Midtown
This content was posted June 4, 2013. … The neighborhood along Peachtree Road has always been a great place to be a freak. For a long time it didn’t have a name. It is north of downtown, between Piedmont Park and Georgia Tech. Sometime in the early eighties, people started to call it Midtown, and the name stuck.
In the time after the War Between the States, this area was a shantytown called “Tight Squeeze.” It evolved into a pleasant middle class area. In the sixties, hippies took over. The area was known as the strip, or tight squeeze. Many stories could be told.
After the flower children moved on, the area went into decline. Gays started to move in, with the battle cry “Give us our rights or we will remodel your house.” Developers, worshiping the triune G-d of location, location, location, began to smell money. The neighborhood became trendy, then expensive, then more expensive. The freaks with money remain.
This content was posted August 4, 2009. … There is a nifty webcam up now. It shows the progress of 1010 Midtown, a high rise going up at 12th and Peachtree in midtown. The location of the camera itself is not certain. The most likely location is 999 Peachtree, on Tenth Street.
A glance at the image reveals a curve in the road, between the two glass boxes under construction. Atlanta does not have wide, straight boulevards extending to the horizon. It is said that Atlanta did not build roads, but paved the cow paths.
People of a certain age will remember this area as the the strip. The tenth street district was a neighborhood shopping area, up until the mid sixties. At some point, the old businesses started to move out and the hippies moved in. For a while, it was a festive party. Soon reality returned, and the area went into a crime filled decline.
The 999 complex is the neighborhood story in a nutshell. Before 1985, it was a block of small businesses. There was a hardware store, with the peace symbol set in tiles on the sidewalk. On Juniper Street stood the Langdon Court Apartments. They were named for my great uncle Langdon Quin.
Across the street was a Chinese restaurant, the House of Eng. A staircase on the side led to the Suzy Wong Lounge. Behind the building was an apartment building. It was one of the residences of Margaret Mitchell, while she wrote “Gone With The Wind.” She called it “the dump,”which was fairly accurate. The museum on that site would have amazed her.
I went to the House of Eng for lunch one day in 1985. I noticed that I was the only customer in the house, at 12:30 pm on a weekday. After finishing lunch, I knew why.
At some point, it was decided to build a high rise there. Heery was one of the equity partners, along with a law firm and an ad agency. The building was designed by Heery (duh).The ad agency folded before the building opened, followed within a couple of years by the law firm. Heery was sold to a British company. 999 Peachtree is now owned by Piedmont Office Realty Trust. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library “Dub” took the social media photograph February 2, 1950. “Shell service station Piedmont and 10th streets.”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
A Week On The Path
0612-0946 · Didn’t walk on the path today. I cut the front and back yard. For some reason, the feet never seem to mind this chore, and are never dizzy. My arms, back, and sweat glands disagree. · The white trash lawn is a beautiful thing. No chemicals are put on it. No team of Mexicans comes by the cut the grass, and blow away the leaves. There is little actual grass here, except on the north side of the lot. There the neighbor’s sod cheerfully grows past the boundary. I just cut whatever weeds grow here, and it looks all right. The weeds stay green in cold weather, unlike the designer lawns.
0613-0943 · I just got a fb message. “it’s hotter than Satan’s asshole at the moment” I replied “quit talking about President Trump” · I finished the walk. The feet acted up a bit, and the heat was getting to me. I drank two bottles of water in a half hour, which my primary doctor would hate … she is concerned about my sodium level. · The podcast today was Mr 10 Percent: The Suburban Dad Who Fleeced Global Soccer. The show is about a man named Chuck Blazer, who conned his way into power with FIFA, the notoriously corrupt organization that runs the world cup. I am sure Coca Cola has a profitable relationship with FIFA to get the WC in Atlanta.
ChuckBlazer.com is a blog that Mr. 10% published for a while. Blogspot still displays it. “Chuck Blazer takes fans with him on his many travels in the service of soccer at chuckblazer.blogspot.com.” A few posts down is Phil Woosnam’s Desk. Phil Woosnam, served as NASL Commissioner in the early, unprofitable days of North American Soccer. He was also the coach of the Atlanta Chiefs, the local NASL team. Somehow, Chuck Blazer got the desk, and ran his soccer kingdom from it.
0614-1112 · Today is flag day. As long as I remember not to say fag day I should be all right. The walk itself went well. Forty minutes, with zero dizziness. · “Luther’s tune buds”, the primary portal, did not work, and I had to use 215tws, the backup. I plugged LTB in, and they worked fine when I got back in. I will clean the contacts, and see if that helps. · It was another trial by error day with the podcasts. The first was “Fetal Attraction: The Reality Star And The Woman He Wished He’d Never Met”, from Chameleon. This was about a tv show. Hetero bachelors and bachelorettes were getting married. The show quickly became annoying.
The second was Alanis Morissette on Talk Easy, with Sam Frogoso. I was never a big AM fan, but thought she might have stories to tell. She quickly got on my nerves. The fact that the onetime little girl superstar is now undergoing perimenopause made me feel very, very old. On the business of underage talent dealing with the entertainment business legendary legal loopholes, AM said “they’re they’re literally climbing up your mom’s vagina to get the embryo to sign the contract”. When I heard that, I could not hit pause quickly enough.
The third show was “Constellation” a story from The New Yorker. I downloaded it this morning. It turns out to be the same one I did not like a few days ago. · I listened to music for a little while next, before turning on Something Rotten at Stanford, a banger from Death, Sex & Money. This man, who is still a student at Stanford, found some dirt on the school’s president. I only listened to 18 minutes, but will finish. He used the phrase “wantrepenuers” to describe people who want to make lots of money, but don’t really have any ideas about how to do it.
SRAR used the word wantrepreneur, and I got curious. First, I looked in the transcript to get the proper spelling. Google directed me to a podcast. “In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, eight founders answer one deeply personal question: What would you say in a voicemail to your younger self?”
0615-1020 · In truckdriver code, 1020 is a question the dispatcher asks the driver. It means “where are you.” · The walk today started off good, and ended rough. The dizziness started on lap 2, and seemed normal. By lap 6, I was wondering if I was going to fall down. The feet weren’t that bad, but the thighs felt like they were made of wood. The act of walking got tougher and tougher, to the point of wondering if I could make it up the driveway · The podcast was episode six, the finale, of the Deep Cover series about the boonie hat bandit. Keith gets out of prison, eight years after marrying his girlfriend. The daughters have their lives, after there mother essentially killed herself with chronic heroin addiction. Actually, this is ultimately a depressing story, that I am glad to finish. Keith is a glib conman. He says the toughest part is forgiving himself, which is one of those new age cliches that has a hollow sound here. It is not my problem to solve.
