Manley Pointer
Good Country People is a Flannery O’Connor story. Manley Pointer is a Bible salesman in rural Georgia. He calls on the Hopewell family. Manley doesn’t sell any Bibles, but he does get a date with Hulga Hopewell. This is a repost.
“O’Connor portrays a one-legged, unemployed female with a Ph.D. in philosophy, who has nothing to do but stay at home and irritate her mother. When a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer, … arrives at the Hopewell house, Joy, who has changed her name to Hulga, much to the annoyance of her mother, joins her new friend in an excursion to a nearby barn, complete with a romantic hayloft.” source
The first few minutes of the Hulga-Manley date are special. “Smiling, he lifted his hat which was new and wide-brimmed. He had not worn it yesterday and she wondered if he had bought it for the occasion. It was toast-colored with a red and white band around it and was slightly too large for him. He stepped from behind the bush still carrying the black valise. He had on the same suit and the same yellow socks sucked down in his shoes from walking.”
“He crossed the highway and said, “I knew you’d come!” The girl wondered acidly how he had known this. She pointed to the valise and asked, “Why did you bring your Bibles?” He took her elbow, smiling down on her as if he could not stop. “You can never tell when you’ll need the word of God, Hulga,” he said. She had a moment in which she doubted that this was actually happening and then they began to climb the embankment. They went down into the pasture toward the woods. …”
“Wait,” he said. He leaned the other way and pulled the valise toward him and opened it. It had a pale blue spotted lining and there were only two Bibles in it. He took one of these out and opened the cover of it. It was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box with printing on it. He laid these out in front of her one at a time in an evenly-spaced row, like one presenting offerings at the shrine of a goddess. He put the blue box in her hand. THIS PRODUCT TO BE USED ONLY FOR THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE, she read, and dropped it. The boy was unscrewing the top of the flask. He stopped and pointed, with a smile, to the deck of cards. It was not an ordinary deck but one with an obscene picture on the back of each card. “Take a swig,” he said, offering her the bottle first. He held it in front of her, but like one mesmerized, she did not move.” …
“Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman, who were in the back pasture, digging up onions, saw him emerge a little later from the woods and head across the meadow toward the highway. “Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to sell me a Bible yesterday,” Mrs. Hopewell said, squinting. “He must have been selling them to the Negroes back in there. He was so simple,” she said, “but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that simple.” source
Erik Langkjær is the possible inspiration for Manley Pointer. A Russian-Danish young man, Mr. Langkjær worked as a textbook salesman. “Klaus Rothstein, a literary critic and commentator for the national Danish newspaper Weekendavisen” got Mr. Langkjær to tell his story.
“I searched for a job in publishing, in the hope that I would be hired as an editor. I did get a job, but it was as a sales representative in the South. During these travels, I met a professor at the University of Georgia. She suggested that I pay a visit to a local woman who had had her first book published by Harcourt, Brace & Company, where I was now a sales agent in the education branch. The professor believed that this author would enjoy meeting me because of her affiliation with the publishing firm. Weakened as she was by her disease, lupus, she wasn’t in contact with many people, so it would be nice to receive a visit from outside. A few years back, her father had died from the same disease, but the doctors had told her not to worry. …”
“Flannery and I quickly became friends. I made an effort to plan my sales route in a way that made it possible for me to visit her every two or three weeks. I would arrive in my own car, and then suggest going for a ride in the surrounding countryside. She was always up for it. We talked about our family backgrounds, and she was excited to hear about my mother’s Russian heritage and my father’s career as a consul general … Flannery herself was a devout Catholic, highly conscious of living in the Protestant South. She considered it a great challenge to be surrounded by Protestants, and to belong to a minority. She had a church to go to on Sundays, but she was aware of the growing secularism, which she considered a threat.”
“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. …
“I visited her twelve to fourteen times, and later we started exchanging letters. As I returned to Denmark to settle down, she wrote that she would like to hear more from me, and her first letter from June 1954 ends with a reference to our drives around Milledgeville: . . . I haven’t seen any dirt roads since you left and I miss you. I think Flannery was hoping for it to be the two of us. Between April 1953 and June 1954, when my visits were frequent, there was indeed enough contact between us for her to envisage something more. Her letters might also contain a certain disappointment in the fact that the contact wasn’t as strong on my part. …”
“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.”source
Miss O’Connor wrote Mr. Langkjær many times. 13 June 54 “My mother has just attended a dairy festival in Eatonton. The governor attended and Miss America. All the cows were in rope stalls around the Courthouse and Miss America, very sunburned, my mother said and in a white strapless evening dress (11 A. M.) had to pick her way among them and admire each one while she kept the tail of the dress out of the little piles of manure. She also had to kiss a calf. Universal suffering.” 18 July 54 “Everything here is busy electing the Governor. There are 9 candidates and the ones I have heard over the radio all sound like hound dogs that have learned to declaim. They are all but one running on keep-segregation platforms and everything is geared to the boys who sit in front of the wooden stores and tell you not to run into a street car down there. (On acct. of the rotten borough system their vote is worth three or four of a city vote.”) source
“Flannery first met Erik in April 1953, she was clearly taken with him and relished their time together, especially their drives through Baldwin County in his car. When he decided to break off their friendship and return to Europe a little over a year later, O’Connor, then using a cane, felt betrayed, as revealed in their short-lived correspondence. In early 1955, O’Connor took only four days to write this story; her intense feelings about Langkjær quickly found their outlet.”source
“Unfortunately, while she may have had romantic feelings towards him, they were not reciprocated. This was especially noticeable after he returned to Denmark in 1954. Flannery would write to him, and it would be weeks before she would hear back. … Eventually, she received a letter from him stating that he had met another woman and they were intending to get married. Flannery was devastated. However, instead of wallowing in her grief she threw herself into her art, writing one of her best short stories, “Good Country People.” Shortly after this story came out, Langkjær wrote Flannery and said that he recognized himself in the character of the salesman, Manley Pointer. Flannery responded with the epistolary equivalent of Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, telling him in essence not to flatter himself so.” source
29 April 56 “I am highly taken with the thought of your seeing yourself as the Bible salesman. Dear boy, remove this delusion from your head at once. And if you think the story is also my spiritual autobiography, remove that one too. As a matter of fact, I wrote that one not too long after your departure and wanted to send you a copy but decided that the better part of tact would be to desist. Your contribution to it was largely in the matter of properties. Never let it be said that I don’t make the most of experience and information, no matter how meager. But as to the main pattern of that story, it is one of deceit which is something I certainly never connect with you. In my modest way, I think it’s a wonderful story. I read it over and over and nobody enjoys it as much as I do—which is more or less the case with all my productions.”source
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in February 1940. “Wife of Pomp Hall, right, talking with another woman at UCAPAWA (United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America) meeting at Bristow, Oklahoma.”
