Blocked From Following
I pick up the ringing telephone. It was Timothy Whatsisname from Blah Blah Blah research company I would like to ask you a few questions on a confidential basis for quality control purposes this call may be monitored I asked the name of the firm he represented He sighed and hung up the phone ~ We hope this new largely symbolic measure will help us create a more pleasant and cultivated environment for all of our readers, and, as always, we thank you deeply for your support. ~ less a paywall than a gesture of your own commitment to the cause of great conversation. ~ How did the lake get that clean? ~ will take your word on this it is too much work to read puffho and see for myself ~ Turnip is an anagram for I Trump ~ Thank you for posting the link. I appreciate being able to read the interview and decide for myself. ~ Bernoids are more self righteous. ~ @RuPaul Derogatory slurs are ALWAYS an outward projection of a person’s own poisonous self-loathing ~ The people who think that racist is the worst insult imaginable are probably not going to vote for DT. Demoze might be making a mistake in their hysterical insistence that DT is a racist. They might impress themselves. It might also drive marginal voters into the DT camp. ~ This is very different from my experience with Christianism. ~ How then would you interpret taking out “She-Mail” from the show due to allegations of transphobia? I don’t know. You know, I didn’t do that. The network did that, and you’d have to ask them why they did it, but I had nothing to do with that. …Well, the intention behind that word is a portmanteau that was meant as a way to be fun and to enjoy language. … ~ Is RuPaul a racist? ~ Real Talk With RuPaul ~ Why Sponsor? By purchasing a Guest Book sponsorship, you’ll be giving loved ones a place to express their feelings and share memories any time they’d like in the months and years ahead. ~ Unfriending can be hurtfull, but sometimes you don’t want to see all their cultural/political contributions ~ A trans woman can be a bigot. ~ Today is nine months until christmas. In other words, this is the day that joseph and mary did not screw. ~ Please quit sending these unsolicited junk messages. I do not want to pay for television. If I want to get your new product, I will contact a sales agent. I get dozens, no make that hundreds, of these junk mail email sales pitches. I never read so much as one word. I mark them as read, and delete. You are alienating a long time customer. Please stop. No more packages in US mail. No more orange T shirted men knocking on my door. No more e mails. Go away. Don’t come back. ~ essjayuyu ~ @N7IRL ~ @AngryBlackLady Racism against white people is a serious threat. Just like unicorn stabbings and death by aerial pig droppings. ~ @TananariveDue As Twitter users, we all have the sacred right to decide which trashy stories to speak up about and which to ignore. ~ The CEO of the National Enquirer is David Pecker. This led to the #TrumplovesPecker hashtag. ~ The spikes used to attach Jesus to the cross were driven through the wrist. If you drove them through the hand the flesh would tear through the spikes. The Romans knew what they were doing. ~ The sword and the egg are symbols of life/death male/female duality. Maybe the fertility of the egg is a counterpoint for the violence of capital punishment. ~ so divided ~ people who are not black have some real problems ~ n word ~ The “get over it” school of dealing with life’s problems is very appealing, especially when it is someone else that has the problems. I do try to keep things in perspective. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I do not. I breeze past things that upset other people, and get bent out of shape over trivia.Often my body chemistry is the culprit. When this chemistry tells me to be unhappy, my mind will find a way to comply. ~ Maybe a good place to start not taking things too seriously is with the opinions (and autograph) of a drag queen. Yes, they say some wise things. But it is just a black man wearing a blonde wig. ~ 1-That is what RuPaul says in interviews. I wouldn’t be surprised if RuPaul gets upset about trivia when no one is looking. It is a part of being human.2- I would be interested in RuPaul’s opinion about singular they. ~ #CruzSexScandal 1 with that last name, of course he is a dog 2 were those women blind? 