Chamblee54

PG decided that this was the day for his scheduled vehicle maintenance. It is the 55k round, so it should not be too technical.
The book for the waiting room is “Genius and Heroin”. PG finished his part one post on page 123, with Jean Harlow. Continuing through the H section, he sees that LSD was the drug of choice for Jimi Hendrix. This is not the first time the PG has doubted G&H, nor is it likely to be the last.
Later, in a sidebar to Henry VIII, the cause of death for some English kings is listed. The hot poker massage of Edward II is not mentioned. We do see that James I had gout in 1625, probably from the consumption of too much meat. George II met his maker after “excessive pushing” on the throne in 1760. His heir, George III, did a little excessive pushing of his own, and lost 13 colonies.
William Sydney Porter went to federal prison for bank fraud. He used the time to write the short stories that made him famous. His prisoner number was transliterated into his pen name, O Henry.
The dealership has a customer workroom, with a door to separate it from the main waiting room. This is a quiet place, without the TV that is required for the modern waiting room. Today is the memorial service for Michael Jackson. The sound of Al Sharpton goes through the glass door to annoy PG.
“Genius and Heroin” is a series of mini biographies. The honorees were brilliant men and women who had problems, many of which led to an early grave. PG suspects that if it was being written today that it would have a section about Michael Jackson. Al Sharpton, by contrast, is still alive, and has not produced any artistic work of value.

PG notices details, sometimes. One thing is the time on clocks and watches in ads. The time is 10:09:36. Sometimes, it is 01:51:25. There are occasional exceptions, but 10:09:36 seems to be an industry standard.
It focuses attention on the top part of the watch, and makes the bottom part visible. Typically, the logo of the manufacturer is framed by the hands. The manufacturer wants the logo to be visible in the ads.
The hands lifted upward make a welcoming gesture. If you hold your arms out at the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions, it will look like you are about to hug someone. This shape also looks like a smile.
After this, we get into the myths. At this particular time (10:09:36) US deployed the atom bomb on Japan. This particular time is used to remind people of the US dominance. A bit of research into pre atom bomb advertising might disprove that, but PG thinks that is too much work.
Another hypothesis is that Abraham Lincoln was shot at 10:15 pm on April 14, 1865, and died at 7:22 the next day. How this translates into 10:09:36 is anyone’s guess. It should also be noted that standard time was not used in the United States until 1883. Thus, the precise “time” of Mr. Lincolns retirement is not known.
Someone wrote the Timex company about this issue.
A: WE CALLED TIMEX FOR YOUR ANSWER AND IT SAYS THE HANDS ON A CLOCK ARE PLACED AT TEN-TEN BECAUSE IT’S A CREATIVE STANDARD INDUSTRY. TIMEX SAYS THE HANDS ON TIMEPIECES ARE PLACED AT TEN-TEN SO THE COMPANY LOGO ON THE FACE WILL BE FRAMED AND NOT BLOCKED BY THE HANDS.
TIMEX SAYS THE INDUSTRY STANDARD USED TO BE EIGHT-TWENTY BUT THAT LOOKED TOO MUCH LIKE A FROWN AND CREATED AN UNHAPPY LOOK. TIMEX SAYS IN ITS ADS, THE CLOCK HANDS ARE PLACED AT TEN-NINE AND THIRTY SIX SECONDS, EXACTLY.”
Another source discusses this issue when the “creative standard industry” was 8:20. At that time people still said it was the time that Abe Lincoln was shot and or died.
Yet another source, the poetically named stupidquestion.net, has a few more tidbits. It seems like in the 1880’s, pocket watches became popular. In ads, the case was shown more than the face. The omega watchmaker established the 10:08:35 standard in 1915, and the industry followed suit.  This  would also seem to contradict the atom bomb theory given above.
PG has always wondered something else. Are all photographs for watch ads shot at 10:09:36? If not, then the ads are a lie. According to StupidQuestions, watchmakers send out non functioning dummy watches that are frozen at a certain time. PG (who does not wear a watch, but uses wall clocks) says this makes him question the honesty of the ad.

