Shock And Awe Day
Thirteen years ago, Iraq teetered on the edge of regime change. It was obvious what was going to happen, at least at first. Amerika was going to storm in, kill a bunch of people, and take over.
In post 911 Amerika, the military industrial complex saw an opportunity for plunder, unrivaled since the fall of the Soviet Union. The stories of WMD would infect the body politic with fear of a mesopotamian madman. Saddam Hussein wanted Iran to think he has wonder weapons, and did not think Amerika was serious about regime change. We all make mistakes.
In the twelve years since the time of shock and awe, trillions of dollars have gone down the drain, dragging the mighty Amerikan economy along into the sewers of bankruptcy. One of the oldest civilizations of mankind was reduced to hiding, from neighbors, behind concrete barricades. They fought the conquerors with bombs triggered by garage door openers. Thousands of women and children have been murdered. The WMD were never found. This is a repost.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
February Gun Stories
That funky facebook group Parents Against Gun Violence has done it again. They posted a tasteful graphic, with eleven stories of mischief involving firearms. These stories are presented in first person, from the point of view of the gun user. Sometimes, the PAGV story is not accurate. An example is the tawdry tale, “My wife caught me cheating and tried to take a photo of me with another woman, so I shot her.” The dog husband missed when he fired at his wife.
A Minnesota story has another PAGV misspeak. “The parking valet was rude to me, ” so I took my wife’s gun from her and shot her with it.” This is what happened. “(Corey A. Perry) was out with his father and brother drinking at a bar in Uptown in Minneapolis until about 6:30 p.m. Friday. After the three left the bar, a valet “got into the father’s face” about parking and words were exchanged. … Perry, on probation and not allowed to drink or fight, was afraid that he would get in trouble again. Upset by what had happened, he called Nelson to pick him up. “He was agitated, and he had been drinking; it just caused him to explode,” (attorney Michael) Padden said. “It’s weird, just weird … why he lost it … I don’t think anybody will ever know.” … the suspect had criminal convictions for violent offenses and was not legally in possession of the rifle, handgun, ammunition or “tactical vest” he was wearing…. “What’s disconcerting is that they’re portraying this image that this kid had a long history of problems, which is complete unadulterated nonsense,” Padden said.”
There are eleven stories. In four incidents, the players were white. In three of the tales, the actors were black. The ethnicity of the performers is not mentioned in the other four cases. In one case, the species of the victim was quetioned. My wife was trying to force feed medicine to our dogs, but they attacked her, so I tried to shoot the dogs but ended up shooting my wife. Doc Farmer It’s always awful when somebody loses a pet, especially in such a tragic way. Prayers to the lady for a speedy recovery and comfort for her loss… PUNATIC Was it really a mistake?….or is she ugly as a d-g?
Hoverboards and guns do not mix. “I lost my balance while playing on my hoverboard and holding a gun. I shot my younger cousin in the back of the head while he was playing video games. The local press described it as a hoverboard accident.” “Morame said they found the gun under a bed in his brother’s room, where the cousins were playing video games on Xbox. Louis was riding a hoverboard, holding the gun. He lost his balance and the gun “went off,” the report states. It does not provide the firearm’s make or model. Louis has not been charged in the shooting, records show. Deputies determined the gun belonged to Walter Morame, who was not home at the time of the shooting. He denied owning the gun, the report states. Morame, 35, was arrested Sunday on charges of possession of a weapon by a felon, deputies said. He was convicted in 2006 of battery of a law enforcement officer, Orange County Court records show. … Tony Snellings, who lives next door, … said it was a “close knit family, well-rounded. I think it’s a case of kids goofing off and playing with guns, not knowing what can happen.”
Two more stories feature families. “My dad woke up in the middle of the night and needed to pee, but my mom was in the bathroom. He couldn’t wait, so he stepped outside to go in the backyard. When he opened the door he set off the security alarm, so I figured he was a bad guy and shot him.””Police took the (48 yo) son into custody for questioning. He has three prior felony convictions, police said. The 9mm semiautomatic handgun he fired was taken from the scene, police said.” “I was trying to amuse my 7-year-old son, so I pointed a gun at my 9-year-old daughter and pretended to shoot her. Except I actually shot her.” “Jones reportedly told a Bell County Sheriff’s Department deputy he was showing his children gun safety when the gun he was holding fired and shot his 9-year-old daughter.”
