Al Gore Stood Up
The display of a link on this page does not indicate approval of content.
What to know about cardiac catheterization vs angiogram by Angela Ryan Lee, MD …
Jimmy Carter vs. Donald Trump | Robert Wright, Derek Davison, and Daniel Bessner
20 Years Before Jan. 6, Al Gore Stood Up to His Own Party. Mike Pence Was Watching.
31 Surefire Ways To Make Me Lose Interest In Your Thoughts About The World
mame · elon musk · adhesion · easy rider · eraserhead
head · calamus part three · calamus · calamus · bad faith
zionism · doris day · erlanger opera house · anita bryant · oldest joke
scholasticide · eldercare 30319 · wesley huff · carter center · doris day
trying to get used to working in bed on the machine. I don’t know if I will ever be comfortable doing this · the act of creation can be metafored into a healing gardne. i try to be careful with the fertilizer you must use in such a gardnea I enjoy making something out of nothing. Google does not always cooperate. When I confirmed that yes, I wante to search for gardne and not garden, they made me click a box saying that i am not a robot. so gurgle told me about a gardne family in new york, which is a name ending in a vowel. New York had the highest population of Gardne families in 1840. Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Gardne surname lived. Within · Russell Lee took the featured photograph in March 1942. “Hamburger stand. Imperial County Fair, California · this is the first monday morning post of 2025. Happy January Sixth. The featured picture: “Hamburger stand. Imperial County Fair, California” Photographer: Russell Lee March 1942 · Don’t Don’t get hot and flustered Use a bit of mustard · You’re a hot dog But you better not try to hurt her Frank Furter · American Estrangement Saïd Sayrafiezadeh Buckyboy 1.0 out of 5 stars b o r i n g Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2021 Not a single story was finished- he can’t write that good · The Best American Short Stories 2019 (The Best American Series ®) Hardcover – October 1, 2019 by Anthony Doerr (Editor), Heidi Pitlor (Editor) · Lao Tan 1.0 out of 5 stars The WORST Short Stories Ever Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020 Verified Purchase If these are supposed to be the best of 2019, I wouldn’t want to see the worst. No fault of the individual writers…they all have serious issues and cannot put two and two together…HOWEVER, the Editor, Anthony Doerr, carries the blame. For him to screen and choose these writings he needs to find another job. Perhaps this is what Millennials find fascinating…if so, it boggles the mind. · This is a repost from January 9, 2021.. This was three days after the January 6 incident. In thirteen days, Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated. This election was not contested. … · Union soldier from the War Between the States. · yesterday was the anniversary of January 6. The last election was not in doubt, unlike the 2020 national election and the 2018 Georgia election. Would January 6 have happened if Stacey had not challenged the 2018 election? · “imposed war” (jang-e taḥmili) jang-e taḥmili · This is a book report on two story collections. Here is one review: If these are supposed to be the best of 2019, I wouldn’t want to see the worst. No fault of the individual writers…they all have serious issues and cannot put two and two together … · The featured image:The Krystal, Lee Street, SW, 1958. · repost. · Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library · Is there a difference between God and Man? If so, where do you draw the boundary? If you are bored by this type of conversation, then you can always enjoy the pictures. They are from the GSU library. The featured photograph is a 1958 Krystal restaurant, on Lee Street in SW Atlanta. · the Tower Theater, previously the Erlanger Opera House, was located at 583 Peachtree Street. It was originally constructed in 1790. In the 1950’s the theater was turned into a Cinerama, and the name changed to Martin Cinerama. The theater would also be known as Atlanta Theater, and Columbia Theater. The building was razed in 1995. · gsu · I am so inexplicably bored to tears by that tedious conversation. The only way either side can prove their point is to die. The pictures are nice. Further proof that there isn’t any god, only the tortured struggle between man and his own psyche. Thanks for sharing. · N04-135_01 Tower Theatre [Peachtree