Like You Rate A Restaurant
PG was minding his own business when the phone rang. It was an automated voice, that wanted to take a survey. The perp company was 20/20 Insight. The machine caught PG at a weak moment, and he agreed to the survey.
The first part was asking you to rate names. It went from one to five, just like you rate a restaurant. The first name was Barack Obama. The second name was J. Max Davis.
It was soon apparent that the survey was about Brookhaven politics. The name Rebecca Chase Williams came up. She is the acting mayor of Brookhaven, and is all but certain to run for a full term. It is too bad that zero, or negative one, is not an option.
Mrs. Williams is married to Dick Williams. He used to write a column for the fishwrapper. Mr. Williams is a terrible, terrible man. His column was full of hatred for gay people. In one memorable tirade, he compared gay people to Richard Speck, Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan.
The survey was fast and efficient. You gave your answers by touching buttons on the phone. You had the “not sure” option on most questions, which is good when asked what you think of how the city of Brookhaven is doing. It is not especially bad, so far. If the city decides to spend thousands of dollars shutting down the Pink Pony, it would be doing worse.
Before the phone rang, PG was listening to bloggingheadstv. Glenn Loury said that Mike Brown brought his troubles on himself. PG was called racist after making a much milder comment about Mr. Brown last November.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
First Week Of Summer
PG was working downtown in 1993. It was an easygoing “RMS” operation, hosted by an architecture firm in the Healy building. There were some long lunch hours.
On the first week of summer, there were visits to be made. A friend, Margaret, had been fighting breast cancer. Being insurance challenged, the treatments were at Grady.
When someone fighting cancer goes to the doctor, and is told to go to the hospital, this is not good news. PG had visted on Saturday. Margaret did not seem to be doing too bad.
The plan was to go to Grady at lunchtime. At noon, there were a few jobs to run. PG decided to stay a few minutes, clear up the workload, and take his time at lunch.
When PG got to the room, the door was closed. PG asked a nurse what was going on. The nurse looked uncomfortable. He said to talk to a member of her family.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
The Last Night Of Judy Garland
In march of 1969, Judy married her fifth husband, Mickey Devinko, better known as Mickey Deans, a gay night-club promoter. Judy had an unfortunate habit of marrying gay men. They lived together in a tiny mews house in Chelsea, London. The evening of Saturday June 21 1969, Judy and Mickey were watching a documentary, The Royal Family, on television, when they had an argument. Judy ran out the door screaming into the street, waking the neighbors.
Several versions of what happened next exist, but the fact remains that a phone call for Judy woke him at 10:40 the next morning, and she was not sleeping in the bed. He searched for her, only to find the bathroom door locked. After no response, he climbed outside to the bathroom window and entered to find Judy, sitting on the toilet. Rigor Mortis had set in. Judy Garland, 47, was dead.
The press was already aware of the news before the body could be removed. In an effort to prevent pictures being taken of the corpse, she was apparently draped over someone’s arm like a folded coat, covered with a blanket, and removed from the house with the photographers left none the wiser.
The day Judy died there was a tornado in Kansas…. in Saline County,KS, a rather large F3 tornado (injuring 60, but causing no deaths) did hit at 10:40 pm on June 21st, that would be 4:40 am, June 22nd, London time, the morning she died. I know the time of death has never been firmly established, but since Rigor Mortis had already set in, I think this tornado may very much be in the ballpark in terms of coinciding with time of death…. Other news articles suggest the tornado struck Salina “late at night” which could certainly also mean after midnight on June 22, or roughly 6:00 am London time.
The Toledo Blade for June 24th, also in an article located right next to a picture of Garland, in a write-up on the Salina tornado noted that “Late Saturday [June 21] and early Sunday [June 22, another batch of tornadoes struck in central Kansas.” So it seems the legend seems confirmed.
The text for this story comes from Findadeath. You can spend hours at this site. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
POTUS WTF
There are two words that are considered politically incorrect to use. This is the F-word, and the N-word. According to the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, this is Foxtrot and November.
