Triumph Of The Pink Pony
In the Brookhaven City Council election meetings that I have seen, the Pink Pony has a been a topic of discussion. Almost nobody wants the city to spend money trying to shut down the exotic dancing emporium. Some have wondered who wanted this action taken in the first place.
On October 6, The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled in favor of Brookhaven. The club, which can afford lawyers, filed legal devices to stay open. Finally, the city decided to hold peace talks with the club.
Tuesday, the talks bore fruit. Brookhaven OKs ‘transition’ deal with Pink Pony. “The Brookhaven City Council on Tuesday agreed to a settlement deal with the Pink Pony that will allow the strip club to stay open and operate with nude dancing and serving alcohol during a six-year “transition” period to come into compliance with city ordinances.
In exchange, the Pink Pony will pay the police department $225,000 a year for the six years to cover public safety costs, reimburse the city for its legal fees, donate land near the club along Peachtree Creek for a city park, and contribute up to $75,000 for the park.”
Councilwoman Rebecca Chase Williams opposed the deal. She read a statement. “I am calling on my colleagues to not succumb to political pressure from a strip club. I consider any kind of payment outside of regular licensing fees to be a bribe. At no time has this effort been a religious or moral crusade. It is about having legal, constitutional laws and enforcing them.
Other cities have gone down this path, but settlements with strip clubs have led only to more litigation and problems. Today, the City of Houston, the City of El Paso, and Horry County, South Carolina (where Myrtle Beach is located) are in court because of settlement agreements with strip clubs from years ago. Other powerful strip clubs are suing, arguing that the city’s agreement to take money to ignore their laws is nothing but a bribe, and that it violates the Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution as well as federal anti-trust laws.”
A brief conversation with Mr. Google does not show any evidence of these lawsuits in Houston, El Paso, or Horry County. A search for “El Paso strip club lawsuit” uncovered Man Dies Getting Lap Dances At El Paso Strip Club. “El Paso County sheriff’s officials said a 67-year-old man died at an El Paso County strip club Friday night. The manager at the Red Parrot strip club said that the man, identified by sheriff’s officials as Robert Gene White, was getting lap dances, but when it came time to pay the dancers, he was unresponsive.”
My Horry News does not seem to know about the case Mrs. Williams mentions. It does have a quote from “Scott Bergthold, a Tennessee lawyer who has been hired to represent the county … “They were bumping and grinding and rubbing their body parts on patrons. That’s not protected speech.”
Another version of the Brookhaven – Pink Pony detente came with the headline, “Despite bribe charge, Brookhaven folds on Pink Pony case.” “In an astounding turn of events, the Brookhaven city council has surrendered to the Pink Pony strip club and will allow it to operate for six years in defiance of the city’s ordinance on sexually oriented businesses and in return for $250,000 a year to the city.” This article was written by Dick Williams, the husband of Rebecca Chase Williams.
Mr. Williams used to write for the fishwrapper. He said some interesting things in the recent report. “Mayors of several other cities were contacted and opposed the Brookhaven action but would not comment on the record. One who did not wish to be identified said, “If I want to sell drugs in Brookhaven, can I just pay the city a fee and set up shop?” A call to the FBI, which has prosecuted strip club owners in several cities, wasn’t returned.”
The City of Brookhaven allows alcohol to be served. In facilities where the employees keep their clothes on, there is no legal harassment. Alcohol is a drug. The misuse of alcohol can have serious consequences. Alcohol users have legal privileges. Indeed, if a person wants to sell legal drugs in Brookhaven, they can just pay the city a fee, and set up shop.
2026 Update: Pink Pony continues to operate, despite a recent controversy about labor practices. On March 11, 2020, Rebecca Chase Williams passed away. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture, “Bathing beach parade,” was taken July 26, 1919.
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Cemetery Cleanup
This content was published October 31, 2015. … Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery had a cemetery cleanup Halloween morning. A group of people gathered to listen to Albert Martin talking about the history of the area. The main goal was to clear out two areas with unknown graves. An estimated 800 people are buried in NCPBCC, with “only 150” marked.
NCPBCC is on Eighth Street, on the Chamblee-Brookhaven border. The road does a ninety degree turn, and becomes New Peachtree Road. In the pre-Marta era, Eighth Street went to Peachtree Road. It came out behind the Pure Oil Station. I remember when the RR crossing did not have a light, or a crossbar. It was marked by a yellow sign that said Railroad Crossing.
The first part of the morning was a talk about area history. The land was originally owned by the Creek nation. During the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, there was a division in the Creek nation. Some supported the British, while some supported the rebelling colonies. Soon white settlers moved into the area, after treaties with the Creeks granted land to the settlers. In 1826, the Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church was founded. The Prospect Church, further down Peachtree Road, was the other church in the area. Prospect is now LIVE FIT ATL. Nancy Creek was believed to be named for Nancy Evins, an early settler. It may have been Nancy’s Creek at one time.