0616-1243 1312 · I was at the end of my victory lap when @kittypurrzog said something I had to include. Talking about straight women who don’t want to seem homophobic, she said they were “so open-minded their pussy falls out” · The walk went well, at least compared to yesterday. There was persistent low level dizziness, but it never moved past the nuisance level. I did 47:05, 11 minutes past the 36:00 buzzer. Luther’s Tune Buds were not working at first, but after multiple rechargings did ok. It may be time to replace them, maybe with noise cancelling that really works.
There were two podcasts today. 99 Percent Invisible had a show about Ivermectin. (Technically, it was a guest episode from Drug Story.) The show was firmly in the IVM-does-not-work-for- COVID camp. I would be interested to know who funded this episode. The second show was Blocked and Reported. This show used to be a Monday Morning Must, but is not as cool as it once was. Katie, the last lesbian, had a guest, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, aka The last straight woman. This led to the quote above.
0617-1038 1056 · The walk was uneventful, with nuisance level dizziness. The podcast was Deep Cover, a wednesday morning favorite. This week they are in Atlanta, instead of the gulf coast. I am always sensitive to nuance when people talk about us. Jed pronounced the second a of Atlanta, and said Buckhead was terribly white, but other than that did ok. The story was The Murder of Lita McClinton, Part 1: The Marriage. Lita was a black lady, from a prominent Atlanta family, who married Irish trash from Boston. Jim Sullivan inherited a liquor distributor company in Macon, and made a fortune. The couple was happy together until they were not. In the middle of divorce proceedings, the wife became unalived. There will be more to the story next wednesday. The remaining time was spent listening to Provoked, with Scott and Darryl. The show was recorded last week, when there were rumors of negotiations with Iran. Today, the MOU is allegedly ready to be signed.
0618-1036 · It was another 42 minutes on the path, with very mild dizziness. There is the cliche of insanity, that it is trying the same thing over and over, hoping for different results. That is what the morning walk is. · The podcast was Disgraceland. This is a show I have listened to for years, and it has ups and downs. Today’s show was one of the ups, even if the content was a downer. George Jones: Voices, Vices, and a Comeback for the Ages is about George Glenn Jones. I grew up looking down on country music, and have had different attitudes about it over the years. I cannot begin to understand the cult of GGJ. I even listened to season two of Cocaine and Rhinestones, which will tell you more than you need to know about GGJ and Tammy Wynette.
At one of his low points, GGJ decided that his best friend, Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery, needed to die. Peanutt (the tt is correct) had been born again. GGJ thought of all the times he had prayed, and it did him no good. This reminded me of my struggles with Jesus, and how prayer can make things worse. Anyway, GGJ took a shot at Peanutt, and missed. Peanutt is still alive, unlike GGJ. … Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Marjory Collins took the social media picture in August 1942. “New York, New York. O’Reilly’s bar on Third Avenue in the “Fifties” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Do You Condemn Hamas?
This content was originally published June 2, 2009. … George Tiller performed abortions. Bill O’Reilly denounced him on national television dozens of times. He was shot in church. In Little Rock AK, a man called Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad opened fire at a military recruiting center. Mr. Muhammad was a convert to Islam, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe. William Long died as a result of the shooting. From Centurion: “Two killers, two victims. One murder gets twice as many national news stories than the other.“ There was a link to a site called newsbusters, with the motto : “Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias”.
This content was originally published June 4, 2009. … There is a post at Obsidian Wings. It is about the responsibility of those who denounce abortion in the most inflammatory manner possible. Certainly, there has been tons of purple prose produced by the anti abortion people. At what point does this translate into the murder of George Tiller? Much of what I have read this week has been along the lines of we denounce violence, but abortion is still horrible. When the bile monger is the Roman Pedophile Church, the hypocrisy scorekeepers have to work overtime to keep up. …
… The killing of Shani Fecht was the sort of “routine” killing that goes without notice. According to the AJC, the alleged killer said after his arrest “Can I ask you a question? Am I going away for a long time? If I do go away for a long time, I would like it [to] be in a hospital.” This alleged killer is Zeke Cordell, the 18 year old son of Mrs. Fecht. Who is supposed to denounce this killing? Those who advocate for the “right” of an apparently disturbed teenager to have access to a rifle? …
This content was originally published June 1, 2009. … The first and third commandments are very underrated, and much violated by Jesus Worshipers. At the very least, to take a text like the Bible and call it the word of God is a violation of the first commandment. The holy trinity business is another rupture of the first commandment. And when preaching results in ill will, that is a violation of the third commandment. The third commandment is more than God’s last name. I see G-d as being like the elements…earth, air, fire, and water. …
… I suffer from what I call “Jesus Fatigue”. Tired of the wrangling, tired of the personal attacks from those who disagree, tired of speculation about life after death, just plain tired. I realize that I have heard almost all of these arguments before, and they don’t make any more sense this time. Jesus Worship is a religion of beliefs rather than practices. These beliefs are based on a book, which is considered the “word of God”. This foundation tends to lead to these endless arguments, and the anger and alienation that comes with them. …
… I see Jesus in the words and deeds of those who believe in him. He is a spirit that lives in these believers. This spirit shares little more than a name with the Jew who lived in Palestine 2k years ago. The historic Jesus was killed because he was a troublemaker. His death and reputed resurrection has nothing to do with what happens to me when I die. As Jesus might/might not have said “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do”. Of course, Jesus did not have to deal with the likes of Evangelicals who believe that salvation can be found in gotcha arguments. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Collier took the social media picture in November 1942. “Untitled photo, possibly related to: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Montour no. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Andy Piatenick and family.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 Selah
Bag Of Limburger Cheese
0606-1153 · I tried something new for my walk today. Instead of doing laps on the path, I went to a nearby intersection, to look at a yard sale sign. I took a picture of the address, and went on my way. · The entertainment for the day was an episode of Provoked, with Scott Horton and Darryl Cooper. One problem with that show is they post it on Friday night, and then they don’t put the link up until Tuesday morning. I was looking for the link today, and I wasn’t careful enough. I downloaded last week’s show. I noticed that I was hearing some phrases from Darryl that sounded familiar, and I realized that I probably had screwed up. This happened to me one other time with Darryl. I was listening to Fear and Loathing in the New Jerusalem, his 27-hour history of the state of Israel. The media player on my phone does screwy things, and will cut off a show. I always make a note of where I am, for this reason. This time, I was listening to Episode 5, and when I went back to the show I went to episode 6. I wound up listening to about a half hour, before I realized what I had done. I wound up listening to that half hour twice. Unfortunately, that half hour was about the Nakba, an especially gnarly part to the Israel story.
