When You Can’t Say Anything Good
Dangerousminds , which is seldom at a loss for words, posted the video of Bob Dylan seen above. The young Mr. Zimmerman is in angry young man mode, and discusses the concept of an all picture Time magazine. All pictures, no words. This may be where this blog is headed.
Writers block is real. You have all of modern media at your beck and call, and yet you don’t have a message. TwentyTwoWords posts the story of a medical study into writers block. The study wastes no words in it a pithy treatment of this issue. It is an unspoken masterpiece, the treatment that dare not speak it’s name. The research was financed by a block grant.
The findings of this study were replicated in 2007. The report is included here, in it’s entirety. The editor noted “I did not change one word, and this is a first in my tenure as editor.” There is no word on whether the report was submitted before the deadline.
Ben Hecht tells a story in his autobiography “Child of the Century”. As a young, underpaid newspaper writer in Chicago, Mr. Hecht was hired to participate in literary debates. In the era before movies and radio, these were considered after dinner entertainment. One night, Mr. Hecht got together with his opponent, and hatched a plan. The topic of the debate was “People who attend literary debates are idiots”. The first speaker did not say a word, but gestured towards the crowd. The second speaker said, “you win.”
“Child of the Century” is now out of print. In 1994, PG thought he was going to have to move, and the first step was to throw away things. His copy of “Child of the Century” was one thing he pitched.
The sound that you hear is one hand clapping. Those reading with one hand can join in with the other one. Appreciation is always welcome. Vintage pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” .
This is a repost. PG thinks writer’s block should be called writer’s tackle, but few agree. The owner of this blog has stumbled into a session of contract employment, and does not have as much free time as before. The internet will survive.
German Pastry Christmas
PG got an email today from Allen Hunt a radio announcer. The letter had a Christmas message. PG read the story, and heard the ding ding ding of his BS detector. Here is the story.
Merry Christmas! As the wars about the public celebration of Christmas become filled with pettiness and hostility on all sides, be not dismayed. Your celebration of Christmas depends solely on you and nobody else. I heard the story of Oswald Goulter years ago and it reminds me of that simple fact. I am responsible for how I embrace the gift of Christmas.
Oswald Goulter served as an agri-missionary to China. On his way back to the USA for furlough during World War II. His sponsor mission agency gave him a ticket to get home by boat. When Oswald arrived in the port of India, New Delhi, he found boats filled with Jews, housed there to protect their lives from Nazi Germany. The Jewish boats couldn’t land anywhere. They were not accepted or welcome anywhere at the time
Oswald went to see them and said, “Merry Christmas!”
“We’re Jewish,” they responded.
“I know, I know. But what would you like for Christmas. Merry Christmas!”
“Don’t you understand? We are JEWISH.”
“Merry Christmas. What do you want?”
To get rid of this nuisance, they said, “How about some German pastry? That sure would be grand.”
Oswald scoured the city until he found a bakery that made German pastry. Oswald sold his ticket for home to get money to purchase some pastry. He went back to the boat and shared it with them.
As he spoke about this experience later in one of his supporting churches, a very prim member of the congregation stood and asked, “Why did you do that? They were Jewish. They don’t even believe in Jesus.””I know,” Oswald replied, “but I do.”
PG sent a reply to the original email. This post is being written an hour later, so it is not unreasonable that Mr. Hunt has not replied.
Allen do you have any proof that Oswald Goulter existed? This story seems a bit far fetched. I googled Oswald Goulter, and all I see is the same story told over and over.
Why did he go to India? This is over the Himalayan mountains, or around Vietnam. Couldn’t he do just as well in North Asia, or even Russia?
When did this incident happen? There are mixed indications in the versions I read, and no exact dates. If this was after WW2, then restrictions about admitting Jews would start to loosen up.
Why German pastries? After all that the German people had done to them, this seems a bit strange.
There are hundreds of real, verifiable Christmas stories out there. This one seems a bit fishy.
After sending the email, PG hunkered down in the google.(Snopes never heard of Oswald Goulter) It seems that Oswald John Goulter was born June 22, 1890 in Oklahoma. He died in March 1985, in Santa Clara California. He was interviewed in 1971 as part of a project involving missionaries to China. “This interview supplements the account of Goulter’s life in Wilfred Powell’s Scattered Seed. Mr. Goulter portrays the disruption in Chinese life in the area of Lu-chou (Hofei) in Anhwei province during the years 1922 to 1951. He tells how the Communists were able to take advantage of the disorder caused by warlords and bandits and the Japanese invasion to drive the nationalists from power. He also discusses his conception of practical Christianity and its applicability in China.”