Bob Dylan Drabble Birthday
Content below was previously posted May 24, 2024. … Hibbing MN is a cold place. At least it’s the birthplace of Robert Allen Zimmerman. That’s Allen, with an e, and double L, just like hell. He legally changed that to Bob Dylan, with no known middle name. The initials are BD. On May 24, 1941, the curly haired wonder boi arrived. Europe was in flames, and eyeing America as fresh cannon fodder. This was twelve years, eleven months, and eighteen days before I graced the planet. A twelve year old in Hibbing MN would have no reason to think of me.
Content below was previously posted May 24, 2024. … a decision was made to go to Nashville. Al Kooper played organ, and served as a music director. A bass player named Joseph Souter, Jr. would become famous a few years later as Joe South. Kris Kristofferson was the janitor. The second session started at 6pm and lasted until 530 the next morning. Mr. Dylan was working on the lyrics to “Sad eyed lady of the lowlands,” and the recording could not start until he was ready. The musicians played ping pong and waited. At 4am, the song was ready. …
Content below was previously posted May 24, 2024. … I met a lady once, who worked in an insurance office. One of the customers was Joe South. His driving record file was an inch thick. … Al Kooper had a life. The former Alan Peter Kuperschmidt produced the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums, sold that contract for a nice piece of change, and lived happily ever after. Mr. Kooper was playing a show. I sat in front of the stage. During a break between songs, I asked his friend “what time is it?”. Mr. Kooper heard me, and said it was 11:30.
Content below was originally posted May 28, 2010. … The first BD record that I got was “Blind Boy Grunt”. BBG was a bootleg, recorded in a New York hotel around 1961. … I saw BD with The Band at the omni in 1974, and was not impressed. I won tickets to see BD at the house of blues during the 1996 olympics, and could barely hear what he said, the sound was so bad. … Zimmerman is the birth surname of Ethel Merman. May 24 gave us Queen Victoria and Patti Labelle. On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message ”What hath God wrought”
Content below was previously posted July 30, 2024. … “I think everybody’s mind should be bent once in a while. Not by LSD, though. LSD is medicine – a different kind of medicine. It makes you aware of the universe, so to speak; you realize how foolish objects are. But LSD is not for groovy people; it’s for mad, hateful orange haired people who want banana revenge. It’s for people who usually have heart attacks. They ought to use it at the Geneva Convention.” PLAYBOY: “Did you ever have the standard boyhood dream of growing up to be President?” DYLAN: “No. When I was a boy, Harry Truman was President; who’d want to be Harry Truman?”
Content below was previously posted July 30, 2024. … “The only thing I can tell you about Joan Baez is that she’s not Belle Starr.” … PLAYBOY: “Writing about “beard-wearing draft-card burners and pacifist income-tax evaders,” one columnist called such protesters “no less outside society than the junkie, the homosexual or the mass murderer.” What’s your reaction?” DYLAN: “I don’t believe in those terms. They’re too hysterical. They don’t describe anything. Most people think that homosexual, gay, queer, queen, faggot are all the same words. Everybody thinks that a junkie is a dope freak. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t consider myself outside of anything. I just consider myself not around.” …
Content below was previously posted July 30, 2024. … “I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a “before” in a Charles Atlas “before and after” ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy – he ain’t so mild. The next thing I know I’m in Omaha. It’s so cold there, by this time I’m robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: “Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform with bouquet of flowers”
Bristol Palin
Content below was originally posted May 26, 2008 … There is this problem of the soldiers who died fighting for the losing side. What to make of these Confederate soldiers who died so their rich neighbors could keep their slaves? They are just as brave as the Union troops, often fighting with less food, weapons and clothing. The modern side to this dilemma is the Vietnam Vet. Often drafted, sent to fight a war which few wanted, these brave soldiers have been dumped on. While the war did not end well, they are every bit as valiant as those who fought in other conflicts.
Content below was originally posted May 29, 2009 … Fort Campbell had a problem with soldiers committing suicide. The commander of the 101st Airborne Division is a take charge type, Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend. He, in so many words, ordered the soldiers to stop killing themselves. “If you don’t remember anything else I say in the next five or 10 minutes, remember this — suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad. It’s bad for soldiers, it’s bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it’s got to stop now. Suicides at Fort Campbell have to stop now.”
