Chamblee54

The text below is a repost. Allen Ginsberg would be 85 today, if nature had not made other plans in 1997. There is going to be a Howlfest tonight. Rumor has it that PG will create a disturbance by reading Howl 2011.It should be a festive evening.
Writerspot, in addition to some exercises that PG abuses, a selected author of the month. Today, it is Allen Ginsberg. When going to the inevitable website, PG learned that Peter Orlovsky died May 30, 2010. Mr. Orlovsky was the longtime lover of Mr. Ginsberg. Clearly, it was time to hit the keyboard.
Allen Ginsberg had a part in many new age dramas, with a few musicals and comedies thrown in for good measure. Hippie, beatnik, gay, artist, peace promoter, Buddhist convert…these are a few of the labels. He became famous for being famous, well known to people who never read a word of his poems. Two of the more famous were howl and kaddish.
Howl became scandalous in 1956 when it was busted for obscenity. It is mild by today’s standards, but almost landed Mr. Ginsberg in prison. PG heard about howl in the early nineties, and looked high and low for a copy. He could not find one. Today on the internet, not only is the print widely available, there are recordings of Mr. Ginsberg reading his work.
The original plan was to listen to Mr. Ginsberg read while editing photos. PG was going to listen to the words, and think of something to say while listening to the bard. About the seventeenth time Mr. Ginsberg shouted “Moloch”, the plan began to fall apart.
The next poem was Kaddish. This is about Naomi Ginsberg, the mother of the poet, who evidently had some issues. This was tough for PG to listen to. The other night, PG had a disturbing dream about his own late mother. In this dream, a fearsome shouter came in wearing a black suit, which meant that he intended to do some scary shouting. PG went into another room, where his recently deceased mother was laying on a table.
In the aftermath of his mother’s passing, PG worked closely with an aggressive Jesus worshiper, who enjoyed humiliation for Jesus. This person declared war on PG, when asked to turn his radio down. PG feels like Jesus let him down, and finds it difficult to forgive the so called son of G-d.
1956 was the year of the obscenity trial for howl. This took place on the other side of america, from the Brookhaven where PG was two years old. This was the year when his brother was born, the year when the Georgia legislature voted in a new flag, for whatever reason. In 1955, President Eisenhower had a heart attack. Many wondered if it was a good idea to have Richard Nixon as the vice president.
Finally, PG could stand no more of that voice. The player was turned off, the files stored on an external hard drive, never to be heard again. PG just is not a poetry person. The pictures, edited while listening to Allen Ginsberg in performance, are from the ” Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

The tweet came from @blogcontrol a few minutes ago…600 words on anthony weiner by 420 or ur toast. PG takes messages like that seriously. The internet is full of comments about Anthony David Weiner at the moment. Alledgedly he sent an inappropriate tweet to a young lady in Seattle. One person who has not contributed a sound bite is the mohel who performed the procedure on young Mr. Weiner. PG thought that, with google and free long distance, maybe he could have a word or two with the gentleman. He might have more answers than Mr. Weiner does in this interview.
The top result for “who is Anthony Weiner’s mohel?” was a comment at Huffington Post by KennebunkportIndependent, who said ““That was removed by a mohel on the 8th day.” The second result was a snide discussion of a proposed ban on circumcision in San Francisco .
The third, and fifth, results are for Dr. Anthony Weiner MD who practices psychiatry in Medford, MA. His page has an ad for the Moen Banbury Showerhead, available at Home Depot. While visiting his website, you can visit these pages: How Injections Help Schizophrenia, 10 Facts About Schizophrenia, and Have a Crisis Plan for Schizophrenia.
The fourth result was posted August 24th, 2005 at the Canonist , and it is a doozie. PG does not claim to understand the issues that this post addresses. He has heard lurid stories about versions of the Bris Mila that involve a ritual fellatio, and some complications that have arisen. We are going to copy this post in it’s entirety.
The Mayor, The Mohel, And The Weiner I’ve got a story coming out in tomorrow’s Forward about the latest in the herpes mohel situation, with updates on the development of the case and how it has become an election issue. It seems the dailies have done a poor job of explaining exactly what’s happened: New York City’s Department of Health has obtained a temporary restraining order barring Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer from performing metzitzah b’feh; they are, according to Rabbi David Zwiebel of Agudath Israel, pursuing a permanent restraining order. There’ll be more details in the story.