0607-1030 · The walk went smoothly. The feet were acting up a little bit, but it never got beyond the nuisance level. The podcast was a show, Laundry Man: The Wild Ride of the Pig Butcher’s Banker. They were talking about this South African who went around to these various South Asian countries, and helped criminals launder money. He became quite rich as a result. One of the countries he worked in was Cambodia, which apparently has become a criminal state for hire, largely working with the Chinese Mafia. This money launderer had a yacht in the Persian Gulf. He got it out through the Straits of Hormuz the day before the war started. Did he have inside information?
0608-1100 · Just got back from my walk. The feet dizziness increased on the last lap, to the point where I was wondering if I could make it up the driveway. This is fairly unusual but not unheard of. I was starting my walk, I was put my
earbuds in. I noticed that my basic buds were not working, so I used the backup buds. The podcast today was Deep Cover. Today was the 5th episode of a show about a bank robber. He goes to trial, and pleads guilty to the federal charges. He thinks he can get a smoother sentence on the state charges, so he goes to trial. The trial does not go well for him.
0609-1118 · The walk went well I had to wait until 1009 to go because it was raining. My feet did okay, with a little bit of slight amount of dizziness on the second lap. I got over that quickly, and wound up doing an extra lap after the buzzer. I listened to two podcasts. The first one was The Truth, with dramatic reenactments of stories. The story was Let’s Not and Say We Did. Jeff has a ethical non-monogamous (ENM) marriage, where his wife and him are both going out with other people. Jeff goes out with Leslie. When it comes time to do the deed he just can’t … all he wants is his wife. Jeff and Leslie start cooking up stories of fake dates to tell wife Ingrid about. Jeff and Leslie wind up in a non-sexual relationship, by making up stories of fake girlfriends. Eventually it doesn’t work, and Jeff and Ingrid stay together. · I when I finished that show I was going to go to the media player, and Talk Easy had already started. Sam Fragogoso was talking to Nathan Lane. I’m sort of familiar with who Nathan Lane is, and he’s currently doing “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway. The idea of a fabulously gay man playing Willie Loman seems very modern.
0610-1045 · The walk went well today, with almost no dizziness. I only did 36 minutes because it was getting hot, and I was going to have to go somewhere soon. a The podcast was Provoked, with Scott Horton, Darryl Cooper, and guest Ken Silva. This is the episode I thought I heard the other day. The show was about the shooting of Donald J. Trump, in Butler PA. Mr. Silva has an unpleasant voice, and talks fast. I didn’t really get a lot of the details. There was a lot of screwing up by the law enforcement actors during that incident. Thomas Crooks shot DJT in the pinch of skin above the ear cartilage, with little damage and a splendid photo op. It’s understandable that some people could say it was staged, but in all probability it was real. There’s a lot of unanswered questions. Powerful actors want these questions to remain unanswered.
0611-1128 · Today’s walk was a doozy. I got a late start, and the summer heat/humidity was kicking in. My feet did ok, with a bit of manageable dizziness. · I went through four podcasts. I started with Theo Von talking to former CIA actor John Kiriakou. I listened to 40 minutes of this yesterday, and always enjoy John K. Today we had the bonus of listening to Theo Von say Kiriakou. · So I looked at the media player to see where I was, hit the wrong spot, and went back to the start of the show. I decided to try something else. · The second show was Gone South. I usually enjoy GS. Today they are talking about an innocent Black Man who was executed. I may want to listen later, but just wasn’t in the mood for that today. · The third show was “The Writer’s Voice”, from The New Yorker. “Constellation” was read by a man, with a hispanic accent. He was talking about his mother. Here again, some other time I might enjoy it, but not today. · I hit the jackpot with the fourth show. Billy Corgan, the main man of Smashing Pumpkins, has a banger podcast. Today his guest was Pat Boone. If I wanted to get annoyed by Pat Boone I could, but today I just wanted to hear him tell stories. The man can tell stories. One bit of TMI trivia is the news that Colonel Sanders carried a bag of Limburger Cheese with him everywhere he went. · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in September 1940. “Mr. and Mrs. D’Anunnzio and their little girl, showing the condition of the roof in their house in the submarginal area of Rumsey Hill, near Erin, New York” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
The KKK In Atlanta
This content was published June 25, 2021. … @SpaceyG “Buckhead hasn’t been considered an Atlanta suburb since the head of the ATL Klan developed the Peachtree Battle-Peachtree Rd. area as one. When he sold some land to the Catholic Church (for Christ the King) he was relieved of his top Klansman duties.” This was news to me, though not terribly shocking. My google habit kicked in, and soon there were a handful of articles. There was a lot of disagreement over the specifics.
There was also a lot of oh-how-terrible posturing. This will be held to a minimum in this post. We are talking about the Ku Klux Klan. If you don’t know by now, they were horrible, horrible people. If you want to get worked up about it, go watch tv.
The KKK was revived in 1915. Birth of a Nation was one inspiration. Another catalyst was the Leo Frank affair. He was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan, despite substantial evidence of his innocence. Mr. Frank was Jewish. The trial was the occasion for anti-Semitic hate speech.
Gov. John Slaton commuted the death sentence of Mr. Frank to life imprisonment, along with suggestions that the verdict would be overturned. A group called “The Knights of Mary Phagan” broke into the state prison, and took Leo Frank out. On August 17, 1915, he was taken to Marietta, and lynched. This happened where I-75 crosses Hwy 120 today, downhill from the Big Chicken.