PG is reading “Genius and Heroin” by Michael Largo. There are some good stories.
It seems that Margaret Mitchell met a friend for drinks at the Atlanta Womens Club one night. No one really knows how many she had before she stepped in front of the taxi. PG has heard about her all his life, but never heard that part.
Truman Capote freaked out his mother so bad, she had two abortions later. She was afraid of having another kid like Truman.
Mary Lincoln had terrible headaches. Her husband Abraham wanted to cancel their visit to the theater because of his wife’s headache. Finally, an opium product called laudanum was procured, and Mrs. Lincoln’s headache went away. The next day, a friend asked her, ” Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”
There are two self descriptive blogs now, the page69test and the page99test. On p.69 of G&H, the story of Stephan Crane is told. Mr. Crane wrote  high school perennial “The Red Badge of Courage”, and married the madame of a whorehouse. Page 99 is a divider between sections of the alphabetically arranged text. On page 99, you see a stylized F set against a gray background.
The motto of the page99test is “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” In this case, it is either the F word or a failing grade.
PG is now at page 123. There, he finds the Jean Harlow story. Curiously, G&H does not mention her marriage to Paul Bern.

This is a repost of a previously published effort. This is a work of speculation, and has no basis in proven fact. The thesis of this post cannot be proven nor disproven.
Listening to talk radio while you drive is a dangerous activity. You might start to think, and look at the man behind the screen.
Neal Boortz was on a rant today about Jane Fonda. It it the same story you have heard many times…she gave aid and comfort to the enemy, she is a traitor, American troops died because of her,she should have been executed.
Sometimes when you hear something too many times, you begin to have doubts about what you heard. A light bulb went off in PG’s head when he heard the Fonda Rant again.. .What if Jane Fonda was working for the US government when she went to Hanoi?
What was in it for the government? This trip gave our government a discredited leader of the antiwar movement to denounce. When the government was trashing Jane Fonda, they did not have to defend the disastrous policies of that war.
Miss Fonda has been an icon of right wing hatred ever since, as well as of military training. ( Disclosure: PG was never in the service, but is repeating what others have said.) One story has Miss Fonda giving the North Vietnamese information about activities by American forces. How would she get this information?
The infamous trip to Hanoi took place in the Summer of 1972. American troops were being withdrawn, and anti war protests lost most of their  passion. ( It was also soon after the death of F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, and the Watergate burglary) The war in Vietnam was essentially over for America. We were no longer trying to win, but to negotiate a face saving treaty. President Nixon called it “Peace with Honor”. Miss Fonda’s actions had little impact on these negotiations.
Miss Fonda made some radio broadcasts from Hanoi. Is it possible that coded messages to our troops were included in these broadcasts? Is it also possible that she gave the North Vietnamese misinformation on purpose?
Why would a women known for her left wing activism do such a thing? Maybe, the FBI had some dirt on her and blackmailed her.
In 1967, Kurt Vonnegut published a book titled “Mother Night”. It tells the story of Howard W. Campbell Jr. Mr. Campbell made propaganda broadcasts for Germany in World War II, which were secretly used to pass coded messages to the Allies. He was condemned as a traitor after the war, but never prosecuted .He did not win an Academy Award.
The role of the government in this affair could have taken another role. Perhaps Miss Fonda was sincere in her actions, but aided by the government. Miss Fonda was under surveillance in 1972. The government would have known about her plans to go to North Vietnam, and perhaps could have stopped her. But, because her going to Hanoi was to their advantage, the government allowed the trip to take place.
The above is speculation, and could be horribly wrong. The fact that Miss Fonda has expressed regrets over her trip neither proves nor disproves this. She got great movie roles, and won two Academy Awards, during the seventies. This may be a coincidence, or maybe it was a reward for her service.
But clearly, the trip she made to Hanoi had propaganda value to the US government. It has been a Godsend over the years.
During his rant today, Boortz said that US troops died because of Miss Fonda. By saying this, he can ignore the tens of thousands of troops who died because Richard Nixon chose to wait until 1973 to sign a “peace treaty”. He could have made the same deal in 1969. Peace with honor indeed.