There is another story about Mr. Goulter. After the communist takeover, Mr. Goulter and his wife, Irene, were taken into custody. Mr. Goulter was beaten repeatedly, but refused to renounce his faith. Finally he was released (or, in some versions, escaped). This imprisonment is generally agreed to for three years. If he left in 1951, that would be consistent with the time line of the communist takeover.
In the Hunt version of the story, Oswald Goulter left during World War 2.
This does not answer the question of why Mr. Goulter would go to India, before America. It also does not account for the appearance of the Jews in India, six years after the end of World War 2. It should also be noted that India was in chaos, with the advent of Independence and the partition. Would they have Jews hiding in the city?
There is a book, Scattered Seed: The Story of the Oswald Goulters, Missionaries in China 1922-51. PG does not know if it discusses German pastries.
This is a repost. The original had several comments about Mr. Goulter, which we will share. Allen Hunt sent a reply, which was lost in a hard drive crash. It was rather snide. Dr. Hunt has quit sending PG emails. His radio show is no longer being broadcast.
Lindsay goulter said, on February 26, 2010 at 3:26 am Hi oswald goulter was my great uncle.Born in Auss. If you would like to know more about him please reply to my e/mail. lindsay g
Teena Anderson said, on October 30, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Oswald Goulter is my grandfather. He was a missionary to China for 30 years. His story is told in the book Scattered Seed by Wilfred Powell. Oswald and Irene had 3 daughters, Lovena, Doris ( who is still living!) and Jean. Doris and Jean were born in China. Jean was my mother-she spoke excellent chinese with a Hefei accent. I am the eldest grandchild. They lost a baby boy born in China and buried him in the mountains of Kuling, where the missionaries would go for the summer.
My husband, Hugh Anderson (Presbyterian minister) and I have taught in China with the Amity Foundation. Our first summer of teaching we traveled to Hefei and met Rev. Zhu who helped Oswald after he had been confined in the internment camps. They were great friends. Rev. Zhu’s son is now a Disciple of Christ minister here in the United States. Teena Anderson, Medford, Oregon.
chamblee54 said, on October 30, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Thanks for stopping by. Do you know if the story about the German Pastries was true? It is an inspiring story, but as I noted in my post, there are a few issues with it.
Miaohua Jiang said, on January 19, 2011 at 11:06 pm
The book by Wilfred E. Powell titled Scattered Seed came in mail yesterday. I searched in the book for any evidence that this story might actually happened. Unfortunately, the story as it is stated never happened. At least it did not happen in India.
The sabbatical year was between 1936 and 1937. The family did take the western route going through Europe to return to US. They arrived in US in September 1936. Christmas of 1936 was their first Christmas in US in many many years. They were not able to return to China because of Japenese invasion until late 1937. Mr. Goulter did help refugees in Shanghai around Christmas time 1937. The book did mention that Shanghai also had ships with Jewish refugees. So, the story could have happened in Shanghai, China, instead of India. It did not involve boat tickets. Mr. Goulter had clothings shipped from Los Angeles to Shanghai. Also Mr. Goulter was interned by Japenese for many years, not communists.
chamblee54 said, on January 20, 2011 at 12:02 am
Thank you for following through. That is an inspiring story, too bad it can’t be proven to be true.
Miaohua Jiang said, on January 1, 2011 at 10:13 pm
Doris is visting us this new year’s day of 2011!
Miaohua Jiang said, on January 4, 2011 at 2:23 pm
This is what I got from my conversation with Doris, O.J.’s second daughter. According to Doris, Mr. Goulter did not like his first name. Chinese people would simply call him Gou Shee-Sang (Mr. Gou). Doris was born in Hefei in 1924. Her mother homeschooled the girls. By the time she was 10, they felt it was time for girls to have a more formal education in Shanghai. Before they left for Shanghai, they travelled for a year to Europe, going through possibly the Hongkong – India route. So, it was around 1934 – a time Jews were forced to escape Germany. So, the story is credible. The girls stayed in Shanghai until 3 month before Pearl Harbor was attacked when American government ordered evacuation of women and children. Mr. Goulter stayed behind and was imprisoned by invading Japenese because of his British citizenship. I am ordering this book and hopefully when Doris visits again next time I will have a chance to verify a few more details with her. Amazingly, after leaving Hefei for more than 75 years, she can still speak the local dialect and sing local children songs forgotten even by the local people.