Marc Maron is a comedian by trade. He is the perp behind the WTF podcast. This is not Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Mr. Maron opens the show by saying welcome whatthefuckers, what the fuckadelics, what the fuqstix, etc, etc. He finagles Foxtrot into the fucking furniture.
Today was episode #613 of WTF. The guest in the garage was @POTUS himself, Barack Obama. In honor of the occasion, Mr. Maron dispensed with the Foxtrot litany. The show began right away, without commercials or monolog.
The guest made up for the absense of Foxtrot. At 46:40, BHO said the N-word. This is what people will be talking about this week. Rachel whatshername can resume her search for a new hairdresser in private. Global warming will not be affected.
@bob_owens The white half of @POTUS is racist for using the “n-word.” @tuxedotomybowti Someone said President Obama is racist for using the n-word. Seriously? We have had presidents own slaves. Wth @MattyIceAZ Fox News cares more about the N-word taken out of context than any scientific expert taken in context.
PG has felt for a long time that America does itself no favor by getting hysterical over November. Yes, it is hurtful to a significant portion of our population. The problem is, when you make a federal case (literally) out of using November in public, you give six letters more power than they deserve.
As BHO noted, racism is more than saying November. Not using the magic word will not make Police kinder and gentler. Dropping those six letters will not create economic opportunity, end the war on drugs, disconnect the school to prison pipeline, or make sperm donors fulfill their duty as fathers. November is a symptom, not the disease. It remains to be seen if the disease is treatable. Euthanasia cannot be ruled out. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Amount Of Anonymous Vitriol
My last box-of-free-books score was “The Color Purple” and the Bible in Spanish. ~ when you google “example of white pr” one of the choices is “example of white noise process” ~ I haikuize poems. count syllables for jesus. regressive lifestyle. ~ I am at Goodwill. They are playing Tiffany. Whoa I am happy. ~ @nihilist_arbys Is it Monday again? Oh good. Toil, cry, drink yourself into sweaty oblivion. Die a little more each day. Eat at Arbys. Repeat. ~ David Crosby interview ~ a useless test ~ …Like these celebrity bloggers and tweeters, I found the amount of anonymous vitriol that emerged in my blog’s comment sections personally demoralizing and discouraging. ~ @JudithShulevitz @TheRobertWright Suppose a guy is a serial doer of that ~ BHO is routinely labeled “black” when he had a white mother ~ that moment when you send out answers to craigslist ads, you get an email, you eagerly look in the inbox, and it is a friend thanking you for sending a link to the ethel merman disco album it could be worse though the time before that it was a gimme money message from the black conservative fund ~ Lexington Herald-Leader is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what’s in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts. ~ @pourmecoffee I’m done with the Trump tweets and I’m sorry. Please accept this photo of Johnny Cash with a kitten as my apology ~ holy synchronicity posting about #rupaul & hairdo challenged idiot while #donaldtrump is throwing his wig into the race for POTUS ~ If you throw a couple of spaces into a name, then Assisi becomes Ass is i ~ police ~ @ELPlNTOR why is donald trump running for president he has no lips @chamblee54 you can’t tell if they are moving ~ I really can’t think of any candidate more suited to represent the United States than a narcissistic asshole. ~ Whenever you hear that war is good for nothing, consider that Kennesaw Mountain is untouched by development. ~ nonsense ~ @Jizismyname Suicide is retroactive abortion ~ No, the darkest places in hell go to those who call a Clarence Thomas opinion a moral crisis. ~ We shall overcomb. ~ It is obvious why they call that plan POS ~ When discussing her hate crimes, the hairdo challenged lady said her 13 yo son was so traumatized that he slept in the same bed as his mother. No one seems to think this is strange. This is at the 6:21 mark of this video. ~ Should I co sign off on calling you tangent? ~ this post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden. View hidden content. ~ This is one of the STUPIDEST articles I have ever read! ~ Food safety is our highest priority worldwide and we take allegations of this nature extremely seriously ~ Duude I’m certain it was the inclusion of “serial litigant” on her resume that got her that top position at the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. To the NAACP, that’s important work experience.