The biggest revelation, however, is that Democratic mayoral candidate Congressman Anthony Weiner  is with the Satmars on this one: “It is not the place of the department of health to be deciding on a religious practice,” he told me, adding “I am troubled, based on the facts of this case, about whether or not the city has overreached here.”
Result number six if from the funlovers at Free Republic . “Weiner’s rep today said was the work of a hacker… I believe the correct term is “mohel”. The next five results are repeats of Dr. Weiner, the San Francisco story, and the New York story.
Result number twelve is a comment thread from 03-02-11 ( Evidently, Mr. Weiner has made a spectacle of himself for quite a while now. PG lives in Cynthia McKinney’s old district, and is reluctant to throw stones.) “Wiener is a fraud. I have a feeling when Weiner’s weiner was circumcised, that the mohel might have taken too much off-the-top and now wee weiner Weiner is compensating with his mouth. Megyn Kelly has him on because he’s a putz who’s easy to rile. He’s a fucking zhid drama queen.” ( Rachel Maddow asks Mr. Weiner if the organ belongs to him. At 4:25, he says ” I wish”.)
At the end of google page one, there is no information about the mohel who did Anthony Weiner. The congressman was born in 1964, and the odds are good that the man in question is retired or deceased. Pictures for this story are from The Library of Congress

As we started to discuss the other day, PG is reading I Remember Margaret Mitchell by Yolande Gwin. It starts with August 11, 1949. Margaret Mitchell, known to her friends as Peggy Marsh, went to to see “A Canterbury Tale” at the Peachtree Art Theater. She left her apartment on Piedmont Avenue, accompanied by her husband John. They parked across the street, and Mrs. Marsh was struck by a taxi, driven by Hugh D. Gravitt. She died August 16,1949.
This story contradicts what PG heard about the accident. The other story is that Mrs. Marsh had been at the Atlanta Women’s Club, having cocktails, where her husband met her. In this account, Mrs. Marsh was bombed, and never knew what hit her. ( One mile away, and fifty five years later, PG had an encounter with a speeding taxi. His story has a happier ending.)
On page 23, another myth is challenged. The traditional story is that if you asked Margaret Mitchell if she based Scarlet O’Hara on herself, she would look horrified, and say “Scarlet O’Hara was a hussy”. This view is challenged by an Atlanta native, who went to a party, and saw that Margaret Mitchell was the life of the party. The Atlanta native said her father “Scarlet O’Hara is certainly the personification of Margaret Mitchell”.
Margaret Mitchell was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal. She married John Marsh on July 4, 1925, and injured her ankle in 1926. Every day Mr. Marsh brought home books to his bedridden wife. One day, he brought home a writing pad, and said “You have read everything I’ve brought you so now you write a book.”
The couple lived in a small apartment on Crescent Avenue, across from a mural of a southern colonel. (He said, I would even go north for Southern Bread.) They moved out of “the dump”, in 1932, to an apartment at 4 17th Street. When Peggy sold a few books, and John’s career at Georgia Power prospered, they moved to the Della Manta. This was at the corner of Piedmont and South Prado, across from her beloved Piedmont Driving Club.
Mrs. Marsh wrote and wrote, preferring a typewriter to a writing pad. Each chapter was kept in a manila envelope, which were piled up all over the place. Some chapters were re written sixty times. In 1935, Harold Latham, of MacMillan Publishers, was in the south looking for talent. He persuaded Mrs. Marsh to let him look at her book, and would not give it back to her.
The title of her book was borrowed from a poem by Ernest Dawson, Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae . The line of the poem was “I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, (spell check suggestion: Canary) in my fashion; I forgot much Cynara, Gone With The Wind!”
The book became a runaway best seller. Macy’s of New York helped by ordering 50,000 copies. The idea was to offer GWTW as a loss leader, as Gimbels was doing. Federal price controls ruled this to be illegal, and Macy’s returned 35,000 copies to the publisher.
