Library of Congress | Chamblee54

Walt Whitman And The War

Posted in History, Library of Congress, War by chamblee54 on July 4, 2024

Every night for a thousand years is a story about Walt Whitman’s time as a caregiver during the War Between the States. It appears this month on The New Yorker fiction podcast. ENFATY was written in the voice of Mr. Whitman by Chris Adrian, and read for the podcast by @NathanEnglander.
After looking for his wounded brother, Mr. Whitman was struck by the plight of wounded soldiers. He started to visit the soldiers, giving them candy and food, writing letters for them, and giving what comfort he could. ENFATY focuses on one soldier, Hank Smith. Doctors wanted to amputate his leg. Hank had a pistol, and would not let them. By the time Hank was tricked into allowing an amputation, it was too late.
Not everyone approved of Mr. Whitman. “One disapproving commissioner, Harriet Hawley, complained to her husband: “Here comes that odious Walt Whitman to talk evil and unbelief to my boys. I think I would rather see the evil one himself—at least if he had horns and hooves.”
Others saw things differently. “Union Colonel Richard Hinton met Whitman at Armory Square Hospital while recovering from a bullet wound suffered at Antietam … “When this old heathen came and gave me a pipe and tobacco, it was about the most joyous moment of my life. Walt Whitman’s funny stories, and his pipes and tobacco were worth more than all the preachers and tracts in Christendom. A wounded soldier don’t like to be reminded of his God more than twenty times a day. Walt Whitman didn’t bring any tracts or bibles; he didn’t ask if you loved the Lord, and didn’t seem to care whether you did nor not.”
Conditions conditions in the hospitals were beyond horrible. This was an era when many people said “I do not need to wash my hands every day!” One nurse asked Mr. Whitman if he had a Bible. She wanted to cheer up, by reading the Book of Job.
“These hospitals, ranging in size from converted private mansions to filthy, mud-encrusted tents in contraband camps, were places to be feared by any thinking person. The great European medical advances in bacteriology and antisepsis were still tragically a few years in the future … the overworked and understaffed physicians continued to ascribe the soldiers’ ills to such fantastical causes as “malarial miasms, mephitic effluvia, … sewer emanations, and poisonous fungi in the atmosphere.” …
The predictable result of such hurried and horrific operations was postoperative infection. Pyemia, septicemia, erysipelas, osteomyelitis, tetanus, and gangrene were grouped together as “surgical fevers.” Pyemia, literally “pus in the blood,” was the most dreaded of all, with a mortality rate of 97.4 percent, but the other surgical fevers also claimed their deadly share of victims. Not without reason did Civil War soldiers fear doctors much more intensely than they feared the enemy. They had a greater chance of dying in the hospital than in the field.
“That whole damned war business is about 999 parts diarrhea to one part glory.” The quote is on page 187 of Intimate with Walt – Selections from Whitman’s Conversations with Horace Traubel, 1882-1892. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress

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Last Surviving Witness

Posted in Library of Congress, Weekly Notes by chamblee54 on July 1, 2024

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This ain’t Texas, it’s Thursday night at the Heretic DanceOut Atlanta teaches free country …
Meak Pro Media SPECIAL EDITION 15th Anniversary (Episode 22 with Dave …
U.S. readies to evacuate Americans from Lebanon if fighting intensifies
Chase Oliver Brings Fire to Atlanta City Council re: Cop City
Israel HUMILIATED as Iran, Yemen, Lebanese and Gaza Forces Crush IDF
An Israel offensive into Lebanon risks an Iranian military response, military leader says
The Last Surviving Witness to Emmett Till’s Abduction Finally Tells His Story
55 Years On, Charles Bukowski’s ‘Notes of a Dirty Old Man’ Ages Well
@catholiccom What, you thought we weren’t gonna talk about baptizing with Gatorade?
Gatorade: A Sin-Quencher? You can’t baptize with Gatorade! It might not be so simple.
A Catholic organization built an AI priest. Here’s what happened.
“Sarah Netanyahu Reiterated This Multiple Times To Families of Israeli POWs”
Israel’s Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox men must serve in military
I Regret to Inform You That We Will All Grow Old, Infirm, and Unattractive they say …
Hollywood Jews Slam Violence Outside L.A. Synagogue as ‘Horrifying,’ Vow to ‘Mobilize’
How to Explain Trans Hermits – women passed themselves off as men to become monks?
The presidential election isn’t a toss-up As our model launches, either Biden or Trump …
Cyprus: From early Zionist colony to military base for Israel’s war on Gaza
Wisdom, Montana. Ranchers and cowhands in Fetty’s Bar april 1942 John Vachon
‘Quon Grills Nathan Wade on Fani Willis Fling and Trump Case Dismissal
Kinky Friedman, provocative satirist and one-time gubernatorial candidate, dies at 79
Kmart wiped out from California as last store in state closes
I Was A Pastor At A Megachurch. Then Someone Asked Me A Question That Turned …
ye ~ tomorrow ~ tim dillon ~ bawarchi ~ texas rangers
cox media ~ vaush ~ @kc_ceo34 ~ scotus ~ debate
data ~ everett dirkson ~ nato ~ foot numbness ~ pride
lebanon ~ @thebishgossip ~ ono matopoeia ~ spiritual abolitionist ~ onomatopoeia
onomatopoeia ~ sf pride ~ cardi b ~ flavorwire ~ lgbtq tour
martin mull ~ harland sanders ~ k-mart ~ aitah ~ glenn & john
hippie hibachi ~ chasing the dragon. ~ stp ~ stp ~ ouroboros
kinky friedman ~ raw dog ~ fatcon ~ fatcon ~ hodge twins ~ donald sutherland
warnock on msnbc ~ judge ~ carolyn bryant ~ jfif jpeg ~ aitah
crab fried rice ~ deuteronomy ~ LA synagogue ~ bobby jr ~ phil walden jr
tomorrow ~ otis redding ~ escapepod ~ drabblecast ~ catholic ai
dual n back ~ dual n back ~ eno gaza ~ emmitt till ~ osterweil
shakespeare pronouns ~ ian hunter ~ carlos santana ~ LA synagogue ~ bobby jr
Accident Waiting To Happen ~ Here is Liverpool native Malcolm McDowell talking about seeing the Silver Beetles at the Cavern Club one two ~ @AdameMedia “I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did,” The Minister of Social Equality in Israel, Mai Golan… ~ @ofcrdeonjoseph IT WAS STUPID. BUT I WAS FED UP Note: Please do not do what I did. In all truth, it’s just not worth it. So a few days ago, I went to the store to get stuff for my wife off duty. As I entered I saw this tall, blond. She was tanned with designer sunglasses. You could tell she had a lot work done. She was at the counter asking weird questions to the cashier. It was a strange exchange, that was circular. It was odd. But it felt as if it was a distraction. As I start to walk deeper into the store, I see a well dressed young man with tattoos on his neck and arms. He had a bottle of Hennessy in his hand as he walked from the alcohol section very calmly towards the exit. I heard the cashier yell at the man “I SAW YOU TAKE THAT! YOU GOTTA PAY FOR THAT!” As he walks towards the exit, he laughs stating “I’m sorry ma’am. Don’t worry about it.” She yells for him to put it back again, to which he replied “I’m sorry ma’am. I can’t put it back. Once I’m out the door it’s mine. You know the rules! You can’t do nothing” The blond walked out with him as the alarm went off. They were both laughing. The cashier was demoralized. Seemed like this was a reoccurring theme for her. I just witnessed a theft. Everything in me was trying to resist going after him. “It’s just property. The police won’t even come for this. Why bother? He will just get released in an hour or two. What if you get into an altercation? The DA will file on you before they file on him. The department will burn you. You have a family. It’s just a bottle of booze. Don’t get involved. You’re off. Just be a good witness if the police arrive.” But he was so brazen about it. So cavalier. I kept trying to talk my self down, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t about the property. It was the principle. The look of frustration on the cashiers face was affecting me. The customers who were doing it right, who were going to pay for their items with their hard earned money staring angrily at the door as the idiot exited smiling. At this point, it had nothing to do with me being a cop. It had everything to do with me being a fed up, and tired of the lawlessness and hopelessness it causes. I thought of all the stores closing because of folks like this. The jobs lost. My mind, my heart and body were in full agreement. I marched out the door and caught him before he hit the lot. “Bro. Imma need you to put that back. He cursed as he turned to face me, but when he saw my stature, he froze and said. “Come on. You Black. You know how we do!” He was Hispanic. “Walk your ass back into that store and put it back.” I said. He looked as me and said “It’s mine. I walked in with it!” He told so many lies in a span of one minute it was mind numbing. I said “People are sick of this shit bro. You know they have to raise their prices because of the shit you just did. I’m telling you to put it back!” He looked at me and said “Nah. I’m going to my ride and leaving. Do you know who I am? I’m a TikTok star.” He walked over to a red Mercedes, where the blond was sitting in the driver’s seat. I followed him. “Nah, bruh. That ain’t happening.” He stuck his chest out like he was going to do something. But when I stepped toward him he pushed it back in. His lady was nervous. She rolls down the window and says to him. “Mi amore. I’ll hold it.” He gives it to her and smiles stating “I don’t have it no more Sug Knight!” The blond reaches towards me and hand hands me the bottle. She apologized and tells him to get in the car. “Bitch! Why you give him that shit!” He yelled. She said “What if the calls the cops. Let’s get outta here mi amore!” He goes to his trunk. I don’t flinch. I told him he wasn’t going to do shit. And he didn’t. An off duty sheriff deputy came backed me up. I thanked him and walked back into the store. I approached the clerk, and placed it on the counter. The cashier and customers smiled and thanked me. It felt good to give folks hope. The way we should. ~ Samsung – Galaxy A15 5G 128GB (Unlocked) ~ Gatorade Baptism Manley Pointer was looking at X one tuesday morning, trying to stay out of trouble.. He found this item from @catholiccom “What, you thought we weren’t gonna talk about baptizing with Gatorade?” A praying man was about to be hit with an onslaught of brightly colored liquid, coming out of a Gatorade cooler in the sky. To a Catholic, baptize means to sprinkle a few drops of sacred fluid on the forehead. To a Baptist, babtize means filling a tub with water, and dunking the recently-saved sinner. To fill that tub with Gatorade would require at least 100 gallons. You can’t drink Baptismal fluid after it has been dunked in. All that lovely Gatorade would have to be poured down the drain. Baptists know that baptizing with Gatorade is a dumb idea, even by Catholic standards. @catholiccom has a link to a story, Gatorade: A Sin-Quencher? You can’t baptize with Gatorade! Right? It might not be so simple. After you click through the request for donations, you get to the story. It seems like the Church built an AI priest, Father Justin. Someone asked FJ if it was ok to Baptize an infant with Gatorade. People have serious discussions about this. You will be forgiven if you do not participate. ~ Lunch today is a tussit special. The collards and potatoes were steamed yesterday. The rice patty covers a partial burrito. The carne asada burrito came from a former Milk Jug store on Buford Hiway, which is now a takeout taco place. The burrito came with a side order of arroz y frijoles. When I had eaten as much as I wanted, I put the remaining burrito on top of the remaining rice, and put the styrofoam container in the refrigerator. The plate dates back to the Truman Administration. When I was growing up, all our meals were served on a plate that looked like that. Fifties era plastic is utterly indestructable. ~ I got a message from Centerwell today. “it’s too soon to refill 1 or more of your prescriptions. Check your order status As soon as the refill is available on 8/21/2024, we’ll start processing the prescription.” the order is for “XXXXX6957 – ROS” Should I just ignore this? ~ Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia by Robert Greenfield ~ I tried to catch some Fog. I mist. ~ When chemists die, they barium. ~ Jokes about German sausage are the wurst. ~ Venison for dinner? Oh deer! ~ A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran. ~ I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time. ~ How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it. ~ I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me. ~ This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore. ~ @hodgetwins on Ben Shapiro: “He’s a Jew conservative. He’s not America first he’s Israel first.” ~ that.traveling.diva ~ “they can get Hamas like we did Bin Laden” ~ That’s where President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden stopped by following Thursday night’s highly-watched presidential debate with former President Donald Trump. The couple stopped by 2758 Cobb Parkway SE in Cobb County for a late-night meal. ~ President Biden went to the Waffle House at 2758 Cobb Parkway, in front of Life University ~ there are 12 Kmart stores still open. The nearest one to Georgia is Kmart Miami #3074 ~ I saw Martin Eugene Mull in person three times. He opened for Melissa Manchester in 1974 at the Music Hall. I stayed for the headliner. Melissa Manchester was GOOD. Learning about her was a gift MEM gave me. When the Music Hall was in Cherokee Plaza, I drove by one night and saw cars in the parking lot. MEM was doing a solo show, and I caught the last few minutes. He did a song about doing nothing, and said that dead people can do it to. When Atlanta hosted the Super Bowl in 1994, MEM taped a comedy special in Woodruff Park. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders were kicking field goals. After the show, MEM was waiting for somebody, and I stood a few feet away and made eye contact. I couldn’t think of anything to say. ~ This is a repost from 2019. ~ … “David! Sweetie! Where are you watching from? Come hang out with us on Allen’s balcony!” David, a bookish looking middle-aged man, destroyed the festive mood in the little store in an instant. “Absolutely not. Those defectives and freaks?” he spat, indicating the colorful crowd outside the store, “They have nothing to do with MY life, thank you very much. This parade has as much dignity as a carnival freak show. It’s no wonder the whole country hates us.” Luckily for David, the Asshole Killer mind ray I’ve been working on is not yet operational.” … ~ pictures for the first day of the second half of 2024 are from The Library of Congress ~ selah

