Perfection
You didn’t grow up · adult duties how hard harsh · figure out feel you
It has been a great morning so far. It would be even better if I can get outside in that cold, wet, December air. Unfortunately, I need to finish writing this post.
ought perfection myth · ability just forgive · happiness toxic
WH Auden wrote a poem once. Epitaph on a tyrant started by saying “Perfection of a kind, was what he was after.” I know this poem because Tom Rapp based a song on it, Footnote. In the alternative version, “burst with laughter” became “laughed at his feet.” The latter version works much better for me, which tells us about the shortcomings of perfection.
mere players exit · Mewling puking whining creep · Mad bubble justice
This haiku had men in the first part, which gave it an extra beat. To make a proper haiku, the men had to go. This is an analogy of the role of gender in modern society. To fit into a formula, men have got to leave the picture. The 5-7-5 feng shui is more important than mere men.
aria talents · regard their crackpot fool who · rant their loyalty
The comparison of an aria … the showstopper solo in an opera … to the ravings of the common media myrmidon, endlessly braying about what their sponsors want to hear … can make the a crackpot fool seem like a prophet in his own land.
American rig · chic society edges · Republican smash
Rig is a word with many uses. Rig rhymes with the first syllable of popular six letter word, and is sometimes used as a euphemism. When chic society edges towards its Republican climax, powered by the American rig used to inject hard drugs into quivering veins, edging with delight at the anticipation of another fix of TRUTH, then one can only marvel at the spectacle.
sorry traveler · looked down under the other · grassy passing worn
Bobby Frost was lucky to be born when he was. He does not see one of his best lines corrupted by the fence building industry. He was a 20th century traveler, looking down from under the other, on his way to the grassy, passing knoll. The other is used to it.
L5PB December
The December Little 5 Poetry Bash was held in the doorway between Java Lords and 7 Stages. JL had festive lighting, and turned the performers red, blue, green, and white by turns. This was especially flattering for L5PB majordomo Han Vance, who was dressed like an Elf. Han read selections for a stack of chap books, and was highly entertaining. There is something about being in the same room as someone, and able to hear them clearly, that just adds to the enjoyment of the evening.
Mitchell Padgett was the feature, and read for a while. Since there were only a handful of poets, you could read as much as you wanted to. Mitchell later expressed disappointment at the sparse crowd, which I could only agree with. Performing for your own enjoyment has its limits.
As I said, it was a tiny crowd, consisting mostly of fellow performers. We did have a newcomer, Johanna Smith. It is always fun to have more people, and maybe it will happen next month.
L5PB is not without disappointments. On my last visit to the fabled JL bathroom, the thumb lock was stuck, and the door was jar for my last piss of the night. If I had to shit, it would have been show time. Or I could not shit, and go blind instead. Stevie Wonder does not recommend this option.
After finding my vehicle intact and unbooted, I made my way up to N. Highland. When I got to the exit for the Ex-Pres-way, I took a left. You only die once, and the potholes come faster on the freeway, instead of the agonizing death of a thousand jostles on Briarcliff Road. Meanwhile, I was button pushing on the radio, and found a new episode of Drabblecast. Strange stories, by Strange authors, for Strange listeners. Unfortunately, this was not one of their better episodes, and I turned to this month’s New Yorker fiction podcast, which sucked in it’s own NPR-listening way. Sometimes free downloads are worth what you pay for them.
The last disappointment came on the trip home. I cherish my L5PB junk food run, and could already taste the ambrosial mystery meat from Taco Bell. Unfortunately, this facility is now only open 9am – 3am on Sunday. I backtracked across North Druid Hills, with it’s Byzantine construction projects, to the Burger King, next to the Arthur M. Blank hospital. BK is part of the hospital supply chain.
Bastard Out of Carolina
This is a repost from 2018. Dorothy Allison passed away November 6, 2024. … Bastard Out of Carolina is a much praised novel. Dorothy Allison wrote it. When I saw it at a used book sale, I hesitated. The lady taking the money said, “if you don’t want that book, I will take it.” I went ahead and gave the lady one dollar, and took home BOOC.
