Thanksgiving Story
This content was posted November 26, 2024. … Thanksgiving was a time our family cherished. It was the only time all of us got together under one roof and mingled. Except for me. ~ I was the family embarrassment. They were Catholic, and disliked my way of life. I played guitar, loved Heavy Metal, and worshiped Satan. ~ All this explains why my family shunned me. In their eyes, I was the flaw of a nearly perfect gem, but in mine, I was the cream of the crop.
I should’ve known they had something awful in mind when they asked me to join them somewhere. They drove me to the very corner of the ranch. ~ “What the fuck are we doing back here,” I asked. My only reply was, “Shut up you blaspheming fool.”
At last we got to the destination. My father, mother, and sister were standing around, wearing funeral clothes. ~ In the middle was a shallow grave. “What’s that hole for?” I asked dumbly. “Take a guess you satanic fucker!” Was the reply from my father.
I felt a thud on my head. I hit the ground with a loud thlap. I turned in spite of excruciating pain to see my uncle wielding a shovel. ~ I touched the back of my head to find my fingers coated in blood. I suddenly grew light headed and passed out. When I woke up I inhaled dirt. ~ Luckily, my family didn’t know how to properly bury someone so I was able to dig myself out. I sat there and puked for about fifteen solid minutes.
When I got back, it was Thanksgiving night. through the window I could see my family, sitting there, saying grace like the sheeple they were. ~ Seeing them praying made my hate for them and all Catholics grow. It went from a smouldering, muddled anger, to a flaming, outrageous hatred.
I ran into the garage and found my uncle’s shotgun, sitting there, waiting for me, beckoning, saying, “Go ahead, make these fuckers pay.” ~ “Hi Mom!” I shouted as I pulled the trigger, I started laughing uncontrollably as I continued firing at my family until I was empty.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” My father asked, wounded, shot in the gut. “Wrong with me?” I asked calmly. “What’s wrong with you?” ~ With that I threw the gun away and dined. Not on Turkey, but on raw human flesh. It was the best Thanksgiving ever. ~ Twitter serialization by @creepypasta_txt. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in August 1940. “Bayou Bourbeau plantation, a Farm Security Administration cooperative, vicinity of Natchitoches, La. Three Negro children sitting on the porch of a house ©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
Turn, Turn, Turn
This content was published November 5, 2023. … We are now in a time of war. One side is heavily armed, and slaughters unarmed women and children. The Prime Minister of the heavily armed country uses Ecclesiastes 3:8 to justify mass murder. … I recently published a poem, that includes the line “Ecclesiastical abomination.” When I wrote that, it was just a clever phrase, rhyming with cultural appropriation. In fact, I considered saying cultural abomination/Ecclesiastical appropriation. Now, Bibi Netanyahu has taught me the meaning of Ecclesiastical abomination.
The word Ecclesiastes has a poetic tingle. “Eccy” is in the Old Testament is between the poetry of Proverbs, and the enticements of the Song of Salomon. Richard Brautigan counted the punctuation marks in Ecclesiastes, and found no errors. Ecclesiastes 3 was even the lyrics for a top forty song.
Turn, Turn, Turn is taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes. Pete Seeger wrote a melody, and added a line. “There is a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late”. TTT became a hit for the Byrds in 1965, as the escalation of the Vietnam war was in full bloom.
TTT is about the dualities of life, and how there is a place for all these things. When I was collecting rocks from destroyed houses, it was a time to gather stones together. TTT can serve as a companion to the vibrations of day to day living.
Pete Seeger died January 27, 2014. I first heard of him when he was on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It was during Vietnam, and Mr. Seeger did “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”. The CBS censors did not allow this the first time he appeared. Many thought Mr. Seeger was talking about Lyndon Johnson when he sang “The big fool said to push on”.
This content was published November 1, 2008. … After finishing breakfast, I made a pot of coffee and went to look at the battery. Prying the cover off with a screwdriver, I saw that there was almost no water inside. I went to the toolshed to get the distilled water, and saw the sun rising over the trees in the backyard. I put three cups of water in the battery, and tried to start the car. The car did not start, but did make more noise than it did last night.