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On The Road Part Two

Posted in Book Reports, Georgia History, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on June 30, 2024

One moment in the integration of On The Road into my Mcmansionville life in was the washing machine incident. I was doing the clothes. When the machine gets to the spin dry cycle, the clothes settle unevenly in the spin basket. The machine starts to rock on its feet, and make machine noise music of Lou Reed proportions. I will rest my butt against the side of the machine, and read OTR.
Meanwhile, OTR is sitting there, patiently waiting on the slack blogger to write yet another chapter. Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) is back in Frisco. As soon as Dean (Neal Cassady) gets there, he takes off in search of pussy. … “‘Oh I love, love, love women! I think women are wonderful! I love women!’ He spat out the window; he groaned; he clutched his head. Great beads of sweat fell from his forehead from pure excitement and exhaustion.”… Marylou, the Dean-babe they went cross country with, has run off with some rich people she knows. Sal is broke, starving, and dreaming of food. “There were places where hamburgs sizzled on grills and coffee was just a nickel.” Sal was in the pre-beatnik San Francisco of 1948, 71 years before I rode the washing machine in summertime Brookhaven. The culture may be internet processed, but the fridge has food, and the clothes are going to be clean in a little while.
Part Two of OTR starts with Sal back in New Jersey. He takes his aunt down to Virginia for a family holiday. Who should show up but Dean Moriarty, first wife Marylou, and Ed Dunkel … “ready to do anything Dean asked him, and at this time Dean was too busy for scruples.” Sal’s aunt has furniture to take back to New Jersey, which Dean winds up taking in his ’49 Hudson. There is an extended New Years Eve party in New York. Before long, Dean needs to get back to Frisco, and he talks Sal into going along. … “… but now the bug as one me again, and the bug’s name was Dean Moriarty and I was off on another spurt around the road.” … They go through Washington as Harry Truman is being sworn in for a full term as POTUS. Around that time, they got a costly speeding ticket in Virginia. They paid that off, leaving them very little money to get to California. (Ed Dunkel, aka Al Hinkle, was the “sole survivor” of the OTR characters. He died December 26, 2018.)
The first stop is New Orleans. Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs) is there, along with Galatea, the wife of Ed Dunkel. The cadaverous OBL is leading the opiated life described in Junky. Galatea is one of the more curious side stories of OTR. Ed meets her out west. “These two mindless cads decided to bring the girl along to the east and have her foot the bill … By the time they got to Tucson she was broke. Dean and Ed gave her the slip in a hotel lobby and resumed the voyage alone …”
Galatea made it to New Orleans, and Old Bull Lee. Galatea was reunited with Ed, and began their life together. 46 years later, Galatea … whose real name was Helen … was still with Al Hinkle. Here is the honeymoon story. Better Homes and Gardens chose not to publish this tale.
“… the Burroughses weren’t all too happy to have had Helen ‘dumped’ on them. As a matter of fact, when Helen first got there, Bill wasn’t happy and began writing letters to Allen (Ginsberg) in New York telling him to tell me to come and get her out of his house, it’s not a hotel! When we finally got to their house, which was actually in Algiers, LA (across the Mississippi River from New Orleans), Bill and Joan welcomed us. Helen had made herself indispensible in the three weeks she had been there, caring for both the Burroughs children (Joan’s three year old daughter Julie and William Jr., who was an infant at that time); she bathed them, fed them, and generally kept them out of their parents’ way. Bill and Joan actually asked Helen and I if we would stay with them – he had a room all ready to fix up for us! But Helen wanted out – she couldn’t believe how they lived, how little care they took of their children; never mind the house, which was dirty, with lizards running around everywhere.”
Helen was appalled by Joan’s use of the Benzedrine inhalers – she would open them up and swallow the cotton. Joan would send Helen to buy an inhaler almost every day. Once Helen mentioned to Joan that the pharmacist told her he would happily sell her ten inhalers at a time because he knew she was not the type to abuse them, to which Joan replied, “So, where are they?” And Helen never figured out that Bill was using heroin – she just thought he was stoned on marijuana all the time (which he was, on top of the heroin). It was all just a little too crazy for Helen, and she was glad when we turned down their offer of a room and found ourselves a room in New Orleans, where we stayed for about six weeks. It was a low-budget adventure, but we did get our honeymoon and we enjoyed it immensely.”
Sal and OBL went to the racetrack. Sal had a vision about his father, and told OBL to bet on a horse because of it. OBL ignored Sal. The horse won, and paid fifty to one. Soon after that, OBL kicked the bunch out. They headed to Frisco without any money. They stole food and gasoline. They picked up hitchhikers, who promised money from a rich aunt down the road, who sometimes existed. Dean cut off the gas while going downhill and coasted. Sal did not like to drive … “I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” … took up space and grooved on the goneness of it all.” … “And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy I had always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move one, with a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiances shining in bright Mind Essence, innumerable lotus-lands falling open in the magic mothswarm of heaven.”
After much hunger and grooviness, Dean, Sal, and Marylou made it to Frisco. Dean promptly dumped Marylou to take up with kids-mama Camille. “You see what a bastard he is?… Dean will leave you out in the cold anytime it’s in his interest.” Sal wanders the city dreaming of food, until he gets his GI bill money, and decides to go back to New Jersey. “What I accomplished by going to Frisco I don’t know. Camille wanted me to leave; Dean didn’t care one way or the other. I bought a loaf of bread and meats and made myself ten sandwiches to cross the country with again; they were all going to go rotten on me by the time I got to Dakota. … We were all thinking we’d never see one another again and we didn’t care.” The beatnik lifestyle had a downside.
The first draft of this piece is done. I get more coffee, and goes to work on another project. He is producing a sticker picture based on Lizard (No. 56) by M.C. Escher. Today is the day to start cutting out lizards. These pieces are larger, and more complicated, than what I usually cut out. The Grateful Dead is goofing on “China Cat Sunflower” in the background. Jerry would have made a lousy headlight on a northbound train.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost from 2019. The chamblee54 On The Road series is complete. part one part two part three part four part five part six part seven