Bone is the illegitimate hero of BOOC. Her birth certificate has ILLEGITIMATE stamped across the bottom, in “oversized red-inked block letters.” Anney, the mother, makes repeated visits to the county courthouse, trying to get the certificate de-bastardized. Finally, when Bone is 12, Anney succeeds. By then it is too late.
The Boatwrights are a large family. They live in Greenville, South Carolina. BOOC is set in the fifties. PG was never really sure how many aunts and uncles Bone has. Maybe that is the idea.
The characters in BOOC are what some people would call white trash. Money is always a problem. The men drink and fight. The women do what they can. The kids are kids, until it is their turn to get locked up, or knocked up.
After Anney has two girls, she meets Glen Waddell. He is the villain of BOOC. An all around fuck up, Daddy Glen sexually abuses Bone. This is only spelled out in two episodes. The verbal/physical abuse is there all the time.
An Essential Novel About Poverty, Bigotry, and Sexual Abuse, Twenty-Five Years Later is an article that googled its way into this book report. Some urban writers are fascinated by racism. Dorothy Allison keeps racism in its place. There are no black characters in BOOC. The Boatwrights say n****r. The reader comes to learn that the Boatwrights would have been just as poor, just as drunk, and just as trashy in an all white county. Whiteness is part of the story, just like the muddy river flowing past Aunt Raylene’s house.
BOOC has a lot of details, and atmosphere. In a radio interview, Dorothy Allison says something. “Oh, I want that — you know what Nabokov called it, that sob in the spine, that where you’re reading and suddenly it just stops you, and you’re like ah! That’s what I want. I want you to take a deep breath, and if I’m really lucky, I want you to throw the book at the wall.” Paperbacks do less damage.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the pictures in Missouri. The date was August, 1938.
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This is a repost from the murky past. The college on N. Indian Creek Dr. is now known as “GSU Perimeter College – Clarkston Campus” The Watering Hole was torn down, and is now Top express car wash. Abortion has been legalized, and re-criminalized. Atlanta still has a lot more Peachtrees than peach trees. … · There is a tray. I found it at a yard sale, or thrown away, years and years ago. It sat unused in the tool shed until Mac got sick, at which point it became invaluable. I am giving it another shot with the bluetooth mouse, and it might just work. · JP Morgan can decide who they want to have as customers of course right because they’re private company and so it’s this it’s this slight of hand that happens it so it’s basically it’s a privatized sanctions regime that lets bureaucrats do to American citizens the same thing that we do to Iran kick you out of the financial system and so this has been happening to all the crypto entrepreneurs in the last four years this has been happening to a lot of the fintech entrepreneurs anybody trying to start any kind of new banking service um because they’re trying to protect the big Banks um and then this · @chamblee54 today’s holiday repost is a tale of turkey, satan worship, and a family that just doesn’t understand. If you think your racist, fox news watching uncle is a problem, read this bit of flash fiction and see how it could be much, much worse. link in the comments. · @captivedreamer7 This is a great little video, barely a minute long – i encourage all of you to watch it. This was the moment that Bernie Sanders and his movement completely lost in 2015. “Democratic Socialism” was destroyed by leftist “identity politics.” · This is a repost from 2017. The events of the last seven years make Tales of the City look like Dick, Jane, and Sally … · “Babycakes” was published in 1988. At one point, the wife of a famous designer asks Mary Ann Singleton what Ivana Trump is like in real life. I would say you can’t make this up, but Armistead Maupin did. The spell check suggestion for babycakes is beefcakes. · “Mr. Timothy Levy Crouch, a Rogerine Quaker, living in Ledyard, Connecticut, finishing up his Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Crouch is a stonemason by profession and lives on his farm where a little farming is done.” Jack Delano took the photograph in November 1940. · Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer? Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs! If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests? If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from? Link in comments · ‘If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.” This item turned up in a giftshop poster about cats. It was credited to/blamed on Mark Twain. A lady said, in the comments, this is one of my favorite quotes from Mark Twain. The Twain wikiquotes does not have an entry with deteriorate. There are five references to cat, all in a single quote from “A Tramp Abroad.” “You may say a cat uses good grammar. Well, a cat does — but you let a cat get excited once; you let a cat get to pulling fur with another cat on a shed, nights, and you’ll hear grammar that will give you the lockjaw. Ignorant people think it’s the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain’t so; it’s the sickening grammar they use.” · “If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.” Twain’s wikiquotes has 5 cat references, all from “A Tramp Abroad.” “… people think it’s the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain’t so; it’s the sickening grammar they use.” · Frank Zappa and the Mothers played at Frenchy’s House of BBQ, Hayward, CA, May 6-26, 1966. On May 21, they were the backing band for Neil Diamond. Link in comments. · “Tuning ’77” – a seamless audio supercut of an entire year of the Grateful Dead tuning their instruments, live on stage. Chronologically sequenced, this remix incorporates every publicly available recording from 1977, examining the divide between audience expectation and performance anxiety. · today is #WorldAidsDay. This is a list of men that I have lost. It is not complete, and not Aids-exclusive. The good news is that this list is not updated very often. Link in the comments. · Alan Burnett~Bill Gaddy~Bill Medlock~Bill Meneely~Blaze Mills Buddy Conine~Calvin Bunn~Danny Fields~David Chewning · David Hadden~Charlie Hall~Dwight Dunaway · Freeman Waldrop~Gary Hunton~Gene Haynes · Gene Holloway~Gibson Higgins~Glenn Krause~Greg Scott · Harold King~Hawk~Jerry Pyschka~Jim Anderson~Jim Ferguson · Jim Woodward~Joe Kenney~Joe Vickery~John Kelley · John Harllee~Jon Gordon~King Thackston~Larry Jackson · Layton Gregory~Lee Mullis~Les Friessen~Mac Wilson · Manfred Ibis~Mark Keenum~Mark Rosen~Martin Isganitus · Michael Dollins~Micheal Mason~Mike Perling~Moon Moore · O’Gene Donohue~Purl Sudds~Ron Davis~Sam Mitchell · Skeeter Smith~Steve Bedworth~Stuart Davis~Ti Barfield · Tom Aderhold~Tom Selman~Tom Williams~Trion · Winston Morriss · Robert and I went to Chastain Park yesterday. There is some major construction work in the middle of our path, and we had to illegally slip across it. It was sunny when we started, but rapidly getting darker as we progressed. Taking pictures is too much work. · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress · selah
Names
Alan Burnett~Bill Gaddy~Bill Medlock~Bill Meneely~Blaze Mills~Buddy Conine
Calvin Bunn~Danny Fields~David Chewning~David Hadden~Charlie Hall~Dwight Dunaway
Freeman Waldrop~Gary Hunton~Gene Haynes~Gene Holloway~Gibson Higgins~Glenn Krause
Greg Scott~Harold King~Hawk~Jerry Pyschka~Jim Anderson~Jim Ferguson
Jim Woodward~Joe Kenney~Joe Vickery~John Kelley~John Harllee~Jon Gordon
King Thackston~Larry Jackson~Layton Gregory~Lee Mullis~Les Friessen
Mac Wilson~Manfred Ibis~Mark Keenum~Mark Rosen~Martin Isganitus
Michael Dollins~Micheal Mason~Mike Perling~Moon Moore~O’Gene Donohue
Purl Sudds~Ron Davis~Sam Mitchell~Skeeter Smith~Steve Bedworth~Stuart Davis
Ti Barfield~Tom Aderhold~Tom Selman~Tom Williams~Trion~Winston Morriss
Andy Warhol And Frank Zappa
Andy Warhol Hosts Frank Zappa on His Cable TV Show, and Later Recalls, “I Hated Him More Than Ever” After the Show.” Andy had a public access cable tv show in New York. One of his guests was Frank Zappa. FZ talked a lot, while Andy was silently uncomfortable. A friend of Andy’s, Richard Berlin, did the interview. Mr. Berlin is possibly the brother of Warhol film actress Brigid Berlin.
