The Cynic’s Word Book S
What follows are selections from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose 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 SE to SY. Today’s selection covers x to x. More selections are available. A – D E – G H – I J – L M – O P – R R – S
SERIAL, n. A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine. Frequently appended to each installment is a “synposis of preceding chapters” for those who have not read them, but a direr need is a synposis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read them. A synposis of the entire work would be still better. (Mr. Bierce probably meant to say synopsis. I looked into this. All google references to synposis point back to synopsis. The rabbit hole is deeper than that. I wondered what the author’s middle name was. When I learned that it was Gwinnett, like the county, I was charmed. The wikipedia outpost had more fascinating details, which I had to turn away from if I am ever going to finish this post.)
SIREN, n. A musical prodigy famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance.
SOPHISTRY, n. The controversial method of an opponent, distinguished from one’s own by superior insincerity and fooling. This method is that of the later Sophists, a Grecian sect of philosophers who began by teaching wisdom, prudence, science, art and, in brief, whatever men ought to know, but lost themselves in a maze of quibbles and a fog of words.
SOUL, n. A spiritual entity concerning which there hath been brave disputation. Plato held that those souls which in a previous state of existence (antedating Athens) had obtained the clearest glimpses of eternal truth entered into the bodies of persons who became philosophers. Plato himself was a philosopher. The souls that had least contemplated divine truth animated the bodies of usurpers and despots. Dionysius I, who had threatened to decapitate the broad-browed philosopher, was a usurper and a despot. Plato, doubtless, was not the first to construct a system of philosophy that could be quoted against his enemies; certainly he was not the last.
“Concerning the nature of the soul,” saith the renowned author of Diversiones Sanctorum, “there hath been hardly more argument than that of its place in the body. Mine own belief is that the soul hath her seat in the abdomen—in which faith we may discern and interpret a truth hitherto unintelligible, namely that the glutton is of all men most devout. He is said in the Scripture to ‘make a god of his belly’ —why, then, should he not be pious, having ever his Deity with him to freshen his faith? Who so well as he can know the might and majesty that he shrines? Truly and soberly, the soul and the stomach are one Divine Entity; and such was the belief of Promasius, who nevertheless erred in denying it immortality. He had observed that its visible and material substance failed and decayed with the rest of the body after death, but of its immaterial essence he knew nothing. This is what we call the Appetite, and it survives the wreck and reek of mortality, to be rewarded or punished in another world, according to what it hath demanded in the flesh. The Appetite whose coarse clamoring was for the unwholesome viands of the general market and the public refectory shall be cast into eternal famine, whilst that which firmly though civilly insisted on ortolans, caviare, terrapin, anchovies, pates de foie gras and all such Christian comestibles shall flesh its spiritual tooth in the souls of them forever and ever, and wreak its divine thirst upon the immortal parts of the rarest and richest wines ever quaffed here below. Such is my religious faith, though I grieve to confess that neither His Holiness the Pope nor His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (whom I equally and profoundly revere) will assent to its dissemination.”
SUCCESS, n. The one unpardonable sin against one’s fellows. In literature, and particularly in poetry, the elements of success are exceedingly simple, and are admirably set forth in the following lines by the reverend Father Gassalasca Jape, entitled, for some mysterious reason, “John A. Joyce.”
The bard who would prosper must carry a book, · Do his thinking in prose and wear
A crimson cravat, a far-away look · And a head of hexameter hair.
Be thin in your thought and your body’ll be fat; · If you wear your hair long you needn’t your hat.
SUFFRAGE, n. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another man’s choice, and is highly prized. Refusal to do so has the bad name of “incivism.” The incivilian, however, cannot be properly arraigned for his crime, for there is no legitimate accuser. If the accuser is himself guilty he has no standing in the court of opinion; if not, he profits by the crime, for A’s abstention from voting gives greater weight to the vote of B. By female suffrage is meant the right of a woman to vote as some man tells her to. It is based on female responsibility, which is somewhat limited. The woman most eager to jump out of her petticoat to assert her rights is first to jump back into it when threatened with a switching for misusing them.
SYCOPHANT, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an editor.
SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere “survivals”—things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. They were once real urns holding the ashes of the dead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness.
SYMBOLIC, adj. Pertaining to symbols and the use and interpretation of symbols.
They say ’tis conscience feels compunction; · I hold that that’s the stomach’s function,
For of the sinner I have noted · That when he’s sinned he’s somewhat bloated,
Or ill some other ghastly fashion · Within that bowel of compassion.
True, I believe the only sinner · Is he that eats a shabby dinner.
You know how Adam with good reason, · For eating apples out of season,
Was “cursed.”But that is all symbolic: · The truth is, Adam had the colic. · G.J.
