Chamblee54

PG is returning “Lives of The Circus Animals” to the library today. LOTCA is written by Christopher Bram, and is set in New York theater world at the turn of the century, but before 911. To Georgia stuck PG, it reads a bit like science fiction.
This is the third Bram novel that PG has read, the other two being “Hold Tight” and “Gossip”. Some patterns are starting to emerge. Mr. Bram is good at drawing characters, and invoking the atmosphere of a time and place. The bad news is that the stories don’t make sense after a while. LOTCA is in this pattern.
The cast of players is a hoot. There is Caleb Doyle, a playwright, and his sister Jessica. Their mother plays a key role in the conclusion. Jessica is the personal assistant for Henry Lewse, a British stage actor slumming in a Broadway musical. He becomes buddies with Toby, a young actor fresh out of Wisconsin, and a relationship with Caleb. Toby is in an off off off Broadway show directed by Frank, who is in love with Jessica. And you think Atlanta is an incestuous small town.
The action comes to a head one Friday night. Mr. Lewse attends a performance of the ooob show. He then goes to Caleb’s birthday party, along with all the other players. Not all of these people are welcome. That is quickly forgotten when the drama comes to a explosive conclusion.
LOTCA is not great literature, but is better than anything PG has done. It will not change your life, or the oil in your car. It is fun to read, which is all PG cares about.

PG walked down the street to a yard sale. At first, he thought it was just an excuse to take a stroll. Then he saw the bins of vhs tapes.
The tapes belonged to the son of the lady running the sale. This was the year for him to get his junk out of her basement. The sale was a device to get some money out of the deal.
With the advent of the dvd, vhs tapes are obsolete. Once the state of the art, they are today’s eight track tape. If you go to yard sales, you can get a nice collection for pocket change.
PG got 11 tapes for two dollars. This is roughly what a ticket to a first run movie cost in 1970.
The movies are: Rosemary’s Baby, Hamburger Hill, Zachariah, Bean, Night of the Living Dead, Lionheart, The Waterboy, Mean Streets, And now for something completely different, Full Metal Jacket, and Fantastic Planet.

The fourth diva on the cd is Janis Joplin. Unlike the first three, she used her birth name as a stage name. Janis Lyn Joplin was born January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas.
Janis was a legend. As the singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company, she became an overnight superstar in 1967. She soon left Big Brother, and had ups and downs as a solo performer. As most of you know, she was fond of Southern Comfort and heroin. She passed away October 4, 1970.
Marian Evelyn Faithfull was born 29 December 1946, in London. Unlike the first four divas in this series, she is still alive, and doing rather well. This is not for lack of trying, as she has had her adventures with hard drugs. She also dated Mick Jagger.
After some wild times, including being busted while wearing only a fur rug, Ms. Faithfull went into a decline. She made a comeback in 1979 with “Broken English”. She continues to perform.
Dorothy Ashby is the third performer we will discuss today. She is not as well known as the first five, and is not known for her singing. She played harp.
Dorothy Jeanne Thompson was born August 6, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. She married John Ashby, who played drums in her band. She died April 13, 1986.
Youtube does not seem to have any videos of Mrs. Ashby performing. We will have to use an still picture video to include her. On the cd, she performs “Theme from Valley of the Dolls”. As a bonus, we include a scene from the movie. It shows a catfight between characters, said to be based on Ethel Merman and Judy Garland.