“An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. … On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a “practical fraternity among men,” and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
The Klan initially did not do very well, until I.W. Simmons met Edward Young Clarke and Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Tyler, a pair of promoters. They rebranded the Klan to fight against Jews, Catholics, and anything else people did not like. Clarke and Tyler had a knack for publicity, and got a lot of new members. The recruits paid a $10 initiation fee, with a substantial cut of that going to Clarke and Tyler. Soon, the money began to pour in.
These recruits were going to need pointed hoods. “Although it’s little morethan an unassuming office structure today, the Cotton Exchange Building on bustling Roswell Road has something of a haunted past. In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan bought and used it as a manufacturing and distribution center for the group’s propaganda. Additionally, the Klan produced its robes, hoods and gloves there.” The Cotton Exchange building still stands today, a block north of the Buckhead triangle.
“On October 11, 1921, Elizabeth Tyler was entertaining a few friends in her elegant Atlanta home. … At 9:45 p.m., five gunshots rang out. Half an hour later, the telephone rang at the Atlanta Constitution. “I want to talk to a reporter … I just want to tell you that we got Mrs. Tyler tonight.” The assailants, who were never identified, hadn’t gotten anyone. All five bullets had missed.”
That was not the only trouble in paradise. The Klan leadership began to quarrel. I.W. Simmons was pushed out, replaced by Hiram Evans. Soon, Clarke and Evans were out. Imperial Kleagle Clarke was convicted of violating the Mann Act. Bessie Tyledr moved to California, and died in 1924.
The sources I found are unclear about a KKK real estate business. I.W. Simmons had plans for a University, and began to purchase property for it. There was also the Imperial Palace, at the corner of Peachtree and West Wesley. Here is what the Catholic church says:
“In 1916, an elegant white-columned, Greek revival-style mansion was built by Edward M Durant on the site of the Cathedral. In 1921, the house was bought by the Ku Klux Klan. The group met mostly in secret in the home with the intention of transforming it into their “Imperial Palace,” but by the 1930s had begun to unravel with the onset of the Great Depression. After the property went into foreclosure, the Church was able to purchase the land from the mortgage holder. The cost of the 4 acres of land and mansion was $35,000, quite a sum at that time but was chosen over other available locations due to the fact it was on public transportation. … On the Feast of Christ the King on October 31, 1937, the cornerstone for the Church was blessed and the dedication took place on January 18, 1939.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: “Unidentified soldier in Union enlistedman’s uniform” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Tetragrammaton
The content was published May 6, 2010. … I foolishly answered the question “If you’re not proclaiming the Gospel, why not?”. My reasoning involved non agreement and good taste, and soon found myself in a fun filled dialog. After the third entry, someone named “Otternam” made this observation: “Zach, I was anon earlier, but I can talk now… chamblee is a troll, so don’t play too rough, ok? I can’t tell if he is Jewish or simply superstitious with the whole G-d wordplay… Id just cut to the chase and use the tetragrammaton” … This is a family blog, and the x rated evidence I could supply (re: am I Jewish?) is not conclusive in the modern USA. Readers will just have to take my word that I am a recovering baptist. In addition, I had never heard of the tetragrammaton. (Zach, the blog owner, used the phrase “decalogue of Exodus 20” to refer to the Ten Commandments.)
Tetragrammaton is four letters which represent the God of Israel. The four letters are YHWH. This is not a song by the Village People. The pronunciation is disputed, and some say it should not be spoken aloud anyway. Many say it is Yahwah, which sounds really cool with a southern accent. Yahwah come back now, heah. … At some point, YHWH degenerated into Jehovah, God, and Allah. The third commandment prohibits the improper use of sacred names, but that doesn’t stop very many people. The internet is not inhibited either, and a website for Tetragrammaton is in operation. … In 2026, another Tetragrammaton is a very fine podcast starring Rick Rubin.
This content was published May 11, 2010. … I left the job interview, and headed to the dmv. The man said to get a mvr, which is something you want to hear at the end of a job interview.The Department of Motor Vehicles is a place where you wait. It is not possible to get through in less than an hour. For emergencies like this, I keep a book in my vehicle. Today the book is Tales From Margaritaville, by Jimmy Buffet. I was at a yard sale once, in the hottest part of the summer. TOM was on sale for one dollar, and I was going to pass. When I got back to my bike, the creeping heat told me to go back up the driveway and buy that book.
The lady in front of me has a birth certificate from Miami, Florida. Why are Miami birth certificates so pretty, when the Fulton county thing I have is a negative image copy, ugly as sin? … There are two old ladies in line before the lady from Miami. They both have hair dyed some hideous shade of faux blonde. Whatever happened to letting your hair go white, and being proud of living that long? … So I got my number, and found a plastic chair that seemed clean. For the next forty five minutes, every time a number was announced, I would look up at the lightboxes above the booths. This did not make the number come up any faster. I soon realized that every time I had been in a government waiting room, my number got called, if only I waited long enough.
Back to the book, which was a series of short stories, told in easy to read sentences. The first story was about a bartender in Key West, who tried to drown himself in waist deep water off the shore. He heard the phone ring in his house, and he decided to go back and answer. It was the phone company, calling to say it was cutting off his service for not paying his bill. When that was over, he was so angry, he decided he wanted to live. … The next tale was about a young man who meets his rock and roll star hero, and winds up hanging out with him. The hero tells the young man there are rules for becoming a star. They were (in paraphrased, copyright dodging form) the bar owner is your enemy, some folks are elbows, and will always be like that, and stay out of police custody. The rockstar is telling stories that get wilder and wilder, like the time he was playing in Montana, the audience was breaking the Guinness record for drinking cheap beer, and his bass player and keyboard man are fighting on stage. Before this story was over, the number was called, and I got my mvr. How the story turned out will have to wait until the next waiting room.
This content was published May 16, 2010. … Sarah Palin recently spoke at the NRA convention in Charlotte NC. She told redneck jokes. · “Some of these animal activists are just … crazy. They think we’re killing Bambi’s mother. I love animals, but in Alaska, Bambi’s mother is dinner.” · “You’re a redneck if you’ve ever had dinner on a ping pong table.” · “You’re a redneck if you’ve ever had a custody fight over a hunting dog. Well, Todd and I haven’t, but we’ve got friends who have!” · “You’re a redneck if your honeymoon was a hunting trip. That was us!”