Street; Billy Graham; Souls in Conflict; All Seats Free], 1954 · God is a concept by which we measure our pain, yeah Pain, yeah · The oldest written joke is a fart joke from 1900 BCE. Found on a Sumerian clay tablet, it reads: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” · the granite for the North Avenue Presbyterian Church was donated by the Venable Brothers. Sam Venable was a key player in the 1915 resurgence of the KKK. Pictures today are from “Bathing Beauty Pageant, 1925, Huntington Beach CA.” · The featured photograph was taken September 1863. “Culpeper, Virginia. William H. French and Staff” · The featured photograph was taken September 1863. “Culpeper, Virginia. William H. French and Staff” · This is a detail taken from a group photograph taken in September 1863. The caption: “Culpeper, Virginia. William H. French and Staff” · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress · selah
A Book About Woodstock
This is a repost from 2011. … I read The Road to Woodstock, by Micheal Lang, ghostwritten by Holly George-Warren. Mr. Lang was one the the producers of the Woodstock music and arts festival in 1969. Mr. Lang was a Brooklyn kid, who got turned onto the counterculture in 1959. When he decided that college was not for him, he did what Jews do … he moved to Miami. Before long, he owned a head shop, and was promoting a rock festival. The Miami Pop Festival, in 1968, featuring Jimi Hendrix and a big rainstorm, was sort of a success.
Micheal Lang was back in New York soon. Mr. Lang met Artie Kornfield, who was in the recording business. They started to talk about ventures, and had an idea for a recording studio in Upstate New York. They met some guys with capital, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman. The four of them became Woodstock Ventures. A music festival in the country got started.
Fast forward to 2010. I am in a waiting room at the Department of Labor. A book is a handy companion in a waiting room. I brought a notepad along. … I am reading a memoir about the Woodstock festival, and it is a gold mine of trivia. Did anyone know that Joan Baez was pregnant? Jim Morrison would not appear because he was afraid of an on stage assassination. The promoters kept Pete Tomnsend up until 8am to convince him to play.
I got my business done at the DOL, and the festival on Yasgur’s farm went off. There was a lot of chaos and ignorance, but good will saw the thing through. The first act to perform was Richie Havens. He was playing an acoustic set while the electric PA was set up, and was not allowed to leave the stage. Finally he ran out of material, and just started to say the word Freedom and jam. This is what appeared in the movie. … I saw Richie Havens in 1974, at a nightclub in Atlanta called Richards. Havens played a Guild guitar, which he strummed, hard, across the front of the instrument. He would wear holes in the front of his guitar, which apparently did not last for more than a show or two. The crowd … this was the second show of the evening, starting at 2am … kept yelling for Freedom.
In Woodstock, the town of Walkill kicked out the festival, and, with a few weeks to go, they met Max Yasgur. Max rented the farm to 50k. Bethel approved the festival July 21, one day after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The festival was August 15-17. … Back to the dairy farm. The story is familiar by now…it was a free concert, they ran out of food, and tie dye was perfected. Abbie Hoffman jumped on the stage during the Who, and Pete Townsend hit him upside the head with a guitar. Stephen Stills did not need a laxative. After Jimi Hendrix played the final set, the crowds went home, and the workers wanted to get paid. A series of meetings took place to settle the business end of the festival. Lang and Kornfield were bought out, and Roberts and Rosenman owned the franchise.
The Woodstock festival was a milestone of sorts. Richard Nixon was new to the Presidency, and the war in Vietnam was going strong. The moratorium in the fall of 1969 was the high water mark of the anti war movement. Soon, the government started to withdraw troops, and look for “peace with honor.” Promoters found festival sites with sturdy gates. And so on and so forth. The sixties were too beautiful to live, and too profitable to die.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken September 1863.
“Culpeper, Virginia. William H. French and Staff”.