Consider the teenage abstinence program. The poster girl is Bristol Palin, the same Bristol who fornicated in her parents house. The same Bristol who had her baby, and broke up with the babydaddy, with numerous hard feelings. Some people find this not real. And who is caring for baby Tripp while Mama Bristol talks up abstinence? … In the past 16 years, Bristol has had many excellent adventures. Today she is a real estate agent, and found a check in the mail. It was a reality check. When he took it to the bank, it was rejected for having insufficient funds.
Content below was originally posted May 21, 2009 … “Victory Day“ is celebrated in Russia on May 9. This is the end of the war with Germany in 1945. The Soviet Union lost over 20 million people in that war. The United States, which fought on two fronts, lost 400 thousand, almost all military. The Soviets lost millions of civilians. World War Two was largely fought on Soviet soil. The Nazis killed, and killed, and killed some more. The only thing to stop them was to kill back, which the Soviets did.
All the countries that participated in World War Two suffered, but none quite like the Soviets.
In Ukraine, the Germans were initially greeted as liberators. Once Ukraine got to know the Germans, they saw the need to resist. The Western Front, started on D Day, forced the Germans to divert troops from the Russian War. The United States gave arms and supplies to the Soviets. However, it was the Soviet people who did the heavy lifting in that war. The allies probably would not have won without them. … I grew up in Georgia (American), roughly one hundred years after the War Between the States. Atlanta was the scene of some heavy fighting.
The impact of having a war fought on your home turf is much greater than fighting across an ocean. I look at the impact a 19th century war had on his home, and can only imagine what impact a much bloodier, more recent war, would have on Russia. After the hot war came the cold war. The Soviet Union was our enemy, and the excuse to maintain a large military. Many of the contributions made by the Soviets in the struggle against Germany have been forgotten. People seem to forget the hundreds of thousands of German civilians killed by American air raids. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Siegel took the social media picture in August 1942. “Interlochen, Michigan. National music camp where 300 or more young musicians study symphonic music for eight weeks each summer. Girls waiting to catch large rubber ball”
Why The War Between The States Was Fought
This was a repost from 2017. … Recently, Mr. Trump said something stupid about the War Between the States. After his comments began to filter into the marketplace of ideas, people began to react. There was a good bit of self righteous talk about how bad the Confederacy was. Maybe it is time for another point of view. This feature will have minimal research. Mistakes will be made. The reader is encouraged to do their own research.
When the colonies declared independence in 1776, nobody knew how things would turn out. First, Great Britain needed to be defeated. After that, the Articles of Confederation went into effect. “Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money. However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce …”
This arrangement was not working, and the Constitutional Convention was called. Originally, the CC was going to revise the Articles of Confederation, but wound up throwing the whole thing out, and creating the Constitution. This document called for greater federal authority. The issue of what powers to give to the states, and what powers to give to the central government, was contentious. It remains controversial to this day.
Had any group of autonomous states formed a federal union before? Usually, such a union is the result of a conquest, with one of the states ruling the others. It is unclear whether such a union had been attempted before, or how successful it was. When the “founding fathers” created the constitution, they probably did not foresee how it would play out. The current system, with a massive central government cat-herding the 50 states, would have been laughed off as a dangerous fantasy.
So the states start to have disagreements. One of the things they disagreed over was slavery. Yes, this was an important factor in the unpleasantness to come. Slavery influenced a lot of the economic conflicts. The North wanted high tariffs to protect industry. The South wanted low tariffs, so they could sell cotton to Europe. There were many other ways for the states to not get along.
Finally, in 1861, the disagreements became too big to ignore. The south seceded, and the War Between The States began. The Confederate States of America was a looser union than the United States. The thought was that the states were more important than the federal union. Mr. Lincoln disagreed. (One popular name for the conflict was Mr. Lincoln’s war.) Many people say that Mr. Lincoln was not especially concerned about the slaves, but wanted to keep the union together.
How does slavery enter into this? Imagine the conflict over states rights vs federalism to be an open tank of gasoline. The lit match that was thrown into that tank was slavery. When the winners wrote the war history, it sounded better to say that the war was fought to free the slaves.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: “Unidentified young soldier in Confederate infantry uniform” … In 1865, the national debt was $2.6 billion.