The classical references in this text have not been verified. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. Charles D. Jackson took the social media picture October 10, 1951. “Zenas Sears, WGST Radio personality, promoting “20 Grand Cream Ale,” for the Gate City Beverage Company, 350 Marietta Street, Atlanta, Georgia ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Hypertension Industrial Complex
This content was posted December 12, 2020. … Prescription medication is a part of life. Most of mine deal with hypertension, aka high blood pressure. According to this website, hypertension is the number one co-morbidity for covid-19. It is helpful to take care of this.
I go to a doctor, who sends a script to the pharmacy. The doctor is part of a hospital/medical company. All the stages of this procedure are regulated, and financed, by an insurance company. Since I am over 65, this means medicare, or another layer of nonsense. I will use nick names today. The doctor/hospital is Curly. The pharmacy is Larry. The insurance company is Moe.
Once a year, I go see Curly. He takes a blood sample, and a few instrument readings. Curly sees that I have not died yet, and approves my medications for another year. I did this a few weeks ago.
Friday afternoon, I called Moe. The idea is to get a 90 day supply of the meds. After wading through Moe’s telephone system, and waiting on hold, I am directed to a telephone operator. I tell Moe what scripts I want to order.
I say carefully, and repeatedly, that I want these medications shipped mail order. It is cheaper, and easier, than going to see Larry in person. For some reason, this point often gets lost when medical machines try to work together. I say, over and over, send the meds by mail order. Unfortunately, this is prescription renewal time. Moe needs to call Curly, to confirm that the prescription is valid. Between Curly, Larry, and Moe, something is going to get screwed up.
The call to Moe takes place on friday afternoon. All goes well until 7:41 pm, when a text arrives from Larry. The prescriptions are ready for pickup. The script was sent to the pharmacy, not the mail order house. Buying hypertension medication can make your blood pressure go up.
Larry has an especially stupid phone system. I finally get to talk to a pharmacist. She explains that Curly sent them the prescription, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
This is blood pressure medication. This is not something that people take to have fun. This is boring old amlodipine and benezapril. If something this basic can get screwed up, I can only imagine what would happen with a complicated illness like cancer, or HIV. The idea that Larry is going to distribute the covid vaccine is cause for great concern.
The next step is to call Moe. The phone menu is having a bad day, and asks me to repeat my account number twice. Finally, I get through to a lady, who speaks with a serious accent. The lady asks me to repeat the account number one more time. The lady says that Curly sent the script to Larry, and there is nothing Moe can do about it. I am beyond angry.
It is now friday night. Curly has quit doing business. I will have to wait until Monday morning. Curly has an obnoxious phone system of his own. Curly is a giant bureaucracy. I have no idea who to talk to about this. I just have to wait until Monday morning, call the phone number, and hope for the best. Sometimes, if the first attempt does not work, then the second try will turn out better.
Eventually, this is going to work out. It has so far every time in the past. It can be frustrating, though, and scary. This is a non emergency situation. What would happen if I had to deal with the institutional shadiness of Curly/Larry/Moe, when every second counts?
2025 Update: I now repeatedly tell the doctor to send the drugs by the mail order pharmacy. The last time I had to deal with the local pharmacy, the phone system was so dysfunctional that I do all my business in person. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in October 1941. “Mr. Albert Brissant and his niece who are still living in the Pine Camp relocation area near Evans Mills, New York. They had an antique shop here which they have sold out and are now looking for a new farm.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Esoteric and Pedantic
This content was published November 18, 2021. … There is something to be said for wanting to speak up, but not having anything to say. To prove that, I am going to talk about a word…esoteric. According to Wiktionary, esoteric is :”1. Having to do with concepts that are highly theoretical and without obvious practical application. 2. Understood only by a chosen few or an inner circle.”
The “E word” plays a role in a story from 10th grade English. We were discussing a story, “The Rocking Horse Winner”, by D.H. Lawrence. The story was boring and obscure, just like most of what I have seen by Mr. Lawrence.
The summer after 10th grade I worked in a movie theater. The ushers wore ghastly yellow uniforms, and saw the movies over and over. When I started, the Lenox Square 2 theater was showing “Women in Love”, based on a novel by D.H. Lawrence. Glenda Jackson copped an oscar for her portrayal of Gudrun Brangwen, and young Larry Kramer was one of the screenwriters. It did not improve my opinion of D.H. Lawrence. If the censors had not touched “Lady Chatterly’s Lover”, D.H. Lawrence would be forgotten today.
Back to 10th grade english. We were discussing this wretched story, and a girl raised her hand. Why would any author write something so esoteric? The teacher had never heard of this word before, and was amazed to hear it.