NCPBCC has a Revolutionary War veteran.William Reeve (1756-1842), a Lieutenant in the Virginia militia, is buried by his wife Nutty Reeve. … There is at least one veteran of the War Between the States. Charles H. Goodwin was part of the Goodwin family that settled in this area. Pvt. Godwin’s marker says: “Pvt CO K 38 REGT GA INF CSA June 2, 1845 – AUG 4 1862” Albert Martin says that Pvt. Godwin is probably rolling in his grave over the American Flags marking his final resting place. Pvt. Godwin was wounded in battle, brought home, where he died.
The talk about history went on, and I did not remember all of it. At one point, I mentioned a pet cemetery behind the Peachtree Animal Hospital. The man who knew cemetery history, Albert Martin, did not know about this pet cemetery. I also remembered a handful of graves, on a hill behind the Pure Oil Station. Some of these had the Masonic symbol on them.
The main objective of the cleanup was to clear out leaves from two areas. When the Marta lines came through, their archeologists put metal markers where graves were known to be. Many of these unmarked graves have artificial flowers. No one knows who put these artificial flowers in the cemetery. Cleaning volunteers were cautioned not to move any stones, or grave markers. Leaves were piled onto tarpolins, and carried out for pickup by Chamblee sanitation. These leaves were heavier than expected, and provided a lively workout for those who carried them out. A tarp, full of leaves, being carried out by two people, resembled the sight of carrying a body. Perhaps this is what happens to people whose families fall behind on maintenance payments.
Some neighbors, whose back yards go up against the cemetery, wondered how accurate the surveyors were when the boundaries were established. There were iron markers in the far back part of the cemetery, up against the fence. It is possible that some are outside the established area. I questioned the wisdom of doing a cemetery cleanup on Halloween. There were no apparent incidents, and the cleanup volunteers worked without interference from the dead.
2026 Update: I went walking in the cemetery recently, and saw that some Goodwin family graves were not being maintained. After making this discovery, I wrote The Solomon Goodwin House, a history of the oldest house in Dekalb county.
As of yesterday, the vines were cleared off Emily Goodwin’s monument. Most of the other Goodwin graves were poorly maintained. This includes Harris Goodwin, who moved to Georgia in the early 1830. He was one of the first white residents in what became Brookhaven. Two of his sons, Gustin E Goodwin and Charles Harris Goodwin, died in the War Between the States.
Historic Brookhaven cemetery holds DeKalb history was written November 17, 2015. … “There are several members of the pioneer Goodwin family buried at the Nancy Creek Cemetery. Solomon Goodwin was originally buried at the cemetery, but his grave was moved to the Goodwin home place in 1966 to make way for the Marta rail line. A few years ago the descendants of the Goodwin family decided to return Solomon and other Goodwin family members to Nancy Creek Cemetery.”
“Confederate soldier Charles Goodwin is buried among the Goodwin family. His marker tells us that he was in Company K of the 38th Regiment of the Georgia Infantry and that he died August 4, 1862 when he was only 16. … Mr. Albert Martin was also on hand at the Ashford Park community workday to relate some Goodwin family history. Mr. Martin is the great, great grandson of Harris Goodwin, who built the first Goodwin log cabin along Peachtree Road in the 1830s.”
Pictures today are by Chamblee54. The social media picture is Albert Lynn Martin, Jr, April 22, 1928 – November 19, 2020. Mr. Martin is quoted in The Solomon Goodwin House.
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Triangle Building
1024-0735. I’m on Century Boulevard, in front of some one story offices that have seen better days. I’m here to watch the execution of 1800 Century Boulevard, aka the Triangle building.
I drove past the glass triangle hundreds of times, and always thought it was cool. At first, there was a lake in front, with a sign saying not to disturb the swans during mating season. Eventually, the pressures of capitalism prevailed, and a little cluster of offices went up around a much smaller lake.
This is the building where 96 rock had their studio. The 8th floor corner pointing towards Shallowford Road was always lit, with a dj spinning the hits. One day in 1978, there was a man outside giving away tickets to see Neil Young at the Omni. Another time, I was making a delivery, and saw a crowd of people. I was the first person to get there after they ran out of tickets to see Black Sabbath.