Cameo Lounge
Content below was originally published May 21, 2008. … There is a gentleman in Iran who is protesting the Islamic regime by burning Quran. This would not seem to be good for his general health, unless he enjoys getting an aerial view of Tehran from a crane, with a rope around his neck. In Catharsis, Abbas points out that the approved method of disposing of a tattered Quran is to burn it. This brings to mind the controversies stateside about burning the flag. The proper method for disposal of an old flag is to respectfully burn it. …
In these commentaries about Quran, I notice that no one ever says “The Quran”. This is strange to me, because the holy book of our culture is THE Bible. The B-word almost never appears without THE. I am not sure how Arabic works. Do they routinely use devices like THE to specify objects? One thing about use of THE with the Bible. Christians have this notion that this text is THE word of God. This idea … which is rarely challenged by believers … is ridiculous to this reporter. God does not write books … and that applies to ٱلْقُرْآن as well. …
Content below was originally published May 24, 2010. … In 1968, Lenox Square was an open air mall, with a bowling alley and grocery store. There were concrete statues of Uncle Remus characters on display. Two doors were kept locked in the restrooms downstairs, beside Davisons. When the mall first opened, those rooms were “colored men” and “colored women”. … One day, there was a man on the courtyard, with a stack of newspapers. I asked what it was, and the man said it was mostly politics. I gave the man fifteen cents, and got a copy of “The Great Speckled Bird”. …
“The Bird” was 16 pages of tabloid sized newsprint. There were two things in that edition that I remember. There was a story about a man who had been in ‘Nam. He was proud to be the first Marine to piss in the latrine at Da Nang. There was also a crude drawing of a naked woman. An arrow pointed to the vagina, with a caption ”pussy- good for screwing and or babies”. The Bird was not known for subtle sophistication. … In 1968, someone printed a “greatest hits” edition, with the headline ”New Era prints hippie smut sheet”. …
The content below was originally published May 9, 2011. … “thanks to Bukowski’s nearly graphomaniacal fecundity. “I usually write ten or fifteen [poems] at once,” he said, and he imagined the act of writing as a kind of entranced combat with the typewriter, as in his poem “cool black air”: “now I sit down to it and I bang it, I don’t use the light / touch, I bang it.” … the late Charles Bukowski, who was called Hank by those who knew him. Out of the millions of useless drunks feeding the urinals on planet earth, at least one had literary merit. …
… After nine paragraphs, and two poems, there is the phrase that pays … graphomaniacal fecundity . (spell check suggestion:nymphomaniac) As best as we can figure, gf means that Hank wrote a lot of stuff. If you keep your quantity up, the quality will take care of itself. Hank seems to agree, spitting out product “like hot turds the morning after a good beer drunk.” He seemed to take pride in doing what Truman Capote said about Jack Kerouac … he doesn’t write, he types. If you google the phrase graphomaniacal fecundity, you can choose from 71 results. …
… A blogspot facility called poemanias quotes the paragraph from the New Yorker, with the title “On Bukowski’s afterlife”. Fourhourhardon (spell check suggestion: Nonhazardous) reprints the entire thing. Neither provide a link back to the original. Goliath and Petey Luvs Blog take the same copy-paste approach. The first tries to get you to pay for more reading material. … “He was a contemporary of the Beats, but not quite one of them because he was darker and not as willing to smoke a joint and sing Phil Ochs songs on the lower east side. ” The truth is, Hank hated marijuana, and had the classic alcoholic attitude about it. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken March 21, 1960. “Cameo Lounge”
Sunday Morning Drabbles
Today is May 18, 2025. I am going to write new material for my blog today, based largely on content from May 2008. This was the first year that chamblee54 was on WordPress. I was driving a truck in Marietta, and listening to am talk radio. The 2008 election was going on. John McCain was going to be the Republican candidate, and Barack H. Obama was the Democrat wannabe. The 2008 economic meltdown was a few weeks away. After the economic meltdown, I lost my job, and the election of Obama became inevitable. 17 years later, I am assembling this collection of drabbles.
Another shot in the arm deals with capital punishment. On May 6, 2008, Georgia was preparing to off a convict. … Semantic timeout. While hung, shot, or beheaded are obvious verbs for more archaic means of execution, what is the expression for “executed by lethal injection”? What do you call the process where a GDC employee shoots up a person with substances that will cause their demise? Injecticide? … With all the corruption, lawyers, and rampant egomania in the justice business, how can the death penalty ever be administered fairly? Was this practice ever intended to be fair?
There was a comment thread at a Christian blog. The topic of preaching at funerals came up: “I want to see God’s grace and name honored.” Preaching an unwanted message to grieving people does not honor God. Christians frequently do not respect non-believers. Christians feel that if they only repeat their message over and over that others will agree with it. However, many of us have made up our minds. The more you try, the more you alienate us. A heavy religious message at a funeral is an example of this. Many incontinent evangelicals are like dogs that will not quit barking.
Like many men of my degeneration/generation, I had long hair. The problem is, with a Georgiawhiteboi like me, hair turns into worms after about three centimeters. It is way too much work to take care of. So I bought a pair of clippers. It was the modern version of letting my freak flag fly … I was in the church’s fried chicken on Broad street downtown. The two drag queens were in front of me in line.They got their food and left. When I stepped to the counter, I heard this girl say to her friend ”Her hayyer is so preeiitee”
Tallulah Bankhead was making a movie, “Lifeboat”, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Some of the other actors commented that Miss Bankhead was not wearing panties. Mr. Hitchcock wondered if this was a matter for wardrobe or a matter for hairdressing … Did Mohawks really shave their heads except for a stripe of hair in the middle? That would seem to be a lot of trouble for pre-modern men living in upstate New York. A Mohawk haircut is high maintenance, just like many who display them. … When asked how long it takes to do her hair, Dolly Parton replies. “I don’t know I am not there”
A clean pair of socks is change you can believe in. … The intangibles include respect, good will, and trust. Semantic fine tuning aside, these words mean the same thing. … A man has to believe in something. I believe I will have a drink. W.C. Fields … Mr. Barnum once said “there is a sucker born every minute”. This belief served Mr. Barnum abundantly … Miss Teenage South Carolina gave a famous speech. The first three words were ” I personally believe” … Anyone can quote the Bible. To do so without the trust of the listener is to speak in vain.