The first printing of GWTW has a mistake on the back page. The book was published June 30, 1936. The first edition says, on back of the title page, “Published May 1939”.
David Selznick bought the rights to GWTW, and you probably know the rest of that story. Shortly before the premiere of GWTW, someone at the Piedmont Driving Club pulled a chair out from under Mrs. Marsh. She had not started to stand up. Mrs. Marsh  crashed hard on the floor, and hurt her back. This would require two rounds of back surgery.
Celestine Sibley tells a story about the Atlanta Women’s Press Club. Miss Sibley moved to Atlanta in 1941, and went to her first AWPC meeting, at the Henry Grady Hotel. “A plump little woman in a funny Carmen Miranda style hat” noticed the newcomer, and started to talk to her. In the early days of the war, there were blackouts, to save the city from German bombers. The plump little woman was an air raid warden in the area around Piedmont Park. Finally, Miss Sibley said she had to go catch the Piedmont-Morningside bus. Peggy Marsh said she had a car, and could take her home.
Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

Chamblee54 is normally a profanity free blog. However, for this piece, certain cuss words are essential to the free flow of information. In other words IF YOU DON’T LIKE CUSS WORDS, YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ THE TEXT.
This text is going to be gender insensitive and use the male form throughout. Just remember, when you read he, it also means she and it. Or, she it. Those from the south will enjoy that last comment.
Recently, a radio whiner referred to a study, that said that one third of all people were not qualified to have opinions. This was said before a commercial break, without saying why this percentage should be without opinions. Possible reasons would be lack of education, inability to think critically, or a disturbing tendency to disagree with the person doing the study.
When it comes to opinions about opinions, there are several classic lines. There is the crowd pleaser “opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got theirs”.
This is missing the mark. Opinions have more in common with the shit that comes out of an asshole. Feces is the product of  food  fed into the digestive system. Opinions are the result of information (and misinformation) fed into the thought system. Doodoo is influenced by the digestive system,  like opinions are influenced by the attitudes, and thought patterns, of the individual. They all stink.
Another golden oldie is “Four Jews, Five opinions”. The numbers in the formula change from time to time, but that is the basic concept. There is also “You are entitled to your opinion”. This is usually said when you disagree with what you have just heard.
When the Supreme Court issues a ruling on a case, It is called an Opinion. Sometimes, a justice will write a dissenting opinion. When getting an insurance company to pay for a procedure, you often need to get a second opinion.
Opinions are frequently more valued by the giver than by the receiver. Some opinions are best kept to the owner. You should be wary of someone who feels that his shit does not stink, because he will usually feel the same about his opinions.
Opinions are seldom humble, no matter what the owner of the opinion might say. In fact, the act of holding an opinion is often self aggrandizing, and contrary to humility.
You don’t have to have an opinion about everything. Many things are beyond or control, or do not interest you. Also, you should be wary of those who try to “fire up” your opinions. Often these people do not have the best of motives.
Opinions are seen as a way of asserting ones individuality. Many people have lives of quiet desperation, full of struggle and turmoil. There are many situations where what the individual thinks is simply useless to the powers that be. In times like this, having opinions can restore a sense of self worth to the individual. I am somebody. I have my opinion.
The commentary above is a repost . It goes along with the recent two part episode on the dodgy subject of truth. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These men fought in the War Between the States. Pictures one, two, seven, and eight (from top to bottom) are Confederates. Pictures three through six are Union soldiers.

PG is reading I Remember Margaret Mitchell by Yolande Gwin. It is a collection of memories of Peggy Marsh, who wrote “Gone with the Wind”. ( If you didn’t know that, just close this window, and go look for your “friends” on facebook.)
Yolande Gwin was for many years the society editor of the Atlanta Constitution. She wrote a review of GWTW in 1936, before it’s publication. Mrs. Marsh sent her a letter of appreciation… “I never dreamed you were going to give me so much space. I thought, as the resume of the story was so long. that you’d just give an introductory paragraph and let me ride. And I’d have ridden, just as happy as a n—-r at a hog killing. But all that space, so long a story. so completely flattering a story – well. I’m still blushing about the ankles, as Jurgen once remarked … And oh, Yolande. how nice of you to refer to me as a “young author!” Me, who have passed the broiling stage and the frying stage and am rapidly approaching the roasting and baking stage. “
There is probably going to be a second post about I Remember Margaret Mitchell. Chamblee54 is not responsible for GWTW junkies who overdose on Margaret Mitchell trivia. This post is about fact checking, google, and how a couple of simple questions can turn into an all afternoon goose chase.