The Lenox Square 2 theater was a long, slender thing with a small screen. This was in 1970. The multiplex concept had not matured. LS2 was under a grocery store. When their automatic door openers operated, you could hear the motors in the theater below. The movies the rest of the summer were Fellini Satyricon, The Christine Jorgenson Story, and The Landlord.
Back to esoteric…or did I ever go away? Before you can understand esoteric, you must plumb the depths of pedantic “1. Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning. 2. Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner. 3. Often used to describe a person who emphasizes his/her knowledge through the use of vocabulary; ostentatious in one’s learning. 4. Being finicky or picky with language.”
Pedantic is an adjective that describes itself. The technical term for this is autological. Here is a poem using autological words. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in May 1939.
“A scene from a play, “History of Ashwood Health Association,” written and presented by tenth grade at May Day-Health Day program. Ashwood Plantations, stage of auditorium, South Carolina” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Rose McGowan Misogyngate
This content was published November 6, 2014. … The headline in the fb feed was not subtle. Rose McGowan: ‘Gay Men Are As Misogynistic As Straight Men, If Not More So’. I had heard the little known celebrity say similar things on the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast a month earlier. Why was she flogging the same donkey twenty eight days later? … It turns out the barrage of McGowan media mulch is based on the podcast. When I heard them the first time, it was dismissed as somebody with too many opinions. Now these same offerings were broadcast with wider distribution. Are we supposed to care what Rose McGowan thinks?
One issue is the Beverly Hills Hotel. It is owned by someone the community deems unworthy. A boycott was announced. The people working at the BHH were financially hurt by this boycott. … What Miss McGowan does not mention is the zero sum nature of the game. When the trendy people quit going to one facility, they find another one. The people who work at the new designated watering hole will make more money. The chances are good that the next legal drug emporium is owned by someone with opinions contrary to popular fashion. When one service industry employee loses, another service industry employee wins. It is not fair.
It is curious that misogyngate is getting attention now. It is as if a press agent hit on a story, and all the media outlets on the chain got the call. Does Miss McGowan have some product that needs publicity? Is a more important story being pushed into the background? Why was this interview not the center of attention a month ago? Inquiring minds want to know. … Another ironic touch is the spectacle of a woman crying “gay misogyny” on the BEEP. Mr. Ellis, a gay man, has been dogged by charges of misogyny since the publication of “American Psycho.”
BEE takes it in stride. *Insert profound comment about public figure dealing with accusations of incorrect thinking.* Miss McGowan has issued an apology of sorts. Miss McGowan references a comment, by a gay man, about a character in a fictional tv show. It is tough to see how the comment justifies trash talk by a neo-celebrity. These things too shall pass away.
This content was published November 7, 2014. … After the media stormette about Rósa Arianna McGowan this week, I decided to give the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast episode a second listen. In the opening monolog, BEE discusses a quote he was blamed for. It was about women who direct movies. BEE was mistakenly quoted as saying half the population cannot direct films. He learned to never give an interview over drinks. … The monolog rambled over something called the male gaze, or the male oriented viewpoint of most movie makers. Soon, RAM was in the show, and talking misogyny. “I can tell you stories that would curl your hair.”
RAM then mentioned the time when she called out a young man for calling “Golden Girl” Blanche a slut. This is a story that RAM likes to tell. … The first movie RAM worked on was six weeks after her boyfriend was murdered. “I had never acted before. I was discovered standing on a street corner. I never tell that part of the story.” The director was Gregg Araki. RAM noted that “gays can be as misogynistic as …” She would return to that theme later. “I have an indictment of the gay community.” BEE “I do too.”
The Beverly Hills Hotel issue soon came up. For those who are new here, BHH is owned by the Sultan of Brunei. A proposal to enact Sharia law was enacted over there. “Armchair activists” in Southern California decided not to do business with the BHH. The trendy people went elsewhere for their $20 martinis, to the delight of people who work elsewhere. … RAM is not pleased. She mentions Richard Branson denouncing BHH, after making a deal with Saudi Arabia. As someone who puts Arab gasoline in his vehicle, I am loath to throw stones.