The Andy Warhol Diaries has a few comments about the show. “… I hated Zappa even more than when it started. I remember when he was so mean to us when the Mothers of Invention played with the Velvet Underground—I think both at the trip, in L.A., and at the Fillmore in San Francisco. I hated him then and I still don’t like him.”
Jimmy Carl Black (The “Indian of the group” for the Mothers of Invention): “I don’t remember Zappa actually putting them down on stage, but he might have. He really disliked the band. For what reasons I really don’t know, except that they were junkies and Frank just couldn’t tolerate any kind of drugs. I know that I didn’t feel that way and neither did the rest of the Mothers. I thought that they were very good, especially Nico (whom I secretly fell in love with or was it lust?). I especially thought that Moe was a very good drummer, because in those days I don’t recall there being any other female drummers on the scene. The thinking of the audiences was completely different than those from New York City. They were lukewarmly received.”
“In 1965 The Trip opened at 8572 Sunset Boulevard right next to the towering Playboy Club building. The Trip was located in the former popular 60s jazz club called the Crescendo. There was a comedy club upstairs called the Interlude. … The Velvet Underground and Nico are the musical guests at a series of shows at The Trip nightclub on Sunset Strip in 1966, but it is their manager, Andy Warhol, who is the headliner with his outrageous, multi-media Exploding Plastic Inevitable Show.” …
“On May 3, 1966 I was serving drinks in the celebrity section at The Trip. Jane Fonda is seated and she orders a drink and I asked her for ID. She removes her sunglasses and says, Do you know who I am? … Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention are the opening act the first night. At the end of the set they receive a standing ovation and cheers from the audience.”
“The Exploding Plastic Inevitable Show started after The Velvet Underground played a couple of songs. … When your eyes adjusted to the manipulation of the light what you saw was an interaction between Nico and two men, one who carried a whip, the other chains. It was an illusion, I think, of sadism, not at all acceptable to peace loving hippies. … The EPI featured a mixed media orgy that included film loops, music by the Velvets, sadomasochistic dancing and an epileptic lightshow.”
“Before the first set was over people stared to walk out of the club. Cher said “It depressed me. It will replace nothing – except maybe suicide.” People were standing up at their tables, booing as they waited their turn to leave the club. The line for the second show circled the block but the customers leaving started warning people not to go in. They said the show was vulgar and violent. The line got smaller and smaller until only a handful of people remained.”
“The Buffalo Springfield is playing the Whisky A Go Go as the opening act and is free to leave at 12:45 am. They walk to The Trip in time to see the feature act. … The musicians are equally offended by the appearance of sexual violence and what they assumed was part of the Velvet Underground’s act. It was later that we realized that Andy is the creator of the act of violence. … There is more then one story about why on the third day of the New Yorker’s show, L.A. Sheriff’s officers closed The Trip.”
“The show was cancelled before the advertised end date of its run. According to Callie Angell “On May 12, the club was temporarily closed when Virgina Greenhouse, wife of one of the operators, sued to collect a $21,000 over-due promissory note, and a representative of the sheriff’s office delivered a writ of attachment to the club. Warhol and the Velvet Underground filed a claim for their fee with the local musicians’ union, and were forced to wait in Los Angeles for payment to arrive.” According to Bockris, the club was “closed down by the Sheriff’s office on their third day. The troupe stay in LA, hoping the club would re-open, and the musicians’ union said if they stayed in town for the (union rules) duration of their engagement they would have to be paid the complete fee. They used the time to continue recording the first album.”