~ Daily Mail you have at least 6 articles about this woman today. You have officially run this story into the ground. Even Miley Cyrus’ pit hair is more interesting. ~ Sorry, we couldn’t complete your request. ~ @postcrunk a capitalist service economy reliant on tipping, crowdfunding, welfare, and the free and open sharing of media inevitably becomes socialist ~ looks like a criminal justice kind of day #SCOTUSBLOG ~ Why do they play this game of a slow release of the decisions? Why not release them all at once? Are they actually still writing opinions? Or is because they enjoy keeping the public’s attention? #SCOTUSBLOG ~ The headline sounds like they are using fracking as a euphemism for another “f-word.” The language is peculiar. ~ 50 Questions To Completely Free Your Mind ~ @postcrunk just having an international conversation on race and gender that completely deconstructs our notion of identity, hbu? ~ Didn’t G-d hang a rainbow in the sky after Noah’s Ark landed? ~ Polly D. Issem would be a good stage name. ~ belief is the death of intelligence ~ New NYC Homeless – New NYC Coffee ~ @jbouie @jonathanchait @tanehisicoates if racism is systemic institutional oppression, Dylann Roof is not racist this is an individual ~ 1- Maybe we need to define racism. Some say it is fear and loathing of the other. Others say racism is systemic oppression. If racism is systemic oppression, then a pathetic gun nut shooting up a church is not racism. 2- Jesus worship religion is violent. It is obsessed with the gruesome execution of Jesus. Believers enjoy verbal abuse. We don’t know what happened to Dylann Roof. 3- The easy availability of deadly force is a problem. There are reports that Dylann Roof did not have the legal right to own a gun, because of some drug charges. Maybe having more gun laws is not the answer, if we don’t enforce the ones we already have. 4- As for the whining in the media about what the other says about this, and how the media covers events… that is a good distraction from the trade agreements, global warming, the national debt, drone warfare, and the Kardashians. ~ Avvo does not rate this lawyer because he or she is deceased. ~ @thelindywest is this for real? It seems a bit off I have never known a bully to act like this ~ The third commandment says not to use the name of G-d “in vain.” I believe a political document qualifies. ~ I still have the text file for this meme. Any self appointed media critic complaining about coverage of the Charleston shootings, or any other event, is in danger of having this text pasted onto their photograph. ~ @AnnCoulter Author – follow me on facebook Disregard my earlier claims that I’d never be on Facebook. ~ There is only a couple of letters difference between solemnize and sodomize. ~ the enemy is fear we think it is hate but is is fear mohanas gandhi ~ @chamblee54 wikiquotes does not have this – does anyone have a source? pretty memes do not tell us very much ~ @EdDarrell Rats. I have no source. @chamblee54 Mr. Gandhi left a huge archive If he said this there should be a record somewhere ~ @mmthagandhi @gandhiideeas three posts about Mr. Gandhi ~ pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ selah
Stars And Bars
@KenSimonSays The Confederate flag began flying over SC Capitol in 1962 as protest to desegregation. It’s not “heritage”, it’s racism. #TakeItDown
As Richard Nixon might have said, let me make one thing perfectly clear. PG is no fan of the stars and bars. Whatever value the “Confederate Flag” may have as a symbol of southern heritage has been obscured by its use as a symbol of hatred for black people. South Carolina should not fly the “Confederate flag” over the state capitol.
On the other hand, PG does not like being lied to. If you are offended by a symbol, then say you are offended by a symbol. Don’t rewrite history to support your cause. If your cause is so wonderful, then you should not need to conjure up so called facts from history.
In 1956, Georgia incorporated the stars and bars into the state flag. In 1993, people wanted to change the flag. So far, so good. The flag was an aesthetic eyesore. The flag was offensive to a significant portion of the state population. The flag eventually was changed, and changed again.
There was one problem with the 1993 effort to change the flag. Governor Zell Miller, a strong proponent of flag change, said in a speech that the stars and bars were added to the flag, in 1956, as a protest against integration. Many people accepted this bit of historic revision without question.