Yasser
This is a repost from 2010. There are thousands of stories like this in West Asia. … There is a story in a New York Times “blog” about a man, Yasser, who died in a bombing, in Baghdad, the other day. With all the talk about “the surge winning the war”, this is a sad story. It would be a sad story without the happy talk about victory.
Yasser_____ ( use of his last name would endanger his family) worked for a London news service. His Shiite family moved out of a mixed neighborhood during the civil war, only to move back after things calmed down a bit. The blog story tells a few things about him…he was brave, friendly, and useless in the kitchen… This was another human being. And now he is a statistic.
There is a sense in America that the wars are a game. The lower price of gas, and spreading democracy to Babylon, make it all worthwhile. Arabs and Persians are seen as somehow less than human, as towelheads and terrorists. These people are human, and have paid a fierce price for our experiment.
HT to Iraqimojo for the story. … In a digital miracle, the story from Iraqi Mojo is available in 2025. There is an ironic comment: said… “Thank you Mojo for linking to Stephen Farrell’s fine post about his friend and fellow journalist, Yasser. It was very moving and tells us of the price paid by those who risk their lives to bring us the news. The list of journalists murdered by Al Qaida and their fellow terrorists from Daniel Pearl beheaded in Pakistan in early 2002 to Yasser is a tragically long one and reminds us of why Al Qaida and its allies must be defeated.” David All 1/27/10, 4:35 PM
A lot has happened in the last fifteen years. Recently, the government in Syria was overthrown. As with all such events, it is tough to know exactly what happened. It is highly likely that the forces currently in control of Syria had American support. It is also all but certain that these forces have strong ties to Al Qaida. There is a revolving door between enemy and ally, and vice versa.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken by Jack Delano in September 1941. “Merrymakers at the World’s Fair in Tunbridge, Vermont”
The Tortured Struggle
X does not like linking to a post. I write a description, and leave a link in the comments. Yesterday, it looked like this: “Is there a difference between God and Man? If so, where do you draw the boundary? If you are bored by this type of conversation, then you can always enjoy the pictures. They are from the GSU library. The featured photograph is a 1958 Krystal restaurant, on Lee Street in SW Atlanta.”
Facebook had a response: “I am so inexplicably bored to tears by that tedious conversation. The only way either side can prove their point is to die. The pictures are nice. Further proof that there isn’t any god, only the tortured struggle between man and his own psyche. Thanks for sharing.”
My smartass reaction was that “the tortured struggle between man and his own psyche” was a good description of God. Or, to quote someone more popular than Jesus, “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” But I didn’t want to start trouble, so I clicked “Like,” and went on my way.
One person who talked about that tortured struggle was Billy Graham. One of the photographs yesterday was the marquee at the Tower Theater, for a 1954 Billy Graham Crusade. Sixteen years later, a Shea Stadium crusade featured Anita Bryant.
The Tower theater is now a parking lot. “The Tower Theater, previously the Erlanger Opera House, was located at 583 Peachtree Street. It was originally constructed in 1790. In the 1950’s the theater was turned into a Cinerama, and the name changed to Martin Cinerama. The theater would also be known as Atlanta Theater, and Columbia Theater. The building was razed in 1995.”
The Erlanger Opera House was probably not built in 1790. I decided to do some checking up, and began by seeing when the North Avenue Presbyterian Church was built next door. This is where the investigation took a curious turn. “The church was constructed from Stone Mountain granite donated by charter members whose family owned the mountain and were in the granite quarry business. It was occupied for the first time for the Thanksgiving service in 1900.”
“The building program was helped immeasurably by the generosity of the Merssrs. William H. and Samuel H. Venable, who donated the granite out of which the building was constructed.” · “William Hoyt Venable (1852-1905) and Samuel Hoyt Venable (1856-1939) were involved with the Stone Mountain quarrying industry. The Venable brothers were the sole owners of Stone Mountain and much surrounding land which they purchased in 1887 at a claimed cost of $350,000.”
