Beneduck Arnold
What did one flag say to the other flag? Nothing. It just waved!
What’s red, white, black and blue? Uncle Sam falling down the steps!
What would you get if you crossed Washington’s home with nasty insects? Mt. Vermin!
What did a patriot put on his dry skin? Revo-lotion!
Which colonists told the most jokes? Punsylvanians!
What was General Washington’s favorite tree? The infantry!
Where did George Washington buy his hatchet? At the chopping mall!
What quacks, has webbed feet, and betrays his country? Beneduck Arnold!
Did you hear the one about the Liberty Bell? Yeah, it cracked me up!
What would you get if you crossed a patriot with a small curly-haired dog? Yankee Poodle!
Why did Paul Revere ride his horse from Boston to Lexington? The horse was too heavy to carry!
What happened as a result of the Stamp Act? The Americans licked the British!
This is a repost. Picture are from The Library of Congress.
Cis
The prefix cis- is being used to mean the opposite of trans. This is a gender thing. A cismale is a man who uses the factory equipment. A transman is someone who does things differently. There are various forms of this, which is a bit too complicated for social media discussion. Fecesbook Facebook, famously fallacy friendly, is not a good medium for subtle discussion. This is a repost.
Before we get started, it should be noted that cis- serves a valid purpose. The only objection here is to the word itself. It has a weird sound, and can be confusing. Perhaps an alternative would be to say birth gender. If you are were born male, and live in compliance with the gender assigned at birth, then you are a birth male, as opposed to a trans male.
Today’s drama started out with a post by Kat Blaque. Mx. Blaque is self described as “Illustration, Animator, Youtuber” on twitter, and “Children’s Illustrator, Thrift Store Addict and Opinion Vlogger” on facebook. The comment: “People who don’t like the word “cis” are annoying because they pretend it’s made up when it’s a prefix commonly used in science. but whatever. Ya’ll some children.”
Luther Mckinnon This comment is transplaining. I don’t like cis- because the s sound is tough to make for many people. Also, cis- sounds like cissy. Kat Blaque Butch up mary.
There were comments. Most of them had to do with “sounds like cissy.” The objection is not because of “emasculation.” The simple truth is that a cissy (or sissy) is a man who does not conform to gender standards. In other words, he does not *act like a man.* A cismale is someone who conforms to gender standards. Cissy sounds a lot like cismale. They mean dramatically different things.
The language g-ds have spoken. The opposite of trans- is cis-. Any man who does not conform to this language standard is less of a man than one who does. To have standards of masculinity applied to using a prefix denoting the opposite of trans…this is weird.
Luther Mckinnon So, we make a difference this time. The business of using the cis prefix if fairly new. We can get into ableism issues here if you like. It is interesting that I made the comment about the s sound first. The part about similarity to cissy was second. The first comment was ignored. The incidental second comment was jumped on by the “woke”masses. There is also a bit of confusion here. A cissy is basically a non gender conforming male. Cis- means conforming to the gender assigned at birth. I see a contradiction there. Kat BlaqueI have a lisp and I can say cis just find. Butch up. Samantha Nicholson I like “cis” it sounds very scientific and using it makes me sound smart! “Prefix commonly used in science.” This is news to a lot of people, with the possible exception of the Cisco Kid. Crosswordsolver.org has a list of words starting in cis. One familiar item is cistern, the opposite of a dry garden. Other commonly used words include cisalpine, cislunar, cismontane, Cissoid, Cistothorus, Cistothorus palustris, and Cistus ladanum.
One more person made a comment. Cianán Russell Luther, sit down. Seriously. I know you- SIT DOWN. Luther Mckinnon Who? This post has gone on long enough. It is time for the pictures, from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner died July 21, 2019. He outlived Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Groucho Marx, and Lyndon Johnson. His magazine, The The Realist, is now available as an online archive.
PG was recently looking for background noise to compliment his photomongering. Somewhere along the way, he found episodes of WTF podcast to be available on Youtube. He made a list of shows he wanted to see, including Paul Krassner. When Mr. Google was recruited to find the show, other things floated to the surface. This is how Mr. Google operates.
An onion is more than an internet namesake. It lends a lively flavor, both cooked and raw. The onion consists of many layers of thin skin. These can be peeled off, as you get deeper and deeper into the root. A thin skinned root that gives you bad breath…. an aromatic symbol for the sixties.
