~ Nothing about midtown is bottomless. ~ What is Socoilogy? ~ 1-What is this about? It is frustrating to come in after an altercation, and hear people talk about it, and not know what it was about. 2-Was this regarding the comments about SMS? I don’t know the specifics of the situation. However, there is a cycle of elation at finding a tribe to belong to, and then disillusionment when you learn that the players are human. 3- I agree with the need to maintain a safe space here. On the other hand, the concept of removing someone from the group should be done very, very carefully. I have said things that bothered people, and been shunned as a result. I suspect that I was misunderstood. Since almost nothing was said directly to me, I have no way of knowing. ~ Is the adjective necessary? When a parent mocks a person, they may be mocking their own child. ~ thank you for not embedding the text on the picture ~ This is a nice image. Whoever (Whosoever) created this took the time to make his text come out as a solid rectangle. Happy Pie Day ~ ” All the treasure in the world can’t buy peace in your mind and soul” It can buy dandy image manipulation software, but won’t give you the taste to use it properly. ~ WDSTF is almost thirty years old. An update is needed by a person gifted in musical communication ~ do you use the buzz, or the radio? ~ white trashcan ~ You do not paste inspiring quotes over your photographs. Thank you. ~ Maybe we could keep the initials GSV, and have a different acronym for every event. Gorgon Serpent Vitals Great Southern Voters Gross Spam Version Geraldo Samuel Voytek ~ Is that where the expression “gay card” came from? ~ “Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right answer?” ― Marilyn Monroe The word on this quote The Actress, a character based on Marilyn, in the movie Insignificance. Her exact words were: “Have you ever noticed how ‘What the hell’ is always the right decision to make?” ~ #WhiteManMarchProtestSigns grow up #WhiteManMarchProtestSigns you don’t have to shout ~ You can take it to the next gathering. Someone might need a way to fly home. ~ Diaspora Organic Group DOG ~ Maybe the person meant to ask what country his family is from. Why is that bigoted? ~ Fred Phelps is an attention whore. Let’s ignore his funeral.~ I is the shortest, skinniest, word in the language. Those qualities apply to palindromic usage. The lower case has an ornamental tittle. Sarah Palin, the dromic politician, likes to talk about I. ~ Campbell’s chicken noodle soup was originally called Noodle soup with chicken. It did not sell well, and was going to be discontinued. One day, an actor screwed up while reading a radio script, and called it chicken noodle soup. The new name caught on. ~ I thought it was Seattle. ~ Many of the political mail outs in Georgia are produced by a company called Rosetta Stone. ~ When the world turns to prayer, the people go mad ~ POC is a bad term, lumping in groups of people with different stories into one collection ~ A note to saturday: Enjoy this beautiful Angel ~ curley, larry, moe ~ it is amazing how many good lines there are in that film ~ John passes, and one remembers John’s money ~ I cleaned the lint filter in the dryer ~ Is there a recording of YOL singing that quote? ~ sweet spring is your time is my time is our time – for springtime is lovetime and viva sweet love. – e.e. cummings ~ a man is drowning 25 yards off shore. the democrat throws 50 yards of rope and doesn’t tie it to anything the republican throws 10 yards of rope, and says that swimming fifteen yards will build character ~ You your facts your logic ~ Maybe the language needs another word for people you enjoy spending time with. Maybe they are fun to be around, but are they really your friend? (no all caps, only one question mark) ~ Anyone with internet access can start a blog. If he wants this item written about, then he can do it himself. If he wants four million hits a month for his output, then he needs to get busy. ~ hbd #Elton, #Aretha, #Flannery O’Connor ~ Some give Mr. Hirshfeld the credit, or blame, for coining the term racism. ~ there are no air ducks anywhere ducks live in water ~ is that why so many bellies are round? ~ Someone needs to stay at work while parents take care of sick kids ~ Pictures are from The Library of Congress. ~ Selah
Advice From Britney Spears
Twitter superstar @tejucole is on a roll. His 140 character droppings have been seen before. Earlier this morning, PG found a gutbomb in the archive. “The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.”
