Chamblee54

PG is a recovering Baptist. However, he was never baptized.
The Baptists like to pressure pre adolescent children into making a “Profession of Faith”. Every Sunday, the mob would sing “Just as I am” and the kids would walk down the aisle, shake the preachers hand, and be recruited into the Baptist way of life.
Every few weeks, the Church would fire up the Baptismal pool, and go to work. The house lights would dim, and the young Baptists were dunked in the pool.
A while back, the wiring was carelessly installed in a Baptist building. The Preacher was electrocuted when he used the microphone in the Baptismal Facility.
Now, the British have an answer. The Church of England goes for infant baptism, using the sprinkle on the noggin. This is too much for some, who object to the  indoctrination into the cult of Jesus Worship, made before a person is eating solid food. One answer is the “Certificate of Debaptism”
The certificate is the work of the National Secular Society , which suggests hanging it in the loo. The various churches involved thus far decline to remove the baptized from any church records. The certificate is purely symbolic.
The text above is a repost HT (for the original post) to JoeMyG-d. Pictures (with one obvious exception) are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The importance of baptism is questionable. To some , it is a big deal. In a society without an official state religion, there are few measurable benefits or penalties for being registered in a religious organization. The concept of baptism is essentially symbolic. It is usually practiced on children, often on infants. Many  adults realize that this children’s ritual no longer fits the person they are.
The National Secular Society has a web page about the efforts of people to make their de baptism official. Some of the stories are worth reading.
From Chris Taylor: After reading about other NSS members successfully managing to ‘de-baptise’ themselves I thought that I would give it a crack with the CofE mob. I emailed the diocese where I was dunked many years ago asking if I could be struck from the record as I have always thought it to be a load of old rubbish and said that if my parents had given me the choice of going through some sort of black magic voodoo ceremony performed by a probable child abuser in a dress I would, even at the age of 6 months, have said thanks but no thanks. I received a reply telling me that there was nothing that I could do about it. I replied asking again, suggesting that it would be easy, and a good christian deed (as these christers like to call it) to simply remove me from their register but it was to no avail. They replied again saying that it was just not possible and that I would just have to live with it. I would be interested to know if anyone has been successful with CofE as the RC lot seem to give different answers to different people. Maybe it depends on how god is feeling at the time!
Here is the reply sent by the Catholic Church, to someone who wanted to officially cut his ties :
If you have decided formally to renounce your Catholic faith, there is a simple procedure. You need to write to an official known as the diocesan chancellor for the area within which you were baptised. Give him as much detail as possible about where and when you were baptised, and briefly state the reasons why you wish no longer to be considered a member of the Catholic Church. Keep it factual and avoid anything that he might construe as aggressive or insulting to the Catholic religion.
A note will then be made in the baptismal register of the Church where you were baptised stating that you have formally renounced your membership of the Catholic Church. For all legal purposes, both in the law of the Church, and, where applicable, in civil law, you will no longer be considered a Catholic. It is not possible to cancel your baptism as such, since baptism is regarded by the Church as leaving an indelible mark on the soul, but of course, this will not concern you since you no longer believe in that.

Today is 3-14. It is a monday, and 314 are the first three digits of pi (affectionately known as π ). It is a math thing, the number you multiply a diameter by to get the circumference. When your grammar school math teacher told you about π, she probably used 3.14, or 3 1/7. ( PG went to school when Hewlett and Packard were still in the garage.)
You might also have heard the formula for the area of a circle, the racy π r squared . This means that you multiply π by the radius ( half the diameter, a line from the border to the center point), and then multiply the whole contraption by the radius again. The formula has a funny sound to it. Pie are not square, cornbread is square, pie are round. Like Sly Stone says, all the squares go home.
According to wikipedia, π seems to have been known as early as 1900 b.c. The pyramids of Egypt have a π based feature. The Greek letter π is the first letter of the Greek word περίμετρος (perimeter) . This was determined OTP.
The pyramid- π function is fairly simple. The total length of the four sides, at the base, will be the same as the height of the pyramid, times two, times π. PG likes to make model pyramids. They are 6″ tall, and the base sides are 9 3/8″. The combination of these four sides is 37 1/2″. If you multiply 6x2x3.14, you get 37.68″ The .18″ is because of a measuring error.
A lady named Eve Astrid Andersson has a page of her website dedicated to π. The only trivia question that PG understood was the first one…1. What is the formal definition of pi? …the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter // 3.14159 // the radius of a unit circle // the surface area of a sphere of diameter 22/7 // a delicious dessert, especially if it contains cherries.
There is the football cheer from M.I.T. ” Cosine, secant, tangent, sine 3.14159 // Integral, radical, u dv, slipstick, slide rule, MIT!”
In 1998 a movie titled π was released. It caused brain damage in 3.14% of those who saw it. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that 1998 = 666 x 3.
π has been calculated to over five million digits. The second part of this feature are a few of those numbers. There are 82 characters in each line. This feature shows π extended to 10,165 digits. This is .02% of five million. The pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” .