When you go looking for WTF/Krassner, you are directed to issue 74 of The Realist. The feature story is the missing segments of a John Kennedy biography. On page 18, Jackie Kennedy saw more of Lyndon Johnson than she needed to see.
“That man was crouching over the corpse, no longer chuckling but breathing hard and moving his body rhythmically. … And then I realized – there is only one way to say this – he was literally fucking my husband in the throat. In the bullet wound in front of the throat. He reached a climax, and dismounted. I froze. The next thing I remember, he was being sworn in as the new President.”
Page two of issue 74 is the letters to the editor. The featured scribe is John L. Timmons, Secretary, Mattachine Society of N.Y. He wrote “Letter From A Homosexual,” in response to a cartoon page in issue 69, fag battalion. Using KY to lubricate a rifle is not a good idea.
At the time, America was fighting a war in Vietnam. Young men were given the choice of go in the army, or go to prison. It was ugly. There was a group, “The committee to fight the exclusion of homosexuals from the armed forces.”
The Mattachine Society was neutral. Some members supported the war, and some were opposed. It distracted from the overall agenda to take sides in other disputes. The editors at The Realist agreed. “… homosexuals who don’t want to be drafted will no longer be able to exploit their deviation rather than face the consequences of conscientious objection.”
When issue 74 was published, Walt Disney was still alive. This may account for the action on page 12. Maybe Uncle Walt did not want his animated actors to be drafted for active duty. The activities on page 12 might not be sufficient to have the players excused from active duty, however. By this stage of the war, the local draft boards were not accepting excuses.
Getting back to Paul Krassner… he founded the YIPPIES with Abbie Hoffman, took LSD with Groucho Marx, and published a satiric magazine without advertising. Only the last part can be confirmed. After the description of Lyndon Johnson’s post mortem dentistry, who knows what is real, and what is fake. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The opinions expressed in this repost are in no way, shape, or form connected to that fine institution.
Babe, Hank, Barry, And Joe
In 2007, Barry Bonds was about to break the lifetime record for home runs. Folks said the record was tainted because of steroid use, and because Mr. Bonds was not a nice man. There were calls for an asterisk in the record book. This was odd to PG, who was in Georgia when Hank Aaron broke the home run record in 1974. Back then, the line was that Babe Ruth had fewer at bats than Mr. Aaron. A lot of hateful things were said about Mr. Aaron before home run 714.
PG decided to take a look at the metrics. This post is the result. As a bonus to the reader(s), Joe Torre and Hank Aaron gets a summer rerun. It is based on a column by Furman Bisher, who went to the press box in the sky March 18, 2012. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
There is a certain controversy these days about the eminent breaking of the lifetime home run record. Currently held by Hank Aaron, the record is threatened by Barry Bonds. Before Mr. Aaron held the title, Babe Ruth was the owner.
Controversy about the lifetime home run record is nothing new. In 1974, when Hank Aaron was about to break the record, the admirers of Babe Ruth said that Mr. Ruth had fewer at bats than Mr. Aaron did. Many attributed this criticism to racism, with a black man besting a white man’s record. The current controversy is two fold. There are allegations that Mr. Bonds took steroids to make him stronger, and that he “cheated”. There are also concerns about the personality of Mr. Bonds.
PG does not think steroid use is a big deal. Ballplayers are abusing their bodies to perform, and if they take the risk of using steroids, that is their business. Many people disagree.
A good question to ask is, would Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron have used steroids if they had the chance? Mr. Ruth was a wildman, who drank during prohibition, and was known for undisciplined behavior. Mr. Aaron played in an era where steroid use was not as common as it is today. The answer to the first question is (Mr. Ruth) probably and (Mr. Aaron) who knows.
While you are keeping hypocrisy statistics, Mr. Aaron and Mr. Bonds played on television, where beer commercials were constant. While alcohol is *now* legal, it is a very damaging drug. Any ballplayer who plays on television promotes its use. This is both steroid users, and non users.
As for personalities, there is the widely circulated story about the college team that Mr. Bonds played on voting 22-3 to kick him off the team. At the very least, he does not charm sportswriters.
In 1917, Babe Ruth was suspended for hitting an umpire. He was known for his outlandish behavior throughout his career. It should also be noted that he played in an era when the press did not scrutinize the behavior of players. How would today’s media treat Babe Ruth?