“James Venable (1901-1993) was the Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Klan from 1963 to 1987, “which he organized as one of several rival Klan factions nationally.” (NY Times) Venable had but continued the family tradition. As a 13 year old, he attended the 1915 Klan resurgence and rally on top of Stone Mountain. He was with his uncle, Sam Venable, who, as one of the owners of Stone Mountain, also became the secretary of the Klan.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These details are from picture #06665, “Bathing Beauty Pageant, 1925, Huntington Beach CA.”
Where It Starts
This is a repost from January 9, 2021. This was three days after the January 6 incident. In thirteen days, Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated. This election was not contested. … I had never heard of Stacey Abrams. She was a little known legislator, running for Governor. Then there was a controversy about the DSA. They promoted the disruption of a campaign event. A band of ladies started to shout down Stacey Evans, the other person in the Democratic primary.
Miss Abrams supported shouting down her opponent. “I do not believe that you silence those who feel they are voiceless, because the minute we do that we are no better than those who tell people they can’t kneel in protest.” The DSA is a lot of things, but it is not voiceless. They make a lot of noise.
As we all know, Miss Abrams nearly got elected Governor. She ran on a curious platform. Her main issue was claiming that the Republicans engaged in something called “voter suppression.” Miss Abrams famously not-conceded the election. It became an article of faith in Georgia that the election was stolen from her.
A few days after the election, there was a protest rally inside the State Capitol. Such events are forbidden, by law, inside the Capitol. During this event, a state legislator, Nikema Williams, got herself arrested. Stacey Abrams supports the illegal protest rally. In 2020, Nikema Williams was elected to Congress.
We all know what happened Wednesday. Donald Trump lost the election. He claimed the election was stolen from him. He spoke to a rally of angry supporters. The mob proceeded to invade the U.S. Capitol. Much damage was done, both to the Capitol, and what remains of Mr. Trump’s reputation.
There is no obvious connection between the rhetoric of Stacey Abrams, and Donald Trump. Mr. Trump probably would not have been done anything different, if Stacey Abrams had not led the way. This are both examples of what happens when an irresponsible politicians encourage bad behavior from the mob. When you lose an election, you should concede defeat, and move on. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The men are Union soldiers from the War Between the States.
Sixty Dumb Quotes
This repost was originally published January 08, 2012. At that time, no one could have forseen the prophecy of quote number four. The idea that Donald Trump’s (seldom mentioned) first wife could have said “Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything” was marginally noteworthy in 2012. There is a saying, life is bad fiction. Donald J.Trump is an example.
· Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life. – Brooke Shields
· If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure. – Dan Quayle
· So, where’s the Cannes Film Festival being held this year? — Christina Aguilera
· Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything. – Ivana Trump
· I’m convinced the Beatles are partly responsible for the fall of Communism. – Milos Forman .
· When I’m a blonde, I can say the world is purple, and they’ll believe me because they weren’t listening to me. – Kylie Bax, Model/Actress.
· The internet is a great way to get on the net. – Bob Dole
· You guys, line up alphabetically by height. – Bill Peterson, football coach
· I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada. – Britney Spears
· I think war is a dangerous place. – George W. Bush
· I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father. – Greg Norman, Golfer
· It’s nice, it gives you a feeling of security so that if something breaks we know we can always call a guy over and he’ll bring a drill or something. – Brooke Shields
· Rotarians, be patriotic! Learn to shoot yourself. – Gyrator, Chicago Rotary Club journal
· These people haven’t seen the last of my face. If I go down, I’m going down standing up.
Chuck Person, NBA Basketball player
· I’m so smart now. Everyone’s always like ‘take your top off’. Sorry, NO! They always want to get that money shot. I’m not stupid. – Paris Hilton
· I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman
Arnold Schwarzenegger
· Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry.
· I mean I’d love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff.
Mariah Carey
· Predictions are difficult. Especially about the future. – Yogi Berra
· My sister’s expecting a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be an uncle or an aunt.