There has never been a performer quite like Tiny Tim.
Herbert Khaury was born April 12 1932, to a Lebanese father and a Polish Jew mother. At an early age, he developed a love of vaudeville style music. He learned to play a ukelele, and began performing in his natural baritone voice.
One night, Mr. Khaury discovered falsetto singing. After trying numerous stage names, he settled on Tiny Tim. He got the attention of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, and appeared on that show. Laugh In made Tiny Tim an overnight sensation. He performed “Tip Toe Through The Tulips”.
On December 17, 1969, Tiny Tim married Miss Vickie (Victoria Mae Budinger) on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The show attracted an estimated 40 million viewers. The couple had a daughter, Tulip Victoria, and divorced after 8 years of marriage.
Tiny Tim continued to perform up until his death November 30, 1996. He had diabetes and heart problems. As wikipedia tells the tale: “He continued to play concerts despite the warnings that, due to the fragile state of his heart, he could die at any moment. While playing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” at a Gala Benefit at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis on 30 November of that year, he suffered another heart attack on stage. He was led out by his third wife, Susan Marie Gardner (“Miss Sue”, whom he had married on 18 August 1995), who asked him if he was okay. Tim responded, “No, I’m not!”, his final words…He is interred in the mausoleum of Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.
There is a tribute site to Tiny Tim, and an official site. Under Tiny Trivia, the following items are listed.: 01. Tiny Tim was a devout Christian. 02. Tiny Tim had diabetes. 03. Tiny Tim was 6′ 1′ tall!! 04. One time, when Tiny Tim was staying at Ceasar’s Palace, he decided to have a little fun and order ONE OF EVERYTHING on the menu! 05. Tiny Tim used Eterna 27 by Revlon.06. He also used Jergen’s Body Shampoo.07 He used Vaseline Intensive Care: the yellow bottle for his upper torso and the green bottle for his lower half. 08. Tiny Tim also used Oil of Olay – eight times a day.09. Tiny Tim never ate cheese or meat. 10. Tiny Tim liked to use Viva papertowels after showering in hotels because he didn’t trust the cleanliness of hotel towels. .11. Tiny constantly washed his hands and “creamed” his hands with lotion afterwards. 12. Tiny Tim loved, in this order, #1 pizza, #2 chinese food, #3 popcorn.

In case you didn’t notice, there are lots of places to go on the internet. PG makes good use of the bookmark feature. From time to time, he needs to clean out the toolbox.
Typically, only a handful of basics stay in the bookmarks menu. These include standbys like yahoo, weather radar, facebook, and the fishwrapper. The rest go into either the frequent or shortcuts folder. Frequent has the everyday sites, and shortcuts has the rest. Before tonights cleanup starts, there are 1113 links in shortcuts. It probably needs to be thinned out.
One link that gets kicked out is Atlanta People With Blogs Who Get Together To Drink. This is a local aggregate that has provided much enjoyment in the past. Unfortunately, it is now classified as an “attack” site. The aggregate has moved to Atlanta Blogs. That link will go into the frequent folder, along with obsidian wings and Matt Taibbi.
Taibbi is a treasure. He writes for Rolling Stone, among others. He has had some great coverage of the financial armegeddon, and at decoding PR pablum. More economics is found at DuckinginDoorways. Chamblee54 left the first comment there.
The rest of these are going into deep storage. There are just sooo many good blogs, and between everything else going on, one can only do justice to so many places. There is also the matter of good intentions. The Keyboard is your friend is a collections of keyboard shortcuts. PG is fond of these, but just doesn’t feel like looking just yet.
Yourfuneralguy deals primarily in advice to those who are sending off a loved on. Lately, though, he has covered the departure of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Execution of the Day covers capital punishment through the ages.
Likethedew is a retirement home for laidoff  fishwrapper scribes. It tries to look like a dead tree newspaper, with four columns full of story tidbits. You follow a link at the bottom of each story to read the rest. Chamblee54 doesn’t want to look like a newspaper, it wants to look like a blog.
The Bilerico project has a tidy little story about Jesus. Written by Patricia Nell Warren, she has the man faking his death, escaping to Rome, only to have Mary Magdalen go to France with the kids. Some people think the Bible is the only book ever written about this. Or ever written, period.
Famous People is  fascinated with the recently deceased. The ghoul du jour is Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich (Mladen Đorđe Sekulović, Serbian Cyrillic: Младен Ђорђе Секуловић) March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009). It is hoped they take American Express (Don’t leave home without it) at the pearly gates. He is quoted thus:” My father was a milkman. So, I delivered milk.”
Guyswithiphones and Girlswithiphones are endless collections of self portraits. Many of them are NSFW. The same could be said for this optical illusion and belly b******e. The home of the latter is currently featuring pictures from a white trash wedding.
MargaretandHelen is a treasure. The two ladies have been best friends for sixty plus years, and they share their opinions with you. Today’s episode begins : “Good Lord Margaret. I had no idea Michael Jackson was this popular”
By amazing coincidence, July 1 is the 2nd birthday of ListServe. No, this is not a yahoo service, but a wildly popular site that features top ten lists. The top ten top ten list includes:
10-Top 10 Human Sideshow Freaks/09-Top 10 Bizarre Mental Disorders/08-Top 20 Best Gangster Movies/07-Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams/06-Top 10 Most Evil Women/05-Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries/04-Top 15 Amazing Coincidences/03-Top 15 Manipulated Photographs/02-Top 10 Incredible Recordings/01-10 Fascinating Last Pictures Taken/