No such inhibitions were on display during the podcast. At the 32 minute mark, RAM says “I have heard nobody in the gay community, no gay male, standing up for women on any level.” At 35 minutes, “no help for the African American community, no help for lesbians.” At the 44 minute mark is a commercial break. Larry King, and his ?th wife, have a podcast. They invite you to see what it is like to live with him, and her. It is a material world. … After the break, BEE and RAM talked shop. The film industry is not as much fun as it never was. At the 57:29 mark, RAM says “I digress. Damn, I digress so much I forgot what I was talking about. … you know, Tom Cruise’s q rating isn’t what it used to be.” I wonder what RAM’s q rating is today. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken August 3, 1956. “WSB-TV’s Officer Don and the Clubhouse Gang.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Message
This content was published November 13, 2o25. … The novel I am writing is now known as “The Confessions of Gnarlene Widget.” This is more commercial than “Novel with No Plot”. The role model is “Trout Fishing In America”. When I run out of things to say, I read a bit in TFIA, and am inspired. … The next chapter is a little story, that takes a little over two pages to tell. Some people were going camping, and looking for a good place. While on the road they pass a parade. The parade was a shepherd who looks like Adolph Hitler, only friendly. Following him were a thousand sheep, three horses, and a wagon. The sheep left organic souvenirs, lots of them.
The campers decided they didn’t like the first site, and went back up the road to another place, The sheep souvenirs were everywhere. Before long the parade was on the road again. They gave the Hitler look alike a beer for his trouble. Finally, the campers found an acceptable place to camp. They caught some trout that looked like leaves for dinner. … As I type this, the computer music player has a concert by Roger Waters playing. The song on the machine now is “Sheep”. Mr. Waters used to be a key member of Pink Floyd, but had issues with some of the others.
They went on without him, and even did a stadium tour under the PF name. The keyboard player recently passed away. He was friendly with Mr. Waters, who reportedly did not like onstage improvisation. I found the playing of “Sheep” at this moment to be an incident of synchronicity and simultaneity. … Back to the story in TFIA. The campers had a happy camper night in the acceptable place, and looked down the valley to see the sheep, the shepherd that looked like Hitler, and the wagon. … Under the borco bookmark, across the page from the first part of this story … Which was titled “the message”… is a yellowed newspaper clipping.
The clipping was written by the Associated Press, and was on page 3a of The Atlanta Constitution, Fri. Oct. 26, 1984. The Headline reads ”Novelist Brautigan found dead in home”. The 49 year old author had found life to be troubling, and ended it with a gunshot wound. There was a quote from Tom McGuane …”When the sixties ended, he was the baby thrown out with the bathwater”. Sometimes it is best to enjoy the product of a craftsman, and not use his life as an example.
The other side of the piece of yellowed newsprint is a picture of a whiskey bottle. The paper around the neck of the bottle says Canadian Mist. It must be from the english speaking part, or it would be spelled Canadien. Under the brand name, in fancy letters, it says Eighty Proof. The bottle is lit from the left side, with a bit of a crest visible atop the storage part of the bottle. A four legged animal is standing guard for a coat of arms. Under the watchful animal, The word IMPORTED is in all caps, in the same font as Canadian Mist. The word Canada is in little letters below that, just above the place where scissors separated the clipping from the rest of page 3a.
The message in the title of the sheep/Hitler lookalike story has a meaning. The camper received a one word message that night. The word was Stalingrad. … In 2008, I decided to participate in Nanowrimo Today’s text is a sample of the result. The goal of NW is to write a 50k word novel in one month. NW tells you to write first, and edit later. The result, at least for me, was a pile of unreadable junk. Stream of consciousness is more fun to write than it is to read. … The perps pulled the plug on Nanowrimo in 2025. There were reports of AI issues and content verification concerns. Whatever … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in July 1941. “At the entrance to the airport. Washington, D.C. municipal airport” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Charisma Lessons
This content was published November 19, 2008. … Last friday night, The Justice House of Prayer went to Castro Street in San Francisco. They do this on a lot of friday nights. They will sing and play guitar, and sometimes they will preach. They are “Christianists”. … Last friday night was not an ordinary friday night. Ten days earlier, the voters of California voted to pass Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage. The people on Castro Street were angry. The message of JHOP was seen as a provocation. A mob developed, and the police had to escort the JHOP to their vehicles.
There is plenty of blame to go around for this ugly incident. The video shows the police leading some people away from an angry mob. It makes the mob look ugly, and indeed there seems to be excessive reaction here. … But what about the JHOP? They knew what they were getting into. Were they looking to create Goodwill for Jesus, or were they looking to pick a fight? Why couldn’t they just take a couple of weeks off until the passions over Prop 8 cool off?
What does this say about Jesus? Anyone can read from the bible. Anyone can talk about Jesus. There needs to be trust for the person listening to the message to believe what the preachers are saying. JHOP seems to have forgotten this essential first step. They seem to be looking for a confrontation. … Jesus worship is often seen … with a lot of justification … as preaching hatred against gay people. Many of the Castro residents have struggled with Jesus worship, and come to the painful decision that they simply don’t agree with it. Others agree, but want to live the way God made them.