The most infuriating story is “My ex wanted me to pay child support, so I shot her and I shot our daughter.” Daron Boswell-Johnson, 25, … confessed to waiting for NeShante Davis, 26, and their daughter, Chloe Davis-Green, outside their home early Tuesday and then shooting them each multiple times, court documents show. He was angry over being ordered to pay $600 per month in child support, … Witness statements and surveillance video corroborate the confession, police said in court documents.” Mr. Boswell-Johnson was arrested alive.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. “Members of the Atlanta Woman’s Club, during a luncheon for retiring president W.F. Milton, in the AWC banquet hall, in Atlanta, Georgia, March 5, 1937.” Tallulah Bankhead attended the event.
Georgia Primary
The New York Times had a feature the other day, Detailed Maps of Where Trump, Cruz, Clinton and Sanders Have Won. It showed the results of presidential primaries in the states that had voted up until that time. It shows the results on a county by county basis.
The results shown on the map had little to do with who won delegates. In Georgia, that was decided on a percentage basis. In the Republican race, Donald Trump got 40 delegates, Marco Rubio got 14, and Ted Cruz got 18. Democrat Hillary Clinton got 73 delegates, while Bernie Sanders got 29.
The county story is different. In Republican land, Donald Trump won 155 out of 159 Georgia counties. Many of these county victories were by substantial margins. Four counties went for went to Marco Rubio: Clarke, Cobb, Dekalb, Fulton.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won 158 out of 159 counties. The only county to go for Bernie Sanders is Echols. The Florida border hugging Echols was the least populated county in Georgia for many years. Today, it is ranked 153, with Taliaferro County at 159. The final tally in Echols county was Bernie Sanders 36, Hillary Clinton 32. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Loudon Wainwright III
The New Yorker has a website, with some cool stuff. One of them is a video of Loudon Wainwright III, singing a song about some guy named Krugman. It seems to PG that Mr. Wainwright might be a good subject for a tribute.
Loudon Wainwright III is the son of a man who wrote for Life magazine, who was known as Loudon Wainwright Jr. The son of III is named Rufus, which is Albanian for Fifth. Either he skipped a level, likes to drink, or this is a coincidence. Rufus Wainwright is a musician also, with lots of units sold, and a stay or two in rehab.
The official LWIII website has a biography page, so if you care about such things you can go there. He writes little acoustic songs, many of which are hilarious. Early in his career, “Dead Skunk” became a hit. It became the song he was known for, but it was far from the best thing he did.
In addition to the Krugman song, there are three you tubes of Wainwright songs. A 95 year old lady dances to “Dead Skunk”. Johnny Cash does “The man who could not cry”, showing a bit of Grecian Formula. (This video is no longer available, and is replaced by the poet himself. Mr. Wainwright is growing old and bald in honest fashion, even after shaving the puppy beard of his younger days.) There is a performance of “Motel Blues”, by the man. A fourth video, about climate change, is included at the end for those in the audience with entirely too much free time.
PG has seen Loudon Wainwright III in concert twice. In December of 1973, LWIII played at the Great Southeast Music Hall. He had a backup band, for some reason, and PG was not overwhelmed. After the show, PG talked to a high school classmate, and they went riding on the dirt roads behind the music hall smoking reefer.
In May of 1982, LWIII played a show by himself at a concert hall on North Decatur Road, which was formerly a Colonial grocery store, and the Texas Tea Room. A friend of PG’s had a story to tell about the TTR. “Maybe, the venue was called the Texas Tea Room—or the Texas something-or-another. I recall that I heard some male duo there. When I heard them, they were past their prime in terms of popularity, but perhaps they were making some sort of comeback. I keep trying to remember who I heard. I also remember going in there one time with short-shorts on. The shorts were totally inappropriate for the setting, but I had been somewhere else and just stopped by the hall (we’ll continue to call it the Texas Tea Room) on a whim. I vaguely remember some guy giving me grief about my attire. I don’t think I went home with him, and I’m sure that was an excellent decision.”
On that May evening 34 years ago, LWIII was spectacular. He had done a lot of shows in the previous 9 years, and had learned a few things about performing. The lines that got a good response were repeated, and played slow enough to understand the lyrics. This is a problem for many lyric based performers…if you don’t know their music, you will not enjoy the show. With Wainwright, he sang slow and loud, and you could hear all the words. You knew why the crowd was laughing.