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PG was trying to learn how to use a drawing program. Then he got to…”The text, stored as a text object, needs to be converted to a path object for editing. This process is not reversible and the text will lose its memory of being text.” It was time to get out of the house.
It was the second sunday of march, and spring was fixin to break out in Georgia. PG and Uzi had planned to go down to Piedmont Park, and it was now or…later. The slack lifestyle gets out of hand. Ok, put your shoes on, and meet by the Target.
Uzi had a detour on the way downtown. There was a furniture store across from Target called “the dump”. Bette Davis is not involved. The idea is to call it a discount store, and then charge high prices regardless. Uzi saw what he needed to see, and the pair moved on.
Turning onto the parking street, there were lots of lots of cars. Suddenly, an SUV moved out of a prime spot. PG turned around, and took over the spot. Clean living has subtle rewards.
The attaction in the park was a “play in the park” event, with jugglers, gymnasts, and other assorted fun seekers. After a sunny walk around the top of the playing fields, PG followed the drum circle beat to the activities. (did that bastard take a picture of me?) It was fun to stand and watch.
After a while, it was time for dinner. Uzi wanted to go to the Colonade. He assured PG that it would only be a couple of dollars more expensive that Piccadilly. It turned out to be more like double the cost, even when you order water. PG got a chicken steak, which covered his plate, and was fine.
In the checkout line, the discussion turned to venerable restaurants in town. PG said something about Pilgreens, mentioned that he never ate there, and saw the jaw drop on the checkout lady. It turns out that Pilgreens burned to the ground years ago, and was never rebuilt.

Whenever you discuss Jack Kerouac, there is a quote by Truman Capote that gets mentioned. “That’s not writing, that’s typing”. PG thought a trip to Google city would help to show a bit of context on that quote. The first page of results, only, rule will be enforced here. The context of the original remains a mystery. ( Hey, maybe someone else made it up, and said that Capote said it. The ladies who lunch are not that clever, but Capote had big ears.)
There is a review of Going Rogue with the title, “That’s not writing, that’s someone else typing”. The nit picker has the audacity to say that the P lady gave a ghostwriter some tapes, and went off to hunt endangered species. A commenter observes “at some point in her book tour, someone will ask her a question that she won’t be able to answer because she won’t be familiar with what’s in her own book.” This post advertises downloading audio books, and copping grant money.
The Chicago Reader advertises teeth whitening chemicals with the post “That’s Not Writing, It’s Typing” It seems that someone is trashing today’s internet generation, with it’s tweets and blogs that say nothing, by comparing them to the product of Jack Kerouac. The money quote: “Kerouac survives because he (allegedly) wrote great works; the insufferable logorrhea the Beats inspired biodegrades in niche bookstores because, sensibly, nobody reads it. The Web makes things worse only in the sense that it democratically preserves the crap alongside the genius. Even more so than libraries!”
You probably know what is coming next. Yes, there is a blog titled That’s Not Writing, That’s Typing . It is written in Australia, and last had a post in 2007. The next to last post was about a trip to Dubai, and has a picture of a large hookah.
The results are a bit better at Writingortyping . It has been updated in 2011, and the lady knows how to write. Here is an example: “Overheard at our house, French steampunk edition… September 30, 2010 By Jill… Me: “So remember that trailer of that French steampunk film I showed you earlier this year?” John: “Yeah – I think so.” Me: “Well, apparently it was only in theatres on limited release and isn’t on DVD in the States at all.” John: “So, New York and L.A. basically.” Me: “Yeah probably.” John: “And Northern Maine.”
There are two sites for Truman Capote quotes They do not provide any more information about this quote, other than to repeat it. Mr. Capote was a clever man, who would be a challenge for Mr. Kerouac in a drinking contest. Mr. Capote also said “Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad.” Brainy quotes sells digital speed plans and blackberries. There are links to quotes from “your favorite authors”, including Marilyn Monroe, Buddha, and Muhammad Ali.
The top result for *the phrase* is perhaps the most true to the style of Mr. Kerouac. It was written 27 days before 911 by Jonah Goldberg, of all people. He is trying to make it to a wedding, where he will play the underrated role of groom. He wants to get his dress shoes before he leaves town, because asking for “black loafers” in a Montana truck stop might lead to unexpected adventure. Being a thoughtful conservative, he makes the case that government intervention makes poor people poorer. The piece is written in a deadline driven frenzy, with jokes about black loafers and Truman Capote. The header ad is for Grove City College, and the Wall Street Journal.