Teena Anderson said, on October 30, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Oswald Goulter was my grandfather. He was born in Australia. He heard about the Boxer rebellion and felt called to go to China. He came to the U. S. to get more education. He married Irene Goucher (my grandmother) in Oklahoma and they spent 30 years together in China. They had 3 daughters, 2 of whom were born in China. My mother was born in Tsingtao but spent 10 years in Hefei (Lu Chow Fu). She had a great Hefei accent. They also had a baby boy that died and was buried in the Kuling mountains. (Lu Shan)Oswald Goulters life was written by Wildfred Powell in the book Scattered Seed. Our family still have ties to Chinese that were ministered by my grandfather. There are many more accounts of what my grandfather accomplished in China. He loved the Chinese and they loved him. Teena Anderson of Medford, Or.
Lauri Penry said, on March 25, 2012 at 8:27 am
My grandparents (Dr. and Mrs. Paul R. Slater) served as medical missionaries in China with the Goulters. I have heard the story many times of how my grandfather met up with Mr. Goulter, and he wasn’t wearing shoes. So my grandfather gave him his. The next time they crossed each other’s paths, Mr. Goulter was again without shoes. He told my grandfather that he found someone who needed them more than he did.
I was just going through some pictures at my parents’ house this weekend, and found one with Mr. Goulter in it. I am in the process of reading Scattered Seed now. My parents were attending Phillips University when Mr. Goulter was a member of the faculty. From what I have always heard about this man, he was exceptional, and a true servant!
John McBride said, on May 10, 2012 at 10:10 am
Oswald Goulter is my grand uncle and he was born in Australia. I had the pleasure of meeting him and Irene in in either 1973/4 when they visited Australia and later in San Jose in 1981. He was quite some bloke who’s achievements were quite incrediable. My grand father was a potato farmer at a place called Irrewillipe, about 100 miles west of Melbourne. One year my brother and I spent our Easter weekend (4 days in Australia) helping dig up the crop. At night, my grandfather read Oswald’s letters to us by kerosene lamp beside the wood stove in the kitchen. As a ten year old, those letters were more exciting to listen to than reading my Superman comics.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Phoebus Cartel
99pi has a show out, Episode 144: There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. It seems as though a firehouse in Livermore CA has a light bulb that has burned continuously since 1901. It is a big deal, with a BULBCAM shining worldwide.
“The bulb is a genuine heirloom from the dawn of electric illumination, built by one of its pioneers: Adolphe Chaillet…. Chaillet liked to do a theatrical product demo where he’d have a big theatre marquee-like light bulb bank. In it would be one bulb of his own design, and the rest would be bulbs by competing brands. Then, Chaillet would start slowly dialing up the power. One by one, the competitors’ bulbs would all explode. Every time, Chaillet’s would be the last one shining.”
At some point in the show, the Phoebus Cartel was discussed. By amazing coincidence, today is the ninetieth anniversary of planned obsolescence.
“On 23 December 1924, a group of leading international businessmen gathered in Geneva for a meeting that would alter the world for decades to come. Present were top representatives from all the major light bulb manufacturers, including Germany’s Osram, the Netherlands’ Philips, France’s Compagnie des Lampes, and the United States’ General Electric. As revelers hung Christmas lights elsewhere in the city, the group founded the Phoebus cartel, a supervisory body that would carve up the worldwide incandescent light bulb market, with each national and regional zone assigned its own manufacturers and production quotas. It was the first cartel in history to enjoy a truly global reach.”
The idea was to produce a light bulb that did not last as long as previously manufactured items. With a shorter lifespan, the producers could sell more bulbs. Where the pre-Phoebus bulb lasted up to 2000 hours, the new bulbs had a mandated life of 1000 hours.
It is an urban legend. There are light bulbs that never burn out. The government uses them. This bit of high school wisdom has been around for generations.
The screw-type light bulb socket was invented by Thomas Edison, and named E26/E27. It’s use was mandated by the Phoebus Cartel. This standard is still in use today. The light bulb jokes started much later, about the same time the chicken decided to cross the road.
The Phoebus Cartel did not last very long. The major light bulb manufacturers were on opposite sides of World War II. The Cartel had been on shaky ground, both legally, and in the free marketplace. The War was the last straw. The 1924 agreement was nullified in 1940. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The War On Christmas
Merry Christmas used to be a greeting of good will. It meant, I am happy that you survived the year, have a nice holiday. It was not an in your face gesture, designed to express a religious opinion.