The subject today is the culture of inspirational quotes. PG is in the choir loft for the sermon.
@tejucole Area Man Wins Irony Prize for Battling Quote Culture With Quotable Tweets
@tejucole Sentimentality culture is inspirational quotes, solutionism, white saviorism, un-intersectional feminism and, yes, the Global War on Terror.
@tejucole The mistake is to separate inspirational quotes mania from the ideological conditions that confine people in sentimentality culture.
@tejucole But (I warn myself): so much social critique comes down to “my consolations are superior to yours.” Why begrudge people their pleasures?
@tejucole Britney Spears and the Department of Defense: the reactionary, nonsensical aspects of quotation-madness are obvious.
@tejucole America itself becomes a quote-only zone. The politician’s “misspeak.” The president’s fine sentence in a speech. While the drones drone on.
@tejucole But none of us can resist the lure of these stupid aphorisms. Writing them, sharing them. Sugary calories in 140-character servings.
@tejucole Everything I feared and hated about “inspirational quote” culture came to pass here @tejucole To write less straight, more queer.
@tejucole Thinking about unquotability, irreducibility, downworthiness. About how the consolation of the quotation can short-circuit justice.
@tejucole It is a truth universally acknowledged that analysis, no matter how torturous, will be reduced to its most “inspirational” quote.
@tejucole There will be more photography of this weekend’s Super Bowl than there has been in a decade of a massively destructive War on Terror.
@tejucole “Never doubt yourself. Never change who you are. Don’t care what people think and just go for it.” Britney Spears
As much as PG enjoys Mr. Cole, he does not believe everything he reads on twitter. The BS quote required a bit of investigation. This gem appears in the embedded video at the 4:46 point. The interviewer asks three female entertainers if they have any advice for young people.
The next person to speak, after Miss Spears, was Mary J. Blidge. Her suggestion was to finish high school, put G-d first and final, and listen to your mother. Perhaps this is the quote that should be tweeted. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Rumi Said What?
The other day, PG was fumbling through facebook, and there was a lovely quote. “I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am The Soul that lives within. Rumi.” The poem seemed like good words to paste in front of pictures. PG is squeamish about copyrights, and decided to see if the translation belonged to anyone. Veteran readers should know where this is going.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, has become popular with the meme crowd. Mr. Google says: Born: September 30, 1207, Vakhsh, Tajikistan Died: December 17, 1273, Konya, Turkey. With his name abbreviated to four easy to pronounce letters, translations of his poems are popular. Often, the words are pasted on beautiful pictures.
Some killjoys say that this is wrong. “Yet this popularization has had a price, and the price is a frequent distortion of Rumi’s words and teachings … The English “creative versions” rarely sound like Rumi to someone who can read the poems in the original Persian, and they are often shockingly altered– but few know this, and the vast majority of readers cannot but believe that such versions are faithful renderings into English of Rumi’s thoughts and teachings when they are not.”
Lets look at the quote that started this story. It has such a perfect rhythm, and such a catchy rhyme. What relation to the original does this have? Does anyone know the name of the original poem?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could tell you a few things about the difficulty of translating Farsi into English. This is even more true when the translator has an agenda. On Fox News, some are trying to lead to war. Those translating a thirteenth century poet are trying to create peace. While the meme motives may be more noble, their integrity in using languages is equally suspect.
The killjoy article has some examples of Rumi poem “versions,” with footnotes. One is “Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion or cultural system.” The comment: ” …is especially absurd. There is no evidence Rumi knew much more about Judaism or Christianity than what is said in the Qur’an– not to speak of other religions.” (The source article goes into more detail about this quote, and about the specific so called translators.)
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Spell check suggestion for Rumi: Rum.
Broke In Three Places
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 is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
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. The link is no longer available. The url advises “Beware your Beliefs – They could bring Great Happiness”) ( 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. This 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.