Vanity Fair has come out with a piece about Sarah Palin. It could be described as a whack job on the whack job. It makes neither the medium nor the message look good.
There is a quote from Mrs. Palin that sums up the impact. She was talking to Andrew Halcro. He was an independent candidate in the Governor’s election that Mrs. Palin won in 2006. “Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I’m amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, Does any of this really matter?”
What impact will “liberal media” material have on the Palin bandwagon? Few of her admirers will read this piece, just as few of the non admirers are going to change their minds. And how much of this will be remembered in 2012/2016? The woman is already running for the White House.
In 1968, Richard Nixon came back from the dead one more time. Lyndon Johnson had been run out of office over outrage at the War in Vietnam. The opposition to Tricky Dick was Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace, who may have been worse. In a tight race, Mr. Nixon became President. He was not a runner up in a beauty pageant.
George W. Bush is another POTUS who may not have been overqualified. The incumbent Vice President ran a very poor campaign, with the help of the “liberal” media. After the Repub talent for theft got him into office, Mr. Bush started a war in Babylon and helped wreck the economy. Maybe qualifications do really matter.
Sarah Palin is popular for herself, not because of her husband or father. Just like Nixon’s going to China opened that door, (for better or worse), it could be the “Conservative” Republicans who usher in the age of equality for women in national politics.
The VF piece had little new information. There was this gag inducer:”When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.””

PG has been reading “The Rolling Stone Interviews”. It is a slick collection of interviews from the magazine, published in 2007. It is not an original work of literature. A great deal of “entertainment” is recycling past product. For a slacker at the library, it is still a good deal.
As Jann Wenner tells the story, The Who played a show in San Francisco, and Pete Townsend did not smash his guitar. Wenner went backstage to ask him why. The result was the first Rolling Stone Interview. Modeled after the Playboy Interview, this became a feature of the magazine.
PG bought his first copy of Rolling Stone in 1971. It had the interview with John Lennon. This became a part of the Lennon legend, with its comments about Mick Jagger and his fag dancing.
Rolling Stone was different in the early days. It was printed on cheap newsprint, and had a lot more to read than today. It was the Great Speckled Bird on steroids.
Thirty eight years later, a slick compilation of interviews turns up at the library. The book has a few highlights.
RS hired Truman Capote to cover a tour of the Rolling Stones (the band). For whatever reason, he never produced any product. So, Andy Warhol goes to visit, and brings a tape recorder. They go to Central Park. Mr. Capote does not think Mick Jagger can sing. Later, they go for drinks. Capote gets J&B on the rocks, Warhol gets a Grand Marnier.
Neil Young was drunk when he made “Tonights the Night”.
Oriana Fallaci would ask Jesus if he slept with Mary Magdalene. Miss Fallaci would like to find the grave of Jesus, and see if it is occupied.
Joni Mitchell played Bob Dylan a tape of “Court and Spark” and he fell asleep.
David Letterman is asked what he is like in a relationship, and he says “moody drunk”.
Bill Clinton talked to Richard Nixon a great deal. Nixon admired the way Clinton dealt with abuse from the press.
And on and on. The library wants the book back tomorrow. It is not worth an overdue fine.

PG was driving down fifth street, when he saw a line of firetrucks and ambulances. He turned on the radio, and WSB interrupted Neal Boortz to announce that a parking deck had collapsed on Spring Street. PG found a place to park, and started over to the scene.
A man saw the helicopters and general confusion, and asked what happened. PG said a parking deck collapsed, over behind LA fitness. The man said he usually parks there, but took the bus today.
The deck was not on Spring, but behind a fenced off vacant lot. The fence was as close as PG was going to get.
There were lots of people standing around, many of them talking on cell phones. A man with binoculars, claiming to look for survivors, made smart comments about the people taking pictures. PG decided he was talking to someone else.
You could not tell much from 75 yards away. A policeman was encouraging people to get on the other side of Spring Street, and PG decided he had seen all he was going to see. PG did not want to see bodies carried out of the garage.