At 0740, a police siren sounded, and everyone held their cell phones up. At 0748, the siren went off again. There was an orange fireball in the east corner, a few floors above the former 96 rock. In a few seconds, the triangle building was a cloud of dust. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Dorothea Lange took the social media picture in July 1937. “Washing facilities on a Greene County, Georgia, tenant farm” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Where Is That Place
This content was published October 28, 2018. … This blog has an email address listed. It is seldom used. The host is a faded internet company that rhymes with booboo. Once proud email has become a spam magnet. The email address there is checked every once in a great while. Yesterday was one of those times. There was a surprise.
Friday, June 5, 2015, 2:52 PM
Do you know exactly where the Agora Ballroom was in the Georgia Terrace Hotel Also I am trying to locate photos of the following locations – Does you any that we can use? Please let me know ASAP – I am on an extremely tight deadline need photos by Monday morning if possible. Exteriors or interiors are great. Please let me know if you have any.
12th Gate Coffee House (located on 10th street in Midtown,) Club 112 (located at Lavista and Cheshire Bridge,) Lenny’s (either or both of their two locations in the Old Fourth Ward,) Great Southeast Music Hall (either or both of their two locations Lindberg Plaza or Cherokee Plaza,) Echo Lounge (located in East Atlanta,) Hedgens (located in Buckhead,) Agora Ballroom (located in Georgia Terrace hotel,) Muelenbrink’s Salon (located at the Underground.) Joeff Davis Photo Editor Creative Loafing
Thursday, July 9, 2015 11:12 PM
Hey I apologize for the tardy answer. I don’t use this email very often. The Agora was at the end of an alley off Peachtree. It was next door to the Ga Terrace Hotel, though not in the Hotel building itself. The ballroom was in a fire in the early eighties, and was torn down. I don’t have any of the pictures that you needed a month ago.
Friday, July 10, 2015, 11:49 AM
Thanks here is the piece we did: That was then, this is now.
Friday, July 10, 2015, 1:21 PM
Hey thanks for getting back to me. The article was cool, even without my contribution. This seems like a good excuse for a blog post. I have some comments about some of the locations listed. For instance, my mother bought groceries at the Cherokee Plaza A&P every thursday for 37 years.. I would like to use your letters, and link to your article, in my post.
Chamblee54 has had posts about four notable Atlanta performance venues: 688 Spring Street, Georgian Terrace Ballroom, The Great Southeast Music Hall, and Richards. Two were on the list of requests. As for the other two, 688 Spring Street, home of Rose’s Cantina and 688, is now a doc-in-a-box facility, Concentra Urgent Care. The site of Richards, across from Eddie S. Henderson Stadium (Formerly Grady Stadium) on Monroe Drive, is now a Trader Joe’s.
The CL article, That was then, this is now, is fun to look at. There are some good pictures. There are a couple of mistakes in the piece, which this post will try correct.
The Great Southeast Music Hall is the scene of many cherished memories for those of a certain age. The post linked here has more comments than any other Chamblee54 post. There are two google earth images, one for Broadview Plaza, and one for Cherokee Plaza.
In Broadview Plaza (now known as Lindbergh Plaza), the Music Hall was in the corner of an L shaped building. The space is currently a part of the parking deck for Target. According to google earth, the Home Depot takes up almost the entire parking lot of the old shopping center.
In Cherokee Plaza, the space where the Music Hall was is the south part of a Kroger. CL says it was in the parking lot, which simply is not so. This parking lot is too small, which is one reason the Music Hall failed there. In the nineties, the A&P expanded, and took over the space occupied by the theater. In 1998, A&P closed their Atlanta operations. The stores were taken over by Kroger.
The third google earth image is for the intersection of Peachtree Street and Ponce De Leon Avenue. This is the location of the Georgian Terrace Ballroom. This was the setting of Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom, The Agora Ballroom, and several other venues. This facility was in a fire, and torn down. An annex to the Georgian Terrace Hotel was built. This annex is roughly where the Ballroom was.
One of the places CL mentions was Backstreet. The building at Peachtree and Sixth was a series of nightclubs in the early seventies. Backstreet opened in late 1974. It was the premier chacha palace in Atlanta for many years. When the property became valuable enough to attract the money of developers, the city discovered enough violations to shut down the party. (1974 was a golden age for Atlanta nightlife. The Great Southeast Music Hall, Richards, and Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom were all in operation in 1974. ACEB was in the Georgian Terrace Ballroom.)
Club 112 catered to an African American clientele. The space had been many businesses over the years, with a Fred Astaire dance studio next door. Around the time Backstreet was getting started, the space was called the Locker Room. A drag show, featuring the Hollywood Hots, performed there. The Locker Room was a “private club,” and was able to stay open on Sunday night. It was the only place open on Sunday, and was packed. The Locker Room was owned by Robert E. Llewellyn, who was later convicted of having a business rival murdered.