There are all sorts of ways to take this message, and many of them cause pain for the people being preached to. For a group of people to come into someone’s home and preach a painful religious message … without gaining the trust of these people…it just isn’t right. It does not speak well for Jesus. … When you preach to people without their trust, you speak in vain. When you do so out of lust for confrontation, you speak in vain. When your preaching causes pain to people, you speak in vain. … The third commandment speaks to this…”exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
This content was published November 16, 2008. … At about 1:30, PG called Uzi, and said to meet behind the waffle house. Today, the sunday walk was going to be in East Atlanta …. PG was true to form in making a wrong turn on the freeway, forcing a drive down Spring Street to North Avenue. There was little traffic, and soon the men were on Moreland, crossing I 20, and making that weird turn off Moreland onto Flat Shoals. … The East Atlanta shopping district is not very big. It can be covered on foot in a few minutes. There are plenty of unused buildings, and former parking lots with a fence in front. The transitionality of the neighborhood is a work in progress.
There are plenty of places to get a drink in East Atlanta. While PG was taking pictures of graffiti on the side of the Earl, Uzi said that he never did care to be in a bar on Sunday afternoon. PG thought back to his drinking days, and agreed. Sundays are for riding bikes, hiking, watching football, not cigarette smoking drunks. … On the way back to the car, Uzi saw a tree stump in a vacant lot. He decided to count the rings on the stump. By his reckoning, the tree was 130 years old when it was murdered. There was some serious fighting in this area during the War between the States. This would have been 144 years ago, or before the tree was planted.
There was once a band leader on the Tonight show named Tommy Newsom. Johnny Carson had reports of Mr. Newsom going to Central Park, and taking charisma lessons from a tree stump. The stump in East Atlanta is utterly lacking in charisma. Reports of local musicians taking charisma lessons from this tree stump are not to be believed. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Howard Liberman took the social media picture in September 1942. “Gloucester, Massachusetts. A vessel unloading fish. The man at the “niggerhead” with a rope is controlling the canvas basket that brings fish up from the hold” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
If I Had A Hammer
This content was published November 1, 2022. … @itstimetowrite “#writingprompt Pick 3 objects around you at random. The first item is a character’s portal, the other their prize, the last is their crutch. Interpret this, figuratively or literally, into the genre of your choice. #amwriting #writingcommmunity” The first object that I picked up was an orange. It was sitting on the desk. Since I was going to eat the orange, I substituted a paper clip. Since the instructions say “around you,” the many promising items on the desk will be ignored.
I turn 270 degrees, and finds a “QUICK START GUIDE” on the shelf. It is a booklet, 2″ x 5″, with basic instructions for JBL TUNE 215 TWS ear buds. This has sat on the shelf since the device was purchased, and will probably be discarded once this exercise is complete.
The utility shelf on the wall behind me is the next stop. A tube of equate athlete’s foot cream cream is chosen. 95% of the product has been removed from the container. A flat object has rubbed the side of the tube, driving the remaining Clotrimazole in the direction of the dispensing orifice. It is not known how many more applications of the prophylactic compound remain in the tube.
The character today is Paulie DePape, a California hammer enthusiast. Paulie was so excited about his latest purchase that he went to see his mentor. Unfortunately, it was 2:30 am, and the mentor was busy putting his cell phone in the bathroom to charge. Paulie tried to get into the San Francisco mansion, using the paper clip as a portal. It did not work, and Paulie broke into the residence with his new hammer. The new device was magical indeed … when Paulie broke the laminated glass on the back door, the glass fell back on the patio.
Paulie looked in his pockets, and found the “QUICK START GUIDE.” In his hammer-headed state of mind, Paulie opened the QSG, and realized that he already knew what it said. He turned the QSG over, and saw the fine print instructions in a variety of exotic languages. This was not much of a prize. Paulie held his mentor’s domineering wife responsible. Paulie grabbed his hammer, screamed “Where’s Nancy,” and ran up the stairs.
At this point, Paulie tripped over his hammer, and injured his leg. He would need a crutch to complete his mission, but all he had was an 95% empty tube of Walmart Athlete’s foot goo. Paulie quickly realized that the tube would be useless as a crutch.
By this time, the police had been notified. The mentor answered the door, and then tried to grab the hammer away from Paulie. He was very proud of his new hammer, and angry at Nancy for giving him a QSG as a prize. Paulie snatched the hammer away, and proceeded to brain the mentor. The police interrupted this procedure, and took Paulie into custody.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The social media picture: “Print made in the 1960s by the Lane Brothers of a photographic image of Stone Mountain, showing an early version of Robert E. Lee’s head (with hat) — probably the initial carving by Gutzon Borglum. Borglum’s work was destroyed after he left the project in 1923. Stamp on reverse of print is later Lane Brothers stamp: “Lane Bros. Photographers, 241 Peachtree-Arcade Bldg., Atlanta, Ga., MU. 8-2513.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Tussit Chronicles 110925
It is another Sunday morning. Wake up and live. After I get moving, I look for something to put on my blog. The idea is to do as little work as possible. This is the guiding principle of the universe … nature will find a way to do a chore with as little effort as possible. With the blog, enlightened laziness means an archive post with few links. Many of these links need to be revived using the internet archive. This process is painfully close to being work.