“You’re a redneck if you’ve ever used a fishing license as ID.” · “You’re a redneck if you’ve ever slept in the back of a pickup rather than pay for a hotel. · “You’re a redneck if you’ve ever said to your husband, ‘Honey, move the transmission so I can take a bath.’ · “And you’re a redneck if you think the last words of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ are ‘PLAY BALL!” · “You’re a redneck if your daughter’s babydaddy calls himself a f*****g redneck on facebook.” · Thank you Matt Taibbi and the NY Daily News. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in March 1941. “Young girl lives in this shack with her husband who works at Fort Bragg. In a settlement near Manchester, North Carolina” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Broken Legs And Broken Promises
This content was published April 21, 2008. … It is monday after work, and slack rules. What energy I had is long gone. I started a nifty post about Truman Capote at lunch, but don’t feel like finishing it. Not to worry, Renegade Evolution has the answer. She displayed something called the blog&website Cuss-o-meter. Ren copped a 34.5% rating, which is not surprising for a sex worker. …
The first question to arise is, what do they call cussing? The seven words of Carlin? Anything referring to excretion, reproduction, or the eternal destination of your soul? I am not terribly offended by most profanity. I try not to use it, because it takes attention away from your overall message. Profanity is a social issue rather than a moral one. Certain words are not right or wrong, but when you use one inappropriately you betray a lack of respect for the listeners. There are words that offend me … like Jesus … that many see as their moral duty to say as often as possible. And this eagerness to profane a sacred name is a violation of the third commandment. (That is, the eagerness of Christians to scream his name as often and loudly as possible). … It is a matter of perception. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but ugly uses all five senses.
This content was published April 16, 2008. … I don’t know which Neil is uglier, Boortz or Young. Its a good thing Neil Diamond (The Jewish Elvis) is handsome. … There have always been mixed feelings about Neil Young. In 1972, after “Goldrush” and CSNY, his new album was greatly anticipated. I got “Harvest” the first chance I got, and thought that it sucked. A few more albums came out, some better than others. It did not help that some hipsters thought that Mr. Young walked on water.
Then one night in 1978, I went by a house, and was told to drive to the radio station immediately. Mr. Young had a show at the Omni that night, it was far from sold out, and there was a man with a shoebox of tickets in the radio station parking lot. Never mind that the seats were in Alabama, I was in the same room as Neil Young. … And he was great. There were huge comic book speakers, and these guys in star wars costumes swarming over the stage to adjust the equipment. Neil played VERY LOUD. Sometimes having seats in Alabama is a good thing. … There is something artificial about a studio arteest who cannot pull the weight onstage. Donna Summer comes to mind (Easter Sunday 1978). OTOH, a performer who pulls it off in front of an audience is real. That night at the Omni, Neil Young justified a lifetime of pretentious records.
This content was published April 14, 2008. … “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, … the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothings replaced them … And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. … And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Unless you live under a rock/Iraq, or have right wing ideas on permanent brain rot, you have heard about that comment from BHO. Quite possibly, you have heard more than you appreciate … unless you are looking for a reason not to like BHO, in which case you haven’t heard enough. If you are in the first category, just scroll through the text and enjoy the pictures. If you are in the second group, you might not like what I am going to say. You can still look at the pictures.
1- This was a secretly recorded speech made at a fundraiser. The fatcat party was in San Francisco, a factoid that delights the hate-O crowd. What sort of person donates to a campaign (possibly using another person’s money), so he can go to a private party and make a secret recording? And then take the “sample” and release it to the tittering internet.
2- My first reaction when I read this was that the smalltown folk have felt that way for a long long time. They loved guns and Jesus back when the factories and steelmills were wide open. 3- It is not just small town Pennsylvania that is “bitter”. (Folks seem to have a special problem with the word bitter. One “consultant” was quoted as saying it would have been better if BHO had said frustrated.) What about the guys that did a high five behind Jeremiah Wright when he screamed “God Damn America”? If anyone has a right to be bitter, it is the folks on the south side of Chicago, or any ghetto in America. And yes, they do cling to Jesus and Guns, as well as other nasty things.
4- It is not just America that is bitter and turning to religion. Palestine and Iraq are in the same boat. They feel like forces are working against them, and they might be right. People are turning to religion and violence as an answer to their anguish. They are being led down that wretched path by cynical clerics who exploit their unhappiness, and offer a solution through God. These clerics seldom strap on a suicide vest, just like Jeremiah Wright does not live in the projects.
5- This is not going to hurt BHO that much. The people who are upset are not going to support him anyway. A lot of people see the truth in what he says, and just might appreciate the fact that he was unslick enough to say something with a rough edge. He just might have known that Judas-with-a-taperecorder was in the house. 6- Batter Better Bitter Botter Butter. The only vowel that doesn’t work in that progression is O.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library Guy Dodd Hayes took the social media picture in April 27, 1941. “Convicts with broken legs in casts in bunk-beds at Dallas, Georgia prison.” … “Broken Legs and Broken Promises. These three youths who say they broke their legs to escape “Beatings and hardships” at the Dallas “Hell Hole Prison,” admit that conditions have improved since Warden Q.E. Worthington took charge in February, but charge the warden broke his own promise of no brutality by whipping Morris Brown “on general principles.” Left to right they are Buster Masters, 18, of Atlanta; Percy Mitchell, 21, of Macon, and Ed Pressley, 18, of Troupe County. Other prisoners are high in their praise of the warden for allowing radios, mail and sale of luxuries within the camp for the first time.” … “These three Georgia lads hamstrung themselves by cutting the tendons of their own legs to avoid being sent out on convict road gangs.”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Lewis Grizzard
This content was originally posted April 23, 2012. … If you lived in Atlanta between 1980 and 1994, you heard about Lewis Grizzard. Some people loved him. Deacon Lunchbox did not. Lewis told good old boy stories about growing up in rural Georgia. Many of them were enjoyable. Lewis also made social and political commentaries, which upset a few people.
I have mixed feelings about Lewis. The stories about Kathy Sue Loudermilk, and Catfish, could make your day. His opinions about gays, feminists, and anything non redneck, could get on your nerves. The column for the fishwrapper upset me at least twice a week.
In 1982, Lewis (a first-name-only celebrity) wrote a column about John Lennon. Lewis did not understand why Mr. Ono was such a big deal. I cut the column out of the fishwrapper, and put it in a box. Every few years, I would be looking for something, find that column, and get mad all over again.