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Author Insults

Posted in Book Reports, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on June 29, 2024

25. Gertrude Stein on Ezra Pound “A village explainer.
Excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not.”
24. Virginia Woolf on Aldous Huxley “All raw, uncooked, protesting.”
23. H. G. Wells on George Bernard Shaw “An idiot child screaming in a hospital.”
22. Joseph Conrad on D.H. Lawrence “Filth. Nothing but obscenities.”
21. Lord Byron on John Keats (1820) “Here are Johnny Keats’ piss-a-bed poetry, and three novels by God knows whom… No more Keats, I entreat: flay him alive; if some of you don’t I must skin him myself: there is no bearing the drivelling idiotism of the Mankin.”
20. Vladimir Nabokov on Joseph Conrad “I cannot abide Conrad’s souvenir shop style and bottled ships and shell necklaces of romanticist cliches.”
19. Dylan Thomas on Rudyard Kipling “Mr Kipling … stands for everything in this cankered world which I would wish were otherwise.”
18. Ralph Waldo Emerson on Jane Austen “Miss Austen’s novels . . . seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. The one problem in the mind of the writer . . . is marriageableness.”
17. Martin Amis on Miguel Cervantes “Reading Don Quixote can be compared to an indefinite visit from your most impossible senior relative, with all his pranks, dirty habits, unstoppable reminiscences, and terrible cronies. When the experience is over, and the old boy checks out at last (on page 846 — the prose wedged tight, with no breaks for dialogue), you will shed tears all right; not tears of relief or regret but tears of pride. You made it, despite all that ‘Don Quixote’ could do.”
16. Charles Baudelaire on Voltaire (1864) “I grow bored in France — and the main reason is that everybody here resembles Voltaire…the king of nincompoops, the prince of the superficial, the anti-artist, the spokesman of janitresses, the Father Gigone of the editors of Siecle.”
15. William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
14. Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
13. Gore Vidal on Truman Capote “He’s a full-fledged housewife from Kansas with all the prejudices.”
12. Oscar Wilde on Alexander Pope “There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.”
11. Vladimir Nabokov on Ernest Hemingway (1972) “As to Hemingway, I read him for the first time in the early ‘forties, something about bells, balls and bulls, and loathed it.”
10. Henry James on Edgar Allan Poe (1876) “An enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection.”
09. Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”
08. Elizabeth Bishop on J.D. Salinger “I HATED [Catcher in the Rye]. It took me days to go through it, gingerly, a page at a time, and blushing with embarrassment for him every ridiculous sentence of the way. How can they let him do it?”
07. D.H. Lawrence on Herman Melville (1923) “Nobody can be more clownish, more clumsy and sententiously in bad taste, than Herman Melville, even in a great book like ‘Moby Dick’…. One wearies of the grand serieux. There’s something false about it. And that’s Melville. Oh dear, when the solemn ass brays! brays! brays!”
06. W. H. Auden on Robert Browning “I don’t think Robert Browning was very good in bed. His wife probably didn’t care for him very much. He snored and had fantasies about twelve-year-old girls.”
05. Evelyn Waugh on Marcel Proust (1948) “I am reading Proust for the first time. Very poor stuff. I think he was mentally defective.”
04. Mark Twain on Jane Austen (1898) “I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”
03. Virginia Woolf on James Joyce “the work of a queasy undergraduate scratching his pimples.”
02. William Faulkner on Mark Twain (1922) “A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy.”
01. D.H. Lawrence on James Joyce (1928) “My God, what a clumsy olla putrida James Joyce is! Nothing but old fags and cabbage stumps of quotations from the Bible and the rest stewed in the juice of deliberate, journalistic dirty-mindedness.”
Bonus. Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman “Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the.”
Bonus Two, from Flannery O’Connor “I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.”
These author insults were borrowed from flavorwire. HT to Andrew Sullivan. The pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.

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Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia

Posted in Book Reports, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on June 28, 2024

Jerry Garcia was in bad shape. At a sound check, he disappeared for 45 minutes. When he came back, there was a plastic shower cap on his head. When smoking heroin, Jerry wore the cap to keep his hair from falling into the fire. This time, he forgot to take the cap off.
This is from the epilogue to Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia. DSAOBOJG was curated by Robert Greenfield, who put together a lovely story about The Rolling Stones 1972 tour. This book later became a podcast series.
Jerry saw his father drown, when Jerry was very young. Clifford “Tiff” Garcia, Jerry’s older brother, cut off one of Jerry’s fingers. Jerry made a living giving guitar lessons in Palo Alto. Somehow this evolved into playing in a Jug Band, which became the Grateful Dead. At this point the story is well known, and a part of sixties lore.
To this reader, the turning point is when Pigpen dies in 1973. The band kept playing. The ouroboros grew and festered. Again, this is familiar to anyone with access to a deadhead. What was not public knowledge was Jerry’s junkie problem. Jerry never shot heroin, but rather smoked it off aluminum foil, aka chasing the dragon.
I first heard about Heroin Jerry in 1986, after he had a diabetic coma. I appreciate athletic substance use in rockandroll, but never did quite imagine Jerry as a junkie. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention when he was busted freebasing cocaine in Golden Gate park. Aside from the heroin, Jerry was severely diabetic, and yet ate sweets and junk food. It is a miracle that he made it to 1995.
Jerry had other issues. He treated the women in his life horribly. He was married either three of four times, and had a collection of daughters. The book has interviews with many of the ladies, and much more detail. There are a many other counterculture metaphors metastasizing. I just want to put this book on the shelf, and move on. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