Christmas used to be a time of peace on earth and good will towards men. There were parties, gift giving, and holiday time from school and work. The religious part has always been there, but if you wanted to ignore it you could.
Now, the Jesus Worshipers want it all. The fact that our culture is dominated by Jesus worship is not good enough, they want it all. And they don’t care if it offends you. Peace on earth, and good will towards men, is an obsolete concept.
We don’t know when Jesus was born. Some scholars say he was born in the spring, but it was a long, long time ago. When the early Christians were trying to convert the Romans, they decided to have a birthday celebration for Jesus at the time of a pagan holiday. It is the winter solstice, the time of renewal at the end of the year. It is an ideal time for a religious feast.
Many people, PG included, have been hurt by Jesus. Christianism is an aggressive religion, and if you don’t agree, you can expect to be insulted and humiliated. As society becomes more and more secular, the Jesus worshipers get more aggressive. Many people have come to see the birth of Jesus as something to be mourned, rather than celebrated.
PG used to enjoy saying Merry Christmas. To him, it was a greeting of good will. Now, it is taking sides in a nasty fight. Maybe the proper thing to say is have a nice day.
And now for something completely different. PG found this recently, and it is not original to him. If you really need a link to the original, we will look harder.
When I was young and impressionable, I heard the Co-Adjutor Archbishop of Bombay preach on the subject of Christmas. He made the point that the adjective “merry” actually means “to be showing the influence of alcohol”, that is to be at least partially drunk. So to wish someone a Merry Christmas is really to wish them a Drunken Christmas.
And he went on to point out that as drunkenness is a sin, and moreover it is illegal to ply an infant with alcohol, a “merry Christmas” not only treats the birth of Christ as an occasion for sin, it also excludes the guest of honour Himself from the celebration.
That is a perversion of the meaning of Christmas — yet how often do we hear “true Christians” insist on saying “merry Christmas”? Why don’t they just wish the world happiness and joy?
This holiday feature is a repost. The pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Drug Screen
The work assignment required a drug screen. On one level, this is no big deal. PG has been detoxed for a while. A residual distaste for the war on drugs except alcohol does linger over the chore.
There was an email. You print the information on the email, and take it to an office. The offices are listed on the email, in fine print. PG printed the email, and wrote the address, and phone number, of the nearest office on the back. This office had moved across the street.
PG called the phone number. A lengthy recorded message started, with no menu options. 3 was the number for speaking to a person. The line went directly to voicemail.
Since the office was nearby, PG decided to just go (to the office.) Fortunately, the office was only a couple of miles away. The note said 976 Johnson Ferry Road. When you went past Northside Hospital, the next building is an MOB complex. There are 2 buildings, 960 and 980.
PG turns around to go home. He tries to call the office, and gets voice mail. He leaves a message. “This is a nightmare. Answer your phone.” He might have raised his voice.
When he got home, PG took another look at the email. After enlarging the text, he saw that the address was 975 Johnson Ferry Road, instead of 976. PG called another office of the drug testing company. The line was busy. PG then tried the first office again, and left a message.
A few minutes later, the lady from the first office called back. Yes, they were open today, and were not especially busy. To get to the parking lot, you turn onto Meridian Mark Drive, and take a right into the parking deck. This is something else the email did not tell you.
Once PG got to the office, things came out all right. The lady was very friendly. It turns out she is in the office by herself. The drug testing company is trying to squeeze all the profits they can.
The procedure was the same as before. Go in the bathroom, fill the cup past the sticker, and do not flush. You fill the cup, and put the toilet seat back down. There is a sink behind the desk, where the attendant watches you wash your hands. You need to sign three copies of the “URINE CHAIN OF CUSTODY FORM.” At this point the procedure is finished.
As if the medical extortion committee is not punishment enough, most facilities require you to pay for parking. When it was time to leave, PG had to wait behind a BMW. The AMEX card was rejected, and the lady fed dollar bills into a machine. A man in the little building talked on his phone, and pointed to the machine. PG fed enough dollar bills into the machine to satisfy the hunger. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Fruit Cake
A facebook friend put some fruitcake facts on the internet. PG saw a chance for some text to put between pictures. He would be nutty as a fruitcake to turn down this chance. This is a repost.