The New Georgia Encyclopedia has a page about Lewis, which expresses some of these contradictions. “If Grizzard’s humor revealed the ambivalence amid affluence of the Sunbelt South, it reflected its conservative and increasingly angry politics as well. He was fond of reminding fault-finding Yankee immigrants that “Delta is ready when you are,” and, tired of assaults on the Confederate flag, he suggested sarcastically that white southerners should destroy every relic and reminder of the Civil War (1861-65), swear off molasses and grits, drop all references to the South, and begin instead to refer to their region as the “Lower East.” Grizzard also wore his homophobia and hatred for feminists on his sleeve, and one of the last of his books summed up his reaction to contemporary trends in its title, Haven’t Understood Anything since 1962 and Other Nekkid Truths.
In the end, which came in 1994, when he was only forty-seven, the lonely, insecure, oft-divorced, hard-drinking Grizzard proved to be the archetypal comic who could make everyone laugh but himself. He chronicled this decline and his various heart surgeries in I Took a Lickin’ and Kept on Tickin’, and Now I Believe in Miracles, published just before his final, fatal heart failure.”
As you may have discerned, Lewis McDonald Grizzard Jr. met his maker on March 20, 1994. He was 47. There was a valve in his heart that wasn’t right. The good news is that he stayed out of the army. At the time, Vietnam was the destination for most enlistees. The bad news is that his heart problems got worse and worse, until it finally killed him.
Sixteen years later, I found a website, Wired For Books. It is a collection of author interviews by Don Swaim, who ran many of them on a CBS radio show called Book
Beat. There are two interviews with Lewis. 1986 1987. One was done to promote My Daddy Was a Pistol and I’m a Son of A Gun. This was the story of Lewis Grizzard Senior, who was another mixed bag.
If you listen to those interviews, you might change your mind about Lewis. The one-liners and country boy stories are still there. Daddy Grizzard was a soldier, who went to war in Europe and Korea. The second one did something to him, he took to drinking, and was never quite right the rest of his life. His son adored him anyway. When you put yourself in those loafers for a while, you began to taste the ingredients, in that stew we called Lewis Grizzard.
I still remember the anger that those columns caused … I have my own story, and know when my toes are stepped on. The thing is, after listening to this show, I have an idea of why Lewis Grizzard wrote the things that he did. Maybe Lewis and I aren’t all that different after all. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken October 31, 1956. “Wrecked police automobile” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
The Void
This content was published April 23, 2008 It is a feminist saying that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. Only, she did it backwards and wearing high heels. What they don’t say is that she rehearsed her routines backwards and in high heels. That was dancing to her. If she had to lead in flat shoes she would have been lost. … I saw Ginger Rogers make a personal appearance once. I was working on the mall maintenance crew at Northlake Mall. Ms. Rogers made an appearance to promote Gaymode Pantyhose. Fred Astaire was not there to lead, and she did not speak backwards. Someone asked how old she was, and the inevitable answer was “That is none of your business”.
What a great, honest answer. To me, the high point of this wretched political mudbath was when someone revealed his lack of class by asking Chelsea Clinton about her daddy’s bimbo problem. To which the former (and possibly future) first daughter replied “That is none of your business”. … There is one other saying that is appropriate for all occasions. The story goes that a Persian king asked his men what he could say that would always be so. The wise men thought, drank, fought, consulted sages and prostitutes, and gave the king this message. “These things too shall pass away.”
This content was posted April 24, 2008. … Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are two elements of the Bill of Rights. The combination of the two on roadside message boards was not foreseen by the founding fathers. … There is a little church on Fairground Street in Marietta. Their message these days is “Let Christ fill the void”. The first time I saw that, I was tired. My body chemistry was telling me to be unhappy. My first thought was that I don’t have a void, and how dare those Jesus Worshipers assume that I do. My second thought was that I would rather have a void than the pain Jesus has caused me. … So today, I was on South Cobb Drive when an old Buick drove by. With white shoe polish, the words “Have Jesus John 3:16” were on the back window. Like injecting a dead virus will inoculate you from a disease, that served to alert me to ignore the Jesus messages for a while. When I went by the “Void” church, It didn’t have any effect on me.
When I got home, I turned on the computer and looked at the sites in my “frequent” folder. Mostly Media had a story from South Carolina. Jonesville Church of God has a sign that says “Obama Osama Hmm Are they Brothers?”. … Now, Barrack Sr. got around, so this can not be dismissed. … Senator BHO has had a tough time with religion. First the pesky Muslim rumors, then those repulsive snippets from the man who introduced him to Jesus. … My father was from Eastern North Carolina, just north of South of the Border. When I was a kid we used to go to the farm. This was in the days before interstate highways and air conditioned cars. South Carolina is the biggest, hottest place on earth.
This content was published April 24, 2008. … Neal Boortz was discussing Hatem El-Hady, a man who raises funds for Barack Obama. Mr. El-Hady was involved with an organization called “Kindhearts”. Mr. El-Hady says his group provides assistance to those in need. The U.S. Government says he is a fund raiser for terrorism, and shut down the group. … Mr. El-Hady has a “dedicated page on Barack Obama’s official website”. Mr. El-Hady has raised $60 for the campaign.
A few thoughts are in order: 1 – Mr. Boortz is quick to mock the government when it involves education or the environment. However, when it suits his needs, he believes what they say without question. A regular feature on his show is the “Government Outrage of the Day.” To this reporter, the biggest outrage in recent memory is the deployment of 160k troops eight time zones away. This is destroying our economy and has rendered us more vulnerable to terrorism. 2 – Those who condemn Islamic Terrorism seldom make the distinction between Sunni and Shia. This division is real and important. Al Queda is Sunni, and considers Shia to be more of an enemy than the United States. Could it be that a Shia rival of Kindhearts ratted them out as terrorists? 3 – In the wake of 9-11, the Government went into full terror hunt mode. Is it possible that legitimate charities were swept into this dragnet? 4 – To be totally fair, it is possible that the Government is telling the truth and that Mr. El-Hady is a terrible person. In this case Mr. Obama should return the $60. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Russell Lee took the featured photograph in February 1940. “Wife of Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer, threading sewing machine. She makes practically all of the clothing for her family with the exception of such things as overalls, sweaters, etc. Creek County, Oklahoma.”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
April 30, 1992
This content was originally published April 30, 2012. … Doug Richards is an Atlanta tv news reporter. He writes a blog, Live Apartment Fire. He was on the scene thirty years ago. There was a riot downtown. Mr. Richards had a bad night.