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The KKK In Atlanta

Posted in Georgia History, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on June 27, 2024

@SpaceyG “Buckhead hasn’t been considered an Atlanta suburb since the head of the ATL Klan developed the Peachtree Battle-Peachtree Rd. area as one. When he sold some land to the Catholic Church (for Christ the King) he was relieved of his top Klansman duties.” This was news to me, though not terribly shocking. My google habit kicked in, and soon there was a handful of articles. There was a lot of disagreement over the specifics.
There was also a lot of oh-how-terrible posturing. This will be held to a minimum in this post. We are talking about the Ku Klux Klan. If you don’t know by now, they were horrible, horrible people. If you want to get worked up about it, go watch tv.
The KKK was revived in 1915. Birth of a Nation was one inspiration. Another catalyst was the Leo Frank affair. He was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan, despite substantial evidence of his innocence. Mr. Frank was Jewish. The trial was the occasion for anti-Semitic hate speech.
Gov. John Slaton commuted the death sentence of Mr. Frank to life imprisonment, along with suggestions that the verdict would be overturned. A group called “The Knights of Mary Phagan” broke into the state prison, and took Leo Frank out. On August 17, 1915, he was taken to Marietta, and lynched. This happened where I-75 crosses Hwy 120 today, downhill from the Big Chicken.
“An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. … On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a “practical fraternity among men,” and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
The Klan initially did not do very well, until I.W. Simmons met Edward Young Clarke and Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Tyler, a pair of promoters. They rebranded the Klan to fight against Jews, Catholics, and anything else people did not like. Clarke and Tyler had a knack for publicity, and got a lot of new members. The recruits paid a $10 initiation fee, with a substantial cut of that going to Clarke and Tyler. Soon, the money began to pour in.
These recruits were going to need pointed hoods. “Although it’s little morethan an unassuming office structure today, the Cotton Exchange Building on bustling Roswell Road has something of a haunted past. In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan bought and used it as a manufacturing and distribution center for the group’s propaganda. Additionally, the Klan produced its robes, hoods and gloves there.” The Cotton Exchange building still stands today, a block north of the Buckhead triangle.
“On October 11, 1921, Elizabeth Tyler was entertaining a few friends in her elegant Atlanta home. … At 9:45 p.m., five gunshots rang out. Half an hour later, the telephone rang at the Atlanta Constitution. “I want to talk to a reporter … I just want to tell you that we got Mrs. Tyler tonight.” The assailants, who were never identified, hadn’t gotten anyone. All five bullets had missed.”
That was not the only trouble in paradise. The Klan leadership began to quarrel. I.W. Simmons was pushed out, replaced by Hiram Evans. Soon, Clarke and Evans were out. Imperial Kleagle Clarke was convicted of violating the Mann Act. Bessie Tyledr moved to California, and died in 1924.
The sources I found are unclear about a KKK real estate business. I.W. Simmons had plans for a University, and began to purchase property for it. There was also the Imperial Palace, at the corner of Peachtree and West Wesley. Here is what the Catholic church says:
“In 1916, an elegant white-columned, Greek revival-style mansion was built by Edward M Durant on the site of the Cathedral. In 1921, the house was bought by the Ku Klux Klan. The group met mostly in secret in the home with the intention of transforming it into their “Imperial Palace,” but by the 1930s had begun to unravel with the onset of the Great Depression. After the property went into foreclosure, the Church was able to purchase the land from the mortgage holder. The cost of the 4 acres of land and mansion was $35,000, quite a sum at that time but was chosen over other available locations due to the fact it was on public transportation. … On the Feast of Christ the King on October 31, 1937, the cornerstone for the Church was blessed and the dedication took place on January 18, 1939.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.