A few days ago, Chamblee54 posted a story about Ben Rothlisberger. As even ESPN is reporting now, the gentleman is being sued because of an incident at a casino last year. PG found out about the story at a blog called “yesmeansyes“. The post was written by jaclynfriedman ( that is copied off the original post).
PG left a comment at YMY. It stayed up for a few days, with the note that “your comment is awaiting moderation”. When PG visited the blog today, his comment had been deleted.
On July 28, YMY posted a story about the negative comments she received. There was a reply to these comments. She used FAIL in all caps a lot, which seems to be the trendy thing to do.
It should be noted that a blog owner has the right to delete comments, for any reason. PG was banned by a Jesus Worship blog after saying Good Grief. ( There is  more to that story, but the bottom line was a personal quarrel) Back to YMY, if Ms. Friedman wants to delete a comment, it is her business. Posting a response to the deleted comments in a separate post is unusual, and is really a compliment to those involved.
The first time PG heard the word blog, the writer was talking about Andrew Sullivan. ( Back then it was a “vanity webpage”). Mr. Sullivan is still a leader, admired and condemned in roughly equal measure. He wrote a post once on “Why I Blog“. The money quote: “Rudeness, in any case, isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a blogger. Being ignored is. Perhaps the nastiest thing one can do to a fellow blogger is to rip him apart and fail to provide a link.”
Ms. Friedman may not agree, but the commenters who disagree are doing her a favor. It shows that they are paying attention. In a comment thread, the readers who agree with you can defend you. Often, the comment thread is the best part of a post, with a lively dialog. This is not going to happen if you delete  the comments that disagree.
Now, for the specifics. Here is the comment from Chamblee54. “What if Mr. Roethlisberger is innocent? What if the lady is lying? If he was not a high profile celebrity, would anyone care? This rush to assume guilt is another part of “rape culture”.
Unfamiliar with the concept “rape culture” FAIL. Also, false rape claims happen no more frequently than other false claims of violent crimes – about 2-8% of the time. So we can be at least 92% confident that she’s telling the truth, which certainly makes her allegations worth considering, which is all we’re doing here. Plus, y’all are working overtime everywhere else on the web asserting how sure you are she is lying, so counteracting that with some confidence in her here – not gonna apologize. FAIL.
1- The phrase “rape culture” is not a registered trademark. Yes, women are exploited and abused. But many can give as good as they take. Do men get hurt in this game playing? Do women make false claims when there is a big payoff awaiting them? Do lawyers of both genders egg them on in anticipation of a fat payday? This is all “rape culture”.
2- You should lay off saying FAIL in all caps.
3- Do you have any backup on this claim that false rape claims happen “about 2-8% of the time”? You can lie with numbers just like you can lie with words. How were these numbers compiled? How dependable is the raw data? How were these numbers tweaked by a statistician? Who did the study? What effect does big money have on the accuracy of rape claims?
PG suspects that the researcher would be horrified to see you claim that there is a 92% chance that the accuser is correct.
4- Who is “Y’all”? This is the only comment that Chamblee54 has made on this matter. Your blog was where Chamblee54 learned about this matter, with an assist from the WordPress home page.
No one is asking you to apologize.
Spell Check Suggestions For This Feature:
yesmeansyes- meanness, meaningless, gamesmanships, besmears, eyestrains.
blog- blot, blob, blow, slog, flog, log

PG got an email from blogger central last night. If he does not produce 500 words on Gatesgate by sundown monday, his blogging license is in jeopardy.
PG, like BHO, really doesn’t know what he is talking about here. There are contradictions on top of confusion, and shouting where there should be listening. This is typical of white black relations in America.
Today the 911 tape was released. The police report is also in the public realm. It turns out the neighbor did not know the men trying to break into the house were black. In fact, she thought one of them was hispanic. Many talkers have said that if it was not black men, then the 911 call would not have been made.
PG will not deal with the issue of whether or not the police should have arrested Mr. Gates. The officer had to make that call on the spot. The policeman had responded to a report of a potential burglary. His life was in danger…some burglars carry a 9mm i.d. The man he met at the house was “uncooperative”. The officer had to make the call on the spot. Those who criticize this decision are monday morning quarterbacks.
Mr. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct, and the charges were dropped. If the charges were being a jerk, then he would be looking at a court date. The police, at great risk, answered a burglary call at the home of Mr. Gates. The response of Mr. Gates was to go off on the policeman, call him a racist, and insult his mother. This is the action of a jerk.
The charges against Mr. Gates were dropped. While on one level he did not do anything wrong, people who go off on police get arrested all the time. PG suspects that if he were to shout down a police officer, and be arrested, that the charges would not be quickly dropped. Being an academic superstar at Harvard has privileges.
This does not make Harvard University look good. Mr. Gates is a superstar professor there. The incident took place at a house owned by the University. This will not be a problem for very long, as institutions like Harvard know how to play the PR/damage control game. Their prestige and fundraising will not be affected.
This also makes BHO look foolish. He clearly did not know the facts. By making his comment, BHO got more attention focused on this matter. Ultimately, this is going to work against Mr. Gates. Today saw the release of the 911 tape, which showed that the neighbor was not motivated by race. The more this stays in the public eye, the worse Mr. Gates is going to look. Could it be that BHO is the one who “acted stupidly”?
PG is going to leave his reader(s) with a question…If you went off on a policeman, and were arrested, would the charges be quickly dropped?