There are two basic questions: Was Yolande Gwin married, and did she work for the Journal or the Constitution? As for the first, the expression Ms. sounds like a mosquito with a speech impediment, and is not appropriate for use with an society page writer. The trouble is, Miss or Mrs. depends on the marital status of the woman. After an hour or so of looking up google results, PG cannot find out whether or not Yolande Gwin was married. Sometimes, the correct answer is “I don’t know”.
As for the second, an obituary for the lady says that she wrote for the Journal-Constitution for fifty years. The fact is, the Journal and Constitution were competing papers until they were combined in 1982. ( Cox Enterprises bought the Constitution in 1950, making them sister papers rather than competitors.) As for who Yolande Gwin wrote for, there are contradictory stories on the internet. A google book about rural electrification says that Yolande Gwin wrote for the Constitution, and that is good enough for PG. (The Atlanta History Center says the Yolande Gwin wrote for the Journal. They have a picture of the lady, with a ghastly AHC watermark across her face.)
Another google book, The last linotype: the story of Georgia and its newspapers since World War II By Millard B. Grimes confirms that Yolande Gwin worked for the Constitution. “”One day I was sitting there looking at a blank sheet of paper; I didn’t have any news. And that’s when I happened to remember kidding Peggy (Margaret Mitchell) about writing the “Great American Novel.” so I called her up and said, ‘How about that Great American Novel. have you ever finished it? I need some news.’ She said, ‘You won’t believe it, but Macmillan has taken it.’ And I said, ‘Goody, goody. Grand.’ And I put a piece in the column (written under the name Sally Forth) about it, never expecting it to be what it was, you know.” The dale was February 9, 1936.”
One more google result links to a fishwrapper story about Real Housewives of Atlanta . A commenter named Beatrice P. says Yolande Gwin is turning over in her grave! The pictures (except for Yolande Gwin) are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

I think we’re having a misunderstanding about what I mean by emotional truth aka “your truth.” It’s a new concept for me too. When PG copied this phrase, it was one left click away from a google search. This yielded 688 results. This is the same number as a rock’nroll club on Spring Street. One block over, on West Peachtree Street, 688 is a Catholic Construction Services office.
On this sunday morning before memorial day, it seems like a good idea to pursue some of these links. Maybe someone in result one through ten has the answer, or even can articulate the question. The first link is a lady who is under pressure. The second is about truth in game design.
The third link made PG stop, if only for a minute. Some guy named Jeffy is promoting a book called Get Laid or Die Trying . He has a video, of him speaking to one person, in a hotel conference room. There is a quote from Tupak Shakur about players and bitches. PG gets the impression that Jeffy is selfish and manipulative. At the end, the book gets one more plug… “Hate to be such an annoying ass (not really), but if you haven’t got a copy of the book yet, get it today. It’s really good! I swear! Excellent coffee table book and perfect for the bathroom.
The me me me meme gets a further workout in Saying “Yes” to Me … The Business End Of Things . The money quote:”Many of you read my chapter titled “Say ‘Yes’ to Me” in last year’s best-seller, Speaking Your Truth: Courageous Stories from Inspiring Women. When I wrote that chapter, I felt as if the very foundations of my life had shifted. I wrote that I knew that there would be ripple effects, but didn’t know what. Well, now I know!”
A Reality Sandwich is for people who cannot afford a drug burger. One of the most commented on stories  is “Lady Gaga: The Visionary Rebirth of the Divine Mother Monster”. The linked feature deals with flying saucers. “Carl Jung recognized that the flying saucer as an archetype represented a development in the collective Psyche — and the round shape of the UFO, like the circular form of most crop circles, made it a symbol of psychic wholeness. “
Naked Hunger talks about a woman who wants to lose weight. Nobody said that “my truth” was going to interest anyone except me! “In the dieting framework, our desire for food becomes the enemy – there to tempt us and thwart our efforts to be healthy and thin. We enter into a war we will never, I repeat never, win: woman against her appetite.”