The 12th gate was in the middle of the block, somewhere on tenth street. It was not on the corner of Spring Street. A seedy Jim Wallace gas station was nearby. This place was open before I went out very much. There is a hazy memory of seeing the Hampton Grease Band there. After the show, Bruce Hampton walked up to me, holding a thumb and finger making a circle in front of one eye. Gustav Valentine Berglund III then asked me what sign I was.
By the time Lenny’s was in business, I was a retired drunk. I seldom went downtown after dark. Somehow, the party went on without me. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken in 1942. “Man and woman in formal evening attire; restroom directional sign in upper right of photo: “White Restroom.” One in a series of miscellaneous war-time photographs taken for the Atlanta Evening Post.”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
The Limits Of Fantasy
This content was published September 17, 2009. … These thoughts are for you to use. They were articulated by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz. They are called The Four Agreements. I do not claim to live up to these ideals. Number two is especially tough. 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. These are agreements, not beliefs. · 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.”
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.” · 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.” · 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 content was published September 5, 2009. … I was reading about Afghanistan while waiting for the time to go downtown. Dragon Con is in town, and the parade is at ten am. I decided to go downtown and see the costumes this year, so next year I can sleep late. Meanwhile, what is being said about Afghanistan is just as much a fantasy as DragonCon. The article is a two prong discussion… Should we be fighting in Afghanistan, and are we doing it right?
Uzi just called to say he is on his way to the train station, so this needs to be wrapped up asap. There is a man named William Kristol. He writes think pieces for various newspapers. Mr. Kristol … he had a deferment and never served in the Vietnam era military … was known as the brains behind Dan Quayle. … Mr. Kristol discusses counterinsurgency in a recent oped. The classic counterinsurgency theory is that you have you have one soldier per fifty civilians in your theater of war. Afghanistan has an *estimated* population of 28 million. Do the math.
Mr. Kristol observes: “But as the military historian Fred Kagan explains, counter-insurgency theory and experience suggest that if the Afghan National Army is expanded, as Gen. McChrystal proposes to do, and if there is a surge of several brigades of American forces “to bridge the gap between current Afghan capacity and their future capacity, while simultaneously reducing the insurgency’s capabilities,” then we would have roughly the number of forces necessary to carry out the strategy.” … The fantasy downtown will have more colorful costumes.
This content was published September 5, 2009. … I made a mistake. The preacher in front of the GP plaza held a picture board, which was poorly rendered. I made the mistake of assuming it was abortion pictures. It turns out to be an image of Jesus on the cross. … The Georgia Pacific building is on the site of the Lowes Grand Theater. On December 15, 1939, Gone With The Wind had its world premiere there. In a church choir was the ten year old Martin Luther King Jr. GWTW was about as real about the ante bellum south as the starship troopers were about intergalactic warfare. … The GP plaza is where Forsyth Street comes into Peachtree. For some reason, the wind on Forsyth Street is very strong, and this volume of air beats against the GP plaza. On DragonCon parade Saturday, the wind coming back from the plaza was a measure of revenge.
A theme of the post yesterday (see comments) was the importance of knowing fantasy from reality. The preacher was living a fantasy. Few are impressed by his rhetoric. He creates ill will for Jesus. The grossout pictures of the crucifixion do the same. I posted last week about the damage that selfish preachers do to Jesus. It should be noted that photography did not exist when Jesus lived. Nor did people speak English. That does not prevent people from calling an Aramaic to Greek to English double translation the inerrant word of God. If you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, then it is not much of a leap to believe those pictures were real.
Another problem is the placement of the spikes. The spike that held feet to a cross was driven into a spot between the Achilles heel and the bone. No bones were broken, and the feet were secured to the cross. The spikes that held the arms were driven through a space in the wrist. Here again, no bones were broken, and the arms were not going to be pulled away from the cross. In the picture, there was a rope tying Jesus to the cross at this spot, and the spike was going to go in a couple of inches up the arm. When you believe your fantasy, details are not important. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The social media picture was taken August 15, 1949. “Davison-Paxon’s grand opening of a new part of its downtown Atlanta, Georgia, store, August 15, 1949. This photo shows the speaker’s stand outside the store, the Roxy Theatre is in the background.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Dragon Con Parade
This content was posted September 2, 2017. … Labor Day Saturday got off to a shaky start. I put the recharged battery in the camera, and noticed a white line on the monitor. A quick test shot was made, and the picture viewed on the computer. The white line is not on the picture.
Next was the fare machine at the marta station. I do not ride very often, and load the breeze card on a need-to-know basis. The fare machine was cranky, which is normal. All I had was a ten dollar bill, and the machine gives change in Susan B. Anthony coins. I did learn one secret of the turnstile. When the sign says to tap your card, that means to hold it flat against the pad for half a second.