Back to the dialog about war and peace. The only Tolstoy I had read was a short story about a man called Ivan Ilyitch. War and peace are two constants of man’s existence. There had been a feature about W&P in The Aquarian Drunkard. AD is a blog written by a former Dunwoody resident who now exists in LA. The feature focused on Pete Seeger, and the song “Turn, Turn, Turn”. …
I checked the fishwrapper to see when the Georgia Florida game began. While I was there, I looked in on his other alma mater, Cross Keys High School. CK is riding a 28 game losing streak. Halloween night, they lost to Greater Atlanta Christian 66-7. … This text is written like H. P. Lovecraft. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture is labeled Untitled. It is possibly related to a picture taken by John Vachon in March 1943. “Greenville, South Carolina. U.S. Highway 29 seen from an Associated Transport Company truck” ©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
Erick Erickson Wants Donations
This content was posted July 9, 2015. … @EWErickson Trump’s rise is part of the unintended consequences of the GOP trying to compress the Presidential primary cycle. This message was retweeted. Blue Gal/Fran! Excuse me I gotta go buy more popcorn. (The spell check suggestion for retweeted is regretted.)
Erick Erickson is a piece of work. He is the grand wazoo at Red State, a “conservative” web site. RS gave Chamblee54 a 601 Database redigestation error onetime. This required a visit to the computer shop to get the malicious code off the machine.
Today’s tweet linked to a post at Mr. Erickson’s current blog, Stop Complaining About Donald Trump. If you want to see it, you can follow the link. This post is not going to concern itself with “conservative” commentary about the latest golden boy of the wig party.
The last five words of the post are “think of another “F” word.” Below that, you are encouraged to “Support the work at Erick on the Radio.” You can “Select an Amount” and click “Next.” At this point credit card numbers become involved. Never give a credit card number to someone who has given your computer malicious code. UPDATE: This request is not on the Internet Archive version.
Erick Erickson has a daily radio show on WSB. This is a 50,000 watt clear channel am station. WSB is part of the Cox media team that dominates Atlanta. His show is sponsored by advertising, and is probably a profit center for the Cox bean counters.
Why does Erick Erickson feel the need to ask for donations on the Internet? Is the free market model of talk radio not working for him? Apparently not. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken in 1951. “Peachtree Street and Ellis Street” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Mainstream Historian
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pure sleeze press · the living record · nude aerobics · gooning · epstein
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defend patrick · be mean to fascists · ivehadit · stagger lee · elsa lanchester
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chorus · roswell map · utility box · tennessee jed · elsa lanchester · gare de mons
This is your weekly reader for this cold monday morning. The title is from one of the links, “My Roots are Rambling“: A Portrait of Touching Up Our Roots Co-Founder Dave Hayward.” Dave’s time on planet earth ended last week. He will be missed. · In the Chamblee gulch, between the Walmart and the Waffle House, there is a broken wooden deck. A heavy equipment laden truck drove off the concrete sidewalk, and onto the deck. It did not end well · My psycho rapist · story ordinary wise · red meals memories — genetic users · glorification whiteness · “male gaze” end result — pathetic bigot · they never learn from teaching · corrosive ally — “Acceptable Gays” · closet drag queen punishment · “ideology” — iconic again! · perform inimitable · propulsive memoir — Nobody Donald · embarrass mental public · Republicans bad · This incident is fishy 1 The assailant was in the back of the crowd, well out of coin throwing range. I did not see any coin throwing in the video. 2 The mug shot does not indicate what police force took it. 3 Portnoy is a shady character. I don’t put it past him to stage this. · the best meditation is when the bell rings what you are not ready to stop. … tonight it was loving kindness meditation. It started with Ross … My pen ran out of ink. there was a a joke ontime about a girl named Virginia. She named her per pig ink, because it ran out of the pen … back to meditation. I took a breath, and said ” I want ____ to be” and then I took another breath to say happy/healthy/prosperous/safe. … I get through Ross, and then the lady whose name I don’t know. Then I got to Andy, who taught me the concept of LKM. I wanted Andy to be happy, and the bell rang. … My bring from home tea is some cheap herbal concoction from Ollies … The pen was a silver pen with the Coca Cola logo on the side. I like it because it has a rubber button on the end, which is good for using on a phone. I was at a yard sale, when a jar full of these pens were on the free stuff table. I grabbed a handful. I will sontinue to be on the lookout for telephone enabled pens. · Today’s production is a rerun of a 2022 writing prompt. The picture below is one of the earliest pictures made of the carving on Stone Mountain · He was not pleased by the invention of writing. “You provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. … they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.” · This podcast is about a subculture of “gooning”. It is young men who masturbate for several hours every day trying to achieve an altered state. They are pornosexuals · In 2012, someone posted some thoughts about the correct way to be anti-racist. I decided that this was a boring conversation to have · Plenty serious · anonymous no impact · regulate emo — cat universal · rat fundamentalism · (apartheid) the end — QUIT TRYING TO RAP · DUPE HIGHLY INSIDIOUS · TECHNO BRAINWASHING! — HUMILITY VICE · MUMBO-JUMBO TEDIOUS · MR. NATURAL!! — REPLICATE ANAL · PAVLOVIAN PHEROMONES · FORGIVING VISIONS — suicidal doll · two-spirit resurrection · we were killing God · In 2008, East Atlanta was not very big. It could be covered on foot in a few minutes. There were plenty of unused buildings, and former parking lots with a fence in front. The transitionality of the neighborhood was a work in progress · “So many health risks never doscussed.” It is politically incorrect to talk about the downside of transition. As far back as the seventies, I was hearing about trans women getting strange diseases from all the drugs they take, both gender corrective and recreational. · the ripple effect of a small act, a pebble setting off a landslide, political comment said without tact, existential thermonuclear omnicide · the twitter commentary of the hotep groyper, said without penalty from hotep jesus, elon’s kingdom for the digital loiter, with the porno players there to please us · two weeks ago teresa forgot to post the show, manley pointer had to trust eventbrite, i will never try those guys no more, the opening chat is always a sweet sight, · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Russell Lee took the social media picture in April 1941. “The movies are popular in the Negro section of Chicago, Illinois” ©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
Are My Racial Attitudes Your Business?