World Rewrite is “Just another Fractal Computers Network site.” It uses a WordPress template identical to the one used by Your Body of Wisdom. This is another person who is greatly impressed by self. “I live inside the cave of crystals and I am turned inside out, but the people here who are still living all have separate illusions, so to one I’ll be a lover and the other a killer. That is just what happens when you reconfigure the field or take another name, your perception of it all continues to reflect to great extremes. So everyone’s your lover, everyone’s your friend, everyone has motives, everyone pretends.”
Returning to the Ancient Paths is the last site we will explore today, and the only one to quote the Bible. “For your grace is there before my eyes, and I live my life by your truth. Psalms 26:3 Here we can see that the author of the psalm used a hebrew linguistic resource called Synthetic Parallelism, meaning that the idea in the first part of a line/verse (grace) is expanded or developed into a fuller thought in the second part of a line (truth) or another verse. So we can interpret that as the Truth is an expanded thought of Grace. Awesome!”.
Pictures for today are from The Library of Congress

Monday is the observance of Memorial Day. According the invaluable Wikipedia, this holiday began as Decoration Day. It was intended to honor the soldiers who died in the Union Army during the War Between the States. It was expanded after World War I to honor casualties of any war or military action. Today, Memorial Day is the start of summer. It is a time of great merriment.
The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter. It is likely that the friendship of General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth. General Logan had been impressed by the way the South honored their dead with a special day and decided the Union needed a similar day.”
In the South, Confederate Memorial Day was observed. The day chosen was April 26. On April 26, 1865, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union General William T. Sherman. The question arises, does modern Memorial Day honor the Confederate soldiers who died?
Before we get too far along, we should say out loud that slavery was not a good idea. It was terrible for the African Americans. It was backwards economically, and dragged the South into a war which damaged it for many years post bellum. The War Between the States had several causes, slavery being one of the important ones. Once the Union won the war, this is the cause that the history books mentioned. Many of the men who fought for the Confederacy did not own slaves. The slaveowners were a dirty bunch. They enslaved the Black people, and got the poor whites to fight in their war.
There is this problem in history of the soldiers who died fighting for the losing side. We do owe our freedoms and way of life to the soldiers who sacrificed in battle. But what to make of these Confederate soldiers who died so their rich neighbors could keep their slaves? They are just as brave as the Union troops, often fighting with less food, weapons and clothing.
The modern side to this dilemma is the Vietnam Vet. Often drafted, sent to fight a war which few wanted, these brave soldiers have been dumped on. While the war did not end well, they are every bit as valiant as those who fought in other conflicts. When (and if) the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, it is hoped that the troops who served there will be treated with honor.
The text today is a repost. Confederate Memorial Day was remembered in a post last month. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

PG found himself mixed up in a facebook discussion on the murkey subject of “truth”. The last comment on this journey started “I think we’re having a misunderstanding about what I mean by emotional truth aka “your truth.” It’s a new concept for me too.” The more PG thought, the more he saw to write about. The pictures today are by PG, and were taken March 17, 2011. Some of those people are not what they appear to be.
In the interest of narrowing down the subject, we will focus today on a site called Literally Unbelievable. (HT to dangerousminds) It seems like some people see stories at The Onion, and do not realize that they are joking. These people go on facebook, and make the darndest comments.
The first issue we will tackle today involves this story: Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex . The facility is in Topeka KS, which is convenient for the Westboro Baptist crowd. Apparently, some people think this is real . “Please tell me this is NOT true! America, please wake up!!! Killing babies is NOT normal! They will give pedicures to the moms after their abortion! Federally funded and all! so sad!!!” “Omg! And in the, Biblebelt no less! I became nauseous after reading this! I am appalled!!!!! The last part of article validate my thoughts. Now, women as well as men do not have to take responsibilities for preventing pregnancies. Just go to the plex.”