3 Trump is fine one to talk 4 BS is too ugly ~ @TheKevinAllison 1-listened to RISK#723 all way through – JF says Mitt should have said I am not conservative enough for you & they would @TheKevinAllison 2- respect him- Today Trump is doing just that he is not respected but just might get elected ~ 0325 is nine months until 1225 this is the day Joseph and Mary did not procreate #goodfriday ~ You are blocked from following @BGDblog and viewing @BGDblog’s Tweets. ~ @tedcruz Father of two, @heidiscruz’s husband, U.S. Senator, fighter for liberty, player of iPhone games, 2016 GOP candidate for President. ~ The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above. ~ Making up quotes on the internet is unforgivable Albert Einstein ~ my ideal audience aacddeeeiilMnuy ~ 1-You can send a message to @RuPaul on twitter There is no guarantee that you will get a reply. 2- I am now following @kat_blaque on twitter. She sent a nice message thanking me for following her. This is a first. I hope she has a light touch on the block feature, unlike @angryblacklady, 3- I agree that RuPaul is an entertainer, whose thoughts deserve no special attention. 4- I forget if this was the article linked above, or the @kat_video on RuPaul, but… there was some speculation as to how, essentially, RuPaul is not black enough for some people. Now, this is not something I am going to pretend to know enough to judge. I do find it rather noteworthy that RuPaul is being judged in those terms. White performers are not judged on whether or not they are white enough. I think RuPaul feels that emphasis on race is part of the illusion, but I cannot speak for her. I just sense that she has better things to worry about. ~ White People Explain Why They Feel Oppressed ~ To Bro or Not To Bro? ~ authoritarian personality There is an online test for authoritarian personality. They give you a list of words, and ask you to select the ones you are sure you know the definition of. Two of the words are cuivocal and florted. These two words are not in any dictionary that I checked. ~ The Authoritarians ~ Your score for right-wing authoritarianism ~ water use ~ Donald Trump Doesn’t Have the Character to Be President ~ Trump’s Hypnotic Gig at AIPAC Will Go Down in History – or Infamy ~ #NationalWaterDay ~ Real Talk With RuPaul In fact, I’d rather have an enema than have an Emmy. ~ But if you are trigger-happy and you’re looking for a reason to reinforce your own victimhood, your own perception of yourself as a victim, you’ll look for anything that will reinforce that.~ Do you think it’s important for the younger generation to learn it? I don’t know. I don’t really care about them. The truth is, they’re on their own. They’ll figure it out. There’s nothing we can do to force them to say, “Look, this is important.” Humans don’t learn that way. ~ List of Paraphilias ~ 5 (Statistically BS) Complaints About Social Justice Issues ~ “Racism” The Curious Beginnings of a Useless Word ~ Going down the coney hole ~ Performative Blackness and the Problem With ‘RuCo’s Empire’ ~ Don’t Believe the Stupid Argument: The “Bernie or Bust” Movement is Not Based on Privilege ~ Old Mansions of Peachtree ~ Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. “Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children, Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 ” ~ chocolate bunny monday ~ selah
RuPaul Talks, Again
PG often does not fit into pigeonholes. Liberal or conservative. Ally or enemy. Racist or whatever. After a while, it becomes apparent that labels are part of the packaging, and usually have little to do with the product inside the box.
Then a facebook friend (a person who PG likes, and respects, in real life) put up a link to a RuPaul interview, Real Talk With RuPaul. The FBF is over RuPaul. PG read the interview, and found many things that he agreed with. Is it possible to be a conservative because you like RuPaul?
The Vulture feature is similar to the WTF podcast that RuPaul did. Chamblee54 wrote about that interview. The Vulture chat is better for bloggers, since it is a copy friendly text affair. When you see quotes, you can include them verbatim.
RuPaul has a talent for snappy sayings, to be remembered for later use. An example would be “I’d rather have an enema than have an Emmy.” Some unkind people say that if you were to give RuPaul an enema, you could bury her in a shoebox.
A persistent theme of RuPaul’s moving lips is “the matrix.” “Because you get to a point where if you’re smart and you’re sensitive, you see how this all works on this planet. It’s like when Dorothy looks behind the curtain. Like, “Wait a minute. You’re the wizard?” And you figure out the hoax. That this is all an illusion. There’s only a few areas you can go. First, you get angry that you’ve been hoaxed and you get bitter. But then, take more steps beyond the bitterness and you realize, “Oh, I get it. Let’s have fun with it. It’s all a joke.”