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Failed Regime-Change

Posted in Library of Congress, Weekly Notes by chamblee54 on June 24, 2024

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NOAM CHOMSKY ON DERRIDA, FOUCAULT, LACAN AND POSTMODERNISM
The hisTory of Bail and PreTrial release sePTemBer 23, 2010 TimoThy r. schnacke …
BOMBSHELL: IDF Had Hamas Oct 7 Blueprint. Did NOTHING
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MANIPULATING ADVICE IMPROVE LARGE WORDS CRAM GOD COG FURNITURE
Does the first letter of one’s name affect life decisions? A natural language processing examination …
matt taibbi ~ doe vs princeton ~ leon redbone ~ darryl rhoades ~ rubbish
campside ~ anti racism ~ elizabeth trump ~ kevin ayers ~ dangerous minds
banning mill ~ banning mill ~ banning mill ~ alcohollywood ~ @QueerLibLib
Queer Liberation Library ~ phyllis lyon del martin ~ subway incident ~ justin kruetzmann
@JustKreutzmann ~ bill kreutzmann ~ bibi ~ styx666 ~ weigel wedding ~ martyr made
billy preston ~ russia china energy ~ gateway ~ dave smith ~ auditorium
mlk ~ trump ~ semafor ~ purple tenacle porn ~ alex van halen
bari weiss jre ~ exodus 20 ~ ttc ~ cool air ~ roidroids
Rusty Sue ~ elitefitrea ~ rj ~ bsb ~ Donald Trump ~ Elisabeth Trump
Christopher John Molluso ~ Christopher John Molluso ~ dick code ~ mark stuart farrar
nellie bly ~ nathan wade ~ mahmood od ~ rogan ~ trump ~ @TheWarNerd
So many “heterodox” personalities have come out as aggressive, hasbara slinging supporters of Israel, and her dirty war in Gaza. This blows a hole in the entire heterodox/mainstream dynamic. ~ Patrick Henningsen @21WIRE #Palestine have reached the third round of 2026 World Cup qualifiers for the first time in their history, under Tunisian coach Makram Daboub. An impressive feat, and they also played all 28 of their games away, thousands of miles away from their home stadium in West Bank. The violent Israeli occupation has now made it impossible for them to host any matches there. Despite all the challenges the team faced, and the horror of Israel’s ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza, they still performed strongly, securing second place in their group…🍉🍉⚽️⚽️❤️❤️✊🏼 ~ @AdameMedia BREAKING: Chaim Otmazgin, a senior Zaka commander, main source of “mass r*pe” and other atrocity propaganda, and a star witness in the Sheryl Sandberg “documentary”, has been EXPOSED as a FRAUD by Israeli media. For years he falsely claimed to be a lawyer to scam clients out of money, with one client being scammed out of half a million shekels (over $400,000). Never trust a word they say. ~ @mtracey In a draft treaty dated April 15, 2022, the central dispute between Ukraine and Russia apparently related to “security guarantees” for Ukraine if it were to adopt “permanent neutrality,” a central Russian demand that Ukraine appears to have entertained at the time. (No NATO, no foreign military presence, no foreign military hardware, etc.) … ~ what changed in August 2020 was a massive protest movement in Belarus, backed by the West, to overthrow Lukashenko and replace him with the western-backed opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. It was this failed western-backed regime-change movement against Lukashenko — and the sanctions imposed by the EU and Washington to isolate and collapse Lukashenko’s regime — that once and for all forced Lukashenko to stop playing both sides off each other, and instead throw himself at Putin’s mercy to save his regime. For a couple of months in early autumn 2020, the smart money was on Lukashenko going the way of Yanukovych, Ceacescu and other color revolution losers — but Putin, after waiting for Lukashenko to get so desperate for help he’d agree to any of Putin’s demands, came in and saved Lukashenko’s regime. And in return, for the first time in their 20-year frenemy relationship, Putin got whatever he wanted from Lukashenko. ~ @FiringLineShow In his book, former Mueller prosecutor @AWeissmann_ recounts Paul Manafort meeting with a Putin ally over a proposed deal allowing Russia to take control of part of Ukraine with #Trump’s implicit approval. “It was such a clear indication of what Vladimir Putin was trying to do.” ~ In 2020, In 2020, Belarus was not getting along with Russia. The deep state screwed it up, and now Belarus is a close ally of Russia. Content Warning: This article contains a lot of long names, and headache inducing details ~ cvs 404 320 6658 ~ Elizabeth Christ Trump (born Elisabeth Christ; German pronunciation: [e:li:zabɛt kʁɪst]; October 10, 1880 – June 6, 1966) was a German-American businesswoman and the paternal grandmother of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. She married Frederick Trump in 1902. They had three children, Fred, John, and Elizabeth (later Mrs. Walters). Her husband died in 1918, requiring the 37-year-old widow to manage their properties. She co-founded the real estate development company E. Trump & Son with her son Fred, the father of Donald Trump. ~ Frederick Christ Trump Sr. (October 11, 1905 – June 25, 1999) was an American real-estate developer and businessman. He was the father of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. ~ barackobama I didn’t really know my father—he left my mother and me when I was two years old, and only traveled from Kenya to visit us once, when I was ten. That trip was the first and last I saw of him; after that, I heard from him only through the occasional letter, written on thin blue airmail paper that was preprinted to fold and address without an envelope. His short visit had a profound impact on my life. My father gave me my first basketball and introduced me to jazz. But for the most part, the visit left me with more questions than it answered, and I knew I would have to figure out how to be a man on my own. ~ But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. Mark 6:4 ~ jameselliott60016@gmail.com ~ It was a typical thursday night in McMansion City. Manley Pointer took his brother, Laser, to Walmart. While sitting in the parking lot, MP listened to Rusty Sue, a drabblecast episodes about killerbots. The cyborgs all talked like characters in a b-movie western, which was the story’s mcguffin. MP was listening with his eyes fixed on the mirrors, so he could see any nefarious characters as they came up to his vehicle. Finally, the whole thing grew tiresome, and MP decided to go in the store. Carefully walking through the obstacle course of abandoned shopping carts, MP made his way to the store. The human flotsam and jetsam that one sees at the Chamblee Walmart is only slightly less menacing than the repair challenged roidroids in the story. They probably did not talk with cliche western accents. MP turned to look at the parking lot, and saw the sign turning on at the hemp store. But then the sign turned red, then purple, then blue, then green. The hemp store has a sign that changes colors every few seconds. This is truly the best of all possible worlds. Walmart is always a consumer wonderland. The loaves of bread were marked down to thirty six cents, but MP passed. A loaded shopping cart was leading Laser to the checkout line. It was time to go back to the vehicle and wait. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress selah ~ @Drabblecast This is what happens when you listen to a DC about old west androids in a Walmart parking lot ~ this is a repost ~ pictures for this ecstatically boring monday are from The Library of Congress ~ selah

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The Last Night Of Judy Garland

Posted in History, Holidays, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on June 22, 2024

“In march of 1969, Judy married her fifth husband, Mickey Devinko, better known as Mickey Deans, a gay night-club promoter. Judy had an unfortunate habit of marrying gay men. They lived together in a tiny mews house in Chelsea, London. The evening of Saturday June 21 1969, Judy and Mickey were watching a documentary, The Royal Family, on television, when they had an argument. Judy ran out the door screaming into the street, waking the neighbors.
Several versions of what happened next exist, but the fact remains that a phone call for Judy woke him at 10:40 the next morning, and she was not sleeping in the bed. He searched for her, only to find the bathroom door locked. After no response, he climbed outside to the bathroom window and entered to find Judy, sitting on the toilet. Rigor Mortis had set in. Judy Garland, 47, was dead.
The press was already aware of the news before the body could be removed. In an effort to prevent pictures being taken of the corpse, she was apparently draped over someone’s arm like a folded coat, covered with a blanket, and removed from the house with the photographers left none the wiser.
The day Judy died there was a tornado in Kansas…. in Saline County,KS, a rather large F3 tornado (injuring 60, but causing no deaths) did hit at 10:40 pm on June 21st, that would be 4:40 am, June 22nd, London time, the morning she died. I know the time of death has never been firmly established, but since Rigor Mortis had already set in, I think this tornado may very much be in the ballpark in terms of coinciding with time of death…. Other news articles suggest the tornado struck Salina “late at night” which could certainly also mean after midnight on June 22, or roughly 6:00 am London time…
The Toledo Blade for June 24th, also in an article located right next to a picture of Garland, in a write-up on the Salina tornado noted that “Late Saturday [June 21] and early Sunday [June 22, another batch of tornadoes struck in central Kansas.” So it seems the legend seems confirmed.”
The text for this story comes from Findadeath. You can spend hours at this site. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

