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”.
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.”
LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse
Today’s feature is a repost from 2014. … Awful library books is one of the actors in this drama. It is a good waste of your time. On top of the shelf today is Lee the Rabbit with Epilepsy. Other uplifting volumes on the front page include Isn’t One Wife Enough?: the Story of Mormon Polygamy and When Cavemen Go Bowling. Awful Library Books retired in 2023.
The book that Awful Library Books chose to “weed” was Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say “No” to Drugs. The links in the original post no longer work, so google was enlisted to find a replacement. Believe it or not, this galloping tale has a wikipedia page.
The original book was targeted at African American youth. The author has daughters named Latawnya and Chrystal. The author has sued amazon, wikipedia, and urban dictionary.
A possibly illegal reproduction is found using the link. One of the comments tells a cautionary tale: “It seems that many of these comments are viciously lampooning the work of a genius. I, however, see the visionary work of Mrs. Gibson. This insightful masterpiece presents the very real dangers of horse peer pressure. Just last week my daughter, Amber, was walking to school on a normal, idyllic day in suburbia. Then out of nowhere a Clydesdale galloped brazenly over to my precious princess and offered her a 40 oz bottle of Olde English 800 and a marijuana cigarette.”
Clydesdales have long been used to promote the products of the Anheuser-Busch company. (When you click on that link, a page pops up: WE NEED TO CHECK YOUR ID YOU MUST BE OF LEGAL DRINKING AGE TO ENTER THIS SITE) When I was younger, I worked on the mall maintenance crew at Northlake Mall. One day, the Budweiser Clydesdales made a visit. I was given a shovel and bucket, and told to walk behind the horses.
Courtesy of Awfullibrarybooks, we can see today “LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse, Learns to say “No” to Drugs“. This uplifting story is about the afternoon when Latawnya goes out to play with her sisters Daisy and LaToya. Suddenly they meet four strange horses, Connie, Chrystal, Jackie, and Angie. They like to drink and smoke drugs.
The author of this tale was born in Mississippi, and lives in California. She says “Thank you, G-d”.
One of the reasons for the drug problem is drug education. Many of these programs, while well intentioned, make the problem worse.
In 1986, there was an oversupply of cocaine coming into America, and new ways of using the product were needed. Someone had the idea of making crack. The media did its part, by running scare stories about the new drug sensation. “One puff makes your head feel like it is exploding”. The stories had the combined effect of scaring parents, and making crack cocaine irresistible to certain people. Crack became a part of the life.
The first time I heard about oxycontin was a drug education flyer at work. It promised an overwhelming rush to the user who injected the substance. I imagined the reaction of some of the druggies he had known to this promise…where can I get some?
I am in the detoxed, old fogey stage of his life. Millions of others are not. When they read stories about horses who drink and smoke drugs, they learn to believe the opposite of what the drug educators tell them. Many will not live to be detoxed old fogeys. The pictures for this tale of drug-free stallions are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
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”
Walmart Suicide Video
This is a repost from 2015. … I was stumbling through facebook when I saw enthusiastic praise some. Against my better judgement, I clicked on the video. Within seconds, it was familiar.
Paige Yore (she wants you to know her name) made a video about an incident at Walmart. The video was shot in that annoying cell phone style, with a skinny image in the middle of a blank screen. In the story, Ms. Yore was at walmart, when a lady before her had a problem with a cashier. Ms. Yore intervenes, a unicorn army parades through the store, and all is well with the world.
It was just another inspirational video, until the lies got thick. “The young cashier stopped in his tracks and began crying. He came from the bagging area and began hugging Paige. He told her that his mother committed suicide that morning. He said he had to work because he has to pay rent and bills. “This woman is yelling at me and I don’t even have a mom anymore,” said the young man.” At this point, I realized it was a fraud.
Apparently, other people were not fooled. A local tv reporter did some checking. Walmart found a surveillance video of the incident. The lady did not hug the cashier, whose mother is still alive.
The perpetrator of this video is unrepentant. “I just want everyone to know that I am here to inspire people. I’m not here to cause any problems. I’m just a normal girl from Idaho, just another cow girl, and just happened to go viral. Did I plan on it? Absolutely not. Did I want that? Probably not.” In another comment thread she adds “I’m not bipolar and never been diagnosed.”
People, don’t believe everything you hear. If you want inspiration, look at the sky outside, and marvel that a creature that can see this exists. Don’t let people pull your chain all the time. Cynicism is ugly. But when you are lied to repeatedly, it is what is left. Pictures by The Library of Congress.