PG once heard a radio show caller say that Hank Aaron was a mean racist, who would just as soon cut your throat as look at you. He had never heard this said out loud before, but had heard hints about Mr. Aaron’s personality over the years. People who achieve great things are not always friendly.
Mr. Aaron is the only one of the three that PG met, however briefly. In July of 1965, the Milwaukee Braves came to Atlanta to play an exhibition game in Atlanta Stadium. After the game, PG was allowed to wait outside the clubhouse, to get autographs from the players as they left. Joe Torre saw the crowd, hid behind a truck, and made a quick getaway. Hank Aaron came out, patiently signing every autograph, while smoking a cigarette.
The fact is, all three men played in different eras. Babe Ruth never played at night, never flew to California, and only played against white players…many of the most talented players of his era were in the Negro League. Hank Aaron played before free agency, interleague play, the DH, and widespread use of steroids. The only way to determine who is the home run champion is to count how many homers are hit, and award the prize to the man who hits the most.
Which of the three made the most money? Barry Bonds, by a wide margin. He played in the free agent era. Babe Ruth had the best line about his salary. In 1930 Ruth was asked by a reporter what he thought of his yearly salary of $80,000 being more than President Hoover’s $75,000. He replied “yea, but I had a better year than he did.”
Who played on the most teams to win a World Series? Babe Ruth 7, Hank Aaron 1, Barry Bonds 0.
The career of Babe Ruth was a long time ago. He made a greater impact on America that the other two combined. He was one of the first sports superstars, as America emerged from the carnage of World War One. Mr. Ruth broke the single season home run record, he hit 29 homers. The next year, he hit 54. There is a possibility of a livelier baseball.
Babe Ruth captured the imagination of America like few personalities ever have. Playing in New York (which dominated the press) did not hurt. He was a man of his times…it is unlikely than anyone could have that kind of impact on today’s superstar saturated America. While his record has been broken, his place in the history of baseball is the same.
UPDATE: As of July, 2016, the lifetime home run leaders were: Barry Bonds, 762, Hank Aaron, 755, Babe Ruth, 714, Alex Rodriguez, 696. Mr. Rodriguez is said to have used steroids.
Furman Bisher has a piece at the fishwrapper site about Joe Torre. (The link no longer works.) The punch line is that Mr. Torre “grew up” when the Braves traded him to St. Louis. PG was a kid when this was going on, and did not hear a lot of what went on.
In 1965, the Braves played a lame duck year in Milwaukee before moving to Atlanta. One night, there was an exhibition game at Atlanta Stadium, the Braves against the Yankees. PG got his oh so patient dad to take him to the clubhouse after the game, to get autographs. In those days, you could go into the bowels of the stadium and wait outside the locker room. Hank Aaron signed dozens of autographs while smoking a cigarette. Joe Torre came out, hid behind a truck, and took off running.
Mr. Torre was a raccoon eyed catcher for the Braves. In the first regular season game in 1966, he hit two home runs, in a thirteen inning loss. Soon, the novelty of big league baseball in a toilet shaped stadium wore off. Mr. Torre got at least one DUI, and a reputation as a barroom brawler. He was traded to St. Louis in 1968. Mr. Torre hit .373, and won the national league MVP in 1971.
The comments to the feature by Furman Bisher were interesting. Cecil 34 contributes “The reason that Torre was traded is because on the team’s charter flight back to Atlanta back in 68, a drunken Torre got into a fistfight with Aaron. Aaron popped off to Torre, and thus the fight was on, broken up by the other players. Since Aaron was the face of the franchise at the time, Torre was traded. There had been bad blood between them for years before this incident anyway. Reasons vary. But the final nail in the coffin was this fistfight. I was told Torre could pack a punch and Aaron came out on the worse end of it.”
There has been whispering for years about Hank Aaron and his attitude. Furman Bisher made hints once or twice, but there was never anything of substance. It seems that Mr. Aaron does not lack for self confidence. Mr. Aaron was the subject of much racially based abuse while chasing the home run record in 1973, and some anger is justified.
Hank Aaron was known to not get along with Rico Carty. Mr. Carty is a dark skinned man from the Dominican Republic, who was popular with fans. Mr. Carty was eventually traded. Rico Carty had a barbecue restaurant on Peachtree Road in Chamblee, next door to the Park and Shop.