PG and Uzi were rapidly running out of places to go walking on Sunday afternoon. There is a nature preserve behind the old Briarcliff High School, and it won the honor for today.
The loudmouth Harvard Professor was discussed. If he wasn’t an academic superstar, he would still be in jail. PG talked about people he has known who have anger control issues, and totally lose control when they lose control. Smarting off to a policeman…especially one who is at your house because of a presumed burglary…is just not a good idea. BHO did not look good either.
PG had printed a map of the nature preserve, which somehow vanished before it could be used. When they got to the location, they drove past the stadium, to a park with a swimming pool. There was a road going away from there, that turned into a dirt road. PG found a shaded spot and parked the car.
The preserve was not very big, and had a couple of dirt roads with concrete curbs. It looked like it had been slated for development, and somehow left behind. The roads led to trails, which were overgrown with weeds. PG and Uzi were both wearing short pants, and reluctant to explore areas likely to contain poison ivy and chiggers. It was agreed that this area would be best explored in cooler weather.
After leaving park number one, PG suggested they go by Mason Mill Park. After making a wrong turn and going around the block, PG found the parking lot behind the tennis courts. They went down to the Railroad tracks, and went walking down the tracks for a ways. This led to nothing, and the explorers went back towards the starting point. PG found an opening in the undergrowth, and they walked back into the forest.
The wild area at Mason Mill Park used to be a county water works. There is a collection of abandoned buildings. The grafitti painters have discovered them. PG had been there a few months ago, but saw a brand new collection of images on the buildings.
After all this adventure, PG and Uzi needed to come back down a bit. The S&S cafeteria served this purpose, along with usual fried chicken and turnip greens. PG was surprised to learn that man places outside the south do not routinely serve greens. He paid his bill, and made it home before the rain started.

There are a couple of stories in the news that PG feels the need to comment on. One involves race and police, and the other involves sex and football. The latter is more fun, except for the accused. It should be a nice payday for some lawyers. For the non football fans reading this, Ben Roethlisberger is the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won the last Super Bowl.
The story is that Ben Roethlisberger was staying at a casino in Lake Tahoe while playing in a golf tournament. He got to know the accuser. Later, he said his TV was not working. The accuser was unable to find a technician, and went to the room to look at the TV. The tale is that Mr. Roethlisberger raped the accuser in his room.
The accuser said she informed her employer of the incident, and was told to forget it. Later, the employer got a key to her residence, went in, and deleted passages from her computer. Once again, this is the story of the accuser.
The incident was in 2008. The accuser, this past week, filed a civil lawsuit. The complaint is here. PG will not use the name of the accuser, although it is all over the internet. A google search of her name this morning showed 155k hits.
There seems to be a divide on the internet about this story. There is the “feminist” side, which decries “rape culture”. This is the side that PG first heard about. PG does not watch TV, and only heard of the incident on the internet. To PG, it is irrelevant whether ESPN covers the story.
PG left this comment at the “rape culture”blog : “What if Mr. Roethlisberger is innocent? What if the lady is lying? If he was not a high profile celebrity, would anyone care? This rush to assume guilt is another part of “rape culture”. At the time of this report, the comment was “awaiting moderation”.
This is a media story, and casinos know how to play that game. Things are starting to leak out about the accuser. There is this story:
Sources connected with the case say that a former co-worker of *Accuser*’s at Harrah’s came forward with the story that around the time *Accuser* hooked up with Roethlisberger, she was allegedly involved with a married man. One who never existed.
The man’s wife created an email account, posing as a U.S. soldier in Iraq. The wife began corresponding with *Accuser* to gain information.
Her co-worker *Accuser* fell in love with this fictitious soldier and began telling people they were engaged. When the correspondence stopped, *Accuser* then began telling people the soldier was killed in action.
According to TMZ, *Accuser* told at least one co-worker she began seeing a psychiatrist because of the phantom soldier and not because of Ben.
Would this be an issue now if Mr. Roethlisberger was not wealthy and famous?