The Trip, engagement was supposed to be May 3 -18, 1966, at least for EPI. The Mothers (not yet of Invention) headed north after the show. … “May 6-26, 1966 Frenchy’s House of BBQ, Hayward, CA (on the 21st they backed Neil Diamond who played a one night stand) … May 27-29, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium , San Francisco, CA (The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Supporting Velvet Underground & Nico) … June 3-4, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (supporting Quicksilver Messenger Service & The Grateful Dead) … June 24-25, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (supporting Lenny Bruce).” Lenny Bruce died August 3, 1966.
“The Exploding Plastic Inevitable arrived in San Francisco to play for two nights at BILL GRAHAM’s Fillmore Ball Room with the MOTHERS OF INVENTION and the early JEFFERSON AIRPLANE. The Warhol crowd hated the hippie culture of San Francisco. Bill Graham pulled the plug on the Velvets the second night when the band left the stage after leaning their instruments against the amplifiers creating a “barrage of sonic feedback”.
“John Cale: “In San Francisco, we played the Fillmore and no one liked us much. We put the guitars against the amps, turned up, played percussion and then split. Bill Graham came into the dressing room and said, “You owe me 20 more minutes.” I’d dropped a cymbal on Lou’s head and he was bleeding. “Is he hurt?” Graham said. “We’re not insured.””
“After the second night in San Francisco Gerard Malanga was arrested in an all night cafeteria in North Beach for carrying an offensive weapon (his whip) and spent the night in jail. … While In San Francisco, Lou Reed shot up some bad speed causing his joints to seize up and he was incorrectly diagnosed as having a terminal case of lupus. Upon their return to New York, Lou Reed checked into Beth Israel hospital with a serious case of hepatitis and had a six week course of treatment. Nico left for Ibiza while the rest of the Velvets started rehearsing for an upcoming June booking in Chicago – a one week stint at Poor Richard’s. ANGUS MACLISE returned as drummer and MAUREEN TUCKER switched to playing bass.”
The VU and The Mothers of Invention both recorded on the MGM/Verve label. According to some, this caused problems. “The band believed that Zappa used his clout to hold back their release in favor of his own album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out. “The problem [was] Frank Zappa and his manager, Herb Cohen,” said (Sterling) Morrison. “They sabotaged us in a number of ways, because they wanted to be the first with a freak release. And we were totally naive. We didn’t have a manager who would go to the record company every day and just drag the whole thing through production.” (John) Cale claimed that the band’s wealthy patron affected the label’s judgment. “Verve’s promotional department [took] the attitude, ‘Zero bucks for VU, because they’ve got Andy Warhol; let’s give all the bucks to Zappa.’”
“On October 23, 1967, in New York, singer Nico sang with The Velvet Underground. (This list of VU performances does not mention a show on that date) … Nico’s delivery of her material was very flat, deadpan, and expressionless, and she played as though all of her songs were dirges. She seemed as though she was trying to resurrect the ennui and decadence of Weimar, pre-Hitler Germany. Her icy, Nordic image also added to the detachment of her delivery. … In between sets, Frank Zappa got up from his seat and walked up on the stage and sat behind the keyboard of Nico’s B-3 organ. He proceeded to place his hands indiscriminately on the keyboard in a total, atonal fashion and screamed at the top of his lungs, doing a caricature of Nico’s set, the one he had just seen. The words to his impromptu song were the names of vegetables like broccolli, cabbage, asparagus… This “song” kept going for about a minute or so and then suddenly stopped. He walked off the stage and the show moved on. It was one of the greatest pieces of rock ‘n roll theater that I have ever seen.”
The Library of Congress furnished the pictures for this feature. This is a repost.
Empathy
This is a repost from the murky past. The college on N. Indian Creek Dr. is now known as “GSU Perimeter College – Clarkston Campus” The Watering Hole was torn down, and is now Top Express Car Wash. Abortion has been legalized, and re-criminalized. Atlanta still has a lot more Peachtrees than peach trees. … I walked down New Peachtree Road. This is Atlanta, where there are a couple of hundred roads named Peachtree. No one seems to mind that most of the peach farms are south of Macon. The peaches grow a lot better there. They fuzz comes in heavier, and the pits are pittier. … I was walking down the road in the rain, with a freight train going down the tracks. This is forty percent of the ingredients for the perfect country and western song.