I was working in the Healey building that day. I ran an RMS, or reprographic management service, in an architects office. I had a blueline machine, and ran jobs for the customer. In my free time, I enjoyed the various events downtown. On April 30, 1992, there was an event I did not enjoy.
The day before, a jury in California issued a verdict. Four policemen were acquitted of wrongdoing in an incident involving Rodney King. The incident had been videotaped, and received widespread attention. The verdict of the jury was not popular. The dissatisfaction spread to Atlanta.
Sometimes, I think I have a guardian angel looking over me. If so, then this thursday afternoon was one of those times. I went walking out into the gathering storm. I was a block south of the train station at five points, when I saw someone throw a rock into a store front. The sheet metal drapes were rolled down on the outside of the store. Irealized that I was not in a good place, and quickly made my way back to the Healey building.
A group of policemen were lined up in the lobby of the building, wearing flack jackets. One of the police was a white man, who was familiar to workers in the neighborhood. A few weeks before the incident, he had been walking around the neighborhood showing off his newborn baby.
There was very little work done that afternoon in the architect’s office. Someone said not to stand close to the windows. Fourteen floors below, on Broad Street, the window at Rosa’s Pizza caught a brick. There were helicopters hovering over downtown, making an ominous noise.
There was a lot of soul searching about race relations that day. The Olympics were coming to town in four years, and the potential for international disaster was apparent. As it turned out, the disturbance was limited to a few hundred people. It could have been much, much worse. If one percent of the anger in Atlanta had been unleashed that day, instead of .001 percent, the Olympics would have been looking for a new host.
After a while, the people in the office were called into the lobby. The Principal of the firm, the partner in charge of production, walked out to his vehicle with me. The principal drove an inconspicuous vehicle, which made me feel a bit better.
I usually took the train downtown. As fate would have it, there was a big project at the main office of Redo blue, on West Peachtree Street. That is where my vehicle was, in anticipation of working overtime that night. The principal drove me to this building. I called my mother, to let her know that I was ok. The Atlanta manager of Redo Blue talked to me, to make sure that I was not hurt.
If I had not gone downtown the next day, I might not have ever gone back. I was back at the West Peachtree Street office, and was assured that it was safe to ride the train into town. The Macy’s at 180 Peachtree had plywood nailed over the display windows. A gift shop in the Healey building had a sign in the window, “Black owned business”. Friday May 1, 1992, was a quiet day. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture is “Undated, but after 1964”. “Marietta Street and Broad Street.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Was Flannery O’Connor A Racist?
This content was originally published March 26, 2023. … How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor? appeared in The New Yorker on June 22, 2020. (Note the date) I had long been a fan of Mary Flannery O’Connor, and knew I could not un-read those stories.
The article begins by telling the Flannery story. Soon, a description of a movie, Flannery, yields a false note: “Erik Langkjær, a publishing sales rep O’Connor fell in love with, describes their drives in the country.” According to Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch, Mr. Langkjær was far from a boyfriend. It is another piece of the puzzle.
“I was not really in love; I simply enjoyed the company of women during my lonely travels in the South. Although Flannery was both conventional and religious, we eventually became so close that she, while the car was parked, allowed me to kiss her. At that moment, her disease revealed itself in a new way: there was no strength in her lips. I hit her teeth with my kiss, and since then I’ve thought of it as a kiss of death. … When I later read one of Flannery’s short stories, ‘Good Country People,’ I noticed that the main character was a travelling Bible salesman. I didn’t sell bibles, but I used to call my binder with the records of the publishing firm ‘my bible.’ Also, the salesman in the story is named Manley Pointer, which has an obvious erotic connotation.”
“Everything That Rises Must Converge was published in “Best American Short Stories” … O’Connor declared that it was all she had to say on “That Issue.” It wasn’t. In May, 1964, she wrote to her friend Maryat Lee, a playwright who … was ardent for civil rights.”
“About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us what it feels like to be a Negro in Harlem but he tries to tell us everything else too. M. L. King I dont think is the ages great saint but he’s at least doing what he can do & has to do. Don’t know anything about Ossie Davis except that you like him but you probably like them all. My question is usually would this person be endurable if white. If Baldwin were white nobody would stand him a minute. I prefer Cassius Clay. “If a tiger move into the room with you,” says Cassius, “and you leave, that dont mean you hate the tiger. Just means you know you and him can’t make out. Too much talk about hate.” Cassius is too good for the Moslems.” (James Baldwin probably agreed with MFO about “the Moslems.”)
“That passage, published in “The Habit of Being,” echoed a remark in a 1959 letter, also to Maryat Lee, who had suggested that Baldwin … could pay O’Connor a visit while on a subsequent reporting trip. O’Connor demurred: “No I can’t see James Baldwin in Georgia. It would cause the greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion. In New York it would be nice to meet him; here it would not. I observe the traditions of the society I feed on—it’s only fair. Might as well expect a mule to fly as me to see James Baldwin in Georgia. I have read one of his stories and it was a good one.” …
“After revising “Revelation” in early 1964, O’Connor wrote several letters to Maryat Lee. Many scholars maintain that their letters (often signed with nicknames) are a comic performance, with Lee playing the over-the-top liberal and O’Connor the dug-in gradualist, but O’Connor’s most significant remarks on race in her letters to Lee are plainly sincere. … May 3, 1964: “You know, I’m an integrationist by principle & a segregationist by taste anyway. I don’t like negroes. They all give me a pain and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them. Particularly the new kind.” Two weeks after that, she told Lee of her aversion to the “philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind.” Ravaged by lupus, she wrote Lee a note to say that she was checking into the hospital, signing it “Mrs. Turpin.” She died at home ten weeks later.”
“Fordham University hosted a symposium on O’Connor and race, supported with a grant from the author’s estate.” (The panel discussion included Karin Coonrod.) “The organizer, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell” … (who wrote) “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor” … takes up Flannery and That Issue. Proposing that O’Connor’s work is “race-haunted,” she applies techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory …” In other words, The Flannery O’Connor Trust gave money to Fordham University, so they could examine MFO, using “techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory.” There is something deeply rotten about this. … RARIFOC includes this: “Drawing on critical whiteness studies, Chapter 1 interrogates the concepts of race and whiteness O’Connor inherited and analyzes the ways in which O’Connor critiques the unjust racial practices of the South in her stories and other writings yet unconsciously upholds them.”