It is now 2016, and LWIII has not gone away. His records never did sell very well, and he sells his own product over the internet now. His hair is turning gray and falling out. The skunk has dried up, his bones crushed into powder by eighteen wheelers. The motel was shut down by the health department. A luxury condo building was built on the site.
This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The last picture is the Colonial store that became the Texas Tea Room. It is now a discount mattress store, and has not been torn down.
Pie Day
Today is 3-14. It is a monday, and 314 are the first three digits of pi (affectionately known as π ). It is a math thing, the number you multiply a diameter by to get the circumference. When your grammar school math teacher told you about π, she probably used 3.14, or 3 1/7. (PG went to school when Hewlett and Packard were still in the garage.)
You might also have heard the formula for the area of a circle, the racy π r squared . This means that you multiply π by the radius ( half the diameter, a line from the border to the center point), and then multiply the whole contraption by the radius again. The formula has a funny sound to it. Pie are not square, cornbread is square, pie are round. Like Sly Stone says, all the squares go home.
According to wikipedia, π seems to have been known as early as 1900 b.c. The pyramids of Egypt have a π based feature. The Greek letter π is the first letter of the Greek word περίμετρος (perimeter) . This was determined OTP.
The pyramid- π function is fairly simple. The total length of the four sides, at the base, will be the same as the height of the pyramid, times two, times π. PG likes to make model pyramids. They are 6″ tall, and the base sides are 9 3/8″. The combination of these four sides is 37 1/2″. If you multiply 6x2x3.14, you get 37.68″ The .18″ is because of a measuring error.
A lady named Eve Astrid Andersson has a page of her website dedicated to π. The only trivia question that PG understood was the first one…1. What is the formal definition of pi? …the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter // 3.14159 // the radius of a unit circle // the surface area of a sphere of diameter 22/7 // a delicious dessert, especially if it contains cherries.
There is the football cheer from M.I.T. ” Cosine, secant, tangent, sine 3.14159 // Integral, radical, u dv, slipstick, slide rule, MIT!”
In 1998 a movie titled π was released. It caused brain damage in 3.14% of those who saw it. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that 1998 = 666 x 3.
π has been calculated to over five million digits. The second part of this feature are a few of those numbers. There are 82 characters in each line. This feature shows π extended to 10,165 digits. This is .02% of five million. This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
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Rural-Urban Conference
A man tried to sell me a coffin today… I told him that’s the last thing I need.
How do you count cows? With a cowculator!
You can’t run through a camp site. You can only ran, because it’s past tents .
To the man in the wheelchair that stole my camouflage jacket…
You can hide but you can’t run.
How do you tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?
You will see one later and one in a while.
Why do trees seem suspicious on sunny days?Dunno, they’re just a bit shady.
Steak puns… They’re a rare medium, well done
Past, present, and future walked into a bar…. It was tense.
Had a rough day, and then somebody went and ripped the front and back pages from my dictionary.
It just goes from bad to worse.
tell ya my chimney joke? Got stacks of em! First one’s on the house
Whenever I want to start eating healthy, a chocolate bar looks at me and Snickers
Me: Doctor you’ve got to help me, I’m addicted to Twitter. Doctor: I don’t follow you.
There’s no I in denial.
Why was Santa’s little helper feeling depressed?Because he has low Elf esteem
There are only two types of people in the world, those who can extrapolate from incomplete data…
Want to hear a joke about construction? Nah, I’m still working on it.
What do you call a fake noodle? An Impasta
What’s the best thing about elevator jokes? They work on so many levels.