The ride into town was unusually crowded for saturday morning. Of course, labor day saturday is not a normal day in Atlanta. There is Dragon Con, Black Gay Pride, and some kind of college football super game. It is a good day to stay in Brookhaven, but I let myself get talked into this.
The plan was to meet at the north end of the marta north avenue station, in the food court. Little did I know that the station had been renovated, and the food court was closed. Of greater concern was the fact that Uzi was not there. A phone call was made, then another, then a text message. Uzi was at the south end of the station. The stress level was manageable.
The d-con parade … d con is a form of rodent poison, which somehow seems to fit this event … had already started. The idea was to walk down west peachtree a few blocks, and maybe it would be less crowded on peachtree when you walk up there. While it may have been marginally less crowded in the hospital-and-wino district, it was still packed. You can only see so much of the parade from the fifth row of the crowd, with or without big hair in front.
So the parade happened. There were starship troopers, barnyard poopers, medieval wenches, confederate trenches, loudspeakers playing the star wars theme, blondes making the team, ghost busters, crop dusters, trekkies, beckys, vlad the impaler, chad the inhaler, Lucy, Desi, Thurston, Lovie, Andy, Opie, and any other fantasy the costume cowboys can hot glue together.
On cue, towards the end of the circus, the jesus people came down the sidewalk, denouncing the harlots on television. The harlots walking down peachtree ignored them, as did most of the crowd. These idiots live for someone to pay them the compliment of arguing. When you wrestle with a hog, you get dirty, and the pig has a good time. Remember that the next time someone tells you about antifa versus the tiki torch bois.
Finally it was time to get on marta, and ride back to civilization. On the north line, you have one job. You get on the north springs red train, or you get on the doraville gold train. It is not complicated, except for today. The first train to come through did not have signs, indicating the destination. Nor did the conductor make announcements. I somehow figured out that it was a red train, and that I would need to get off at lindbergh station. The next train to doraville had signs, and made regular announcements. The car waits in the parking lot undisturbed. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in September 1937. “Children of Olaf Fugelberg waiting for dinner. Williams County, North Dakota” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Race Rot
This content was published September 15, 2023. … America clearly has a problem with people of different colors living together. One way to view this racial dysfunction is as one problem, rather than competitive hating of wokeness and racism. This approach does not offer any easy solutions. We need to treat people with kindness and respect, no matter what adjective you put in front of people. As Rodney King said, “can we all get along?”
I recently wrote about Flannery O’Connor. She was a gifted storyteller, who posthumously run afoul of “whiteness studies and critical race theory.” The story cited an essay by Alice Walker, who grew up in Eatonton GA, a few miles up hwy 441 from Andalusia. “The magic, the wit, and the mystery of Flannery O’Connor I know I will always love. I also know the meaning of the expression “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.” If ever there was an expression designed to protect the health of the spirit, this is it.” We can call this dysfunction Race Rot.
One of the nastier parts of Race Rot is name calling. There are a pair of six letter slurs. One starts with r, one ends in r. One I am forbidden to say, while the other I am forbidden to not say. The mentionable slur is racist. You know what the other one is. We would be better off not using either six letter slur. People enjoy using six-letter slurs, so this is not going to happen anytime soon.
I am a certified white person, of Scottish and Irish descent. I am from Georgia. My great-grandfather fought for the Georgia State Troops, in the War Between the States. This affects the way in which I approach Race Rot. I see that racism is a problem, and find the bungling efforts at fighting racism … aka wokeness … to be incredibly annoying.
The problems with racism affect millions of people every day. One could reasonably ask, what is wrong with being against racism? The problem is not that you are fighting racism, but the way you are doing it. The trouble with wokeness includes disrespect, flakey logic, indifference to collateral damage, inflammatory rhetoric, hypocrisy, and a host of other micro/macro aggressions.
This is not a comprehensive look at Race Rot. There are many layers to this onion. Racism and wokeness (RAW) are only part of the picture. The story of Black and White has many shades of gray. We could spend hours talking about Race Rot, and only be more angry and confused when we are done. The best thing to do now is present some photographs, from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in June 1940. “Home demonstration club meeting has games and refreshments after discussion. La Delta Project, Thomastown, Louisiana”
We are all God’s children, not a walking six-letter slur. Be kind to each one. Please don’t shout. ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Wilbur
This content was posted September 12, 2024. … It could have been written today. Two years ago I was doing similar things. Walking on the path, and having problems with android media players. Both situations have gotten better overall, but still have days of not working. Today, I was listening to a story, and something switched to a man talking about woodworking. I couldn’t look at the phone, because I was holding an umbrella. The only thing left to do is try again later.