Fruitcakes were buried with the dead in Ancient Egypt. It’s true. Ancient Egyptians used to fill the tombs of the dead with all the supplies that they would need to enjoy the afterlife, including food and water. Fruitcake was often put into the tomb of a deceased person because a fruitcake soaked in a natural preservative like alcohol or fruit juice would last a long time. It was thought that the preserved fruitcake would not spoil on the journey to the afterlife. Fruitcake was a staple food of other ancient Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian and Mediterranean cultures as well
Candied fruits are used in fruitcake because using sugar was the only way to preserve the fruit long enough to get it back to Europe from the Middle East. When the Crusaders began carrying exotic fruits back to their European home the fresh fruit would spoil long before they were able to get it home. Ingenious traders began drying the fruits by candying them with sugar which made them an even more delicious treat and preserved them indefinitely. Once the candied fruits were sent to Europe and to other parts of the world they were baked into cakes so that they could be shared with family and friends on special occasions.
Fruitcakes will last for years without spoiling. It’s true. A fruitcake that is properly preserved with an alcohol soaked cheesecloth that is then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil can be kept unrefrigerated for years without spoiling. In the past, before refrigerators came along, families would make fruitcake for holidays and special occasions months in advance of the actual event and then let the covered fruitcakes sit wrapped in an alcohol soaked cloth until the event happened. As long as the cloth was remoistened with alcohol occasionally the cakes not only didn’t spoil, they actually tasted richer and sweeter because they had been soaking in brandy and rum for a couple of months.
To millions of fruitcake consumers, the town of Claxton GA is very special. This south Georgia town, just down the road from Reidsville, is home to Claxton Fruit Cake . The story of the Claxton Fruit Cake company is a sweet one. Savino Tos founded the Claxton Bakery in 1910. He hired Albert Parker in 1927, and sold him the business in 1945. Mr. Parker decided to sell Fruit Cake to America.
No story about fruitcake is complete without mentioning the “Fruitcake Lady”. Marie Rudisill , an aunt of Truman Capote, wrote a book of fruitcake recipes. She became a tv celebrity, before going to the bakery in the sky November 3, 2006.
The urban dictionary has nine listings for fruit cake. The ones for homosexuals and crazy people are there. UD gets creative with this selection: “The act of releasing green chunky diarrhea onto your partners face then, ejaculating on it, then punching him/her in the nose causing the colors to mix together to form a fruit cake like color.”
If you tire of jokes about fruitcake, you can go to The society for the protection and preservation of fruitcake . (If you click on the “new URL”, you will be invited to join in the green card lottery.) There used to be a link on the society page that enables you to buy Fruitcake Mints. “Keep your breath fruitcake fresh with these festive mints!”
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
Validate My Existence
@illhueminati SAY IT WITH ME: I AM A BEAUTIFUL, COMPLEX HUMAN BEING AND I DONT NEED ANYONE TO VALIDATE MY EXISTENCE ~ you don’t have to shout ~ Say it with me: I am a beautiful, complex human being and I don’t need anyone to validate my existence ~ Georgia just executed a man with a 70 IQ. The only lawyer who would take his case was a useless alcoholic. The Social Justice Warriors have been totally silent. Pointing fingers, and screaming racism, is more important than taking action on something that matters. ~ the morning after wayne holsey died nineteen years after will robinson died one could ask why the social justice clique was so quiet one could ask if any murders were prevented one could ask what drugs were used when nathan deal got a notch on his belt ~ This is true and not true. The event you describe probably happened. However, it was not the only event like that. People started to put flowers on soldier graves as the war was still going on. After a conflict as horrific as the War Between the States, some sort of remembrance was inevitable. ~ This “war on christmas” is such a pain. I like secular christmas. If you want to be religious, you can. If you want to shop till you drop, you can. If you want to drink to excess, you can. (The original meaning of merry christmas was a drunken holiday.) The trouble is that the some Jesus worshipers want the holiday to be all about them. ~ Most research is designed to provide evidence for an already decided outcome. ~ just heard episode11 #serialpodcast it is starting to wear thin next week is the final show ~ WWYDJ What Would You Do To Jesus ~ Al Pieda is an international terrorist group consisting entirely of pastry chefs. AP has claimed responsibility for several heinous crimes, including the assassination of Betty Crocker in 1996, ~ From FUCK YOU / a magazine of the ARTS, number 5, vol 6, Apr. 1964 ~ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the copyright to this recording, nor am I claiming ownership, it is being posted here strictly for all Judy fans as a promotional and entertainment tool. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. ~ @mbsycamore why is dress the verb if you are wearing pants? If you wore a dress, would they like the way you pant? ~ Whereas OKCupid is mostly, “Young professional heteropatriarchic ‘centrist’ republican seeking overly manscaped MBA/accountant with a below-average sex drive for a honeymoon at Martha’s Vinyard followed by long walks on the beach with our Mastiff when we’re not ‘cutting it loose’ at Disney World’s oxygen bar.” ~ @MiguelDaCosta01 Bio: Married to God. But she’s away a lot, so feel free to sext. ~ If you think your post has disappeared, see spam or an inappropriate post, please do not hesitate to contact the mods, we’re happy to help. ~ not your soapbox, personal army, or advertising platform. Questions seeking professional advice are inappropriate and will be removed. Soliciting money, goods, services, or favours is not allowed. All users are expected to be respectful to other users at all times Comment replies consisting solely of images will be removed. ~ Clarice Starling: I graduated from UVa, Captain; it’s not exactly a charm school. ~ They should have kept Marthasville. ~ keep your mouth shut ~ I would suggest starting out with a blog on a hosted site, like WordPress. It would be free to start. If this turns into something, then you could go with a self hosted site. If you get tired of feeding the puppy, then you can ditch it with no harm done. There is a page on chamblee54 How to Blog with a few ideas about how to do this. ~ “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ selah
Walked Into A Bar
Engineers from IBM, Apple, and Microsoft were attending a tech conference. They met at the queue to the toilet by chance in-between talks. The Engineer from IBM took a leak, washed his hands, and dried his hands with about 20 sheets of paper towels. He said to the other two “At IBM, we are very thorough”, then left to conference hall. The engineer from Apple pissed, washed his hands, then dried it with one sheet of paper towel, making sure he used every millimeter of the towel. “At Apple, we are efficient”, he quipped to the Microsoft engineer before returning to the conference hall. The Microsoft engineer did the number one, then directly went to the hall, muttering to himself “at Microsoft, we don’t piss on our goddamn hands”. ~ A Roman walks into a bar and asks for a martinus. “You mean a martini?” the bartender asks. The Roman replies, “If I wanted a double, I would have asked for it!” ~ Angela Merkel arrives at Passport Control at Paris airport. “Nationality?” asks the immigration officer. “German,” she replies. “Occupation?” “No, just here for a few days.” ~ You’re the worst topology professor! You couldn’t tell your ass from a hole in the ground! True, but I can tell the difference between my ass and two holes in the ground ~ A Higgs Boson walks into a church and the priest says “we don’t allow Higgs Bosons in here”. The Higgs Boson then replies “but without me, how could you have mass?~ Helium walks into a bar and orders a beer, the bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve noble gases here.” He doesn’t react. ~ We don’t serve faster-than-light particles here”, says the barman. A tachyon enters a bar. ~ Standard deviation is not enough for a perverted statistician. ~ Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg turns to the other two and says, “Clearly this is a joke, but how can we figure out if it’s funny or not?” Gödel replies, “We can’t know that because we’re inside the joke.” Chomsky says, “Of course it’s funny. You’re just telling it wrong.” ~ A biologist, a chemist, and a statistician are out hunting. The biologist shoots at a deer and misses 5ft to the left, the chemist takes a shot and misses 5ft to the right, the statistician yells “We got ’em!” ~ The programmer’s wife tells him: “Run to the store and pick up a loaf of bread. If they have eggs, get a dozen.” The programmer comes home with 12 loaves of bread. ~ An Irishman goes to a building site for his first day of work, and a couple of Englishmen think, “Ah, we’ll have some fun with him!” So they walk up and say, “Hey, Paddy, as you’re new here make sure you know a joist from a girder…” “Ah, sure, I knows” says Paddy, “twas Joyce wrote Ulysses and Goethe wrote Faust.” ~ Your mother is so classless, she could be a marxist utopia ~ Lenins tomb is a communist plot. ~ A recent finding by statisticians shows the average human has one breast and one testicle. ~ It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally. ~ is it solipsistic in here, or is it just me? ~ Did you hear about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality… ~ A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers, and says, “Five beers, please”. ~ A pun, a play on words, and a limerick walk into a bar. No joke. ~ There’s a band called 1023MB. They haven’t had any gigs yet. ~ How may Freudians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Two; One to screw in the lightbulb and one to hold the penis… I mean ladder. ~ A philosopher says to a linguist “What if, instead of periods, women had apostrophes?” and the linguist replied “They’d be more possessive and have more frequent contractions”. ~ Linguistics: the most misunderstood field of study in all of everything. ~ What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care. ~ Three logicians are sitting in a restaurant. The waitress asks “is everyone having coffee?” The first logician says, “I don’t know.” The second logician says, “I don’t know.” The third logician says, “Yes.” ~ Pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ Selah ~
#ThingsACrazyPersonWouldSay
The number one trending hastag at 1:23 pm, on 12/13/14, is #ThingsACrazyPersonWouldSay If you are familiar with contemporary logic, the tweets will come as no surprise.