PG read the comments at Puntabulous, and heard about a site called textsfromlastnight. Below is a selection. The texts are labeled with the area code of the sender. Special preference is given to Georgia area codes.

(254): you could play connect the dots with the people ive fucked in this room ///(254): Turns out I’m a social drinker… I just happen to be REALLY social///(302): I’m giving you permission to use the abortion money to pay for your DUI. ///(678): Think about all of the events that have led to this: me sitting in the back of my classroom drinking beer out of a taco bell cup, telling the teacher I have to leave early to go to an AA meeting.///(770): Dear Mark, please dispose of your crusty mcdonalds napkins used to jerk it at my desk…(678): discrete masterbation is a lost art/// (678): you were calling yourself Ulickes S. Cunt./// (770): I just needed to know whether or not to wear panties to work tomorrow./// (770): Masturbating after my cheeseburger. It’s unavoidable./// (770): Anddd after the worst sex of my life, he said..”do you mind taking off the condom, tying it up, and throwing it at the door?” Weird.///(770): I know its time to do laundry… i cant even find a dirty sock to wear because they all have jizz in them///(770): Should I feel badly because I just bought a really hot pregnant girl a drink after I lit her cigarette?///(770): I got drunk and threw up on a kid at the amusement park. I think they’re pressing charges./// (770): I wanted to tell him he wasn’t actually in me, but my god, awkward?///(770): I kind of had a moment like that kid whose mom cancelled his WoW subscription, except I didn’t try to shove a remote control up my own ass.///(404): her nose should be used as a dorsal fin///(404): Watching Miami Social reminded me of how much I miss snorting coke with burger king straws in a life guard hut on the beach until we noticed someone was drowning///.(813): i wonder if i could find a boyfriend who would call me big papa…(404): sure if you go to prison///(404): Words of wisdom-never eat a peanut-butter covered banana on a construction site ever again/// (706): Was it a mistake telling him I couldn’t get the abortion until I was 2 months along on the first date? ///(706): so i decided not to tell her that her fiance is cheating since i already bought the bridesmaid dess ///(219): I have a deodorant stick dedicated to my balls///(318): Just caught my bro jerking off to a lane Bryant catalog ///(616): theyre doing shots to celebrate her boob jobs anniversary///(706): Just found my girlfriend’s stash of animated Japanese porn…(706): And to think, I actually considered breaking up with her///(706): Did we have sex?…(1-706): No you put the condom on then passed out on the bed so I left/// (706): Now that I’ve come to graduate college. I realized the only discernible skill I learned was how to roll a joint properly. go me….(1-706): Well thats $24,000 well spent.///(706): i just met rob pattinson in italy. he’s so stupid, i feel like i would have to say “your penis goes here!”///(706): So I’m going back to my apartment just to get my vibrator….(404): I thought you were moving in with your boyfriend for the summer?…(706): Well….one will keep me from having to pay rent and the other satisfies. I’ll let you figure it out.///(706): hitting rock bottom=girl fakes converting to christianity in order to get out of having sex with you./// (478): Dude. I haven’t taken a shit in a week…(706): Try anal, it works wonders.///(760): Dude I just picked up a married chick while her husband was playing pool….(912): What do you mean you picked her up? How are you gonna leave the bar?…(760): I didn’t. I fucked her in the men’s room. Come get me before he finds out.///(912): i woke up with socks on this morning…(485): so?…(912): i didnt wear socks last nigh///(814): I overheard a kid saying to his mom at Walmart: “Mommy.. should we buy cups for daddy’s spit?”