Perhaps this cancellation business is what MFO foresaw in a 1963 letter to Betty Hester. MFO mentions her disdain for Eudora Welty’s “Where is the Voice Coming From?” … “What I hate most is its being in the New Yorker and all of the stupid Yankee liberals smacking their lips over typical life in the dear old dirty Southland.”
Eudora Welty is not the only author MFO did not like. MFO wrote to Maryat Lee on 31 May 60. “I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoyevsky.”
“On July 28, 1964, Flannery wrote her last letter. This note to Maryat Lee, written in a “shaky, nearly illegible hand” … is in response to an anonymous crank call Lee received and reveals O’Connor’s deep concern for her friend’s well being: “Cowards can be just as vicious as those who declare themselves – more so. Dont take any romantic attitude toward that call. Be properly scared and go on doing what you have to do, but take the necessary precautions. And call the police. That might be a lead for them. Dont know when I’ll send those stories. I’ve felt too bad to type them. Cheers, Tarfunk” MFO died August 3, 1964 at Baldwin County Hospital.
We don’t know what MFO read by James Baldwin. It might include a 1962 piece in The New Yorker, Letter from a Region in My Mind. Included in those 22,147 words is this gem: “But white Americans do not believe in death, and this is why the darkness of my skin so intimidates them.” This might be a good time to remember the words of Alice Walker: “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
Ms. Walker is included in Flannery. “Alice Walker tells of living “across the way” from the farmhouse during her teens, not knowing that a writer lived there: “It was one of my brothers who took milk from her place to the creamery in town. When we drove into Milledgeville, the cows that we saw on the hillside going into town would have been the cows of the O’Connors.” Ms. Walker, who was well aware of MFO’s racial attitudes, adds “She also cast spells and worked magic with the written word. The magic, the wit, and the mystery of Flannery O’Connor I know I will always love.”
A lot of what TNY says is about taking MFO seriously, in spite of her racial attitudes. This is where I differ. I am a cracker who likes to enjoy stories, not take them seriously. As a Georgia native, I am well aware of the many “shades of gray” produced by a black and white society. Racism is not a yes/no binary. MFO, and her racial attitudes, wrote great stories. To paraphrase Alice Walker, take what you need, and let whiteness studies and critical race theory rot. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in February 1940. “Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer. Creek County, Oklahoma.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Life And The Horror Of David F. Wallace
This content was published March 1, 2025. … I have been going for walks lately. Usually it is a half hour, up and down the path. I decided to stretch things out a bit this afternoon, and go to the library. This may have been pushing things too far. The mapmywalk app says I went 3.06 miles. My feet held up pretty well, but my right knee is none too happy. I am going to keep an ice pack on it for a while, rub some icy hot on it, and hope for the best.
The listening component has been this 160 minute talkathon about David Foster Wallace, written by Derek Swansson. DS talks about himself as much as about DFW, although with far happier results. The file was something I plucked out of archive-dot-org, and it was one of these videos with one picture for the entire visuals. The seminal video was 4.3 gigs, and it was a pain-in-the-ass to play. I had to download a media player, and follow arcane instructions, to save it as a 138mg audio file. This is now fairly easy to play, and I listened to it on the phone.
During my morning walk, I decided to go inside, take off my coat, take a piss, and continue with my walk. While this was going on, DS was talking about the decadence of Bret Easton Ellis, who was notoriously unkind about DFW. BEE was talking about totally depraved behavior in New York and California, which is not a bit surprising. DS came to the conclusion that BEE was a bigger prick than DFW… a notorious hetero sex/drug addict. Taking a piss break on a walk pales on the decadence scale next to the pre-rehab antics of Infinite Jest or …
When I write about other people, I like to use initials. Using the surname alone doesn’t sound right, and titles like mister, mrs, or, god forbid, ms, are too much work. Unfortunately, a middle name is not readily available for DS. I did ask Google what his middle name was … or his first name, or his real name … and I was referred to Chad Derek Swanson, on the Missouri State Highway Patrol Sex Offender Registry. In 2016, when CDS was 29 years old, he got in trouble with an 8 year old Female. The incident took place in Shawnee, OK.
David Foster Wallace And The Horror Of Life is the title of the show. The file was published September 18, 2017. The date is important. DFWATHOL appeared 7 years ago, and a lot has happened since then. But you knew that. It is around this time that the ME-TOO phenomenon got started, and one wonders if DFW would have been caught in that trap. The sexual proclivities of DFW had somehow escaped me until I heard this show, and I must say that it increases my opinion of him. Especially if he could perform while dosing on prescription anti-depression remedies.
DFWATHOL talks about gnosticism, and the archons. Gnostics had a different view of the world, which was highly inconvenient to conventional religions, especially after the concept of yahweh uber alles took root. … “ we arrive on Earth with two souls: an immortal soul that seeks union with our divine spirit, or True Self; and a mortal soul that identifies with the False Self and its attachments to the material world. The Gnostics further elaborated that the True God had given us our rational, immortal soul … “while the Demiurge (a.k.a Yahweh) was responsible for our sensuous, irrational, mortal soul …” · The spell check for Archon: Arson, Anchor
“there’s a hostile, jealous god known to the Gnostics as the demiurge, who created this calamitously fucked up world and now rules it, maliciously, with the help of inter-dimensional mind parasites, known as archons who stoke our pain and mental anguish so they can energetically consume it …” The transformation of “YHWH: The Kenite God of Metallurgy” into THE LORD is one of the greatest feats of marketing the world has ever known. The good ship DFWATHOL does not travel up that tributary, and if it had, it would have been a lot longer than it’s already debilitating 25k words.
I listened to the last twenty minutes or so while driving to dinner. I go to cici’s buffet in Peachtree Corners, even though it is terrible for me, and probably an outpost of corrosive Archon flavored capitalism. Whatever. I always go down Peachtree Industrial Boulevard past the shopping center, to the gas station where gas is always cheaper than in my neighborhood. Tonight, when I arrived, there was a lady talking about how straws are skinnier now than they used to be. I can’t say I ever noticed. This is the strangest pickup line I have heard in a while. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the featured photograph in June 1942. “Queens NY Nursery school at the Queensbridge housing project. Drinking milk”©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
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