090924 – 10:32 It is day 6 of the new phone. Since it is monday morning, I downloaded Blocked and Reported. Today is a preview of a paid episode. Is monday morning is about to change? Paying for Jesse and Katie is out of the question.
The path has become my outdoor treadmill. I went out for a few laps, and put BAR on the headphones. The parade did not get out of the front yard before the noise started to cut off. After several experiments … is it the ear buds, the bluetooth, the show, the music player on the phone, the pockets of the cargo shorts … I walked my laps, and went inside.
The Muzio music player had other issues, so I decided to try downloading another one. Then the ear buds came in. Airbuds are another recent purchase. I have not made friends with this contraption. Airbuds feature a sensitive button, and if you adjust the buds incorrectly, the sound will cut off. If you touch this button the wrong way, to turn it back on, you go to the next track it wants to play. This is not going to work. I put my aging JBL buds back in.
After all these adjustments, the part of BAR that Jesse will allow played without incident. The paywall kicked in during a discussion of Darryl Cooper … a subject that has become boring. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in February 1942.
“Meeker County, Minnesota. Washing up for dinner on Pat McRaith’s farm.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
With All Due Respect
This content was posted June 25, 2017. Senator Ossoff is on a roll. He should be easily re-elected in November, and is a possible candidate for President. … At the 44 minute mark of a recent debate, Karen Christine Handel and Thomas Jonathan Ossoff had a skirmish. The question (41:34) had been put to TJO: How can you be independent in Congress, when you will need Democratic Party help in a re-election. TJO rambled a bit, and did not answer the question. Instead, he attacked KCH. The attack centered around the PR disaster at the Susan B. Komen foundation.
The two sparred for a few minutes. I expected someone to call the other a poopyhead, which they would reply to by saying you have cooties. KCH said something, and TJO interrupted. “It’s a simple question, with all due respect” “With all due respect, do not interrupt me”
This may be the one moment of this nightmare election that captures two personalities. KCH is not above interrupting, and using shady argument tricks. It was her moment to take control of the situation. Most politicians are hypocrites.
I got a screen shot. Look at the eyes. KCH is mean. She is tired of this silly little boy. TJO is looking at his shoes. The embarrassment about being “handled” by his opponent is evident. KCH won the momentary power game.
Maybe people will quit saying “with all due respect.” WADR is the new “bless your heart.” On election day, KCH won , with, or without, due respect. It is not known what the turning point was, or if TJO ever had a serious chance. Most 6th district voters are happy to see a noisy campaign end.
After losing to KCH in 2017, TJO ran for the Senate in 2020. The slogan of his Senate campaign was not a vulgar joke about hhis name. TJO won the election. … KCH lost elections for the House in 2018 and 2020. In 2026, KCH is the President of the Construction Supplier’s Association. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in July 1942. Hoffman Island, merchant marine training center off Staten Island, New York. Trainees aboard the training ship New York working in the boiler room. ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
L5PB Labor Day
This content was published September 6, 2024. The Little 5 Poetry Bash is no more. … Labor Day was the first monday of September, which meant Little 5 Poetry Bash. I printed my new poem, and looked at the list of podcasts. Lo and behold, there was an episode of Noble I had missed.
Labor is a good day for traffic. I set out from Brookhaven at 18:10, for a 19:30 start. I got to the promised land early, and went to Rag-O-Rama. $22 is too much for a used t-shirt. Next stop was a cannabis store. There was promising talk about a new product, which may require further attention.
L5PB was splendid, as usual. The core group of poets was there, with terrific product from all parties. Collin Kelley, a mainstay of Atlanta words, was the delightful feature. A lady/dog team came from Cave Springs, to tell a tale of Artemis and Apollo. I kept thinking of Gomer’s cousin, Artemis Pyle, who played in Lynyrd Skynyrd.
L5PB takes place in the lobby of 7 Stages. There are two problems. 7S has a collection of bright lights in the ceiling above the speaker. There are also the big red letters MAIN STAGE, which is too much anagramic temptation (inamorata petting cam) for this addict. In a life hack moment, I solved both problems with a baseball hat.
The best way to go home is to take a left onto Colquitt, and go down to N. Highland. After a stop in the Manuel’s parking lot, Noble was coming over the speakers. This episode dealt with the Marsh family story, without going overboard with talk of racism. Finally, after the renovated North Druid Hills bridge, Taco Bell came into view. The last part of L5PB is getting my mystery meat fix. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in September 1941. Enosburg Falls, Vermont. Shopping on a Saturday afternoon. ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Truth Greater Than Reality
0828-0914 – Rough Stock Department, the path journal entry for last week, is available. … The walk was just another day on the path. It lasted 48:00, with no foot problems. The shiny object was was How Did Roger Avary Write Pulp Fiction? on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin. Unless I missed something, PF was not discussed in this show.