Chuck Nevitt, basketball player
· The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century. – Dan Quayle
· And now the sequence of events in no particular order. – Dan Rather
· Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods. – George W Bush
· The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing. – Dizzy Dean
· I was in a no-win situation, so I’m glad that I won rather than lost. – Frank Bruno, Boxer
· I have opinions of my own –strong opinions– but I don’t always agree with them. – George Bush
· I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first. – George Rogers, NFL RB
· I do not like this word “bomb.” It is not a bomb. It is a device that is exploding.
Jacques le Blanc, French ambassador
· The word ‘genius’ isn’t applicable in football.
A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein. – Joe Theisman
· Half this game is ninety percent mental. – Danny Ozark, Philadelphia Phillies manager
· Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it.
Mike Smith, Baseball pitcher, ordering a salad at a restaurant.
· If I sold all my liabilities, I wouldn’t own anything. My wife’s a liability, my kids are liabilities, and I haven’t sold them. – Ted Turner
· They misunderestimated me. – George W Bush
· I don’t diet. I just don’t eat as much as I’d like to. – Linda Evangelista, Supermodel
· Facts are stupid things. – Ronald Reagan
· What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful.
How true that is. – Dan Quayle
· That’s just the tip of the ice cube. – Neil Hamilton, BBC2
· A bachelor’s life is no life for a single man. – Samuel Goldwyn
· I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. – Terry Bradshaw, Former football player/announcer
· It isn’t pollution that is hurting the environment,
· It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it. – Dan Quayle
· I’ve never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body. –
Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.
· The only happy artist is a dead artist, because only then you can’t change.
After I die, I’ll probably come back as a paintbrush. – Sylvestor Stallone
· Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC
· We are not ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur. – Dan Quayle
· Will the highways on the internet become more few? – George W Bush
· Traditionally, most of Australia’s imports come from overseas.
Keppel Enderbery, Former Australian cabinet minister
· There is certainly more in the future now than back in 1964. – Roger Daltrey
· We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees. – Jason Kidd
· I’ve never really wanted to go to Japan. Simply because I don’t like eating fish.
· And I know that’s very popular out there in Africa. – Britney Spears
· Pitching is 80% of the game.
· The other half is hitting and fielding. – Mickey Rivers, baseball player
· I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix. – Dan Quayle
· Put the ‘off’ button on. – George W. Bush
· So Carol, you’re a housewife and mother. And have you got any children? -Michael Barrymore
· Food is an important part of a balanced diet. – Fran Lebowitz, US writer
· We’ve got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need? – Lee Iacocca
· For NASA, space is still a high priority. – Dan Quayle
· He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning regardless of what time it is.
Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer
· If it weren’t for electricity we’d all be watching television by candlelight. – George Gobel
· If only faces could talk… – Pat Summerall
· Every minute was more exciting than the next. – Linda Evans, actress
· I’m not anorexic. I’m from Texas. Are there people from Texas that are anorexic?
I’ve never heard of one. And that includes me. — Jessica Simpson
DISCLAIMER: The accuracy, legitimacy, and context, of these quotes is not known. They have not been verified. Quotes were originally published by 2Spare , a digital facility that advertises “Endless entertainment to spare”. I do not know where 2Spare got this content. 2Spare is for sale. Even though most of the quotes originated in English, the possibility of translation errors exists. The original title was “60 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes”. The use of the superlative is questionable, as is the celebrity status of Dan Quayle. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. William Morris Smith took the photograph in November 1865. “Arlington, Va. Band of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran.”
Indifferent Truth-Seeker Act
This is a repost from 2024, about an incident in 2018. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken by Russell Lee in June 1941. “A little boy gets a shot (tick fever serum) at the clinic at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm labor camp. Caldwell ID” … A bit of dialog turned up in a 2018 facebook thread. “Arnold” “Luther I am genuinely curious about how it is you support white supremacist world views consistently, yet have always hung out in alternative spaces. Have you written about this?” Luther “Questioning the validity of a facebook post is not supporting a white supremacist world view.” “Stephen” “It absolutely is when you’ll accept no standard of evidence presented in support of the claim. No one here is fooled by your indifferent truth-seeker act.” This is not your daddy’s white supremacy.