Joe Torre was the manager of the Braves in the early eighties. The team won a divisional title in 1982, but lost the NLCS. This was after Ted Turner bought the team. Mr. Turner fired Mr. Torre in 1984.
Getting back to the comment thread, Misterwax contributes “Turner cut Joe Torre loose because Ted was in love with Henry Aaron and Aaron thought Joe Torre was a white supremacist….A hangover from the clubhouse days when they were teammates…still does today. And THAT is the only reason he was cut…because Hank Aaron said so.”
Hank Aaron was recently quoted on Barry Bonds and Steroids. Joe Torre retired as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010. He won four World Series as manager of the New York Yankees. Furman Bisher outlived Bear Bryant by 26 years, passing away March 18, 2012. Selah.
The Bike Wreck
PG went out on his bike, to put the check in the mail. On the way back, he saw a sign for a yard sale. Once he saw the yard sale sign, he continued up the sidewalk, to the next street. Yes, it is technically illegal, but the law is seldom enforced. There was a manhole cut into the sidewalk. PG went to the side of the manhole, and went off the sidewalk. There was a space, between the sidewalk and the yard. The front wheel of the bike got caught in this space. Next thing PG knew, he was thrown into the street.
Apparently, nothing was broken. Both legs had road rash, and both wrists were sore from breaking the fall. What concerned PG was the right shoulder. The force of the fall had been absorbed by the shoulder, which was probably going to cause problems.
A few hours later, PG was fretting about going to an ER. How long would he be there before anyone saw him? Would the insurance cover this? PG then decided to google emergency rooms in his zipcode. There was a place on Peachtree. A phone call confirmed that the insurance was accepted there, and that he could be out before the place closed at 8pm.
On The Road would keep PG company in the waiting room. The story of Dean (Neal Cassady) and Sal (Jack Kerouac) was up to part four, with just a few more pages to go. PG grabbed a few sheets of paper, and an inkpen. The hardplastic covered magazines would make a good writing surface. PG got to the doc-in-a-box at 5:50 pm. The lady said it would take about a hour to see a doctor.
When the OTR story picks up, D&S are in New York. Sal has some money, and got bit by the travel bug. “What’s your road, man? — holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It’s an anywhere road for anybody anyhow. Where body how?” Dean is going to miss his pal, but has too many wives and babies to go along. “‘Inez loves me; she’s told me and promised me I can do anything I want and there’ll be a minimum of trouble. You see, man, you get older and troubles pile up. Someday you and me’ll be coming down an alley together at sundown and looking in the cans to see. … All I hope, Dean, is someday we’ll be able to live on the same street with our families and get to be a couple of oldtimers together.”
In chapter 2, Sal is riding a bus to Denver. He gets to talking to a young man, caught up in the prison lifestyle. “Here was a young kid like Dean had been; his blood boiled too much for him to bear; his nose opened up; no native strange saintliness to save him from the iron fate.”
Sal gets to Denver. Stan Shephard is going to Mexico with Sal. Before this er visit is over, Dean will be going. “Okay, it was agreed, Stan was coming with me. He was a rangy, bashful, shock-haired Denver boy with a big con-man smile and slow, easy-going Gary Cooper movements. ‘Hot Damn’ he said and stuck his thumbs in his belt and ambled down the street, swaying from side to side but slowly.” At 6:31, the nurse invites PG to enter the inner sanctum.
Word spreads that Dean is on the way. “I’ll talk to him,” I said grimly. We didn’t know what to expect. “Where will he sleep? What’s he going to eat? Are there any girls for him?” It was like the imminent arrival of Gargantua; preparations had to be made to widen the gutters of Denver and foreshorten certain laws to fit his suffering bulk and bursting ecstasies.”
Before chapter 3 syllabizes into technicolor fury, the er business needs to be attended to. No bones were broken. It looks like a sprained shoulder. Scripts are called into the pharmacy. PG is told to be slack … like he ever needs to be encouraged … and let the healing process take its course. At 7:16, PG is out the door, on his way to CVS.
The yard sale that started it all was the next day. PG saw a vcr, and offered the man the $1.86 in his change purse/skoal can. The vcr had a tape stuck in it, “Samantha & Co/ An Orgy.” The vcr worked.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Parts one through seven of the series have been published. part one part two part three part four part five part seven
Glenn And John
The Glenn Show on blogginheads.tv is fun to listen to, especially when co-blackguy John McWhorter is sitting in. The show has a way of producing quotes, which gets in the way of multi-tasking. You are cruising along, doing whatever, and someone says something that needs to be noted. You stop, find the text on youtube, go to bhtv, and make a video clip. 56822 had a bunch of these moments. Many of these incidents involve america’s favorite bad word. The substitute today will be donald.