This is November, which means 30 days of dead. Somebody puts up a Grateful Dead download every day in November. For years I faithfully downloaded every one, only to realize that a substantial percentage were crap. This is the dirty truth about the GD. For all the ethereal vibes, there is a lot of boring crap. … I listened to deadhead babbling before I got to see them. That night at the Omni was late 1973, post PigPen, definitely after the glory days of the band. Of course, I kept trying.
Truckin’ – New Speedway Boogie is the TDOD offering for today, and it sucks. Which is a shame. I like those two songs. A love song for the Altamont concert, what’s not to like? Still, this rendition is clearly from the later days of the band, and just doesn’t have the Jerry juice that the faithful demand. I was going to say that Deadheads live for, but that wouldn’t have made any sense.
The GD were originally the Warlocks, but had to change it because of someone else using the name. It is one to the freakydeaky parts of rock mythology that Lou Reed was also calling his band the Warlocks, and had to rebrand. What if Pigpen had come to rehearsal with an S&M novel, and decided to call his band the Velvet Underground? Or Andy Warhol saw the future of hard drugs, and decided to call his band the Great Dead Junkies. We will just never know.
Three posts from the November archive were considered today. Thanksgiving Letter is from Margaret and Helen. They were a blog sensation in 2005 … these old ladies from Texas who sent folksy posts about their liberal politics and bacon grease. The last M&H post was October 2024, JD Vance thinks bullet proof glass will abortion proof our vaginas.
In 2016, there was a lot of noise being made about Donald J. Trump. While some of it was true, a great deal of it was total nonsense. There was this tsunami of negativity about the orange haired wonder. After a while, it got tough to tell what was true, what was true but you gotta understand, and what was total bullshit. Then I came across one item that was easy to debunk, but which was widely believed by the Hillary Happy Public. This item was the notion that DJT was endorsed by the KKK.
Of course DJT won the election, and America melted down. The various media actors were lamenting the normalization of caucasian stupidity supremacy. One episode in our national reality show was an article in the New York Times about a man in Ohio named Tony Hovater. He enjoyed being white entirely too much. It is only the last part of the second article that I saw the missing piece of the puzzle. Mr. Hovater ranting about the federal reserve. I realized that this was not a threat to america. Instead, this was the guy in the break room who will not shut up and get to work.
The pearl clutchers said that the NYT took what was dangerous and made it seem normal. This put the future of democracy at risk. The truth was the opposite. Tony Hovater is normal and boring, and the NYT tried to make him look exotic and dangerous. … Mr. Hovater seems to have faded into the background. You have to set google search for the last year to find anything. The ADL takes a break from normalizing genocide, to profiling a whiteboy group that Mr. Hovator was connected to. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in October 1940. “ Jack Whinery, homesteader, and his family, Pie Town, New Mexico … Photograph shows Jack Whinery (1907-1994) with his wife Edith and their five children, Wanda, Edith, Velva, Jack and Lawrence in his father’s lap. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Eighty Percent
It is a T shirt treasure, and a coffee cup classic. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” This gem is blamed on Allan Steward Konigsberg, better known as Woody Allen. The percentage goes up and down, and life is sometimes substituted for success.
The quote was recently featured at WIST, or Wish I’d Said That. This quote site is known for giving a source, unlike the sites featuring purring platitudes in front of a cultural kitten. The current top offering is “Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian.” Virginia Woolf attributes the baroque comment to Roger Fry, who was not afraid of the author.
Lets get back to Mr. Allen, and success statistics. He accepts full responsibility for the remark. In 1989, notorious conservative columnist William Safire asked Mr. Allen about whether he said life or success. The answer was rather surprising.
“The quote you refer to is a quote of mine which occurred during an interview while we were discussing advice to young writers, and more specifically young playwrights. My observation was that once a person actually completed a play or a novel he was well on his way to getting it produced or published, as opposed to a vast majority of people who tell me their ambition is to write, but who strike out on the very first level and indeed never write the play or book.”
In other words, you don’t just show up empty handed. If you have an idea, you have to employ the writing formula, ass + chair. You have to turn the tv off, leave the beer in the refrigerator, sit down, and push buttons on the keyboard.