Opinions are like a smelly, though productive, body part. What does this say about beliefs? … Believe is a seven letter word. The first two letters are BE. The next three letters are LIE … Cher had a hit song called “Believe” The hair is a wig, the plastic surgery is paid for, but do you believe. … John 3:16 has more than 22 words. That verse helps reduce Jesus to a scheme for life after death. … My opinions about G-d, the Bible, Jesus, and Life after Death are none of your business. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: “Private Lucien Love of Co. D, 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion … Photo shows young identified soldier. Lucien Love is one of six Mosby Rangers executed by the Union in September 1864 near Front Royal, Virginia.”
Jean D. Mckinnon
The first picture in this episode is a family portrait of the Quin family in Washington Georgia. The nine surviving children of Hugh Pharr Quin are sitting for the camera. Mr. Quin had joined the Georgia State Troops of the Army of the Confederacy at the age of 16, and after the war went to Washington to live with his sister. Mr. Quin was in the church choir of the First Methodist Church when he met the organist, Betty Lou DuBose. They were married January 22, 1879.
The original name of Mrs. Quin was Louisa Toombs DuBose. She was the daughter of James Rembert DuBose. His brother in law was Robert Toombs, the Secretary of State of the Confederacy, and a man of whom many stories are told.
In this picture, Mrs. Quin is holding the hand of her second youngest daughter so she will not run away. This is Martha (Mattie) Vance Quin. She is my grandmother.
After the Great War, Mattie Quin was living in Memphis Tennessee, where she met Arthur Dunaway. Mr. Dunaway was a veteran of the war, and was from Paragould, Arkansas. On July 23, 1922 her first Daughter, Jean, was born. This is my mother.
Mr. Dunaway died in 1930, shortly after the birth of his son Arthur. There were hard times and upheaval after this, with the family settling in Atlanta. There her third child Helen Ann Moffat was born on December 12, 1933. This is my Aunt Helen and my mother’s best friend.
Jean lived for many years with her mother and sister at 939 Piedmont, among other locations. She joined the First Baptist Church and sang in the choir. She got a job with the C&S bank, and was working at the Tenth Street Branch when she met Luther McKinnon. He was a native of Rowland, North Carolina. They were married October 6, 1951.
They moved into the Skyland Apartments, which in those days was out in the country. Mom told a story about Dad taking her home from Choir practice, and going home on the two lane Buford Hiway. There was a man who went to the restaurants to get scraps to feed his pigs, and his truck was always in front of them. This was a serious matter in the summer without air conditioning.
Soon, they moved into a house, and Luther junior was born on May 6, 1954. This is me. Malcolm was born May 10, 1956, which did it for the children.
The fifties were spent on Wimberly Road, a street of always pregnant women just outside Brookhaven. It was a great place to be a little kid.
In 1960, we moved to Parkridge Drive, to the house where my brother and I stay today. The note payment was $88 a month. Ashford Park School is a short walk away…the lady who sold us the house said “you slap you kid on the fanny and he is at school”.
In 1962, our family followed the choir director from First Baptist to Briarcliff Baptist, which is where my parents remained.
In 1964, Mom went back to work. She ran the drive in window at Lenox Square for the Trust Company of Georgia until it was time to retire. She became a talk radio fan when RING radio started, and was a friend of her customer Ludlow Porch. She gave dog biscuits to customers with dogs.
During this era of change, Mom taught me that all people were good people, be they black or white. This was rare in the south. She later became disgusted with the War in Vietnam, and liked to quote a man she heard on the radio. “How will we get out of Vietnam?””By ship and by plane”.
Eventually, it was time to retire. Her and Dad did the requisite traveling, until Dad got sick and passed away February 7, 1992. Mom stuck around for a few more years, until her time came December 18, 1998. This is a repost.
Conspiracist Part Three
After posting Conspiracist Part Two, I posted Thoughts on Conspiracy at r/ContraPoints. “Conspiracist Part Two is a blog post about a recent entertainment from Natalie Wynn, aka Contrapoints. Collating the many trains of thought into coherent content proved to be a challenge. While generating some traffic to the post, this notice received little positive attention. Later, this appeared: “Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/ContraPoints.” u/2mock2turtle made an uncharitable comment. This has been consistent with my experience at other sub-reddits, with mods making arbitrary deletions based on whatever the rules are that day.
For national poetry month, I post an old poem every day. Today, it was an autobiographical piece, Wanted To Sleep. There were some revisions over the years, and I had the bright idea to update the slide show today. It was opening a can of worms. The font I used in 2018 is no longer in my machine. Fortunately, I downloaded a copy. I kept remembering lines to update as I went along, finally reshooting 4 captions. Make the new images, collate the with the old, and post to wordpress. God is in the details, or maybe it is Satan. …
This involves copying everything, and then keeping track of what is where. Enter the whole thing in the library, and create a new file for the phone. It is rather taxing on my mental health, even without googling dow jones every time I open a browser to see how bad the stock market crash is. Apr 3, 11:08 AM EDT • Disclaimer • −1,586.92 (3.76%)today • 40,638.40 • OK, one nervous breakdown at a time. I have done everything necessary for today’s npm post. It is time to stretch, and go for my walk.
The latest episode of You Must Remember This is about George Cukor, who directed the movie version of “My Fair Lady.” A condition for getting the rights to MFL was that the Jack Warner needed to hire Cecil Beaton, an old queen who did not like old queen Cukor. There is a delicious quote. It seems as though Mr. Beaton went to one of Mr. Cukor’s fabulous pool parties. Mr. Beaton “was sickened by … a scene when a fair young Adonis massaged the back of George’s shoulders so violently that his gray-haired covered breasts wobbled like jellies.”