Some did not believe that for a minute. The legislature in 1956 was not that smart. They were a bunch of white males who were, with a few exceptions, racist, alcoholic crooks. If someone had suggested a flag change as a stand of defiance against desegregation, they might have thought it a good idea, but few Georgia legislators thought like that. This was 1956. The sixties, where protest became the new national pastime, were a few years away.
PG did some research, and found a newspaper article from February 1956 announcing the new flag. The article did not mention protesting integration. Instead, the legislature said they wanted to honor the Confederacy. The cult of the Confederacy was stronger in 1956 than it is today.
@chamblee54 “flag began flying over SC Capitol as protest to desegregation” ~ do you have documentation for that claim?
@KenSimonSays link 01 (pages 18-19, et al); link 02 (para 1); link 03
The three links provided are scholarly accounts of various issues. None of them showed that the motive for flying the stars and bars was a “protest to desegregation.” This passage from link03 is typical. “The flag was first raised over the capitol in 1962, just a few years before Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In its historical context, the decision to first fly the flag over the South Carolina capitol can reasonably be seen as a defiant act by a legislature determined to resist national pressure to desegregate.”
Link01 tells much the same story. “South Carolina began its official celebration of the Confederate flag in 1962 during a time when many white Southerners were resisting the end of Jim Crow Laws with police dogs and much worse. Traditionally, governments fly flags to endorse or approve what is symbolized, and not to provide history lessons.”
The next sentence is ironic. This is lawyer writing, which is mostly incomprehensible to people like PG. This sentence is probably not intended in the way PG is taking it. “In Croson, the Court established three basic principles of skepticism, consistency, and congruence concerning governmental race based classifications.” PG seldom needs encouragement to be skeptical.
@chamblee54 “in it’s historic context, the decision to first fly the flag …can reasonably be seen as a defiant act” (1)
@chamblee54 A scholar talking about historic context is not good enough I want a newspaper account from 1962 saying (2)
@chamblee54 this is why the flag is being flown they pulled this BS in GA over the state flag https://chamblee54.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/changing-the-flag/ …
@KenSimonSays Ah BS, from a man who quotes himself to try and prove a point. Hey, you’re entitled to kick your feet all you want.
@KenSimonSays And keep in mind, these are the same ppl who’ve convinced themselves that Civil War was fought over “states rigjhts”
@KenSimonSays and not slavery, so they’re very good at bullshitting themselves.
@KenSimonSays Eventually, the bigots are going to not have any more space to wriggle out of.
@Brimshack Did you really think they would actually say they were flying the flag to protest desegregation? (@Brimshack retweeted the first tweet from @KenSimonSays. PG currently follows @Brimshack, who is based in Alaska.)
@chamblee54 I went through this with the ga state flag – am no fan of csa flag – the protest integration thing rings false (1)
@chamblee54 you say it is to protest integration, a publicity stunt … of course they would say that is why they did it(2)
@KenSimonSays Not a publicity stunt. A temper tantrum codified into law. You think politicians are above such things? Or that the
@KenSimonSays flag suddenly magically appeared after almost a full century of not really being an issue…until integration enters
@KenSimonSays the picture, first in schools in the ’50s and more and more in the proceeding years. Closing your eyes to this is
@KenSimonSays what’s got a lot of people down there thinking the war was “northern aggression” over “states rights”.
@Brimshack That isn’t clear at all. This would be one of many disingenuous narratives produced by neoconfederates.
@KenSimonSays But that flag will come down eventually, it’s just a matter of time. And you’ll pout & write abt how unfair it is,
@KenSimonSays how it violates your free speech, dishonors memory of the dead, govt intrusion, all the while the real reason is the
@KenSimonSays that Yankees came down & told wealthy sadists what to do with their slaves & you side with the slave owners.
This is why we can’t have nice things. At no time did PG support South Carolina flying the stars and bars. All he did was show “skepticism,” per link01, to an statement. This statement was used to support something that all three parties agree on. People get so attached to their arguments that a little bit of “skepticism” makes them crazy. Just for the record, in case you missed it the first time: South Carolina should not fly the “Confederate flag” over the state capitol.