John is some sort of academic, working at Columbia University. Part of the academy game is writing books. John is working on a history of the english language, and a book about profanity. “the chapter on fuck is frankly a lot of fun.”
Profanity is a social function, rather than a moral one. Like the rest of the language, it changes over time. “You know people have taboos and it’s reflected in language and ours used to be about damn and hell and fucking shit and now those taboos are about and get ready listeners this can be hard get ready you ready it’s about donald faggot and cunt.”
John later gave an example of usage. He was doing a radio show in Oakland. “We said donald … this n-word piety had not come in.” Later in the show, John returned to his academic roots. “that’s the way Myron would put it because he’s an asshole … yes I said it folks.”
Glenn is writing his memoirs. It has been a long, strange trip. From the south side of Chicago … “you know just a donald from the south side so to speak” … he got educated, and moved into academic life. Along the way, he became a Reagan conservative, and a coke freak, not necessarily in that order. He is in recovery, from both conservatism and cocaine. As one man said in a half way house, “okay you’re very smart professor Lowry I want you to ask me one question what were you doing in the streets of Boston showing your ass just like a donald from the project’s”
“It ain’t over til its over.” Years ago, the popular saying was “It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings.” Apparently, fat ladies are now a protected class. This is progress. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the pictures in Aliquippa, PA, in January 1941.
July 3, 1981
July 3, 1981, was another day before a holiday. The new President, Ronald Reagan, was recovering from gunshot wounds. There was talk of an era of conservatism, with possibly severe repression.
There was an article in the New York Times. RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS. “Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer. Eight of the victims died less than 24 months after the diagnosis…”
This was the media debut of AIDS. It would not have that name for a while. Almost nobody thought, on that summer day, just how bad AIDS would be. In five years it was obvious how serious AIDS was.
PG was on another trip to the west coast. It was becoming obvious that this would be a vacation, rather than a relocation. He was riding a bicycle, with a milk carton overloaded with camping gear. Some kids told him to get saddle bags, and carry the weight lower. If you have the weight on top, you would lose control coming down a big hill. PG did not listen to the kids.
On July 4, PG left Patrick’s Point state park, about 300 miles north of San Francisco. Coming down the first hill on highway 101, the bike shook, shook harder, and flipped on its side. PG was thrown off. The front wheel was bent beyond repair. PG gathered his gear, left the bike behind, and got a ride into the nearest town.
PG got a bus ticket to Seattle. That city was in an economic downturn, with less than half a page of help wanted ads. PG found a auto delivery service, and got a VW bug going to Oak Ridge, TN. In a few days he was in Atlanta. A few days later, a temp agency came up with a job as a driver for a blueprint company. PG worked for that company, in one form or another, for the next 24 years.
As for the gay men with Kaposi’s Sarcoma … in all probability, the patients mentioned in that article were all dead within a year. AIDS has become a dominating story in our time. At its worst, it was claiming 50,000 lives a year. With the advent of wonder drugs, the death toll has been greatly reduced. The impact of AIDS on American life cannot be adequately described. This is a repost.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Lawrence K. Altman is still writing articles for the New York Times.
The New Phone
The Motorola C-139 phone was a disaster. I put up with it for a bit more than a year. Finally, after another missed call, I was ready for a replacement. I had an Alcatel A205G before that, and had been looking at ordering another one. Then I went to Kroger, and saw an Alcatel A405DL. I asked a clerk to unlock the phone in the display rack, and she said I needed customer service. I saw the line at customer service, and decided to come back later. A few minutes later, while looking through the close out items, another clerk came up to me, and asked me if I wanted to buy a phone. She unlocked it, and checked it out immediately. With the Kroger card discount, the price was $16.19.
I am a neo-luddite. I see the smart phone masses, and think that is not for me. Just a simple phone, without the delicate large screen, is fine for me. Something to make, and receive, voice calls and texts. The pre-Motorola cell phones had been great. The first Tracfone was $4 at a yard sale, and lasted until it was obsolete. Instead of evolving into something better, flip phones go downhill.