I was living my life when I saw something on facebook: “And another thing: if you are going to claim NOT to be racist, I feel like you should familiarize yourself with some contemporary writings and definitions of racism, not just what Mirriam Webster says.” The first reaction was to ignore this. If you reply to a comment about racism on facebook, you are asking for trouble. Life is too short to be wasting time on such unpleasantness.
But the thought engine had been kickstarted, and continued to idle in the background. When I pulled into the Kroger parking lot, the idea hit full force. Maybe it is none of your business.
Some people say that white people are not affected by racism. If this is the case, then why should the racial attitudes of a white person affect another white person? If a person treats you fairly, do you really need to know this person’s attitudes about race?
The fbf ex-fbf does not say what the context of this claim is. Did anyone ask you whether or not you were a racist? If not, are you assuming that they are interested? Maybe someone assumed the listener was interested. Maybe the proper response to look bored, and say TMI.
The comment mentioned “contemporary writings and definitions of racism.” Who are the people who set themselves up as arbiters about what we should think about race? What are the qualifications? Who asked them what they thought? How do we know that these people are dependable?.
Maybe the answer is to show compassion and kindness to your neighbor, and don’t worry about their racial attitudes. If you are proud of your racial attitudes, please refrain from boasting. Not everyone is interested. … This commentary was originally posted November 1, 2012. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in November 1941. “Mr. Parkie Armour, FSA borrower, Edonton Road, Greene County, Georgia” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Did Socrates Read And Write?
This content was posted November 21, 2024. … This story starts with a facebook meme. A fbf posted a picture of a thoughtful statue. The text read ‘When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.’ Socrates. I thought that Socrates never wrote anything that survived. All of what we attribute to Socrates was written by Plato. People reading this blog should know what happened next.
Did Socrates Say Slander Is ‘The Tool of the Losers”? is one of several results. They all said the same thing … the quote is bogus. A tweet from Eric Trump is not evidence of authenticity.
I began to think, which is never a good sign. Was Socrates able to read and write? was on the screen a few minutes later. The speculation is mixed. Some say that that Socrates was stone illiterate.
Thomas Musselman “Socrates served in the government on juries. Historians now know that legal proceedings were common over business matters of great sophistication and that the juries were well-educated concerning such matters. General literacy existed by the late 400s BC for the general public in primary school. Upper class males even in Socrates’ day would have been literate and there was an active book-seller market. To function in the world that Socrates functioned in required literacy.”
Google turned up a curious document. It is a passage written by Plato, “Phaedrus.” Pp. 551-552 in Compete Works. An Egyptian God is talking to a King, about an invention … writing.
“In fact, it (writing) will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”
SOCRATES: “But, my friend, the priests of the temple of Zeus at Dodona say that the first prophecies were the words of an oak. Everyone who lived at that time, not being as wise as you young ones are today, found it rewarding enough in their simplicity to listen to an oak or even a stone, so long as it was telling the truth, while it seems to make a difference to you, Phaedrus, who is speaking and where he comes from. Why, though, don’t you just consider whether what he says is right or wrong?” … Pictures for our Chautauqua are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in April 1941. “ “Storefront” Baptist church during services on Easter morning. Chicago, Illinois” ©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
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