The issue of the stars and bars continues to be much talked about. The gun culture is untouchable. The concept of solving problems through violence is not challenged. The verbal abuse culture is celebrated, especially in the Jesus worship church. Denial of mental health issues has become politically correct, at least where Dylann Roof is concerned. Since none of these root causes of the Charleston tragedy are going to be addressed, people focus on a tacky historic symbol.
Pictures of Union Soldiers from the War Between the States, are from The Library of Congress.
Luther C. McKinnon
Luther Campbell McKinnon Sr. was born February 22, 1916, on a farm in Rowland, North Carolina. Europe was stuck in a war that would change the world, and not until The United States got involved. This didn’t happen for another year.
Luke was the youngest of four children. After life as a farm boy, he went to Wake Forest University, and then came back when his Daddy died. He ran a family dairy for a few years, and went to live in New Jersey. He lived near a prison, and saw the lights dim when the electric chair was used.
In the early fifties, he came to Atlanta to live. This was where his sister Sarah stayed, with her husband and two daughters. One day he went into the C&S bank on 10th street, and took notice of one of the tellers. On October 6, 1951, he married Jean Dunaway. She was with him the rest of his life.
At some point in this era he started selling shoes. He would go to warehouses, gas stations, and wherever barefoot men needed shoes. He was “The Shoe Man” .
Before long there were two boys, and he bought a house, then another. The second house is the current residence of my brother and myself, and is probably worth 15 times what he paid for it. He had the good fortune to not buy in an area that was “blockbusted,’ as many neighborhoods were.
And this was his life. He tended a garden, went to the gym, and was in the Lions Club for many years. When he met Mom, she let him know that going to church with her was part of the deal. They found a church that was good for their needs, and made many friends there. The Pastor at Briarcliff Baptist, Glen Waldrop, was his friend.
When I think of the character of this man, there is one night, which stands out. My brother was away at the time. The day before, Mom had discovered she had a detached retina, and was in the hospital awaiting surgery. Her job had arranged a “leaf tour” by train in North Georgia, and she got one of her friends at work to take me. There was some mechanical trouble on the train, and it did not get back into town until 3am Monday morning. And yet, Daddy stayed at home, did not panic, and had faith that all of us would be back soon, which we were.
Through all the struggles of his life, Dad was cheerful, laughed a lot, and was good company. He left me with a rich repertoire of country sayings, and had many stories to tell. He was surprising mellow about black people, if a bit old fashioned. (In the south when I grew up, this was highly unusual).
Dad was always in good, vigorous health, and I thought he would be with us for a long time. Well, that is not how things work. A cancer developed in his liver, and spread to his lungs (he did not smoke). After a mercifully brief illness, we lost him on February 7, 1992. This is a repost.
Labelism
Chamblee54 had a post recently about conservatives and liberals. A lot of people see things in those terms. There are other pigeon holes that people get stuffed into. Not only politics, but religion, fashion, and sexual activity are classified, usually by someone who disapproves. Maybe the true religion of our culture is Labelism.
A trip to google city had lots of results. The top result (possibly paid for) is a company called Labelism. You can create personalized labels, usually for an alcohol product. “Welcome to Labelism. The personalised Wine, Whisky, Champagne and Beer gift service where you become the designer & create your own label.”
The always helpful Urban Dictionary calls labelism “The act of judging people by the labels of their clothes. Here are a few examples of labelism: 1(in Abercrombie): I’m so classy. 2 (in Hollister): Me, too. 3 (in American Eagle): Don’t forget me. 1: We all rock! 4 (in Aeropostale): Hey, I’m classy, too! 1: You wish, you wannabe! 2: Yeah, Loser! 5 (in Wal-Mart clothes): I’m pretty classy myself. 1: Eww Get away! You’re poor! 2,3, and 4: Gross! White Trash! Nasty! 5: Whatever, you label whores!”
Ablogspot facility called Quadrilateral Thoughts gets a bit closer to the original concept of this post. “labelism: The tendency to skew diverse particular ideas, events, people, and so forth by grouping them under overly generalized labels in the service of argument.” A few examples are given. “All these statements are logically fallacious, even though they are the stuff of common rhetoric. They take diverse realities and oversimplify them because the human mind has difficulty processing complexity… Beware of generalizations bearing fallacies! The Devil is in the details.”