What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy, the other is a little lighter. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Pictures are “Women at a Rural-Urban Conference, Georgia, 1938.” Jokes borrowed from @baddadjokes
The Obama Doctrine
There is a novella in the current issue of The Atlantic, The Obama Doctrine. It is written by Jeffrey Goldberg. PG was mining TOD for big words, to use in a poem. While doing this, he copied a few quotes. These quotes, and the commentary they inspire, are a good excuse for a post. The pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
“Obama would say privately that the first task of an American president in the post-Bush international arena was “Don’t do stupid shit.” Obama’s reticence frustrated Power and others on his national-security team who had a preference for action. Hillary Clinton, when she was Obama’s secretary of state, argued for an early and assertive response to Assad’s violence. In 2014, after she left office, Clinton told me that “the failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad … left a big vacuum, which the jihadist have now filled.” When The Atlantic published this statement, and also published Clinton’s assessment that “great nations need organizing principles, and‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle,” Obama became “rip-shit angry,” according to one of his senior advisers. The president did not understand how “Don’t do stupid shit” could be considered a controversial slogan. Ben Rhodes recalls that “the questions we were asking in the White House were ‘Who exactly is in the stupid-shit caucus? Who is pro–stupid shit?” The Iraq invasion, Obama believed, should have taught Democratic interventionists like Clinton, who had voted for its authorization, the dangers of doing stupid shit.”
TOD has two parts. The first section is devoted to a decision not to bomb Syria. The second part is the result of a series of interviews that Mr. Goldberg conducted with President Obama. Apparently, bombing Syria would have been stupid shit. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bowdlerized this mantra. Apparently this is the job of the Secretary of State… to turn shit into stuff.
“Obama was also unsettled by a surprise visit early in the week from James Clapper, his director of national intelligence, who interrupted the President’s Daily Brief, the threat report Obama receives each morning from Clapper’s analysts, to make clear that the intelligence on Syria’s use of sarin gas, while robust, was not a “slam dunk.” He chose the term carefully. Clapper, the chief of an intelligence community traumatized by its failures in the run-up to the Iraq War, was not going to overpromise, in the manner of the onetime CIA director George Tenet, who famously guaranteed George W. Bush a “slam dunk” in Iraq.”
Syria had long been ruled by the Assad family. They are not nice people. The people of Syria wanted regime change. The Assads responded by killing lots of people. There was much hand wringing in the west about this. President Obama said that it would be a “red line” if chemical weapons were used. Then, reports of WMD use came in. The President needed to do something.
“He and McDonough stayed outside for an hour. Obama told him he was worried that Assad would place civilians as “human shields” around obvious targets. He also pointed out an underlying flaw in the proposed strike: U.S. missiles would not be fired at chemical-weapons depots, for fear of sending plumes of poison into the air. A strike would target military units that had delivered these weapons, but not the weapons themselves.”
Chemical weapons do not respect borders. If poison gas is released into the air, it will go wherever it wants to go. This includes Syria’s next door neighbor Israel. The role of Israel is the Syrian troubles is kept quiet. It is known that when the Muslims are fighting each other, they are not fighting Israel. This concept kept the Iran-Iraq was going for eight bloody years.
“Ninety minutes later, at the White House, Obama reinforced Kerry’s message in a public statement: “It’s important for us to recognize that when over 1,000 people are killed, including hundreds of innocent children, through the use of a weapon that 98 or 99 percent of humanity says should not be used even in war, and there is no action, then we’re sending a signal that that international norm doesn’t mean much. And that is a danger to our national security.”
In this statement, the President was talking about Syria. He could have meant any number of conflicts. Children in Gaza are killed by Israeli cluster bombs. Children in Africa are killed, often by other children, in dozens of wars and guerrilla conflicts. Children in American cities are killed by handguns. It goes on and on.
“I have come to believe that, in Obama’s mind, August 30, 2013, was his liberation day, the day he defied not only the foreign-policy establishment and its cruise-missile playbook, but also the demands of America’s frustrating, high-maintenance allies in the Middle East”
For years it has been a mantra that Israel is the only ally of the United States in the middle east. Of course this is nonsense, as anyone driving a car powered by Arab oil products should know. For Jeffrey Goldberg to acknowledge this may be the most startling thing in this feature.
But not the last. The article goes on, and on, and on. It is full of overblown talk like this: “Obama said that to achieve this rebalancing, the U.S. had to absorb the diatribes and insults of superannuated Castro manqués.” TOD reads like a Rorschach test. Those who admire the President will find confirmation for their opinions. Those who dislike Obama will also see much they agree with. It is a good question what Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton see.
Downtown’s Modern Architectural Heritage
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, PG saw Dan Quayle arrive to give a speech at the Commerce Club. A couple of hours later, PG was crossing Walton Street, when the Vice President’s limousine drove by. PG 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.