Other onionoids taken seriously include a state department official, Nelson Milstrand , forced to resign after saying Israel was not perfect. A google search for this link shows that not only facebookers were fooled by this item. Antony Loewenstein quotes the story verbatim. My Posting Career posts the quote under a header ad, ” Protect peace in the middle east, show your support for Israel, click here”. There was a commenter there...”The Onion makes me want to vomit. More jewgenda being thrown in our faces. I know what most jews will probably think after reading this. Since the onion made a funny about it, that means in reality, :juden: only fires people when they are raving lunatic anti-semite nazis! See, isnt it silly to even think that a jew would fire some good gentile like Nelson Milstrand? Golly gee, the onion is soooo funny. ”
This is going on the same week that Mr. Netanyahu gave a speech before congress. He referred to the Bible, and said this book gave Israel ownership of some disputed territories. Some say the Bible is the inerrant word of G-d. The representatives gave Mr. Netanyahu 29 standing ovations during his speech. Is the word truth obsolete?
There is one more reply to the search for Nelson Milstrand. A blog with the u challenged name of niqnaq prints the onion story. In the comments is a quote from Elie Wiesel.. “Some stories are true that never happened.. That goes along with the concept that life is bad fiction.

PG recently got a message email about the second amendment. It starts off like this:
A true story: A single woman heard a burglar breaking in her back door…when the police arrived they found the woman raped with her throat cut lying across a bloody bed!… IF THIS WOMAN HAD HAD A 20 GAUGE SHOTGUN, LOADED AND SHE WAS SITTING ON THE END OF HER BED, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN THE LAST DOOR THAT BURGLAR KICKED IN!!!!
You can read the rest of the message here .
Andrew Sullivan tells a different story today.
As the SWAT team forced its way into his home, [Jose] Guerena, a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, armed himself with his AR-15 rifle and told his wife and son to hide in a closet. As the officers entered, Guerena confronted them from the far end of a long, dark hallway. The police opened fire, releasing more than 70 rounds in about 7 seconds, at least 60 of which struck Guerena. He was pronounced dead a little over an hour later.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department initially claimed Guerena fired his weapon at the SWAT team. They now acknowledge that not only did he not fire, the safety on his gun was still activated when he was killed. Guerena had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress

This is a double repost from this time three years ago. It was a simpler time. America was struggling with a choice between BHO and JSM. Sarah Palin was taking care of a newborn baby. Radio whiner Herman Cain said that the MET TRICKS of the economy were good. The money meltdown did not take place until September. PG had moved Chamblee54 to wordpress in February of 2008, and was posting up a storm by late May.
PG and his neighbor DA went out to drink beer and shoot pool. The destination ,the Watering Hole, used to be a veterans of foreign wars. There was a TV repair store next door. When the county legalized bars, the VFW went somewhere else, and the Watering Hole was born. The TV repair store became the game room. You could see on the floor where the counter used to be.
This was a weeknight. One of the few other customers was a gentleman who was already past his limit. The drunk was fussing at the bartender about something when PG and DA walked in.
PG got lucky and hit a good shot on the pool table. He got a bit cocky and said And now for my next trick The drunk staggered into the game room, and lay down on an empty pool table. DA replied Is that your next trick?
Before long, it was time to go home. As PG and DA were leaving, the drunk was arguing with the bartender. He wanted to buy a twelve pack to take home with him. He won the argument, and started walking up Clairmont Road with his prize.
PG got a block or so away from the place, when he realized what was going on. He turned around, and saw the drunk sitting in front of a seven eleven store. He was sitting on the curb drinking a beer.
PG drove in front of him and stopped the car. DA got out, walked over to the curb, picked up the eleven pack, and walked over to the car with it. The drunk stood up and yelled obscenities as the car pulled off into the night.

There is a man known as XWinger. He sells Celtic music, promotes DimSum groups, and has a blog.
Once at his place I saw a link to a site that tells you what the Number One song was on that day. The arbiter of number oneness is Billboard Magazine .