On January 19, 2018, Wussy published Is the Owner of Popular Atlanta Drag Bar a Racist? A disgruntled employee shared a 2015 facebook screen shot. Palmer Marsh, the owner of Burkhart’s Pub, said “Obviously Vladimir Putin thinks that Barack Obama is a stupid (magic word). He just might be right.” The Atlanta queer community went into a pearl clutching frenzy.
I noticed that the screen shot did not have a date or time. I mentioned this detail, and was richly rewarded for my efforts. This is the “indifferent truth-seeker act” that supports “white supremacist world views.” Examine. Your. Whiteness. was one of the kinder suggestions.
This was seven years ago, and seems quaint today. In the last seven years, we have shut down the country over a virus, and had a racial reckoning. After electing a senile criminal to be President, we supported a gruesome war in Ukraine, facilitated a genocide in Gaza, and elected another senile criminal to be President. The national debt has gone from $20t to $36t. It is tough to believe we were once so concerned about a drunken old man saying a six letter word on facebook.
Twenty Three Thoughts
Twenty Three Thoughts was originally published January 23, 2009. … “23 skiddoo” is said to be the first national slang saying. It’s origin is is bit uncertain, making 23S with mythmakers. One story
involves a place on 23rd street in New York, with a lot of wind blowing about. The legend is that men would hang out on 23rd street, near the Flatiron building, to see the wind pick up ladies skirts. UrbanDictionary goes along with this story.
23 is a prime number. The only way to get it through multiplication is 23×1. However, using division, we see that 69/3 is 23. 69 sometimes refers to an act that involves two people. The concept of 69 divided by three is rather gruesome. · UrbanDictionary calls 23 the greatest number of all time. · 23 is an odd number. · Psalm 23 is one of the high points of the Bible. · 2 divided by 3 is .666 · 6+6+6+2+3=23 · The number 23 in the alphabet is W. If you can’t say anything good, say it about him. · Dr. Pepper is the combination of 23 flavors. 10+2+4 =16. If you add lucky 7, you get 23.
Willie Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564. He died April 23, 1616. · Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message on May 24, 1844. “What hath God wrought” was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23 · On January 23, 1973, Richard Nixon announced a peace accord for the Vietnam War.
On January 23, 1978, Terry Kath (Guitar player for the band Chicago) came home from a night of partying. He picked up a 9mm pistol, and held it to his head. He said, “ don’t worry, it’s not loaded.” He was mistaken, with fatal consequences. · Human DNA has 23 chromosomes. 23andMe can tell you more about where those 23 chromosomes came from.
23 enigma is one phrase for this vortex of coincidence. William S. Burroughs is credited by some for first noting the 23 enigma. “I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs … According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.”
“Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death by officers in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana on May 23, 1934.” · The Library of Congress supplied the photographs illustrating this post. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1942. “Japanese-Americans being evacuated from certain West coast areas under United States Army war emergency order, and waiting for transportation to the reception center. Salinas CA”
The Cynic’s Word Book R – S
What follows are selections from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce. TDD began as a newspaper column, and was later published as The Cynic’s Word Book. TDD is in the public domain. TDD is a dictionary, going from A to Z. Today’s selection covers R to S. More selections are available. A – D E – G H – I J – L M – O P – R Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a tempest of words.
RESOLUTE, adj. Obstinate in a course that we approve.
REVERENCE, n. The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man.
RIME, n. Agreeing sounds in the terminals of verse, mostly bad. The verses themselves, as distinguished from prose, mostly dull. Usually (and wickedly) spelled “rhyme.”
RIOT, n. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.