A playground called Young Americans for Liberty comes out as an Anti-Labelist. “If we refuse to be objective in this way, but rather use smear terms and labels, then it is no surprise that more anti-labelites are produced. We become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.”
Labelism dot org is another take. “Labelism- There Must Be For There To Be/Create Create/ Leaving Assumption To The Act/Support Support/ Do Good To Be Good/ Look Passed Word Act-RE-Reality=Option/True”
This post was a good idea that turned out to be boring. The spell check suggestion for labelism is Isabella. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
UPDATE As this post is published, America is dealing with another gun related tragedy. A popular topic of conversation involves what labels to use when describing Dylann Roof. The media is criticized for not labeling Mr. Roof a terrorist. It is a topic of conversation whether, or not, the killing was racist, or a hate crime. It is not considered polite to say that Mr. Roof is mentally ill. All of these are labels.
35 Broad Street
PG was having a delightfully slack afternoon, The one productive activity was editing pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. In box seventy two of “corporate bodies”, in the Lane Brothers archive, there was a picture commissioned by King Road Marker Company. It displayed a brand new crosswalk, over Marietta Street at the intersection of Broad Street. The picture was taken at 1:51 p.m. September 27, 1954. This is a repost.
The time caught PG’s eye. 1:51 is one of the times used to display clocks and watches in advertising. Most ads use 10:09. This arrangement of the hour and minute hands makes a welcoming gesture. This allows the logo of the watch to be visible, and is thought to encourage the viewer to purchase the timepiece. The shadows on the buildings indicate that the picture was shot in early afternoon.
The clock with the magic time advertised the C&S national bank. The building behind the clock was the headquarters of that bank. In 1954, Citizens and Southern bank was a prime player in the Atlanta market. (PG’s dad said that C&S stood for choke’m and squeez’m.) At some point, C&S merged with NCNB to become Nationsbank, which was later absorbed by Bank Of America.
C&S kept it’s headquarters at 35 Broad Street for many years after competitors built trophy buildings. Their were constant rumors about where the C&S highrise was going to go. Finally, C&S Plaza was built at Peachtree and North Avenue, a mile north of five points. The building was to become the tallest building in America outside of New York and Chicago. During the construction of this building, C&S became part of Nationsbank.
The picture is featured in Atlanta Time Machine. The building is now owned by Georgia State University, with a BOA branch on the first floor. The banking hall is spectacular. It was designed by Philip Shutze, before the great depression. Here is more information.
Nations Bank Building (Citizens and Southern National Bank Building, Empire Building)
35 Broad Street, NW 1901: Bruce and Morgan, Architects, NR.
Remodeling of Lower Floors and Interiors 1929:
Hentz, Adler and Shutze, Architects; Philip Shutze, Designer
Fourteen stories high, the Nations Bank Building was the first steel-frame structure to be built in Atlanta. Its clear-cut silhouette, simple fenestration, and heavily decorated terra-cotta top bear the influence of the Chicago School. In 1929 the building became the headquarters of the Citizens and Southern National Bank, which asked Philip Shutze to redesign its three lower floors. Because the impression of load-bearing masonry was regarded as better suited for a banking establishment than large glass panes were, the original display windows were replaces by classical motifs apparently “carved out” of Indiana limestone.
Philip Shutze was inspired by Italian Mannerism, and especially by the city gates of Verona by Michele Sanmichelo (1484-1559) … Reached from Marietta and Walton streets through lofty arcaded entryways and a more intimate elevator lobby in the early Renaissance style on Broad Street, the banking hall is a long nave articulated by colossal Corinthian pilasters. While its walls and floors feature several kinds of Georgia, Tennessee, and European marbles in a warm gold-brown color scheme, the ceiling, from which hang gigantic chandeliers, is left bare. The Pantheon, which Shutze had measured during his internship at the American Academy in Rome, served as direct source for the pedimented niches, and for the floors with alternate square and circular patterns. Also, of Roman inspiration are the bronze desks and the eagle motif found throughout the design.
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