The Bosslady of “RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is an African American. Duh. In the Vulture piece, there are 4355 words. Racism/racist is not included. Could it be that America’s obsession with other people’s racial attitudes is part of the illusion? “Derogatory slurs are ALWAYS an outward projection of a person’s own poisonous self-loathing.”
RuPaul is not always politically correct. She supports Shirley Q. Liquor. RPDR was instrumental in the rise to fame, (or descent into the abyss), of Sharon Needles. “But if you are trigger-happy and you’re looking for a reason to reinforce your own victimhood, your own perception of yourself as a victim, you’ll look for anything that will reinforce that.”
This feature has gone on past the attention span of many internet denizens. It is time to wrap it up, and move on to the pictures. These images, of Georgia Tech football players in 1938, are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Before that, there are two more quotes from the Vulture.
“Regular, straight pop culture has liberally lifted things from gay culture as long as I can remember. And that’s fine, because guess what? We have so much more where that comes from. Take it!”
“Do you think it’s important for the younger generation to learn it?”” I don’t know. I don’t really care about them. The truth is, they’re on their own. They’ll figure it out. There’s nothing we can do to force them to say, “Look, this is important.” Humans don’t learn that way.”
#NationalWaterDay
Yesterday was #NationalWaterDay. PG celebrated by going to Decatur to talk about his water bill with the county. Water is taken for granted. You turn on the faucet, and (reasonably) clean, safe water comes out. It is only when the bill is too high that you think there is a problem.
Currently, Atlanta is getting plenty of rain. There is no immediate danger of running out of water. In 2007, there was a drought. There was speculation about running out of water. In the eight years since the drought, little has been done to prevent a future calamity. Atlanta is one sustained drought from becoming a ghost town. PG has written about this before.
#7gallonchallange was one of yesterday’s gimmicks. “For one day, attempt to limit water your usage to seven gallons a day, which is a high estimate of how much the average African uses.” There was a chart, showing how much water is used by typical activities. There were helpful suggestions, like “Don’t take a bath.” (The current custom of bathing everyday is fairly recent in western society.)
The “average African” (a strange concept for a diverse continent) does not just turn on a faucet to get water. In Kibera, an “informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, getting water is a chore. “Very few of the residents have running water. Every day, people have to carry a 20 liter jerrycan to a water vendor. Often, there are shortages, and the price goes up. The water is often contaminated. There are water mafias, which create artificial shortages to boost the price.”
“If the root of water problems in Kibera centered on price and supply it may be more manageable, but issues of water quality substantially complicate clean water delivery systems. Most water pipes in Kibera run above ground and are made of plastic (due to issues with theft of steel pipes), which are highly fragile and easily manipulated. These pipes will often crack or break (either accidentally due to traffic or intentionally by competitors), allowing sewage to seep into drinking water. Indeed, water sources that are generally clean can easily become contaminated without notice. This is reflected in public health data—infant mortality rates and bloody diarrheal infection rates in Kibera are more than three times the average of Nairobi as a whole (UNDP 2006).”
The feature below is a repost. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. “Unidentified Georgia Tech football player, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1938.”
Some people think that the drought is over, and we can go back to wasting water. They are wrong.
From a water supply point of view, Atlanta is a terrible place for a city. 4 million people depend on the Chattahoochee River, an overgrown trout stream. If you look at a map of Georgia watersheds, you see what a small area is covered by the Chattahoochee.
As if that isn’t bad enough, the water is also claimed by Alabama and Florida. A nuclear power plant in Alabama uses enormous amounts of river water. The three states have been arguing in the courts over the water rights for years, and the courts have ruled against Georgia.
For decayeds decades, the developers in Metro Atlanta have built as though having a water supply was not an issue. With dozens of governments to choose from, if the developers are turned down in one jurisdiction, they merely go to another…or make another bribe campaign contribution, and another forest bites the dust.
In an era of tea parties and calls for small government, few have a plan for the water crisis. There are going to be no cheap solutions. Even if we were to have access to the Tennessee River (a very big if), a pipeline to carry the water through the mountains to Lake Lanier is going to be very expensive. We will not get this money by cutting taxes to stimulate the economy.
Even without a water sharing agreement, we almost ran out in 2007. A severe drought cannot be predicted, and another one may start today. The nuclear plant in Alabama requires tremendous amounts of water, and was close to having to shut down.