@thePatriciaRae I’m not worried. The Government is gonna take care of me
@Thomasismyuncle I’m a Liberal Democrat… … and I’m here to help.
@cmclymer “Police brutality and structural racism don’t exist.”
@chamblee54 I have read all of #ThingsACrazyPersonWouldSay
There is a comment above in the twitter feed. @RobinDGKelley READ @NaomiAKlein ON Why #BlackLivesMatter Should Transform the Climate Debate via @thenation
The linked article is a doozy. “The annual United Nations climate summit is wrapping up in in Lima, Peru, and on its penultimate day, something historic happened. … The historic event was the decision of the climate-justice movement to symbolically join the increasingly global #BlackLivesMatter uprising, staging a “die-in” outside the convention center much like the ones that have brought shopping malls and busy intersections to a standstill, from the US to the UK.”
The rest of the article is an orgy of overblown rhetoric. “What does #BlackLivesMatter, and the unshakable moral principle that it represents, have to do with climate change? Everything. Because we can be quite sure that if wealthy white Americans had been the ones left without food and water for days in a giant sports stadium after Hurricane Katrina, even George W. Bush would have gotten serious about climate change.”
Really? Hurricanes have happened for years. A channel was created to help shipping in Louisiana, and took out barrier islands that would have absorbed the impact of Katrina. George W. Bush, and his arab oil industry buddies, are not going to let a few lives get in the way of their profits.
The debate on carbon pollution is not going away. We may already be past the tipping points, with an unstoppable slide into disaster. Alternative energy is a long way away from being able to satisfy our needs. None of these realities is going to change because protesters in Lima, Peru, staged a die in. These are #ThingsACrazyPersonWouldSay. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Al Pieda
PG was downloading files from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Some of their fine images accompany this report. While his eyes and fingers were busy, his ears were listening to Glenn Loury and John McWhorter, a.k.a. the black guys on Bloggingheads.tv. This is a repost. The war on Christmas is observing a cease fire.
The problem with multi tasking with tbgobh is when you hear something that requires a sound clip. You have to interrupt your downloading to create a dingalink. Doctors Loury and McWhorter like to talk about the quandary of being a proud black man, and what role to let it play in your life. To them, many people are more concerned about their race than they are other parts of life, to their detriment. Not everyone is pleased by what they have to say.
PG has mixed feelings. He doesn’t think much about things in terms of being a white person. Is this the way it is, or is it white privilege? Life can be confusing.
At some point, the conversation turned to Wayne Williams. He was convicted of killing two of the missing and murdered children in 1982. PG had heard, somewhere, that DNA testing was going to be done on Mr. Williams. Then nothing more was heard. What would Mr. Google say about this? It seems as though DNA testing “strengthens” the case against Mr. Williams.
This is part of the problem of working on the internet. You have access to amazing collections. You are also tempted every minute. There are millions of ways to kill time online. If you don’t stay focused, you will never get very much done.
After the Wayne Williams search… or maybe before … PG thought of a conversation he had the day before. Someone said that Ann Coulter had been attacked onstage, and her body guards pulled the attackers away. There were supposed to be videos available.