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Donald Trump, The Son Of Christ

Posted in History, Library of Congress, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on June 20, 2024

Donald John Trump is the son of Frederick Christ Trump Sr. The elder’s middle name is his mother’s maiden name. Elizabeth Christ Trump was born in Germany, and took over her husband’s business affairs when he died in the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. Mrs. Trump later founded E. Trump & Son, the start of the Trump empire.
I learned this by googling “Christtrump.” A facebook friend posted a cover picture of CHRISTRUMP: Persecution of a Man by Christopher John Molluso. The cover shows a red necktie on the cross. The rood is lit by a shaft of sunlight, breaking through the storm clouds.
The self published book has this description: “… I suggest, in this exploration, a different Christ: by age 40, a Marine major, a fit Apollonion warrior, seen lean and sinewy in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment; at age 55, a scientist, analyst, and doctor, who never jumps to rash conclusions, hoodwinked by tendentious data sets from government labs, he’d solve all worldly woe by the application of crystalline thought; and finally, by age 70, a wizened, oracular leader, who commands all matters and the moment for the common betterment.” This person has little in common with Donald J. Trump, a detail that does not deter the pearl-clutching/eye-rolling public.
The book jacket has more information about the author. “Chris is a retired licensed psychologist and former government sex offender recidivism prevention specialist. He was a staunch libertarian and Ralph Nader supporter, to boot, until he felt a calling to help rescue this once free nation from seeming wicked onslaught and higher calling still to be closer to the redeemer, savior, and warrior Jesus Christ. Who knows where and when calling strikes? Maybe this book will inspire you to your calling.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress

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Muhammad Ali vs Jerry Quarry

Posted in Georgia History, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on June 20, 2024