When I was younger and drunker, there was a place on Clairmont Road called the Watering Hole. I would go there, drink beer, play pool, and have a good old time. As was the custom in such facilities, there was a jukebox. The patrons put money in the box and played the songs that they wanted to hear. A favorite was “you never even called me by my name.” There is a little spoken part, where David Allan Coe talks about the perfect country and western song. This song must talk about rain, Momma, trains, trucks, prison, and gettin’ drunk.
New Peachtree Road has this gravel yard where the eighteen wheelers come and go. There was a big rig backing into place when I walked by. A truck bumped into a trailer. I walked in the rain, between the train, and a big rig going bump against the trailer. The problem was, Mommas gone, I doesn’t get drunk, and prison is way too much work. So much for the perfect country and western song.
The songwriter is Steve Goodman. He gave a show at the Last Resort in Athens GA, that a friend of mine attended. Mr. Goodman tells a story about performing on a train, during a series of concerts supporting Hubert Humphrey. It seems like Mr. Goodman had to use the restroom on the train. Now, in those days, the trains did not use holding tanks, but just ejected the matter by the tracks as they rode by. Mr. Goodman was told, do not flush the commode while the train is in the station. Mr. Goodman forgot the instructions. Mr. Humphrey said ”I am going to give the people of this country what they deserve”, Mr. Goodman flushed the commode, and sprayed the crowd.
I told the Steve Goodman story another time. There was a comment. “Great to see your blog post that invokes Arlo Guthrie’s version of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans.” Goodman often doesn’t get his due. You might be interested in my 800-page biography, “Steve Goodman: Facing the Music.” The book delves deeply into the genesis and effects of “City of New Orleans,” and Arlo Guthrie is a key source among my 1,080 interviewees. The book also delves deeply into “You Never Even Call Me by My Name.” John Prine and David Allan Coe were key interviewees, and the book debunks the notion, promulgated by Coe, that Coe had anything to do with triggering the famous last verse of the song.
Finally, the Humphrey story actually stems from Goodman campaigning for Sen. Edmund Muskie in Florida in early 1972. You can find out more at my Internet site . Amazingly, the book’s first printing sold out in just eight months, all 5,000 copies, and a second printing of 5,000 is available now. It won a 2008 IPPY (Independent Publishers Association) silver medal for biography. If you’re not already familiar with the book, I hope you find it of interest. ‘Nuff said!”
Back to empathy for a minute. The word always takes me back to an auditorium in 1971. I was in my first quarter at Dekalb College. One of the selling points of college has always been the outside speakers that were brought to campus. This day, the subject was abortion.
A note on set and setting is appropriate. In 1971, New York state had legalized the procedure. Roe vs. Wade was in the pipeline that would lead to the Supreme Court. That ruling would not be issued for another fifteen months. In the meantime, abortion was illegal in 49 states, including Georgia. The debate about abortions was not as politicized as today. The nomenclature of pro-choice or pro-life had not entered the vocabulary.
The Vietnam war was still being fought, although with fewer Americans in combat. The withdrawal of US forces took most of the steam out of the anti war movement. The modern spectacle of a person supporting a war, while claiming to be pro life, did not happen.
I walked into the auditorium and found a seat. The lady began her presentation. After a few minutes of talk… she said something about a woman who was artificially inseminated with masturbated semen. The house lights were dimmed. A black and white film, of an abortion, was shown. It was noted when the fetus went into the vacuum cleaner attachment. The house lights were brought back up. They should have remained dim, as the woman was not kind on the eyes.
The closing part of her presentation was a song she wrote. She sang acapella. The song was written out of empathy with the not-to-be-born baby. The song was titled ” My mother My grave”. I left the auditorium, and went to world history class.
Natural Foods
I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
The best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.
If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
The easiest way to find something around the house is to buy a replacement.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
Life is sexually transmitted. It is always fatal.