Wrongly Attributed Statement
It was not the first pleasant morning spoiled by a visit to facebook. A well meaning friend posted this: “An interesting article, no doubt written with Luther Mckinnon in mind: Who Really Said That?” Apparently, someone has a reputation for poking *pin prick needles* in the hot air of quote balloons. A discussion of the article should make for a good excuse to post some pictures.
The feature was posted in The Chronicle of Higher Education. There are references to obscure trends, There are French words, in italics. It rambles when it should rambo. Worst of all, it refers to a facility for checking out quotes, Quote Investigator, without giving a link. This is tough to forgive. Links are so easy to put in an online article, and allow a reader to see the information without the filter of academia. It is the digital equivalent of a footnote, and much easier to install.
The operating acronym here is WAS, for Wrongly Attributed Statement. This has potential. You can have Wrongly Attributed Statement Ho, or WASH. You can have Wrongly Attributed Statement Perpetrator, or WASP. You can have Wrongly Attributed Statement Terror Export, or WASTE.
Corey Robin, the author of the skeptifest, says that trying to authenticate a WAS can be an all day affair. PG discovered that when writing about the Seven Brilliant Quotes. The wikiquote method emerged. You copy the wikiquote post about the source in question. You should save this document, because you will probably use it again. Take a key word from the quote in dispute, and search for it. Either the quote is real, almost real, or phony. If you can’t tell one way of another, just say that it cannot be attributed. Prove is a misleading word.
Does it matter? Some say it doesn’t, that even if the famous person did not mouth the magic words, then he probably said something similar. “It sounds like something she would have said.” Of course the context does matter. It is good to know why the famous person said what he did. And then there is the mythical tribute to authority. Some people seem to think that a saying is more true if a famous person said it. Mark Twain just wants his royalties.
Mr. Robin trots out the venerable chestnut, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” When PG took on this trojan horse, it was blamed on Thomas Jefferson If he had done nothing, Sally Hemmings would not be famous.
“The only thing…” is one of those sayings that sound good until you think about it. The good people in Germany tried in 1931, but Mr. Hitler was a bit meaner. It wouldn’t be surprising if mustache man used a German version of that saying in his speeches. Plenty of bad guys have the crowd convinced that they are good guys. Maybe the saying should go “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men get confused by inspiring rhetoric”.
Telling the truth can be a lonely business. People don’t like to be told that Santa Claus does not exist. They want to believe in something. It makes them feel better if Albert Einstein agrees with them. PG used to let his BS detector run wild. He got tired of constantly buying batteries for it. These days, it is easier to let people have their heroes.
The Library of Congress supplied the pictures for today’s entertainment. These men were Union soldiers in the War Between the States. These men thought they were saving the Union.
Four Part Rules
When PG was a kid, his grandmother lived in a side apartment, in a house on Virginia Avenue. The owner of the house was Mrs. Stuckey. (PG never learned her “real” name, and assumed that checks were made out to Mrs.) There was a framed piece of paper in Mrs. Stuckey’s hall. The top said “The Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do” , and featured the logo of the Rotary Club. The four rules were simple, on the surface. Is it the TRUTH?//Is it FAIR to all Concerned?//Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?//Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
The four way test was written by Herbert J. Taylor. In 1932, Mr.Taylor took over the bankrupt Club Aluminum Company of Chicago. Trying to revive the company during the depression, Mr. Taylor wrote a code of ethics, hoping that it would be the basis for the company’s actions.
Many said that the four way test was not practical for the business world. The balancing of integrity and ambition can be daunting. It was said that “This emphasis on truth, fairness and consideration provide a moral diet so rich that it gives some people “ethical indigestion.”
These thoughts are for you to use. They were articulated by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz. They are called the Four Agreements. . HT to activecitizen54..
PG does not claim to live up to these ideals. Number two is especially tough for him. The main thing is to try, and to always do your best. This is not about what you believe or think, it is about what you do.
agreement 1–Be impeccable with your word – Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
agreement 2–Don’t take anything personally – Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
agreement 3–Don’t make assumptions – Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
agreement 4–Always do your best – Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
This is an edited repost. The original post has more information about the Rotary Club rules for living. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Chamblee54 
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