“After what I went through, I realize everyone in some way is undergoing a trauma of some kind. And I try to be sensitive to that.” Immediately after this came a commercial for Squarespace. Whatever your trauma, you can build a website to monetize it.
RRA: “Anybody who really knew punk, in that moment, knew that’s a little bit of a lie. But it doesn’t matter. It’s a truth greater than reality. Yeah, it’s a bigger truth.” FJR: “So, yeah, don’t let the facts get in the way.” Reality is for people who cannot afford drugs.
Right after this jewel of wisdom was a commercial for Lectio 365. L365 is based on a Catholic practice, which we will call Lectio Diva. You take a bible verse and meditate on it all day. Repetition, silence, attention to special phrases in the text … these are all part of the practice. While I doubt that I will download the app, the practice of Lectio Diva might be worth looking into.
0829-0956 – The walk today was conducted on gravel. It rained last night, and the path was more washed out today. I did 44:00 with no foot trouble. The show was Cultivated: The Self-Proclaimed Prophet Hiding In Plain Sight on Chameleon. An excommunicated Mormon started his own cult group, with all sorts of nasty stuff going on. Manipulator was the word the show used. Manipulation is common in our society, whether it is for religion, politics, Israel, or lunch.
0830-0953 – The walk today was on track, or more accurately, on the gravel road beside the tracks. I did 1.55 miles in 59:25, with no foot problems. The first canned entertainment was Bundy Clock on 99% Invisible. The Bundy Brothers had a clock factory, and Willard Bundy had the idea of printing the time on a card … the invention of the time clock. Unfortunately, his brother Harlow managed the operation, and reduced Willard to a poorly paid employee.
Instead of the path, I went up to the railroad tracks on top of the hill. A neighbor pulled up in his truck, and said he didn’t see me walking as much. I told him my story. It turns out he has bad knees, and uses a Peloton machine to keep going. Old age marches on.
Before long, I had to step behind the cemetery and pee. I found a monument with weeds growing over it. The Goodwin family had an old house on Peachtree. Eventually, the temptation to sell the land became too great. The graves behind the house were moved a mile north. Unfortunately, nobody has been trimming the weeds. I expanded this into a blog post, The Soloman Goodwin House.
“The Solomon Goodwin House, located at 3931 Peachtree Road, is about .5 miles east of the Atlanta city limits. The house, which dates back to 1831, was the oldest building still standing in DeKalb County … Last fall, the home was dismantled and relocated to an undisclosed location nearby. Sources say the plan is to rebuild the home in the area but a permanent new site for the home has reportedly not yet been finalized.” From 2017.
I crossed over the tracks, and headed south. There is a gravel road, built when the Marta line went through. After a few minutes, a train came by, carrying a few hundred shipping containers.
The second show was Helen Simpson Reads “Lub Dub Lub Dub Lub Dub” on
The New Yorker: The Writer’s Voice. A British woman of a certain age talked about life, and the heart malfunctions that threaten to end it. The last line of the story was the lady messaging her friend on Whats App to tell her about something funny she saw. You just can’t get away from modern life.
0831-1020 – Ten twenty is truckdriver code. The dispatcher calls you, says 1020, and you tell them where you are. … Today’s walk was constipated, or at least the canned entertainment. The walking part lasted 56:12, with nuisance level dizziness. While this was a good day overall, it is the monday after a week with no problems seven days in a row. … The constipated podcast was The Artist of Cons: The Unbelievable but Totally Real Life of Milwaukee’s Most Interesting Man on Chameleon. Art Rapkin was from Milwaukee, and claimed to have an interesting life. Before he got into cocaine smuggling, he said he never took drugs. This may be the biggest lie of all. … Art’s book, “Poison for Rats,” is not available on Amazon.
0901 – The walk today was literate. I had two books to return to the library. The walk lasted 1:46:19, covering 3.23 miles in abundant sunshine. You should always be careful where you step.
One book was Shake It Up: Great American Writing on Rock and Pop from Elvis to Jay Z. It was fairly boring, with a couple of exceptions. One was Jim Morrison Is Dead and Living in Hollywood by Eve Babitz. Another one was Ellen Sander writing Inside the Cages of the Zoo about an early tour by Led Zeppelin. “He (Robert Plant) returned from the drugstore with shampoo, a comb, and some creme rinse for his copious mane, but no deodorant, which he needed regularly and badly.”
On June 28, I listened to a podcast based on a book about Liza May Minnelli. I soon got Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! from the library. It is a cliche of recovery that life seems dull after you quit taking drugs. The same is true about books by druggies that have cleaned up … the book is not as much fun after rehab. I found a 2013 post about LMM. Allegedly, she got sober for good in 2015.