Many have noted that Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic torch in 1996. Few seem to remember another Atlanta appearance from the former Cassius Clay. It happened October 26, 1970, at the Municipal Auditorium. To get to this point, lets borrow a few lines from a Courier-Journal Ali Timeline.
1960 – “Clay defeats Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland on Sept. 5 to win the light-heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Olympics in Rome…”
1962 – “Clay hears Elijah Muhammad speak for the first time. He meets another Nation of Islam leader, Malcolm X, who becomes a friend and adviser. – On March 9, the military draft board classifies Clay 1-A, meaning he is fit and available to be called into the Army…”
1964 -” Because of a low score on the Army intelligence test, Clay is reclassified 1-Y, not qualified for military service, in January. “I said I was The Greatest,” he explains. “I never said I was the smartest.” – Clay scores a stunning seventh-round technical knockout over 7-1 favorite Sonny Liston on Feb. 25 at the Miami Convention Center, winning the world heavyweight championship at age 22. – In response to a reporter’s question the day after the fight, Clay confirms he is a member of the Nation of Islam, saying: “I believe in Allah and in peace. … I’m not a Christian anymore. … Followers of Allah are the sweetest people in the world. They don’t tote weapons. They pray five times a day.” – A rift grows between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Ali sides with Elijah, causing grief for Malcolm. – Casting off his “slave name,” Clay adopts the temporary name Cassius X. Later he announces that Elijah has bestowed on him the name Muhammad Ali. The name means “Praiseworthy One.”…”
1965 – “Ali knocks out Liston in the first round of their rematch, before only 4,280 fans in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25. Liston falls under a “phantom” punch that apparently few people see, giving rise to suspicions that he threw the fight. Former champion Joe Louis eventually declares Ali “unfit” to hold the title. – In October, former champion Floyd Patterson says: “Cassius Clay is disgracing himself and the Negro race.” On Nov. 22, Ali delivers a punishing defeat to Patterson, in part, he says, because Patterson refuses to call him Ali….”
1966 – “With the Vietnam War heating up, the Army lowers test-score standards, reclassifying Ali 1-A — fit for service. – “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” he says to reporters who call him at home in Miami. He later explains that “no Viet Cong ever called me n*****.” – Ali asks to be reclassified a conscientious objector to military service. A hearing officer sides with him, but the draft board keeps him 1-A, armed with a U.S. Justice Department opinion that Ali’s objections to military service are political not religious….”
1967 – “On April 28, Ali refuses induction into the Army in Houston.” “It is the light of my consciousness as a Muslim minister and my own personal convictions that I take my stand in rejecting the call to be inducted in the armed services,” Ali stated after refusing induction on April 28, 1967. “I have searched my conscience and I find I cannot be true to my belief in my religion by accepting such a call.” He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20, 1967. Ali was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000, the maximum penalty for the offense. He remained free on a $5,000 bond while he appealed his conviction. Ali was also stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship by the New York State Athletic Commission and the World Boxing Association, systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. “
For three and a half years, Mr. Ali was unable to fight in the ring. The WBA had a tournament, and installed their own champion. People tried to set up a fight for Mr. Ali, but were blocked by politicians, and state boxing authorities. California Governor Ronald Reagan said “That draft dodger will never fight in my state, period.” Then someone had the idea to have the fight in Atlanta.
Atlanta has never been a boxing town. There was no boxing commission. The Municipal Auditorium, the only venue that could host, was a dump. As Ring magazine tells the story: “So it was the height of irony that it was Atlanta, a city that occupied the heart of the Deep South, that provided the breakthrough. State Senator Leroy Johnson and Governor Lester Maddox helped pave the way for a most improbable return by persuading the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission to grant Ali a boxing license on Aug. 12, 1970. Shortly thereafter, it was announced Ali would fight Jerry Quarry on Oct. 26 at the City Auditorium in Atlanta. The bout was scheduled for 15 rounds, probably in recognition of Ali’s status as lineal heavyweight champion.” (Other sources say that Governor Maddox was opposed to hosting the fight, but was powerless to stop it.)
The opponent was Jerry Quarry, whose white skin was apparent that night. His obituary notes: :His most famous night was in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 1970, when he was the “fall-guy” for Ali’s comeback from his three- year exile. Quarry was stopped because of a badly cut eye in the third round. It brought him his biggest payday, $338,000. … By 1995 he was in the care of his brother James, and was suffering from severe pugilistic dementia.” Jerry Quarry died January 3, 1999.
The fight was not much of a contest. It lasted three rounds, before the referee stopped the match. Mr. Ali fought for ten more years, and regained the Heavyweight Championship twice. “On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously overturns Ali’s 4-year-old draft conviction, saying that his claims as a conscientious objector were based on religion and were sincere.”
The fight was the occasion for a display of black pride, and black money. The New Yorker essayist George Plimpton remembered that invasion of the Harlem peacocks in their enormous purple Cadillacs: “I’d never seen crowds as fancy, especially the men – felt hatbands and feathered capes, and the stilted shoes, the heels like polished ebony, and many smoking stuff in odd meerschaum pipes.”
“The times reported that the bout was like “a page out of the roaring twenties. … The ladies had beads down to the hem of their maxi-skirts. One man wore an ankle length mink coat, with a high hat of mink to match. … Diana Ross sat in the forth row, ringside, with a bouffant, Afro-American hair-do that stretched out 10 inches on each side.” Many of those in attendance were invited to a party.
“Engraved invitations to one party in particular had been passed around to the hustlers in New York a week earlier and in Atlanta in the days leading up to the fight. The invitations announced that “Fireball” was throwing a party at 2819 Handy Drive, in Collier Heights.
The Handy Drive house happened to be one of several properties that “Chicken Man” Williams owned. He’d given a friend, an Atlantan-turned-New-Yorker known as “Fireball,” permission to use the house. He’d even helped build a craps table the week before so all the big-time gamblers who were sure to show up could “roll the bones.”
Williams’ girlfriend, Barbara Smith, skipped the fight to help prepare for the party. She and two girlfriends were busy in the kitchen when they heard the front door open. The fight was still going on, so Smith went to the front, expecting to meet an early bird. She was greeted by three men in ski masks standing in the hallway. All were armed; one was pointing a shotgun at her face. …
An estimated 80 to 200 people had arrived at the house expecting to party, only to be fleeced by masked men with shotguns. According to news accounts, the victims were led to the basement, then ordered to strip to their underwear, throw all their valuables in a pile and lay on the floor…
As more victims arrived, floor space in the basement became scarce, so the gunmen ordered the victims to lie on top of each other. Cash and jewelry was swept into pillowcases. That went on for hours as more and more people kept showing up. By 3 a.m., the half-naked victims were stacked like cordwood on top of each other.
Not one shot was fired. But as they left, the gunmen took Smith and one of her friends hostage and told everyone else to stay put. Three hours later, they dropped the women off on the other side of town and gave them $10 each for cab fare. By that time, the investigation was underway.
Creative Loafing has a terrific story about the party at Chicken Man’s house. If you have a few minutes, it is worth your time. Ditto for this newspaper story, in the sucky google books format.
A key person in the story is J.D. Hudson. One of the first eight black Atlanta policemen, Lt. Hudson was Mr. Ali’s bodyguard the night of the fight. Lt. Hudson wound up conducting the investigation of the party at Chicken Man’s house. Lt. Hudson met Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams, under rather unpleasant circumstances, in 1949.
Lt. Hudson never suspected Chicken Man of being part of the robbery. “From the time he took over the case, Hudson says, he knew Williams wasn’t responsible — even though other investigators already had pinned the crime on him. For one thing, Hudson could place Williams at the fight at the time the gunmen were at the house setting up the crime.
For another, Hudson says, “I knew [Williams] wasn’t dumb enough to pull a stunt like that. This was a man who ran [a] million-dollar operation from a pay phone on a street corner. He was smart. He could’ve run IBM or Coke. There’s no way he would’ve risked all that to pay somebody off. This was pulled off by a bunch of young thugs who were trying to knock over a party, and when they got there and saw how big it was, they improvised.”
Chicken Man went to prison in the seventies, and became a minister. He served as the Pastor of the Salem Baptist Church. Gordon Williams died December 6, 2014. J.D.Hudson died June 4, 2009. The men who robbed the party goers were killed a few months after the fight.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.

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Grace

Posted in Library of Congress, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on June 19, 2024

I was listening to Disgraceland while sitting in the sauna. DGL is a podcast, about musicians who behave badly. Host Jake Brennan is fond of working the word “disgrace” into the last line of the script.
Today’s show was about the late Jeff Buckley. He had a mystical streak in his craft, and titled his album Grace. Jake talks about Jeff’s music, in the last line of the show: “Listening to it now can lead to a trance like state. A state of ecstasy. A state of eternal life. A state of grace.”
I heard Jake say that, and turned my head to the side. The young man next to me was shaking his head, and pounding his thighs, in response to the sounds going through his ear buds. I saw this, and my first thought was “this is grace.”
I got the young man’s attention, and told him the story. He enjoyed hearing what I said. Some would say “And your point is?” Others would have told me what their pastor says about grace. Instead, the young man smiled, and gave me a fist bump.
I will not have a quote today about what grace means, either from the dictionary or the Bible. Grace is something Christians talk about, when they are not nabbering about life after death. It is telling that Jake said eternal life, between ecstasy and grace.
Eternal life … I am dictating this with a voice typewriter. When I said “eternal life” the microphone kicked off. I had to turn it off and restart. It was a glitch in the system, or a metaphor … for the way talk about “salvation” can get in the way of grace.
There is a Sunday School story. A man dies, and goes to the pearly gates. Saint Peter says that we have a test. You need one hundred points to get into heaven. The man begins: I was a loving husband to my wife of many years. We raised our children to be fine people. St. Peter said you get one point.
The man said, I was a born again Christian, saved by faith in Jesus Christ. St. Peter said that’s one more point. The man said, I was a businessman, and was respected by my employees and customers. St. Peter said you get a point for that.
The man starts to get flustered, and says it is only by the grace of God that I am here. St. Peter said that’s ninety seven points. Welcome to heaven.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.