When I get the new phone home, and unwrap all the parts. The sim card is already in the phone, with an empty slot next to it. Should I remove the sim card, or leave it alone? I call the customer service number… the first of many calls that horrible afternoon. First, I get immediately connected to a South Asian I could barely understand. The SA did not understand my question. I tried calling again. This time I got the menu. Getting through to technical support proved impossible. I called again, and got through to TS. Yes, you leave the sim card where it is.
I have new product anxiety. So often, getting a new electronic product set up is a nightmare. I charged the battery, until I could not put off calling for help any more. I have a Tracfone account on my computer. For some reason, I wanted to talk to a person, rather than set up the new phone myself. Looking back, this may have been a mistake.
I call technical support. The first representative was totally incomprehensible. I asked for another representative. The second one got my serial/sim card numbers, and said the phone was set up. I hung up the phone, and tried to call from the land line. The call went immediately to voice mail. I had to reboot the phone for the message to come through. I tried to set up voice mail, pushing the 1 button down, and waiting for instructions. The instructions never came.
I call back. This is the first of several callbacks. I learn that you push 1, 1, and 4 on the menu, then say technical support three times. It does not help to yell at the phone … it is a robot on the line. The robot laughs at you when you get mad.
The callbacks fall into a pattern. They ask me to turn the phone off, and back on. They put me on hold, and go talk to someone. They come back, send a call that goes through, and we think the problem is solved. I try to call from a land line, and the call does not go through. Back to step one.
The last call was a doozy. The man told me the reason I could not make calls was that my account balance was zero. This was very puzzling … I had checked my balance earlier, and I had over 200 minutes. I looked at the Tracfone site, and the balance was, indeed, zero. For the next hour, I was on hold, with brief conversations with the young man. Finally, the account was restored to what it was before. I could make calls now. The second slot, next to the sim card, was for a memory card.
By this time, it was 7:30. The phone had been purchased at 2:12. At 8:08 I sent out the first text: “Testing new phone please reply upon receipt.” At 12:33 am: “Consider this your reply.” Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Call Out
@gaywonk “The worst part of Pride month is realizing how many of your new gay friends would’ve criticized the Stonewall riots for not being “strategic.” ~ There’s no use arguing with Andrew Sullivan gays you just have to drag them kicking and screaming into a better future. ~ Don’t let your queer rage be shaken by white gays lecturing about “tactics” or “respectability.” They were wrong yesterday, they’re wrong today, they’ll be wrong tomorrow. And eventually, they’ll be toasting you at a fancy HRC gala, swearing they were behind you the whole time.”
A facebook friend posted a screenshot of this mini-rant the other day. Otherwise, PG would have missed it. @gaywonk is in the middle of his fifteen minute glory hole. A few weeks ago, this status made him/her/they a star. @gaywonk, aka Carlos Maza, works queer identity for all it is worth. At some point in this procedure, a *comedian,* StevenCrowder, made some unfortunate remarks. @gaywonk went full scale tattletale, and got the Mr. Crowder in trouble.
@gaywonk “Wow. @YouTube now profiting off of ads for Steven Crowder, which include a reference to the “Socialism Is For Fags” shirt he sells to his audience. This platform is unbelievable.” The punishment Mr. Crowder received was not sufficient. The latest salvo has a group of googlers sending out An Open Petition to the San Francisco Pride Board of Directors. “We, the undersigned, employees of Google … urge you to revoke Google’s sponsorship of Pride 2019, and exclude Google from representation in the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 30th, 2019. … We have spent countless hours advocating for our company to improve policies and practices regarding … harassment and hate speech directed at LGBTQ+ persons. …” ICYMI, YouTube is owned by Google.
@chamblee54 “enjoy your fifteen minutes while it lasts” @chamblee54 “but when someone calls @gaywonk out, he/she/they goes screaming to mommy/google, demanding that those mean youtubers be punished.”
When writing that second tweet, PG could have used a lot of phrases to describe Mr. Crowder’s tacky remarks. The phrase “calls @gaywonk out” fell into place, without much thought. Then PG thought about it. Maybe what Mr. Crowder said was calling out @gaywonk.