With all the attention given to Neda and Michael, few noticed an important vote in the US House of Representatives Friday. The House passed HR 2454, and sent it to the Senate. HR 2454 is also known as Waxman-Markey, or Cap and Trade. The bill tries to deal with the issue of carbon dioxide emissions.
Georgia Fourth District Representative Hank Johnson voted yes.
The bill is over a thousand pages long, and difficult to understand. The basic concept is that limits will be set on the amount of carbon dioxide that certain industries can dispose of in the atmosphere. There will be taxes levied to encourage these industries to emit less carbon dioxide.
The bill is hysterically opposed by some special interests, and the media whiners on their payroll. In a curious twist, HR 2454 is also opposed by Greenpeace, who doesn’t think it goes far enough.
This whole business makes PG’s head spin. The future of the American Economy, and the earth as we know it, are at a crossroads. America is addicted to oil, and needs to kick the habit. PG senses that the exploitation of renewable energy sources like solar and wind could be the start of a new golden age economically. We can also reduce the overloading of carbon dioxide.
PG is also aware that the money controllers have trillions of dollars invested in the coal/oil/nuclear(CON) status quo, and want to get a return on their investment. When you have this much money at stake, a few million in payoffs to radio whiners is pocket change.
It is ironic that many of these media players claim to support small government, while supporting the big money CON interests. Alternative energy, when it is a reality, could be much less dependent on big government. If people get their energy directly from the sun, there would be no need for big money power systems. Where there is big money, big government is not far behind.
HR 2454 is going to the Senate, where it will face another onslaught from the special interests. The horse is going into a committee, where it will become a camel. It will either pass or fail, and maybe go to the White House. In any event, many will give the credit/blame to BHO, who is just as beholden to the special interests as the other players.
The earth will continue to spin either way. It is the air around the planet that is in trouble.

PG went on his bike to look at the yard sales. Before he was twenty feet off his driveway, he saw a pile of broken glass. A thoughtless person threw a Jarritos bottle in the street. A car did not miss it.
Kind people of the internet, take a moment away from Michael Jackson to think about someone other than yourself. Enjoy your beverage, and throw the glass bottle in a trashcan. If your beverage is a legal drug, enjoy it in a home or a bar, but not in a moving vehicle.
PG was lucky to see that weapon in time. He will not be able to walk barefoot in front of his house now. Please, think of other people before you throw that bottle out the window.

There is a report out about the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in America. The noise you hear is a BS detector going ding ding ding.
The study was compiled by Andrew Schiller and NeighborhoodScout.com. This is a service for people looking to move to an area. You can get a report on any “neighborhood” in America. You will need a paid subscription to the service.
The study uses FBI data regarding murder, non-negligent manslaughter,forcible rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. It is a standard statistical soup of incidents per thousand residents. There is a saying about three kinds of lies…lies, damn lies, and statistics.
PG looked over the sites describing this study, and could not find how they define a neighborhood. This is a key flaw in the study. In Atlanta, neighborhoods expand along with the property values. If a realtor can make more money by calling a street Vinings instead of Smyrna, then she will do so. How you draw the boundaries of these areas is going to have a lot to do with how many crimes are reported.
The word reported is also important, as not all crimes are reported. Police Departments play games with the numbers. There are three kinds of lies.
Here are the twenty five hoods ranked as the baddest in the America, the greatest country on earth.
1. Cincinnati, Ohio (Central Pky./Liberty St.) 2. Chicago (State St./Garfield Blvd.) 3. Miami, Fla. (7th Ave./North River Dr.) 4. Jacksonville, Fla. (Beaver St./Broad St.) 5. Baltimore (North Ave./Belair Rd.) 6. Kansas City, Mo. (Bales Ave./30th St.) 7. Memphis, Tenn. (Warford St./Mount Olive Rd.) 8. Kansas City, Mo. (Forest Ave./41st St.) 9. Dallas, Texas (Route 352/Scyene Rd.) 10. Richmond, Va. (Church Hill) 11. Memphis, Tenn. (Bellevue Blvd./Lamar Ave.) 12. Dallas, Texas (2nd Ave./Hatcher St.) 13. Springfield, Ill. (Cook St./11th St.) 14. St. Louis (14th St./Dr. Martin Luther King Dr.) 15. Little Rock, Ark. (Roosevelt Rd./Bond St.) 16. Philadelphia (Broad St./Dauphin St.) 17. Tampa, Fla. (Amelia Ave./Tampa St.) 18. New York City (St. Nicholas Ave./125th St.) 19. Chicago (66th St./Yale Ave.) 20. Baltimore (Orleans St./Front St.) 21. Cleveland (Cedar Ave./55th St.) 22. Orlando, Fla. (East-West Expy/Orange Blossom Trl.) 23. Detroit (Mount Elliott St./Palmer Ave.) 24. Chicago (Wallace St./58th St.) 25. Chicago (Winchester, Ave./60th St.)
Did any hoods from Atlanta make the list? No, and Houston, New Orleans, or Los Angeles did not *crack* the top 25. The furthest west the list goes is Kansas City. While it is “safe” to assume that the 25 areas listed are not nice places, you have to wonder about a listing like this that leaves so much out.
HT to JoeMyG-d, who lives in New York.