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.
PG 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 PG 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, and is still in action at 92 years old. As for One Peachtree Center, Sun Trust Bank moved their major offices there a few years ago, and the building is mostly occupied today.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Deep Dish
Amazon Customer I was very disappointed in this book. This was the first book I have read by Mary Kay Andrews so I don’t know about her other books, but I found the language very offensive. I didn’t read past the third chapter and sent the book back for a refund. I think the story could be told without all the crude language and the bad usage of the name of God.
Monysmomon I am sorry I even picked this up at a bargain basement price – the story was dull, the narration was flat and uninteresting and after a few chapters I couldn’t even stand it anymore. Now I can’t even sell it on Ebay
These one star reviewers are talking about Deep Dish, by Mary Kay Andrews. PG did not notice any bad language. The story is totally PG13, with the two main characters not “hooking up” until spoiler alert time. The two battling food show cooks, Regina Foxton and Tate Moody, are on an obvious path for each other.The suspense on how they will get together is one of the best things this book has going for it.
Some New York producer has the idea of competing cooking shows. The two hash slingers will have it out on Eutaw Island, a fictionalized cross between Cumberland Island and Daufuski Island. As you might expect on the Southern coast, there are bugs, storms, and sharp tongued black women. The food fight show has issues.
As if the homegrown population was not enough, Gina brought over D’John, her makeup artist. Apparently, the only job Miss D’John has is watching over Gina, and making catty comments about boyfriends. D’John is not fully fleshed out. This could have been a contribution to the story, but instead is a cartoon character in the background.
Deep Dish is fun to read, but you will feel foolish when you are through. The plot twists are too contrived to go along with. The characters are walking cliches, except for Lisa, the party animal younger sister of Gina. Lisa is a crawling cliche’, until she mysteriously becomes a responsible adult. The only player with any bite is Tate Moody’s dog, Moonpie.
In 2008, PG saw Mary Kay Andrews at the Dickhater Book Festival. At the time, she said she was working on a book about two celebrity cooks, who were married to each other. They would sneak behind each other, and add spices to creations in progress. Deep Dish is copyrighted 2008, so it may be that book. The copyright is assigned to Whodunnit, Inc. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
BVD
Spencer Tracy’s second rule for acting is to not trip over the props. This might be a problem for Jon Hamm. In a bit of slow news day genius, his show leaked the information that the actor has been requested to wear underwear on the set. A rep for Mr. Hamm said: “It is ridiculous and not really funny at all. I’d appreciate you taking the high road and not resorting to something childish like this that’s been blogged about 1,000 times.”
This was an issue when Tallulah Bankhead was making “Lifeboat”. Other performers complained about the thespian not wearing panties. Director Alfred Hitchcock wondered if this was a matter for wardrobe, or a matter for hairdressing.
This concern about foundation garments, conveniently arising during the pre-easter shopping season, made PG wonder when men started to wear drawers. Could this be the result of manufacturers inventing demand for a product? Wikipedia says the loincloth is thousands of years old. A footnote, about the invention of the jockstrap, led to an English article, A brief history of pants: Why men’s smalls have always been a subject of concern.
“In 1935, the first Jockey briefs went on sale in Chicago. Designed by an “apparel engineer” called Arthur Kneibler (working at the time for Coopers Inc), the arrival of the first underpants denuded of any legs and featuring a Y-shaped opening has been compared with the 1913 invention of the bra, or the 1959 debut of tights. In three months, 30,000 were sold. Coopers, now known as Jockey International, sent its “Mascul-line” plane to make special deliveries of “masculine support” briefs to retailers across the United States. When the Jockeys arrived in Britain in 1938, they sold at the rate of 3,000 per week.”
One popular brand of underwear is the BVD. This was originally made by Bradley, Voorhees & Day, hence the name. They are not named for Bovine Viral Diarrhea. This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Who Invented The Word Racism?
Writers tackle was rampaging through Brookhaven. PG looked in a list of old product, and found a feature built on the output of Teju Cole. He has a dandy article, at the New Yorker, about what is antiseptically called drone warfare. It is the twitter feed that gets attention. This is a repost.
@tejucole George Carlin’s original seven dirty words can all be said freely now. The one word you can’t say, and must never print, is “racist.”