The List goes back to 1892. On January 1, 1892, the #1 hit was “Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill” by George J. Gaskin. I imagine that before a certain date this would refer to sheet music, or maybe player piano thingies. Other big hits from the Gay Nineties include “The Fatal Wedding” (1894, George J. Gaskin), “Little Alabama Coon” (1895. Len Spencer) and ” A Hot Time in the Old Town”(1897, Dan Quinn).
When my daddy was born in 1916, the top hit was “M-O-T-H-E-R ( A Word that Means So Much to Me) by Henry Burr. When mother was born in 1922, the big hit was “Stumbling” by Paul Whiteman.
In October 1929, the stock market crashed to “Am I Blue” by Ethel Waters. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the big song was “Chattanooga Choo Choo” by Glenn Miller. Mr. Miller joined the Army after the start of the War, and toured with a band to entertain troops. On December 15, 1944, his plane disappeared in France. The number one hit that day was “I’m Making Believe” by the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald. The Ink Spots played at the Domino Lounge downtown when I was a kid. The shows were advertised on the radio, and people said “the Ink Spots have been around for a while”.
In 1954, this reporter was born. The number one hit that day was “Wanted” by Perry Como. Two years later, my brother was born to the sounds of “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley.
One way to track the hits through the years is to pick a date and follow it. It should be noted that Billboard is the essence of “commercial”. On my tenth birthday, the big sound was “Hello Dolly” by Louis Armstrong. On the verge of the summer of Love, the big hit was “Something Stupid” by Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra. At no time in early May did the Beatles have a number one hit. This lack of hipness was  compensated in 1969 with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by the Fifth Dimension.
The seventies continued the commercial tradition with “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night. This was in 1971, the year they played a big show at Atlanta Stadium. The disco monster raised its glittering hand with “Night Fever”, by the Bee Gees in 1978.
As the eighties rolled in, I got a job and apartment, and music became less familiar. The first big May hit of the eighties was “Call Me” by Blondie. It was from a movie starring Richard Gere. The movie did not feature gerbils. The decayed decade was not a total loss, as 1983 had “Beat It” by Michael Jackson.
Moving into the nineties and oughts, my old fogey decrepitude is near total. Or is that the wasteland of pop music? By this time top 40 is all but extinct, am radio given over to all talk stations, and fm music so spread out that no one style of music is dominant. The number one hit on my birthday this year is “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis.
Of course, the leaders of our country don’t always listen. On May 28, 1915, the biggest song was “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier” by the Peerless Quartet. And, in 1964 on this day, the number one hit was “Love Me Do” by the Beatles.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

PG recently read Star Island , by Carl Hiaasen. (The name is pronounced h AY ah s ih n ) As always, it is a wild ride, the story of a girl who likes to perform. She also has a taste for getting high. Hobby number two interferes with vocation number one, and the gravy train riders are concerned.
There is a stand in for the performer. She is a young lady who looks a lot like “Cherish”, and plays the part when “gastritis” attacks force the singer out of action. A photographer covets action shots, and kidnaps what he thinks is the wayward singer. It eventually gets untangled, but the de weaving of the plot makes for hilarious reading.
Sometimes life imitates art. Back when PG was working for Redo Blue, there was a driver named Cherish. The driver wound up posing for a porn magazine.
Getting back to the story, readers of Mr. Hiaasen are familiar with his formula. There is a male hero, who has been forced out of his career in disgrace. He defends and befriends a pretty young female, who is in a world of trouble. About two thirds of the way through the story, the male hero sleeps with the pretty young female.
This plot device gets a new twist. The male hero is a part of the “maggot mob”, the photographers who prey on inebriated celebrities. The behavior, in this book, gives paparazzi a bad name. There is a female in distress, but she is a look alike for another female, who is in more serious trouble. As for the fooling around, it is a one time thing early in the book. No one believes the photographer.
Mr. Hiaasen is known for his weirdos. The legend is that he doesn’t make anything up, but tones down the reality he observes. As for the freaks in this story, it is tough to imagine a more far out version. The new bodyguard for the singer is six foot nine, and has a weed wacker for a prosthetic hand. The only person he is afraid of is the former Governor of Florida. He wears a shower curtain, eats road kill, and lives in a swamp. PG thinks he will stay in Atlanta.