I was listening to an interview with a fiction writer. Someone said “Inspiration is for amateurs.” I have always been more impressed by action than beliefs, and this phrase made sense.
IIFA is from a painter named Chuck Close. His output is expensive, and widely enjoyed. A spinal injury left him paralyzed, but did not stop him from producing. Here is the full quote:
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
A man once made pottery. It was said that the man only worked with passion. If he didn’t feel this passion, he did not work. If I worked that way, I would never finish anything. Most of the sticker pictures take a while to finish. I always gets tired of the picture before it is through. The idea is to go to the studio, start to do stuff, and before long the enthusiasm will return. Any image requires a certain amount of time with the belly pressed against the work table, or the digital equivalent.
The formula for writing is ass plus chair. A teacher once said to not stare at the blank page, waiting for a bolt of lightning. Start to write something, and the ideas will start to sputter out of the pipeline.
It is not enough to have a bright idea. You have to work the problems out. Sometimes, you spend more time finding out what does not work, than what does. You have to do it wrong before you can do it right. Genius is ninety nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration. If any cliches have been overlooked, please add them to the comments.
Focus is helpful. The internet can be a problem. When you should be working on your product, it is very tempting to see the latest on Facebook or Twitter. … Chuck Close passed away August 19, 2021. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture was taken June 13, 1922. Viola LaLonde & Eliz. Van Tuyl. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Putting The N Back In Twitter
This content was published November 30, 2022. … @JoshuaPHilll “Elon Musk: I love free speech!! The free speech: “Use of N-word on Twitter jumped by almost 500% after Elon Musk’s takeover as trolls test limits on free speech, report says.” This message was retweeted, and showed up in my feed. The bs detector will not quit buzzing. The Washington Post is the source for Business Insider.
WaPo relies on a tweet by Network Contagion Research Institute. @ncri_io “Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter. Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs. For example, over the last 12 hours, the use of the n-word has increased nearly 500% from the previous average.” The only documentation offered is a bar graph.
What to make of this? We don’t know who is using the magic word. It might be #BlackTwitter, which is permitted to use America’s favorite naughty word. Does The Washington Post see twitter as competition for ad revenue? Other people might have a motive for bashing Mr. Musk.
@kevinhoff Replying to @BusinessInsider “I bet anything it is manufactured. Tune the bots to post the word over and over and over again. Write a post about it. Blame @elonmusk Continue to turn a blind eye on all diverse communities. Rinse and repeat. I will also bet this will all change once everyone gets verified.” There are plenty of possibilities to consider.
Who is the NCRI? It appears to be a well funded operation, with plenty of A-list clients. Two of the displayed studies deal with COVID: “Russian disinformation campaigns are trying to sow distrust of COVID vaccines, study finds” · “QAnon’s corrosive impact on the U.S.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in May 1938. “Children at flag raising. Irwinville School, Georgia” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Mansplain
This feature was published October 17, 2025. … There was a link on facebook to a rather wonky article, Mansplaining 101: How to Discuss Politics and Feminism Without Acting Like a Jackass. The concept is that men sometimes do not show women adequate respect when talking to them. The Urban Dictionary has entries for both mansplain and womansplain. Neither entry is complimentary. This is a repost. Many of the links no longer work. The pictures are more entertaining.
The policymic feature is a few months old, and apparently was the scene of a lively comment debate. Unfortunately, some people flagged a bunch of the comments. Little is left. This is the top comment: “Feminism doesn’t need to make room for men, men need to make room for feminist ideas in their spaces.” In one sentence you managed to discredit your entire argument. Who wants to argue with someone who thinks any opinion from the opposite sex isn’t worthwhile?”
When you google mansplain you are referred to a tumblr, Academic Men Explain Things to Me. This is supposed to be an authority on mansplaining. As this post is written, the top three posts are a boss who mispronounces a name, a grandfather who tells girls how to shave their legs, and an eavesdropping customer who tells a woman how to get to sleep better. This is not especially helpful.
Blank splaining seems to be a versatile label. It seems to be a way of attacking the messenger, instead of dealing with the content of the comment. It is true that the tone of comments can be troublesome. People often come across as condescending, especially when they are. It just seems to this observer that little is gained by putting a label, like mansplaining, on this phenomenon.
I have been in many discussions where I was spoken down to. Jesus worshipers are notorious for not respecting people who don’t agree with their ideas about religion. There is also the possibility that people use this attitude of superiority as a weapon to cover up uncertainties about their position. Human beings are funny animals. We are not always the fair, logical creatures we think we are.