The first podcast was Episode 321: Losing The Plot (with Jon Ronson) on Blocked and Reported. Jon Ronson was promoting a new book. The original title was “The Impossibility of Keeping a Harem in the Post Me-Too age.”
The second podcast was “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street” on The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. This was the story of a girl in New York. She is jealous because another girl got to play Helen of Troy, while she was part of the Trojan Horse. There were a few more details. It was an amusing story to listen to while walking home through the green space.
0902 – The walk today was gravity influenced. It lasted 43:07, and had mild foot discomfort. The show was She Killed the Man Who Almost Killed Her: The Jema Heffernan Story, Part 1 on Gone South. Jema Heffernan is in a Missouri Prison for killling Javon Donahue, her no-good companion. This is common for women … to be in jail for killing their man, before he killed her. This show was sponsored by DraftKings, and their spokesman Dave Porknoy.
0903 – The walk today met the minimum requirement. Some days I am having a great time. Then there was today. It was hot, my feet acted up on a couple of laps, and I felt low energy. On days like this, I do my 36 minutes, and go back to the air conditioned house.
Yesterday at the dollar store, I saw a set of cheap earbuds. I tried them out today. They have a good sound, and had 100% power when I was finished. Cheap earbuds usually don’t last very long, but this will be a change of pace for a while. My bread and butter jbl buds will be there for me later.
The show today was Billy Corgan and the Nelson Brothers: A Conversation on Music and Life on The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan. Matthew Gray Nelson and Gunnar Eric Nelson talking to William Patrick Corgan Jr. was like being the fly on the wall for a conversation full of respect, good will, and hatred of the music industry.
“Our grandfather Ozzie, nobody knew that he was a lawyer. He had a law degree from Rutgers. So he knew what he was doing when he was negotiating contracts. The family wound up owning the show, because he paid a little extra money. He had complete control of it. … “Well, uh having autonomy I think is really crucial because I just don’t believe in art by committee. I don’t think it works.”
For more about my walking problem, see The Path Journal. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Gordon Parks took the social media picture in June 1942. “Washington, D.C. Elderly couple eating dinner at their home on Lamont Street, N.W.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
The Solomon Goodwin House
The Soloman Goodwin house was built in 1831, and was the oldest building in Dekalb when it was dismantled in 2016. “In what was once Creek Indian land, the area’s first white settler was Harris Goodwin, a South Carolinian who homesteaded a tract on both sides of what is now Peachtree Road in the early 1830s. Harris Goodwin later brought his father, Soloman, to the area.”
“The Solomon Goodwin House, located at 3931 Peachtree Road, is about .5 miles east of the Atlanta city limits. The house, which dates back to 1831, was the oldest building still standing in DeKalb County, and was the oldest building “Inside the Perimeter.” The home was once part of a 600-acre farm. … Last fall, the home was dismantled and relocated to an undisclosed location nearby. Sources say the plan is to rebuild the home in the area but a permanent new site for the home has reportedly not yet been finalized.” This was in 2016.
“In the old days there was a long trough on the Peachtree Road side of the dwelling which was kept full of water from the nearby well so that all wayfarers could refresh their livestock. … Afterward, the travelers, in the leisurely fashion of the day, would sit for a while upon the wide porch and discuss politics, crops, and the weather with their host.”
“I’m very sad to see it go,” said Albert Martin, whose family has owned the house for more than seven generations. “But there was no remediation on taxes, no resources to preserve it. We couldn’t get any tax breaks and there was no way to rent it.” … Martin said the only way to save the house is to carefully dismantle it, particularly the log cabin section of the home, and store the logs so it can be reproduced and relocated to another location, hopefully in Brookhaven. However, where that will be is still unknown.” This was in 2010.
The house was dismantled in 2016, and moved to an unknown location. This is all my research has found out. As far as I can see, the house is sitting in a warehouse “somewhere.” It would take major bucks to relocate it, and I don’t see anybody willing to make it happen.
When the house was dismantled, the graves were moved down the road to Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. They are not being maintained in this location. Here is the monument to Emily Goodwin, the wife of Harris Goodwin.
Gustin E. Goodwin, born October 27, 1834, was the eldest of Emily Goodwin’s ten children. “Commissioned an officer in Company K, Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment on September 26, 1861. Promoted to Full 1st Lieutenant on July 26, 1862. Wounded at 2d Manassas, Virginia, August 28, 1862. Died of wounds September 7, 1862.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture September 1940. The Colson family, the children just back from school. Tobacco farmers near Suffield, Connecticut”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
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