R.I.P. A careless abbreviation of requiescat in pace, attesting an indolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr. Dubious Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than reductus in pulvis.
ROAD, n. A strip of land along which one may pass from where it is too tiresome, to be to where it is futile to go, with a maximum of expense and aggravation.
RUM, n. Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in total abstainers.
RUSSIAN, n. A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. A Tartar Emetic.
SACERDOTALIST, n. One who holds the belief that a clergyman is a priest. Denial of this momentous doctrine is the hardest challenge that is now flung into the Epistolarian teeth of the Episcopalian church by the Neo-Dictionarians.
SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
SCRIBBLER, n. A professional writer whose views are antagonistic to one’s own.
SCRIPTURES, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.
SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement. Spell check suggestions: appeasement, entrapment
SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one’s self and to nobody else.
SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.
SLANG, n. The grunt of the human hog (Pignoramus intolerabilis) with an audible memory. The speech of one who utters with his tongue what he thinks with his ear, and feels the pride of a creator in accomplishing the feat of a parrot. A means (under Providence) of setting up as a wit without a capital of sense.
Scimitar
SCIMITAR, n. A curved sword of exceeding keenness, in the conduct of which certain Orientals attain a surprising proficiency, as the incident here related will serve to show. The account is translated from the Japanese of Shusi Itama, a famous writer of the thirteenth century.
When the great Gichi-Kuktai was Mikado he condemned to decapitation Jijiji Ri, a high officer of the Court. Soon after the hour appointed for performance of the rite, what was his Majesty’s surprise to see calmly approaching the throne the man who should have been at that time ten minutes dead!
“Seventeen hundred impossible dragons!” shouted the enraged monarch. “Did I not sentence you to stand in the market-place and have your head struck off by the public executioner at three o’clock? And is it not now 3:10?”
“Son of a thousand illustrious deities,” answered the condemned minister, “all that you say is so true that the truth is a lie in comparison. But your heavenly Majesty’s sunny and vitalizing wishes have been pestilently disregarded. With joy I ran and placed my unworthy body in the market-place. The executioner appeared with his bare scimitar, ostentatiously whirled it in air, and then, tapping me lightly upon the neck, strode away, pelted by the populace, with whom I was ever a favorite. I am come to pray for justice upon his own dishonorable and treasonous head.”
“To what regiment of executioners does the black-boweled caitiff belong?” asked the Mikado. “To the gallant Ninety-eight Hundred and Thirty-seventh—I know the man. His name is Sakko-Samshi.” “Let him be brought before me,” said the Mikado to an attendant, and a half-hour later the trembling culprit stood in the Presence of the Mikado.
“Thou bastard son of a three-legged hunchback without thumbs!” roared the sovereign—”why didst thou but lightly tap the neck that it should have been thy pleasure to sever?” “Lord of Cranes and Cherry Blooms,” replied the executioner, unmoved, “command him to blow his nose with his fingers.”
Being commanded, Jijiji Ri laid hold of his nose and trumpeted like an elephant, all expecting to see the severed head flung violently from him. Nothing occurred: the performance prospered peacefully to the close, without incident.
All eyes were now turned on the executioner, who had grown as white as the snows on the summit of Fujiama. His legs trembled and his breath came in gasps of terror. “Several kinds of spike-tailed brass lions!” he cried; “I am a ruined and disgraced swordsman! I struck the villain feebly because in flourishing the scimitar I had accidentally passed it through my own neck! Father of the Moon, I resign my office.” So saying, he gasped his top-knot, lifted off his head, and advancing to the throne laid it humbly at the Mikado’s feet.
This uplifting passage is borrowed from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce. TDD began as a newspaper column, and published as The Cynic’s Word Book. TDD is in the public domain, and was named one of “The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature” by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.