The quote marks lend mystery to the tweet. Does he mean the dreaded “n word”? Or does he mean that other six letter slur? There is no shortage of people screaming racist in Georgia, often at the slightest provocation. There is an attitude that racism is the worst thing you can be accused of, and that, once accused, you are guilty until proven innocent. If you do a bit of research into racism, the word, you will see some interesting things.
The concept of groups of people not liking each other is as old as mankind. The word racism apparently did not exist before 1933 (merriam webster), or 1936 (dictionary dot com).
Something called the Vanguard News Network had a forum once, What is the true origin of the term racism? This forum is problematic, as VNN seems to be a white supremacist affair. One of the reputed coiners of the R word was Leon Trotsky, also referred to as Jew Communist. Another Non English speaker who is given “credit” for originating the phrase is Magnus Hirschfeld. As for English, the word here is: “American author Lawrence Dennis was the first to use the word, in English, in his 1936 book “The coming American fascism”.”
The terms racist and racism seem to be used interchangeably in these discussions. This is in keeping with the modern discussion. As Jesus worshipers like to say, hate the sin, love the sinner.
The Online Etymology Dictionary has this to add: “racist 1932 as a noun, 1938 as an adjective, from race (n.2); racism is first attested 1936 (from French racisme, 1935), originally in the context of Nazi theories. But they replaced earlier words, racialism (1871) and racialist (1917), both often used early 20c. in a British or South African context. In the U.S., race hatred, race prejudice had been used, and, especially in 19c. political contexts, negrophobia.”
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Stupor Tuesday
It is March 1, 2016. A hundred years ago, the Germans were trying to kill all the French so they could win. That didn’t work, so they tried again twenty five years later. Now Germany has a woman President, or whatever they call their showcase government official, and is trying to take over Europe economically. They might succeed.
Here in Georgia, it is the Presidential primary. This is the only time we get to make a choice. In the November election, Georgia’s electoral votes are all but conceded to the Republicans. There will be local races, and constitutional amendments, but POTUS will be out of our hands. If you are going to make a choice, you need to do it today.
Officially, there are seven choices. Nominally, they are in two races, and there will be two winners. Each voter gets to choose one person. …. We interrupt this election day commentary to answer the phone. It is a robo call from Ted Cruz. This is the second such call from this person, in addition to an automated survey, and a live interviewer survey. All of these home invasions were in support of Ted Cruz. This is a good reason not to vote for the goofy bastard, as if that were an option to begin with. … Ok, now there are only six candidates to choose from. Making robo calls automatically disqualifies anyone from serious consideration.
You probably know who the six candidates are. None of the sorry six are worth voting for. Ben Carson and John Kasich should have dropped out a while back, but that donations accepted candidate lifestyle is tough to give up. Marco Rubio has personality control issues, and is from Florida.
Americans love to elect dynamic cartoon characters. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama are two term examples. The showman in this election is Donald Trump. Nothing Mr. Trump says should be taken seriously. America would survive a Trump presidency, but do we want to?
The other charismatic dynamo is Bernie Sanders. Here again, the man has personality out the wazoo, but you can’t believe a word coming out of his New York mouth. He is also butt ugly. The concept of BS in the oval orifice is illegal, immoral, and bad for digestion. If eight years of national halitosis is your idea of morning in america, feel the bern.
Which leaves us with Hillary Clinton. She is well known because she is married to Slick Willie, the most unfaithful husband this side of Donald Trump. Hitlery is much loved by the financial elite, and will probably make them a lot of money. Her public personality sucks. In all fairness, it should be noted that former employee Heather Hurlburt says that Hillary Clinton is not an asshole.
Which brings us to our next point. If you go on facebook today, lots of people are sharing their wonderful opinions with you. At some point, you need to tune out all this noise, and think for yourself. You can do it. It might make your head hurt for a little while, but you will be just fine. And while you are at it, never forget that racism is between rabbit and radical in the dictionary.
If you have read this far, you might have notice that there are no endorsements. All seven candidates would be a disgrace to a third world country, much less the vainglorious United States. Unless you are going to write in Willie B, or Alfred E. Nueman, you have to choose one of the stupid seven. There is one way to make this choice. You can choose the best looking person in the race. This would be Marco Rubio. A vote for Mr. Rubio is also a vote against Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Chamblee54 
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