Another label that goes in front of splaining is white. The urban dictionary says this about whitesplain: “The act of a caucasian person explaining to audiences of color the true nature of racism; a caucasian person explaining sociopolitical events and/or history to audiences of color as though they are ignorant children.” Contrast this to the word on blacksplain: “Explaining things pertaining to African American history and culture, to someone who is racist or racially ignorant.” The white person is always wrong in this scenario. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Edward H. Hart took the social media picture “between 1895 and 1901.” “U.S.S. Texas, Capt. Sigsbee and officers” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Lower Than A Snake’s Belly
This content was published October 21, 2008. … It is amazing what gets your attention when you should be looking for a job. The yahoo page had a link to a poll of the “49 most influential men of 2008”. Polls like this are usually rubbish, but there is a post to be written.
I don’t have the patience for all 49. This is one of those deals where you have to click on a link for every name on the list. That is a lot of work, especially for men I have never heard of. I seldom watch TV or pay full price for movies, so a lot of celebrities go under the radar. It will be fun to see how many I have heard of. There is a profile about each man, but that is another click, and wait for the popupdropdown ad to clear. This is going to be a lot of work just to get to the top ten. · If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all.
1 – Barack Obama … Hype is color blind. · 2 – Steve Jobs · 3 – Micheal Phelps · 4 – Robert Downey, Jr … Rehab does work sometimes. · 5 – Stephen Colbert · 6 – Gordon Ramsey … This is the first one I totally don’t know. Mr. Ramsey is wearing a chef’s outfit, which is a clue. · 7 – Christian Bale · 8 – Rob Kay … Mr. Kay designs video games. If you see Mr. Kay … · 9 – Cristiano Ronaldo … Mr. Ronaldo kicks soccer balls. and has an Irish cousin named Ronald O’McDonald.
10 – John McCain … Bless his heart. · 11 -Lorne Michaels … Mr. Michaels gets points for staying alive this long. · 12 -Tom Ford … Mr. Ford is a fashion designer. No word on what kind of car he drives, or whether he pardoned Mr. Nixon. · 13 -Mark Zuckerberg … Mr. Zuckerman invented Facebook, and is glad this list is not in alphabetical order. · 14 -Dana White … Mr. White fronts something called “Ultimate Fighting Challenge. … One more “influencer” I have heard of, and I quit. It doesn’t matter if I have seen his show. · 15 -Jon Stewart … Mr. Stewart is a comedian/political commentator.
This content was published October 22, 2008. … In a couple of weeks, the election will, blessedly, be over. The only thing that could screw up … north of Florida … is a Georgia race where no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote. In 1992, the incumbent Senator was an Atlanta Baseball fan named Wyche Fowler. He was confident of victory, but many were dissatisfied with his performance. The Libertarian candidate, Jim Hudson, got enough votes to force a runoff. In the runoff, Repub Paul Coverdell won election. Mr. Fowler was consoled by the job of Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. A few months after he left that position, 15 Saudi nationals flew planes into American buildings. … This story does have a moral. If you want Saxby Chambliss, the incumbent, to spend more time with his family, then vote for Democrat Jim Martin. While the Libertarian movement might be a good idea, this is not the time to push it. … Saxby Chambliss is a vile man who needs to retire. His issues and shortcomings are well documented elsewhere. In addition, he has a funny first name.
The rest of this feature is a personal story about Mr. Saxby. As it became obvious that we were going to invade Babylon, I decided to go on record as being opposed. I felt we were starting something we were not going to be able to finish, that we could not afford, and was based on shaky premises. Once the fighting started, I would support the troops. However, before the “shock and awe”, I would speak my mind. The email/letter went to My House of Representatives lady, and the two senators.
The house lady at the time was Denise Majette. She had defeated Cynthia McKinney the previous fall. Ms. Majette sent a long and thoughtful reply. While she did not explicitly say so, I got the sense that she was opposed to the invasion. However, due to some votes cast in the previous congress, there was little that could be done to stop the war. … Of the two Senators, I never did hear from Zell “ZigZag” Miller. My letter mentioned that “You were elected to represent me”. Mr. Miller was appointed by the Governor to finish the term of Paul Coverdell, who died. Mr. Coverdell was a Republican. The Governor and Mr. Miller were Democrats. Mr. Miller has since decided that the Democratic Party is too liberal for his taste. ZigZag is lower than a snake’s belly.
Mr. Chambliss did send a reply to my letter. It was a few months after “Mission Accomplished”. Mr. Chambliss praised the war. He made no mention of my objections to the war, which were still valid in those early days of the insurgence. I wonder if his staff even read my letter. … Saxby Chambliss needs to retire. Some lobbying firm will give him a nice job, and the taxpayers will only indirectly pay for it. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken February 24, 1966. Shell Oil Company meeting Stone Mountain Inn. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
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