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
Luigi Drabble
tit nit decadence · shameful ass ally screw off · stupid behavior
The local custom of using haiku reductions as writing prompts continues to devolve into nitwit depravity. Today’s twist is the drabble, a short short story that is exactly 100 words long. Using google docs as a measuring guide is the latest techno-cultural appropriation. The misuse of digital tools to enable decadent perambulating is the latest stupid behavior to appear smart. Is it smart, is it art, can you buy it at K-Mart? The last one is unlikely, since the blue light special has flickered into memory, replaced by the nonstop shart of Walmart consumption. The TrickyDick seventies did have culture.
honor? again? this? · act ignore time guilt? What just… · prove need today? joy
This image was inspired by “12 Questions Nobody Asks Before Burnout (But Should) TQNABB is another instance of what some unkind people call motivation porn. Since they were numbered, there is order to the haiku. This all proved challenging to the reduction perp. Choose at least one word out of each cell, with seven having one beat and the remaining five going beat beat. Beat on the brat with a baseball bat is another cure for burnout, even if cleaning up afterwards is a job for mister clean. You have honor? at one end, and unpunctuated joy at the other.
immediacy · overproduced vulgar mess · opera poet
Modern life is an overproduced vulgar mess. There is a routine, which helps to make sense of the devolving chaos, ensure that your teeth are brushed and meds consumed. Some need canned entertainment, others prefer recreational quiet. When you have a shared space between a person who enjoys quiet, and a person who needs commodified entertainment, there will be drama. May the biggest mouth win. These authority asserting struggles can be so unpleasant, but seem to be a part of life in a tribal setting. When you confuse who has the strongest will for being RIGHT, there is drama.
Goddess pagan ass · celebrate usual change · Death tarot magick?
The modern holiday season brings memes to the dinner table. Solstice is always a reason for the season occasion, and a time for passive aggressive digs at the ill mannered jesus worshiper who feels that their holiday is the only true one, and that all others are wrong. The end of the four season cycle is the death of the old order, with a promise of a spring rebirth after a tasteful cold season. The pagans know this, and celebrate accordingly. Wait until after the holidays to touch up their purple hair, and shop for tofu at the neighborhood collective.
arguing minors · rush push transition doctors · they question bigots
Part of the process at chamblee54 is the internet break. When you are at a stopping point, you leave the machine and check out facebook, bluesky, twitter, youtube, reddit, and other less wholesome destinations. Occasionally there are gems, like this: @tao_lin To all the unmerry people out there. The lonely, the disgruntled, the grumpy, the depressed, the spurned, the people in chronic pain, the severely autistic, and so on, I wish you a day—you do not need to be merry, you’ll make it through this Christmas, it’s almost over. This tweet does not mention gender dysphoric minors.
Luigi lust feel · “great” go bankrupt need heroes · murder hot as f-ck
Ninety years ago, Americans were angry at bankers. Many banks failed during the depression, leaving millions broke. When John Dillinger started to rob banks, and get away with it, he became a hero. After Mr. Dillinger died, rumors about his sexual prowess only made people admire him more. There is even a rumor, heard by every eighth grade boy in America, that his pecker was on display at the Smithsonian Institute. Today, Americans feel cheated by health insurance executives. Luigi Mangione made a choice about this inequity. We do not know if the Smithsonian will get his Dillinger.
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.
United States Of Amnesia
I stumbled onto a podcast of Allan Gurganus speaking at a literary event in Key West. Mr. Gurganus, bless his heart, is a good writer. As a public speaker, the jury is “out.”
This particular literary event concerned historical fiction. Tom Robbins went on a tear once, comparing animal husbandry to history. With one, you combine blood lines to create a superior breed. With the other, you mix “facts” to create an inspiring story. With both animal husbandry and history, you are frequently up to your ankles in shit.
Mr. Gurganus trotted out a bunch of quotable lines. ”Liars like historians and politicians tend to overdocument.” ”Myth is gossip grown old.” ”the term historical fiction sounds as pitifully redundant as, say, creative writing. … It’s like having ‘oxygen breather’ stamped on your driver’s license.” ”History is agreed-upon hearsay granted tenure.”
The first time I tried to listen to the Gurganus speech, the cliche slinging got too thick, and the player triangle was turned into the parallel lines. Or maybe it was the parallel lines turned into the triangle. In any event, the speakers quit making sounds. This option is not available live.
The second time I tried to listen to the Gurganus speech, the line about hearsay granted tenure stuck. Mr. Google was consulted, and found a nice website for the literary event. Another speaker at said event was Gore Vidal. Finally, Mr. Gurganus wore out my patience. It was time to download the appearance by Mr. Vidal.