Call out culture is a big thing now. Sometimes, it is appropriate. If someone does something wrong, or offensive, criticism is called for. Unfortunately, many times calling out is closer to playground insults, than constructive criticism. Some people think calling someone racist, and making a KKK joke, makes a difference in fighting racism. The truth is, they are just fifth graders, calling someone a poopyhead. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Paula Deen Six Years Later
Six years ago, the media racism carnival centered around Paula Deen. A disgruntled former employee was shaking down the celebrity. The DFE, who was white, claimed racial discrimination. Many say the DFE was exploiting the oppression of black people for personal gain.
A few things have happened since this story was published. These three links tell part of the story. Race-based claims thrown out in Paula Deen lawsuit, Paula Deen lawsuit appears to be over; settlement a possibility, Paula Deen closes restaurant at center of harassment lawsuit.
This story is a repost. Some of the links in this story no longer work. The link to Deposition of plaintiff Lisa T. Jackson vs. Paula Deen Enterprises, etc. does work. Pages 15 and 153 are interesting. On page 267, Lisa Jackson says that Jim Crow is a singer.
The New York Times did it’s liberal media duty Saturday with a story about Savannah, and the Paula Deen controversy. There were three curious words in paragraph four. “The predicament that Ms. Deen finds herself in began when a former employee — a white woman who is now managing restaurants in Atlanta — filed a discrimination lawsuit in March 2012.”
This thing has seemed, er, fishy from the get go. The restaurant industry is full of disgruntled former employees, few of whom are paragons of virtue. DFE worked in a restaurant partially owned by a famous person. It is uncertain how active the famous person was in the day to day operation of the restaurant. DFE has a lawyer, who gets famous person to say embarrassing things in a deposition. Somehow, this deposition is leaked to National Enquirer. And now we learn that DFE is white.
Confirmation of the ethnicity of DFE is tough to come by. Few pictures are available. You have to ask Mr. Google repeated questions. A law industry blog called Huseby (spell check suggestion:Houseboy) has a good story on the matter, with a couple of links.
The attorney for the plaintiff, Matthew Billips, has a few issues. “The case began with an “inflammatory letter seeking over a million dollars for forgo filing a lawsuit and allow Deen ‘a chance to salvage a brand that can continue to have value,’ ” Withers’ document said. (Tom Withers, attorney for Bubba Hiers, the brother of Paula Deen) In the motion to dismiss Billips, Withers quoted a tweet by Billips in which he said “suing Paula Deen is a hoot.” Withers also referred to a sexually laced tweet Billips directed at Deen “even more concerning.” In it, “Billips promises to symbolically undress and have sex with” Deen, Withers said. “Billips has posted sexually explicit tweets using extremely graphic and profane language and imagery. He has used the “N” word,” Withers’ motion said.”
Huseby links to an article in the ABA Journal that is downright fascinating. This feature confirms that Lisa Jackson, the DFE/plaintiff, is melanin deficient. The Deen-Hiers legal team has filed a motion, that is highly entertaining. Unfortunately, the pdf is not copy friendly, so the ABA summary will have to do. If you have the time to read the legal motion, you will enjoy it.
“The motion by lawyer Tom Withers says the plaintiff pursuing race-based claims has no standing to assert them because she is white, the Savannah Morning News reports. The plaintiff, Lisa Jackson, had claimed she was sexually harassed and worked in a racially hostile environment at a restaurant owned by Deen and her brother. Withers represents Deen’s brother and the restaurant.
According to the motion, Jackson claimed she was offended because her nieces “are bi-racial with an African-American father.” But the motion says there is just one niece, and she is related to Jackson’s partner, who said in a deposition that the niece’s father is Hispanic and she hasn’t seen the girl in years…. “Jackson cannot enforce someone else’s right, and she has no actionable claim for feeling ‘uncomfortable’ around discriminatory conduct directed at others … Jackson must show that any harassment was directed toward her because she was white, but at her deposition she alleged she was treated more favorably than African American employees at the restaurant.” (p.153)
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Family Barber Shop
PG was reveling in the slack glory of Georgia June, when his brother said he was ready to go to the Family Barber Shop, in downtown Chamblee. FBS in the basement, downstairs from the former Post Office. PG got dragged to FBS when he was a kid. It was always Saturday afternoon. The wait time was never under an hour. Everybody in the room was smoking. The only entertainment was a black and white TV, tuned in to “Wide World of Sports.”