Here is more from/about r/ContraPoints. · u/2mock2turtle “Let’s assume this wasn’t written by AI, just for fun.” · @brocade.bsky.social “I immediately stopped reading the moment you brought up numerology. I honestly think people like you should be institutionalized.” · @chamblee54.bsky.social is tagged as a “Jesse Singal Follower” · @chamblee54.bsky.social ”1:46:23 into “Conspiracy”, Natalie is sharing an unidentified red liquid with a crude mannequin that resembles Hillary Clinton. This is not the only time the former FLOTUS is compared to a crude mannequin.” · @southernviolet.bsky.social “How can you be so god damned stupid” – Natalie.”
freedom illusion · becomes just the scenery · pull back curtains eat … This reduction is based on social commentary product by Frank Zappa. The fun started when the image was posted to r/Zappa u/East-Caterpillar-895 What the fuck is this low quality AI bullshit? · u/ResurrectedMortician Have you ever had a dream that that you um you had you’d you would you could you’d do you wi you wants you you could do so you … · u/PAXM73 As a fellow collage artist, Zappa fanatic, and big fan of that quote: nice work! Timely too. … Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Arthur S. Siegel took the facebook picture in August 1942. “Interlochen, Michigan National music camp where 300 or more young musicians study symphonic music for eight weeks each summer. Dance jamboree on Monday night”
Conspiracist Part Two
Contrapoints, aka Natalie Wynn, is a dangerous content creator. When you consume her product, you can start to think like her. This can cause problems, both with your overall mental health, and when you try to condense these thoughts into coherent content. Take Conspiracy, Natalie’s latest video product. Trying to collate the thoughts, inspired by those 160 minutes, is like herding cats. I have already tried twice. 032625 032625 Today, I am taking a numerological approach. When you click on a youtube link, the entertainment starts at a second count. We will plug in fun numbers.
Here is how this happened. I copied the link, and the seconds count in the code said 6383s. The entertainment had been going on for 6386 seconds, or 1:46:23. I thought it would be fun to set the counter to 6666s, or 1:51:06. This will be followed by 6 seconds of action, from a tv crime show. Four people … three of whom are alive … are in a medical setting. The nurse shows a model of a human body part. Natalie comments “The framing of a police procedural provides a legitimate context that gives us permission to indulge”
6383s/1:46:23 is also a lively moment. Natalie is drinking a red liquid out of a teapot. Seated beside Natalie, sharing the beverage, is a crude mannequin with a cardboard face that resembles Hillary Clinton. Natalie’s monolog is especially festive: “I love the smell of adrenochrome in the morning. … So at a certain point, and we have reached that point, “conspiracy theory” becomes too dignified a term for what is essentially a perverted form of morbid entertainment. I have a good eye for perversion, because I am a pervert. I know how perverts think, so you can trust me when I say … “
2222s/37:02 is somewhat of a dull moment text-wise … as if talking about conspiracies can ever be called wise. The set is decorative, and probably full of hidden meaning if you were to dive into it. The tv set on the right, with a continuous psychedelic mantrawave, is especially festive. The babble here is about how most conspiracy talk is easily debunked, but that the fact you take it seriously enough to make the effort is proof of its truth. This is similar to Robin DeAngelo, with her catch 22 about white fragility. Can you have a conspiracy without tautology?
4444s/1:14:04 is at the tail end of a rap about MK-ULTRA, “a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program … it supposedly used United States citizens as unwitting test subjects.” The phase of MKU discussed at 4444s involved CIA agents giving LSD to unwitting customers at a brothel. The agents would watch the action from behind a one-way mirror. The script says, at 4444s, “He would write of his work, ‘It was fun, fun, fun.'” … MKU is a curious item, which happens to be semi-verified. There are reports MKU getting Charles Manson out of prison early.
8888/2:28:08 is a screen shot of a tweet. @thymetikon “Everyone listen to Naomi Wolf realize on live radio that the historical thesis of the book she’s there to promote is based on her misunderstanding a legal term” Natalie was talking about how many conspiracy mongers get into the lifestyle after being publicly humiliated. Like Naomi Rebekah Wolf, who Wikipedia categorizes as “American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist.” … “It was like she was taking her revenge on the concept of factuality itself.” The next conspiracist to be debunked in this round was Candace Owens.
“Now it has to be said that a lot of these people are using Israel’s crimes against Palestine as a pretext and those crimes are real. And the Trump administration really is citing Antisemitism to justify crackdowns on protests in universities. But it certainly doesn’t help that Conspiracists are exploiting the situation to promote Hitler and Jew hatred.” … At 7795/2:09:55 into “Conspiracy,” Natalie finally mentions the Palestinian Holocaust. She admits that Israel is committing crimes against humanity, and that Donnie is using Antisemiticism concern to stifle dissent. Not to worry, “conspiracists” are using this tragedy to promote hatred of Jews.
Right now Israel is committing the worst war crimes of the 21st century. Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon have all been hit hard. These crimes are sponsored by the American government. This government is run by criminals who receive massive campaign donations from AIPAC, and other actors, in what is tastefully known as the Israeli lobby. There are persistent rumors of Mossad using blackmail against these government players. When you mention this corruption, you are said to be Antisemitic. Talk of AIPAC and Mossad blackmail are dismissed as conspiracies. Natalie is doing her part in this effort to dismiss criticism of war crimes as Antisemitic conspiracy
Downtown Atlanta
The tour began at the Commerce Club, It is a glorified parking deck, with a dining club on the top two floors. It was started as a place that would allow Jews. In the early sixties, the Commerce Club was the site of a secret meeting between Atlanta City officials, and Civil Rights demonstrators. Since it was mostly parking, the activists drove in and parked unannounced. In 1992, I saw Dan Quayle arrive to give a speech at the Commerce Club. A couple of hours later, I was crossing Walton Street, when the Vice President’s limousine drove by. I waved at the vehicle, only using one finger.