A youtube search of “Ann Coulter attacked” brought up the embedded video. This was the work of Al Pieda. “… an international terrorist group consisting entirely of pastry chefs. The organization consists of clandestine cells known as “bakeries,” which are believed to operate mostly within Estonia, Albania, and the less-interesting parts of Iowa but mostly in the Wigan area. Al Pieda has claimed responsibility for several heinous crimes, including the assassination of Betty Crocker in 1996,”
Unworthy Of All Of Us
Jon Stewart nails it. It’s nice to hear a prominent liberal admit there were significant problems with the Mike Brown case but the Eric Garner case was much more clear. Absolutely insane. ~ In other words, we were lied to last week ~ @MHanson62 While I appreciate your Mother’s military service, her combat footwear is inappropriate and unflattering. #UnwieldyInsults ~ Maybe *they* do know we are seeds. *They* throw fertilizer on us. ~ I wonder how large a donation Monsanto made to the HRC to get that ranking. ~ defriend me because of a facebook comment? you were never my friend ~ ob’s sounds a lot like obese ~ You might want to consider that “practicing racism” is a two way street. Does it include the person who perceives themself as being persecuted ~ When decrying racism opens no door and teaches no skill, it becomes a schoolroom tattletale affair. It is unworthy of all of us: “He’s just a racist” intoned like “nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!” ~ I was in the mood to read disgusting facebook comments. “Louise are you just posting psycho babble in every Salon post and you don’t even read the gotdamn article? Get back on your meds sweetheart.” ~ @PublicWagon All I do is consume and complain about it. ~ I think there may be more to this story. Mr. Carageorge joined the team as a “walk on” last summer. Apparently, he saw football as a path to glory. What were his motivations? Did he see this as a way of getting a scholarship? Did he just want to play football for Ohio State? This is a sad story. I agree that there is a lot of exploitation of athletes, especially at the college level. The thing is, we are going into the post season, and the winning teams will be awash in glory. The players will be paying with their pain, for both the winning and losing teams. ~ How many poets does it take to change a light bulb? ~ Does ATM mean Automated Teller Machine, or Machines? I know the WMD is weapons, plural, of mass destruction. POC is people, plural, of color. The plural of medium is media. Sometimes an s at the end of the word is not needed. ~ This tweet is getting some attention :Kiara Rhodes @NthnEvenMatters Dear White People, Stop telling us what MLK would think of today’s world. Maybe we’d know if y’all didn’t kill him. Thanks, Black People 11/24/14, 7:20 PM from Desoto, TX Here is a reply. Dear Black People Stop telling us what Malcolm X would think of today’s world. Maybe we’d know if y’all didn’t kill him. ~ you can always stay at home and watch netflix ~ You’re the Nile, You’re the Tow’r of Pisa, You’re the smile On the Mona Lisa. I’m a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop, But if, baby, I’m the bottom You’re the top! Cole Porter ~ Do they have a choice for “Like, except I don’t know the specifics”? People are way too proud of their opinions. ~ I am not sure if they are beside the point. Often people exaggerate to make a point. This makes other people doubt their honesty. Maybe it would be best to stick to the truth and not exaggerate. … Thank you spell check I usually have trouble with words like exaggerate. ~ Cigarette smokers must get an exemption on the no idiot policy. ~ ” and we can’t keep making decisions in the same way we did in the 1980s” When were you born? I believe it was in the late eighties. You were not making any decisions at all. I can see several sides to this discussion. The eighties, and first half of the nineties, were an experience I would not wish on anyone. I am very lucky to be able to type this sentence. ~ Local social justice warriors are too busy with MO & NY to notice an execution in their own state. People only care about what the corporate media tells them to worry about. ~ People, take a timeout from screaming about Ferguson. You can point fingers, and holler racist, later. It may be too late to worry about Wayne Holsey. Activism isn’t about results, it is feeling good about yourself. Activism is validating your privilege, by pointing fingers and crying about racism. ~ The clemency hearing was today. It was denied, and the execution happens tomorrow. You can make arguments both for, and against, this execution. Whatever people say now will make little difference, either in the Holsey execution or the Ferguson/Staten Island grand juries. The media cheerleaders are egging people on about the out of state grand juries. That must be where the profit centers are ~ pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ selah
Stella Young
Writer and comedian Stella Young died Saturday evening in Melbourne, Victoria. The disability activist was 32. “Young was born in Stawell, country Victoria, with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder that causes bones to break easily.” She spent most of her life in a wheelchair.
Ms. Young gave a TED talk, I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much. There was a chamblee54 response, Inspiration Porn. PG has a similar view about people who try to make your life better with their happytalk. Good intentions are sometimes not enough.
Somebody posted 17 things Stella Young wanted you to know. Here are a few.
I started calling myself a disabled woman, and a crip. A good 13 years after 17-year-old me started saying crip, it still horrifies people. I do it because it’s a word that makes me feel strong and powerful.
I dance as a political statement, because disabled bodies are inherently political, but I mostly dance for all the same reasons anyone else does: because it heals my spirit and fills me with joy.
These images … are what we call inspiration porn. And I use the term porn deliberately because they objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people.
That quote, ‘the only disability in life is a bad attitude’, the reason that’s bullshit is … No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. No amount of standing in the middle of a bookshelf and radiating a positive attitude is going to turn all those books into braille.
While [Peter Singer] may see value in the life I’m living now, and may even treat me as an equal, he still believes that on the balance of things, parents and doctors should be given the choice to end lives like mine before they get tricky. For me, and for many other people with disabilities, it’s personal.
I’ve been an atheist for a long time – ever since I first heard that there was only a stairway to heaven.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
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