When PG got to FBS, he dropped GP off, and went looking for a parking spot. GP made his way down the stairs, into the basement facility. There was a spot, under a shade tree, at the end of the driveway. There was a no parking sign in front of the space to the left, but not the one that PG occupied. Behind a fence, there were was about 4% of an acre, full of whatever weeds happened to be growing. A black cat appears, walks across a pile of wood chips, and vanishes in the weeds.
With a shady parking spot secured, the next order of business a book. PG was up to part 3, chapter 2, of On The Road. Sal drops in on Dean at 2 am. Dean’s wife, Camille, throws him out. Dean is confused. He is standing on a street, reading Eugene Sue’s Mysteries Of Paris.
The next day, Roy Johnson is driving Sal and Dean around. S&D go to Mill City, looking for an old friend. “A beautiful colored girl opened the door instead; Dean and I talked to her a great deal. Roy Johnson waited in the car, Eugene Sue’s Mysteries Of Paris.”
MOP turns up twice in four pages in the beat generation classic. Google has the standard amazon/goodreads chatter. The text is on gutenberg. MOP begins: “It was on a cold and rainy night, towards the end of October, 1838, that a tall and powerful man, with an old broad-brimmed straw hat upon his head, and clad in a blue cotton carter’s frock, which hung loosely over trousers of the same material, crossed the Pont au Change, and darted with a hasty step into the Cité, that labyrinth of obscure, narrow, and winding streets which extends from the Palais de Justice to Notre Dame.”
Before long, GP is coming back to the car, bringing with him the news that the Family Barber Shop was closing. It had been in business for over eighty years. The parking lot was a problem, and the rent was going up. The owners decided to take their clippers, and go elsewhere.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russel Lee was the photographer, in July 1941. Baseball players and spectators stand at attention while Chief Justice Stone gives the oath of allegiance over the radio. Vale, Oregon Father with his two daughters on the merry-go-round, one of the carnival attractions at the Fourth of July celebrations The On The Road series is now complete. part one part two part three part four part five part six part seven
Steve Martin
There is a form letter floating through the intercourse now. It is a letter that Steve Martin used to send to his fans. (The letter was recently immortalized at Letters of Note.)
He …that is Stephen Glenn “Steve” Martin (born August 14, 1945) … has moved up in correspondence with his adoring fans. Mr. Martin now gives out business cards, with the message “This card certifies that the holder had met Steve Martin and found him genuinely friendly”. What a wild and crazy guy!
This is becoming one of those really really modern days here. Listening to a djmix with a Lady Gaga song, drinking coffee out of a Mcdonalds plastic cup, and writing a tribute to Steve Martin. What a day! Oh, before we forget, there is the story about the drive in theater on I85 that was showing “Father of the Bride”. One day, the h fell off the marquee, and the title of the movie became “Fater of the Bride”. Good times.
The story of Steve Martin and PG began one night at the Great Southeast Music Hall. PG got tired of hearing how great the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was, and decided to see a show. The show started when some guy in a white suit came out with a banjo. John McEuen stood next to him, and kept falling into the microphone stand and saying “this guy cracks me up”.
Steve Martin, the white suit guy, said that he paid somebody five thousand dollars for a joke. He then took this arrow, with a coat hanger wire attached to it, with a shape for his head to fit in, and put it on. That got a laugh, but not worth five thousand dollars. There was another gag…”do you mind if i smoke, no do you mind if i fart”. That got a slightly bigger laugh.
In those days, you could not sell alcohol in public on sunday night in Georgia. To compensate, the Music Hall sold children’s tickets for the sunday night shows. Mr. Martin was not used to having children in the audience. “Hey kid I gotta joke for you. There were these two lesbians…”
The show went over well with the Nitty Gritty crowd. However, it is doubtful that anyone thought, this is the beloved entertainer of our generation.
Mr. Martin was not through for the night. At one point, the NGDB moved to the back of the stage, and a smarmy lounge lizard, in a white suit, came on stage. While the band played “The girl from Ipanema”, Mr. Martin sang about the girl with diarrhea.
This was one of the last shows that Steve Martin did as an opening act. (He did return to the Great Southeast Music Hall. Once, he did a week with Martin Mull, called the Steve Martin Mull Revue.) Within two years, he was a guest host on Saturday Night Live, and a certified wild and crazy guy. A couple of years later, he was famous again as “The Jerk”. Steve Martin had arrived.
This is a repost. The pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The animated dentures are from chattering teeth. The check is in the mail.
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