The next stop was the Fulton National Bank building. It was the first high rise built after the depression. For many years it was red brick, until some idiot had the idea of painting it beige. Across the street is 2 Peachtree. At 41 stories, it was the tallest building in town for a while. Some say it was the ugliest building downtown, although that is tough to quantify. An 8 story brick building in front was retrofitted with black panels, so that it would look like its tall neighbor. These panels are falling off, and may eventually be taken down.
Woodruff Park is across Five Points from 2 Peachtree. The legendary head of Coca Cola, Robert Woodruff, bought several blocks of aging buildings, and tore them down to create the park. Some say he wanted the open space in front of the Trust Company building, so it could face Peachtree. The Trust Company was Coca Cola’s bank. For years, the formula for Coca Cola was held in their vault.
In one legend, Governor Gene Talmadge went into the Trust Company lobby. This would be in the old building on Pryor Street. (Now Park Place) The Governor had enjoyed a happy lunch, and was being held up by two of his aides. Soon, Governor Talmadge felt the need to use the restroom, which he did in the corner of the lobby.
Gracing the North end of Woodruff Park, at 100 Peachtree, is the Equitable Building. It, and the adjacent Georgia Pacific building, were designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, or SOM. No, that is not short for SOM-bitch. These two buildings were more modern, and are sometimes called glass boxes. At least the GP building has some variation in the back.
Georgia Pacific was built on the site of the Loews Grand Theater. Across the street was a giant Coca Cola sign. GP did not think that sign fit in with their new building. Coca Cola was tired of making repairs to the sign, and was happy for an excuse to take it down.
Behind GP, on John Wesley Dobbs (formerly Houston Street, pronounced HOUSE ton) was the Belle Isle Garage. This was the original Merchandise Mart. At some point, the present Merchandise Mart was built on Peachtree. The people going to shows needed a place to stay, and John Portman started building hotels. This went on for a while.
A few spots north, past the site of the Paramount Theater, is 191 Peachtree. John Portman had wanted to build there for years, but was never able to pull it off. Finally, the property was taken over by someone else, the S&W cafeteria was torn down, and Philip Johnson and John Burgee designed the high rise that sits there now.
I asked if that building was still mostly unoccupied. The guide said that you read the AJC too much. After King & Spalding moved out, the building began a comeback, and is mostly occupied today. The parking garage, with faux columns outside, is a favorite.
Across the street, on the site of the Henry Grady Hotel and Roxy Theater, is the Peachtree Plaza hotel. There is a duplicate of this building in Detroit, that is 4 feet higher, but that doesn’t stop people from calling the Atlanta version the world’s tallest hotel. A few spaces north on Peachtree are the original Peachtree Center buildings.
One of the PC buildings is different from the rest. Mr. Portman was not able to buy the land for one building, but merely lease it. The lenders wanted to be able to tear the building down easily if land lease problems developed. This building has a steel frame, and is bolted together.
Another one of these buildings was all electric. This was a sixties concept, that is not much seen today. Across the street, a major tenant was the Atlanta Gas Light Company. An all electric building would not do. Natural Gas heating was installed. This building is not on the grid, but has a generator in the basement that supplies their electricity.
The tour ends with three hotels in a row. The Regency Hyatt House was revolutionary. It was the first modern hotel with a large atrium. Mr. Portman had lunch with Conrad Hilton, and described his plan. Mr. Hilton said it would not work. The management contract for the new hotel went to the Hyatt company, which was then little known outside California. The Regency has been renovated in the last few years, and does not have much of its old character.
A short walk over a sky bridge takes you to the Marriott Marquis. This is the Regency on steroids. The last time I saw this building was during Dragon Con, when it was different. Across the street is the Hilton. It is another atrium building, with mini lobbies every few floors blocking the open space. The Hilton is built on the site of the Heart of Atlanta Motel, which is another story.
The last stop on the tour was One Peachtree Center. This was intended to be the crown jewel of John Portman’s empire, but it almost brought it down. An economic downturn hit during construction, and Mr. Portman’s lenders got nervous. John Portman went for being known as a baroque modernist, to just plain broke. He managed to survive.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. Tracy O’Neal took the featured photograph in January 1951. “Peachtree Street, looking north from the Candler Building.” We do not know what was playing at the Paramount or the Loews Grand. This is a repost. John Calvin Portman Jr. took the glass elevator to eternity on December 29, 2017.
World Premieres In Atlanta
Several movies had their World Premiere in Atlanta. We will look at a few today. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The feature photograph was taken May 27, 1958. “Proud Rebel premiere” This is a repost.
As some of you may know, Gone With The Wind had it’s world premiere at the Lowes Grand Theater on December 15, 1939. The Lowes Grand site is the current location of the Georgia Pacific building. There is a vacant lot next door, on top of some MARTA paraphernalia. This lot was the site of the Paramount Theater, another movie palace that did not survive.