Q: What does “Jimmy crack corn” mean, and why does he not care?—Matt, Columbus, Ohio
PG was trolling “stupidquestion.net” when there was a convergence of stupidity. All his life he had heard “Blue Tail Fly”, and been embarrassed. And there, in (pardon the expression) black and white, was someone who wondered the same thing.
It seems as though “Blue Tail Fly” started out as a minstrel song. For those who don’t know, minstrelsy is when white people put on black makeup and imitated African Americans. It is politically incorrect these day.
The story of BTF involves a slave named Jim. A fly bit the pony the old massa was riding, the pony was offended, and threw the old massa off. He was hurt  landing and died. Jim still has to crack corn, but he doesn’t care anymore, because old massa has gone away.
Dave Barry took a poll once to find out the stupidest song of all time. The overwhelming winner/loser was “MacArthur Park”. The combination of over the top show stopping, while singing about a cake left out in the rain, makes this ditty a duh classic.
In the spirit of stupidity convergence, the video is a karaoke version featuring Donna Summer. Miss Summer is a talented singer, who happened to audition for Giorgio Moroder. There are lots of singers who would have hit the big time if they had fronted those records, but Donna Summer hit the jackpot.
For a proper post, there needs to be a third stupid song. This is not about stupid bands, singing about being D U M B. Even though they totally don’t belong, there is a video of the Ramones included. PG saw the Ramones at the Agora Ballroom in 1983. This was after their prime, and before a homeless man caught the Ballroom on fire.
We still need a third stupid song, and PG wants to get this posted with as little research as possible. Just like some writer was once given twenty minutes to write a song, and he decided to do the worst song he could think of. The result was “Wild Thing”. PG used to have a 45 of someone who sounded like Bobby Kennedy singing “Wild Thing”.

It started when PG downloaded some music. The tune was “Sister Morphine” and the Rolling Stones had a guest vocalist, Marianne Faithful. PG learned later that Miss Faithful had a creditable claim to writing the song. When he heard this number, PG was amazed.
The idea hit to assemble a cd of other female vocalists, all of whom create the same mood as SM. The cd was burned, and the idea for a series of tributes to these divas was hatched. This is the first of the series. There are 17 ladies on the first cd. They are:
Billie Holliday, Patsy Cline, Nico, Janis Joplin, Marianne Faithful, Dorothy Ashby, Joni Mitchell, Etta James, Francoise Hardy, Carole King, Annie Lennox, Sarah Vaughn, Emmy Lou Harris, Nouvelle Vague, Bessie Smith, Gillian Welch, Patty Smith
This is far from a complete list. There are enough moody, edgy female singers to fill two or three more cds. We could probably start a new blog just for the tributes. If someone is looking for an idea for a blog, you are welcome to the thought. Today, we are going to pay tribute to the first three names on the list.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915. ( The copyright to “Lady Sings the Blues “is given to Eleanora Fagan and William Dufty) She got her stage name from her probable father, Clarence Holiday, and the film star Billie Dove. There are many legends about her.
Lady Day was known for her singing and her drug problems, not always in that order. She was arrested for heroin possession in the hospital, on her deathbed. She died July 17, 1959, technically still in police custody. The song on the cd is “You’ve Changed”. It is on “Lady in Satin”,  Miss Holiday’s last album.
Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley on September 8, 1932. Her stage name came from her middle name, and Gerald Cline, her first husband. Miss Cline got her first break singing “Walking after Midnight” on the Arthur Godfrey show. ( Mr. Godfrey got a lot of bad publicity later when he fired singer Julius LaRosa on the air). In 1961, Miss Cline joined the Grand Ole Opry, and was in a near fatal car wreck.
After the wreck, she recorded “Crazy”, written by Willie Nelson. That became a hit, and Patsy recorded what was to be her last album. The song on the cd, “Sweet Dreams”, was released after her death. Patsy Cline died in a plane crash March 3, 1963.
Nico was born Christa Päffgen, 16 October 1938. She was given her stage name by photographer Herbert Tobias. He had a former boyfriend named Nikos Papatakis.
Nico was a model and actress, with a minor part in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”. She somehow got into the crowd surrounding Andy Warhol, and became the vocalist for The Velvet Underground. She left them before long, but was musical cohorts with John Cale the rest of her life.
She made some solo albums, and took heroin. She was reportedly clean when she had a minor heart attack while riding her bike in Ibiza, Spain. She hit her head on the pavement when she fell, and died the next day, July 18, 1988.
The song on the cd is “These Days”. It is from the album “Chelsea Girl”. “These Days” was written by Jackson Browne, who was Nico’s boyfriend when he was 17 years old.