The emcee said, “I don’t want to steal your jokes, but you said that this is the United States of Amnesia.” Mr. Vidal said, “I don’t remember that.” This is going to be fun. Photographs for this repost are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Odor In The Court
Odor In The Court was a blog post fourteen years ago. OITC is a collection of real things that people, and attorneys, said under oath. They are allegedly taken from a book, Disorder in the American Courts … If you look at the one-star comments, you learn that this is a book of cartoons, with courtroom quotes for captions. This is why God Google supplies a list of these items.
q: : What is your date of birth? a: : July fifteenth. q: : What year? a: : Every year.
q: : What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? a: : Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
q: : This myasthenia gravis. Does it affect your memory at all? a: : Yes.
q: : And in what ways does it affect your memory? a: : I forget.
q: : You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you’ve forgotten?
q: : what was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
a: : he said, “where am i, doris?” q: : and why did that upset you? a: : my name is susan.
q: :Are you sexually active? a: :No. I just lie there.
q: :any suggestions as to what prevented this from being a murder trial instead of an attempted murder trial? a: :the victim lived.
q: : Do you know if your daughter has ever been involvedin voodoo or the occult?
a: : We both do. q: : Voodoo? a: : We do. q: : You do? a: : Yes, voodoo.
q: : Trooper, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing?
a: : Yes. q: : Did the defendant say anything when she got out of her car? a: : Yes, sir.
q: : What did she say? a: : What disco am I at?
q: : How many times have you committed suicide? a: : Four times.
q: : Have you lived in this town all your life? a: : Not yet.
q: : How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?
q: : Doctor, did you say he was shot in the woods?
a: : No, I said he was shot in the lumbar region.
q: : Were you acquainted with the deceased? a: : Yes sir. q: : Before or after he died?
q: : : “What happened then? a: : He told me, he says, ‘I have to kill you because
you can identify me.’ q: : Did he kill you? a: : : “No.
q: : Can you describe the individual? a: : He was about medium height and had a beard.
q: : Was this a male, or a female?
q: : Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
a: : All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
q: : All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to? a: : Oral.
q: : Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
a: : The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. q: : And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
a: : No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
q: : Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? a: : No.
q: : Did you check for blood pressure? a: : No. q: : Did you check for breathing? a: : No.
q: : So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? a: : No.
q: : How can you be so sure, Doctor? a: : Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
The @MichaelChabon Story
@tcboyle While searching the New Yorker stories, I stumbled across this shot from the distant past by Richard Avedon. We call this one, “The Noble Savage.” (Avedon himself kept fluffing out the hair in back to achieve the desired look.) @chamblee54 The first time I heard of you was in a New Yorker fiction issue. You were in a group picture, and you were rocking the desired look. The only other one I remember was Michael Chabon. Why would a gay man remember him?
When typing that reply, I wanted to include an x-address for Mr. Chabon. Google did not want to give me one, but it did have a link. After abandoning Instagram in disgust, @MichaelChabon is speaking his mind on Twitter When you click on @MichaelChabon, you get a familiar message. “@michaelchabon This account doesn’t exist Try searching for another.”
The link aroused my curiosity. Before I could get to the story, there was a pop-up ad in the way. “Get the latest news on antisemitism … Sign up for crucial updates on antisemitism in our region and how the crisis in Israel and Gaza is impacting our local Jewish community. … Join 16,000+ readers who stay informed with J. The Jewish News”
When you get around that digital roadblock, the story has a “header.” “INTEREST-FREE DEBT CONSOLIDATION LOANS … HEBREW FREE LOAN … INTEREST FREE LENDING SINCE 1897″ The logo for HFL has a Star of David. The center, and three of the triangles are green. Three of the triangles are blue, and connected to semi-circles. The three blue arrows go round and round.
The article was published August 18, 2021. It is dated. “First selfie on @verotruesocial. Impressions so far: attractive interface. Takes about 5 mins to grasp fundamental differences from IG. Really easy and convenient to post book, film/tv and music recs. AND, Huge: You can paste a *clickable* link directly into a post! Also: owner is not evil.”
“I thought, I’ve had this Twitter account forever, and I had some followers that accumulated over the years even though I never tweeted, so let me go over to Twitter and see what that’s like. … While Twitter “has not been a paragon of integrity,” he asserted that the company has done a “much better” job than Facebook of protecting its users and their data. Plus, “they [permanently] banned Trump, and I appreciated that.”
In the last 213 weeks, a few things have changed. @MichaelChabon has gone to the land of ex-tweeters. 18 hours ago, michael.chabon displayed a picture of his wife’s arm tattoo on instagram. mollyjongfast “Why do I want a tattoo now?”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1942. “San Juan Bautista, California. Schoolchildren who were collecting scrap metal for war.”
Chamblee54 
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