When you google “Shusi Itama,” you are directed to Sushi Tama, a restaurant in Los Angeles, CA. If you persist in searching for Mr. Itama, you learn that ITAMA stands for “Institute of Traditional Asian Martial Arts, East Lansing, MI.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
Prayer Shaming
This is a repost from 2015. “Thoughts and prayers” is now seen as a laughable cliche. … Prayer shaming entered the vocabulary this week. Some moving lips were offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the latest commodity shooting. Some pundits thought it odd to offer T&P. Many of the people offering T&P are shameless attention mongers.
Many religions have prayer. The idea is that you talk to God. Sometimes it is a public ritual, sometimes it a private conversation. The star of the Christian religion, Jesus, is quoted as favoring private conversations. This does not stop his believers from making a grotesque spectacle of prayer.
The sad truth is that many of the praying perps talk too much. Telling them to talk is like telling an alcoholic to take a drink. Talking is seen as taking action, while listening is seen as being passive. This is just one of the problems in our culture.
Whenever there is a mass shooting, people say a lot of silly things. They argue the semantics of terrorism. There is two wrongs make a right rhetoric about race. In america, if you can’t say anything worthwhile, you talk about race. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Why I Should Not Multitask
The other day, I was minding my business. Solstice was approaching, and I wanted to make a meme to celebrate. I typed “Happy Solstice.” A picture was chosen … “One-man band at Davis Brothers Restaurant, Atlanta, 04-07-1952.” Other pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Meanwhile, I needed to listen to something. Youtube makes suggestions, based on what big brother decides. Today it was Lex Fridman talking to Saagar Enjeti. Both men have a few smarts, and enough inconvenient opinions to gather haters. If I only listened to people nobody complains about, I would live in a world of silence.
A problem with multitasking on youtube is the temptation to make a clip. It is fairly easy. First, I hear something I want to save. Get the code, determine the start time and end time, and fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, this means you have to shift your focus, away from the task at hand.
The first time I heard this dialogue, Saagar said something about Ghosts of the Ostfront. GOTO is a Hardcore History series about the Soviet-German part of World War II. This is seldom mentioned in the United States, but was crucial to defeating Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union was forced to pay an appalling cost.
After hearing about GOTO, I found the audio file. It was over four hours long, which is typical for Hardcore History. Dan Carlin goes into great detail, and is reasonably neutral. If you want someone to tell you who the bad guy is, there are other sources. In the case of Nazi Germany vs the Soviet Union, many people say there were no good guys, only bad evil against worse evil.
The solstice meme was coming into shape, slowly. A previous copy of the image was not working, and I had to find the original. A template had to be fashioned, to fit the text into the best part of the picture. The meme model was created. I decided to fit “Happy Solstice” on the bottom of his tuxedo. I was cropping the image to facilitate this, when Saagar made his comment about the Ostfront. I had to stop work on the picture, and get the clip.
“Again shout out to Dan Carlin. … I’ve never met you before, I would love to correspond at some point. I love you so much you changed my life man. … I think his best series one of his best series he gets no credit for Ghost of the Ostfront. … This is a 2011 series … on the Eastern front of the Nazi war against Russia, fundamentally changed my view of warfare forever. At that time I was very young, and to me World War II was Saving Private Ryan. I wasn’t as well read as I am now … this entire thing happened which actually decided the second world war and I don’t know anything about this.”
One thing about a series like GOTO is comparisons to other wars. At the start of Operation Barbarossa, some Germans speculated that the Wehrmacht would need to kill thirty million people to gain Lebensraum. In 2024, we see headlines like this: “Israel Needs ‘Lebensraum’ Says Blog by Major National Newspaper.”
After making this clip, it was time to avoid distractions, and finish the meme. When this project is over, future distractions will find me. Soon, the meme was finished. The text file was saved, and used for another meme. This is based on a November 1940 photograph. “Mr. Timothy Levy Crouch, a Rogerine Quaker, living in Ledyard CT, finishing up his Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Crouch is a stonemason by profession and lives on his farm where a little farming is done.”
leave a comment