PG just finished reading “Gossip“, by Christopher Bram. The Chamblee Library gets another thank you.
“Gossip” is the story of Ralph Eckhart. He works in a New York bookstore and has a few friends. One night, Ralph meets a man in Washington, D.C., in a computer chatroom. They arrange to meet.
The meeting goes very well at first, until Ralph and Bill get to know each other. Bill writes for a conservative magazine, and has a book coming out about the horrors of Hillary. Ralph, a liberal New Yorker, is not amused.
The romance goes on well enough, despite the misgivings of Ralph. Bill invites Ralph to a conference in Miami, and Ralph becomes even more upset with Bill’s lifestyle. Ralph decides to break off the affair, and sends Bill an angry email.
Bill appears on TV to promote his new book. At some point in the interview, he comes out. Bill does so in a clumsy manner, and the few people paying attention are upset. Bill phones Ralph to tell him that this coming out was for Ralph, and that he wants him back. Ralph says a few, poorly chosen, angry words. Ralph is not aware that Bill records his phone calls.
The next time the Ralph hears about Bill is when he reads of his murder. It gets more personal for Ralph later, when he is arrested for the murder. (spoiler alert) The reader should not worry. The charges are thrown out, and we learn who did the deed.
“Gossip” is fun for the nostalgia. It is set in the early nineties, in the infancy of the internet. No one has a cell phone, you unplug your phone to use your computer, and the Clintons are the worst people on earth. For a fairly apolitical southerner, the New York/Washington angle of the story reads like science fiction.
“Gossip” is a gripping story. You will be eager to see the next turn of the plot. After a while, though, you begin to wonder how real it is. After the trip to Miami, the plot turns get weirder and weirder. The reader does not worry about reality should have a good time.

Road building is the job of the government. Very few people question this fact. While there is corruption, inefficiency, and other big government problems, millions of motorists travel billions of miles on government roads every year.
Likewise, armed forces to defend America is the job of the government. Regulation of various markets, public education, and tax collection are all conceded to be the job of government. Perhaps it is time to include Health Care.
There is an ongoing debate about health care in America. There are many who say it is too expensive, and that we do not get a good return on our investment. There is profiteering, inefficiency, and unfair treatment of human beings. The ballooning cost is one of the problems with our economy. Will a Government takeover make things better?
PG has mixed feelings, as do a lot of people. The shrill voices of the naysayers are frequently financed by the health industry, who wants to keep a  license to print money. Those who do not trust government to do a good job cannot be ignored. But the fact remains that in many ways the system is broken. Too many people are without insurance. The medical/insurance oligarchy is notorious for playing games, at the cost of human suffering.
PG suspects that it is time for a “Paradigm Shift”. It is time to concede that health care is the domain of government. There are going to be rough spots in the transition. In the end, it is what needs to be done.