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Health is merely the slowest possible rate a which one can die.
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
Some people are like Slinkies. Not good for anything,
but you still can’t help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days,
no one ever talks about seeing UFOs anymore?
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
In the 60’s, people took acid to make the world weird.
Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession.
I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say,
“I’m squeezing these dangly things here, and drinking whatever comes out?”
Who was the first person to say, “See that chicken there?
I’m eating the next thing that comes outta its bottom.”
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables,
then what is baby oil made from?
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Whales Of The City
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This is a repost from 2017. The events of the last seven years make “Tales of the City” look like Dick, Jane, and Sally … The plot lines in “Tales of the City” can be tough to figure out. The books have been *coming out* since 1978, which is several lifetimes ago. I read the first installment, Tales of the City, sometime in the eighties, thought it was fun, and went on about my way. At some point, I got copies of More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City. Significant Others turned up at a yard sale, with the step grandson rescuing the step grandpa at a radical women’s retreat. Good clean fun.
Babycakes and Sure of You, the last two books of the original series, will be discussed today. It can be tough to make sense of the plot. Michael Tolliver goes from the “Whore of Babylon” to model HIV+ citizen. Mary Ann goes from the naive Ohio girl to a popular TV personality. Mrs. Madrigal is Mrs. Madrigal, and San Francisco is San Francisco.
I found Babycakes in a box of free books at a faerie gathering. Merry part, merry meat again. BC is set early in the Reagan Presidency. Michael’s bf, Jon, died of AIDS in 1982. Michael goes to England, and runs into an old friend, Mona. It is a complicated, and tough to believe, story. You have to put away your skepticism, and go with the story. It is a good story, and fun to read. This is why I read.
Sure of You was the last book of the original series that I was sure I had not read. The library had it. SOY is set in 1988, and this is a key part of the story. AIDS is running wild. Michael has a pill box with a beeper. Everywhere you turn, men are dead and dying. I lived my version of 1988 in Georgia.
There were some interviews with Armistead Maupin during this era. He is very angry, and into outing celebrities. The name Tom Selleck was prominently mentioned. This anger shows up in SOY. Michael goes to a black tie reception with Mary Ann. A famous designer, who might be Calvin Klein, hits on Michael. There is an angry lecture about being in the closet. The improbability of Calvin Klein hitting on a plant store owner is not mentioned.
On page 107, the designer’s wife says something to Mary Ann about Ivana Trump. The TV personality wants to know what Mrs. Trump is like in real life. Thirty seven later, the late Ivana Trump is the ex wife/kidsmomma of the President of the United States elect. Maybe those plots were not as far fetched as what really happens. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Thanksgiving Story
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 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 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 are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
‘Rushed Into Things’
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I remember the moment I quit paying attention to TYT. A video showed a man shouting into the camera “If you don’t like being called racist, then quit being racist. How hard is that?” · … My problem with leftists has never been that people care about identity and want to consider the interests of minority groups. I care about lies, about cliqueishness, about bullying and ostracization, about excusing and running cover for cruelty under the guise of fighting for good. That has never been the sole property of “identitarians,” and as far as I always saw, TYT epitomized those qualities. … · This is a repost. · Later that night, a plane arrived in Washington. The tv cameras showed a gruesome looking man walk up to a microphone. He was introduced as President Lyndon Johnson. This may have been the worst moment of that day. · i just went out for my walk on the “outdoor treadmill” … a school cut through across the street … and workmen were cutting down a tree. I went on the street instead · australia, azalea, regalia, vidalia, bacchanalia, paraphernalia · This is a repost from 2019, before the world went into a spiral. · arcana spell check suggestions: canary, canard, narc, NASCAR · @The_Kyle_Mann Everyone remembers where they were the day CS Lewis died @chamblee54 I was in fourth grade. What really tore me up was Aldous Huxley. · ““Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” – Martin Luther King Jr. A facebook friend posted this quote. I felt pedantic, so I looked at