The GWTW premiere was a big deal. Ten year old Martin Luther King Jr. sang with his church choir. Clark Gable requested a private meeting with Margaret Mitchell, who became the envy of every woman in America. When Mr. Gable checked out of his hotel, a lady was going to be given his room. The clerk asked for a minute to change the sheets on the bed, and the lady said, no, I want to sleep on the same sheets as him.
It was the golden age of movies, and the next year Atlanta hosted the first showing of Who Killed Aunt Maggie. The premiere was at the Rialto, on October 24, 1940. The review at IMDB said it was an enjoyable mystery, even if it was a cliche fest. It is not often seen today.
In 1946, Song Of The South had it’s premiere at the Fox Theater. SOTS is a controversial item today. It was based on the Uncle Remus stories. These stories were told by the rural black people that Joel Chandler Harris knew, while growing up near Eatonton GA. You Must Remember This devoted six episodes to Song of the South. one two three four five six
The female lead in SOTS was Ruth Warrick. Miss Warrick was a versatile talent. Her first movie role was in Citizen Kane, as Kane’s first wife. She was in many movies, before moving to television. She was perhaps best known as Phoebe Tyler, in the soap opera All My Children. Wikipedia tells a story about her, that is ironic for the female lead of Song Of The South.
“In July 2000, she refused to accept a lifetime achievement award from the South Carolina Arts Commission because she was offended by legislators’ decision to move the Confederate flag from the state Capitol dome to another spot on the grounds in response to a boycott of the state by flag opponents. A lifelong supporter of African-American rights, she felt the flag should be removed completely, and commented, “In my view, this was no compromise. It was a deliberate affront to the African-Americans, who see it as a sign of oppression and hate.”
In 1949, the Paramount had the first screening of The Gal Who Took The West. The female lead was Yvonne De Carlo, who later achieved immortality as Lily Munster. In November 1951, the spotlights returned to Lowes Grand for Quo Vadis.
The last film in the GSU picture collection is The Last Rebel. This western had it’s premiere at the Rialto, May 27, 1958. The movie was a return to Atlanta glory for Olivia De Havilland. The film is the story of a man, whose wife dies in a fire during the War Between the States.
In 1974, Ringo Starr produced and acted in Son of Dracula. The movie had it’s world premiere at the Cherokee Plaza Theater. Cherokee Plaza is a shopping center on Peachtree Road, just east of the Atlanta city limits. The theater was torn down during a renovation, and the space is currently the produce department at Krogers.
A local radio station hired a band to play in the parking lot at the premiere. At some point, a long limousine pulled up to a stage, and Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson got out. Both were wearing sunglasses, even though it was after dark. Ringo got on the stage, waved a wand at the crowd, and said “I am turning you into frogs”. He went inside to see the movie, the crowd went home, and the movie was mercifully forgotten.
In 1981, I went to a supper in an apartment building (now a vacant lot) across Peachtree from First Baptist Church. There was a commotion down the street at the Fox, and I went to see what it was. Sharkey’s Machine had it’s World Premiere that night.
Why Did The Cow Cross The Road?
Why did the cow cross the road? The chicken was on vacation.
Knock knock. who’s there? boo. boo who?. Don’t cry it’s only a joke…
It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other.
A man walks up to a horse and says, “Why the long face?”
Two pretzels were walking down the street. one was a salted.
“He who laughs last thinks slowest.”
“Raise your hand if you’re here.”
Two nuns walk into a bar; the third one ducks.
Q: What did the radio say when it was dropped? A: “Ow. That hertz.”
What did the ranch say to the refrigerator door? “Close the door, I’m dressing”
Why don’t blind people skydive? It scares the heck out of their dogs…
What did the fish say when it ran into a wall? dam.
“I see.” said the blind man as he peed into the wind… “It’s all coming back to me now.”
What’s the last thing to go through a bug’s mind when it hits the windshield? Its butt.
You can tuna guitar, but you can’t tuna fish.
What do a duck and a bicycle have in common? They both have wheels… except the duck.
What’s brown and sounds like a bell? DUNGGGGG.
What’s brown and sticky? A stick
When people ask the mortician what he does for a living, he says he is a “boxer”.
What did the shy pebble say?… I wish I was a little boulder! .
What do you call an arrogant criminal falling out of a tower? Condescending.
Two guys walk into a bar… you would think the second guy woulda ducked.
A woman walks into a bar holding a duck. Bartender says, “What’s with the pig?”
Woman says, “It’s a duck.” Bartender says, “I was talking to the duck.”
Why do flamingos always lift one leg when they’re standing?
Cause if they lifted both, they’d fall over!
Q: How many Surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb? A: To get to the other side.
Did you get a haircut? Actually, I got them all cut.
One mushroom said to another mushroom, “Hey – you’re one Fungi!”
What do you call an arrogant criminal falling out of a tower? Condescending.
A dyslexic man walked into a bra …
Q: What do you call a midget, psychic, prison escapee? A: A small medium at-large.
A mule walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Hey, buddy, why the long face?”
“Because my dad is a jackass.”
I have one about the roof but its over your head.
Shall I tell you the one about the skunk? Never mind, it stinks!
There’s nothing like a good joke… and that was nothing like a good joke.
A rabbi, nun, lawyer, mime, and horse all walk into a bar.
The bartender says, “What is this, some kind of joke?”
When’s the best time to eat reindeer meat? …. When you’re hungry.
These stories are borrowed from 22 WORDS. Visit @22Words at your own risk. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The featured photograph was taken August 3, 1954. “Fred Hand family” This is a repost.
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