Much of the rain in Georgia comes from the Gulf of Mexico. This Gulf is currently becoming an open air reservoir for crude oil. What will happen when the remaining sea water evaporates, and becomes rain? Will the water have a helping of crude oil derivatives? At least this water can be used in a nuclear power plant.
Rain water is held in a reservoir until it is needed. For metro Atlanta, this is Lake Lanier. A water reservoir is not like a bank account, where the money earns interest. Water in a reservoir shrinks over time…water on the surface evaporates. When there is a drought in August, with 100 degree temperatures every day, water usage increases, evaporation increases, and there is no fresh rainwater going into the lake. This is how a water problem becomes a crisis.
There are a few, common sense, ways to save water now. Just because we are not in a drought does not mean we need to start wasting water. The water we save now will (mostly) be waiting for us when (not if) another drought starts.
When you brush your teeth, fill a cup of water up first. Use part of this to rinse your mouth, and use the rest to clean your brush.
If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
Get a stopper for the bathroom sink. If you shave, save water in the sink to clean your razor.
Keep a jug of water in the fridge if you like cold water. Don’t let the water run until it gets cold.
Take a “navy shower”. Get wet, turn the water off , lather up, turn the water back on, rinse.
Only run dishwashers and washing machines when they are full.
There are many, many more ways to save water. The less we use now, the longer our reserves will last. The water shortage will never be over in Atlanta.
Another Twitter Dispute
@arthur_affect Daily reminder that @AngryBlackLady has done more to help vulnerable ppl than all the assholes attacking her combined
The tweet above was retweeted by a neighbor of PG. A reckless curiousity was aroused. The ABL twitterary was a personality crisis. It seems that ABL was having problems with @freddiedeboer. The cause of this dispute is murky. It soon comes to light that ABL is a lawyer, and is being accused of shady conduct. When you consider that, the sketchy behavior of ABL makes a bit of sense.
It is tough to say who is right or wrong in this dispute. It is easy to invoke the three part rule: it is none of my business, I don’t understand it, and I am not interested. The graceless behavior by ABL made it tough to want to take her side.
There was a link published. It was a article at something called storify, To Bro or Not To Bro? Someone would reproduce a tweet, or type a sentence or two. Then a .gif of someone making a face would appear. There were about a dozen of these text/.gif combos. Someone in eighth grade might think this is clever.
@chamblee54
you picked a bad day to praise ABL she is busy with a jihad and making herself look petty
@Flyswatter I don’t think so. She’s totally right.
@chamblee54 I am not going to judge right or wrong the theatrics & rhetoric of ABL are tacky
@jteeDC You won’t judge right or wrong, you just want her to feel bad. Thanks for that, buddy
@FeralHomemaking Yes, dudebros come for @AngryBlackLady on the regular but it’s *tacky* for her to defend herself.
@__Krisssyy She’s defending herself from public attacks. He pulled this shit in January. Should she sit idle while he attacks her character?
@renaissanceeast
When somebody makes a full time job out harassing you, feel free to grin & bear it.
@Beulahmo She’s defending against unfair public attacks. It’s “tacky”? What does that mean?
@chamblee54 To answer that question I would need to re read that tweet series & I don’t want to
@AngryBlackLady Yes, defending myself from endless attacks sure is tacky. Goodbye.
You are blocked from following @AngryBlackLady and viewing @AngryBlackLady’s Tweets.
@Flyswatter Oh, the tone.
@chamblee54 “her rhetoric and theatrics are tacky”=/= fighting words – fwiw ABL blocked me
@Beulahmo It just seems unduly dismissive, coming from you, considering the circumstances.
@Beulahmo But in this context–protecting herself from a public smear campaign–what is “tacky” (& thus worthy of dismissal)?
@chamblee54 To answer that question I would need to re read that tweet series & I don’t want to …storify piece is highly tacky
@Beulahmo Okay. Do you have any awareness of how dismissive your statements sound?
PG left the last tweet unanswered. Boring quarrels require dismissive action. Pictures today 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.
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”.
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899
8628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284
1027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712
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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”.
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