Dr. King’s wikiquotes page. The quote does not appear there. @QuoteResearch · That moment when you listen a podcast from two weeks ago, and they have a breathless ad promoting the netflix livestream of Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. @deathsexmoney · “Derogated links to substink, I mean substack” · “cuz I tell people all the time what you don’t like a lot of time God will put that in your in your life to make you understand you what are” · “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” ~ Plato– This item is floating around. According to wikiquote wiki, “It is possible this a loose translation of the end of the “Defense” from the “Apology” … “what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth?” Another example of the genuine item being better than the meme. · “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” ~ Plato– This item is floating around. According to wikiquote wiki, “It is possible this a loose translation of the end of the “Defense” from the “Apology” · “And this, O men of Athens, is the truth and the whole truth; I have concealed nothing, I have dissembled nothing. And yet I know that this plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth? – this is the occasion and reason of their slander of me, as you will find out either in this or in any future inquiry.” · This is Plato’s account of the trial of Socrates. The response of the authorities to this late apology is to hand him a cup of hemlock, and say drink up. 2500 years later, the facebook response to this late apology is to pervert this phrase into another tacky meme. · The fact that the alleged crime, for which Socrates … remember not to say sew crates, which might actually be closer to his real handle than Socrates … gave his half hearted so called apology, or at least that is what Plato shared with us. · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress · selah
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The Day CS Lewis Died
It is a cold saturday before turkey day. Since I am too lazy to write fresh material, I will recycle. The product is a book report of Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, by Thomas Eugene Robbins. When you read TER, you start to think, which can cause trouble in both Little China and Big Muddy. Just editing a book report from five years ago can have that effect.
A note on context. A load of laundry is in the machine, and will require a maintenance visit. The good news is that the device is working properly, and the drain is sending all the water to the county, without leaving any overflow on the floor. Somewhere between 19 and 39 minutes from now, the load will be done, and it will be time to hang it to dry in the back yard.
The music in the background is by JS Bach. The internet archive is chock full of high quality music by the gentleman. I can go back to listening to more recent music when the time is right.
In the text, the word arcana appears. It should not surprise anyone that a text about TER will have the word arcana, which rhymes with banana and Savannah … jfc, I hit the cntrl button instead of shift when spelling Savannah, and google docs had a hissy fit because it thought I wanted voice typing, and this device does not have a microphone … arcana is not recognized by spell check. The suggestions are canary, canard, narc, NASCAR.
So, the post is finished and posted. On a good day, it will get a viewer. I am posting almost exclusively for my own enjoyment. A Dick Cavett guest once said that reading and masturbation were the only solitary pleasures, but he never wrote a blog.
It is now 2315, roughly 14 hours after I started this. I originally thought I would write and write and write, but now the get up and go has done got up and went. Maybe it was when I got in from hanging the laundry out to dry. I decided to go for my morning walk, and put a bottle of water in my bag. Unfortunately, the cap on the bottle wasn’t shut all the way, and about half the bottle wound up in my bag. I had to empty the bag, set half of the contents out to dry, and take the bag out to the clothes line to dry. That was the high point of the day.
@The_Kyle_Mann Everyone remembers where they were the day CS Lewis died @chamblee54 I was in fourth grade. What really tore me up was Aldous Huxley. … Aldous Huxley was tripping on acid when he met his maker. JFK was dreaming about having a quickie with this girl he was going to meet after lunch, while Jackie was getting her pillbox hat retooled. As for CS Lewis, it was really an allegory for Jesus getting offed on the cross. Some people just know how to have a good time.
Maybe a few notes more about HAIFP are in order. The first time I read HAIFP was early 1996. I was taking a break from smoking pot, and wondering if I was going to make it. After six weeks of misery, I was reading HAIFP one night. One character said, in the house of your mind, the pictures are all upside down. I walked over to a poster of Grace Jones, pulled the push pins out, and put it upside down. At that point, I realized that marijuana detox was going to work, but not until I finished my peanut butter and raw garlic sandwich. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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