This is the PG notes edition of Satori in Paris by Jack Kerouac. The slim volume was published in 1966, and has a drawing of the Eiffel Tower on the cover. The idea is to read a chapter, and record the reaction. The pictures in part one are from The Library of Congress. The pictures were made between 1861 and 1865, and document the War Between the States.
1- Jean-Lous Lebris de Kerouac is the full name of the author. There is supplemental punctuation for the last name, which may or may not find it’s way into digital manifestation. The best way to use foreign punctuation is to find it somewhere and copy it into your text. The best way to use this name, for our purposes, is to call him Kerouac. If the spirit is there, a mister may be added. The other real name in this first paragraph is Raymond Baillet, the cabdriver who delivered the satori of the title.
The first impulse was to call this man Jack. This is such a versatile word. Money, masturbation, and car lifting devices are all referenced by this name. When the book was published, the cash cow of the tabloid press was Jackie Kennedy, soon to be Jackie O. Her husband was also a Jack, until it became inconvenient keep him in office. He was hi jacked, or maybe low jacked.
2- The copy of SIP that PG works with is old, produced in the fifth printing of the book. ( How appropos of the drunken Kerouac to have a fifth printing.) It was owned by a man who is now deceased. When he quit living, a friend cleaned out his apartment, and some of his books wound up in a box. This box went from the apartment to a van, where it remains to this day. One afternoon, PG helped his friend move a chair into this van. To make room for the chair, the box of books had to come out. PG looked through this box, found SIP, and decided to read it.
This uneven storage, over a period of 45 years, has worked a hardship on the glue that binds the pages. The sheet of chapter 2 is now loose, and can be picked up, waved, examined up close, and inserted upside down in the book. This does not help this chapter any. It is two paragraphs long, and ends by mentioning adults who don’t like to look in a mirror if they are insane.
3- What about Mr. K? It is short and to the point. K is a great letter, used for a thousand and a strikeout. Mr. K might have enjoyed Special K. When you talk about a person like Mr. K, who was at once the king of the beatniks, and got a headache from the crown, a faux hip expression like Mr. K might or might not be appropos. As we get further into this venture we can make further adjustments.
Chapter 3 is about the arrival of Mr. K in Paris. We will be looking for clues when the action takes place, but there is an indication here that it was the early sixties. He mentions the landing going off “without a georgia hitch”. On June 3,1962 , a Boeing 707 crashed at Orly Airport, with 130 fatalities. Most of those on the plane were part of a Museum tour of Europe, from Atlanta GA. PG saw the TV reports, with a list of the dead scrolling down the screen. Malcolm X said that it was a gift from G-d.
4- Mr. K gets adjusted to life in Paris. He goes to a spectacular church, and spends the night with a lady he met in a gangster bar. The lady wants to marry Mr. K, but that is not going to happen.





5- Mr. K gave the lady from the gangster bar $120, which was real money in 1962. She tried to call him at the pension, and he let the pederast desk clerk shoo her away. Mr. K is going to get drunk now instead of having sex.
The english language is full of oddities. The concept of calling a small hotel a pension is one of them. What does a reduced salary for your old age have to do with a little hotel in Europe? PG stayed at a place in Berlin once, that his fellow traveler “P” said was a pension. One morning, PG took over the breakfast room, and watched German music videos on tv. One had Adolf Hitler moving his hand in front of his face, and someone put a toothbrush in that hand, so he was brushing his teeth while making an inflammatory speech.
One problem with working on a computer is the distractions. An email just came in, announcing a comment at Chamblee54. This is usually cause for celebration. However, this was a spam announcement, from some kind of weight loss blog. The comment was about a post titled “fat tuesday”, which is understandably fodder for the weight loss industry. The only problem is, the post about Fat Tuesday was taken down a couple of days ago. It was about Mardi Gras, and a few memories that Georgia boi PG has about Carnival. It was posted on the Tuesday a WEEK BEFORE MARDI GRAS. Like we said, PG is a Georgia boi that does not know much about Carnival, such as the day that it occurs in 2011. He quietly took the post down, only to be reminded of his mistake by a spammonger at weightlossnetworks dot com.
6- The pages are starting to stay glued into the book by now, and PG is determined to be careful and not have any more fall out. This might not be possible while telling the story of Mr. K. It might be a symbol of his life, that the pages fell out of the binding. In chapter 6, he goes looking for the perfect bar, and a policeman points it out to him. He chats up various ladies, meets one who likes him, and then gets drunk and forgets about her. The pension is asking him to leave, but he is on a mission. He is determined to find the history of his family, whose motto is Love Suffer And Work . The next part of the sentence is “you dumb old bourgeois bag”, which is either a part of the motto, an ad slogan for a purse, or none of the above.
7- The original mission for this trip is to do research on the Kerouac family. He goes to a fancy library, and the lady tells him that the Germans burned all the papers when they were visiting. Mr. K takes a timeout to go to a bar, drink, and tell women they are beautiful. This doesn’t work out, so he sits at a sidewalk cafe and watches Paris ride by.
So it is a couple of days later, and facebook says it is the birthday of Mr. K . PG’s mother was born on July 23 of the same year, in Memphis TN. Her mother was from Washington GA, and her father from Paragould AR. 1922 was a different world from 2011.
Anyway, PG decides that the bd of Mr. K would make a dandy day to post the first installment of this rendering. We still don’t have a title, and a handle that would attract the attention of google would be hip. Or elbow, or ass, PG gets those body parts mixed up sometimes.
It is a lovely pre spring day in Chamblee GA, sun pouring in through the windows, a mug of coffee on the table, basketball on the tv, files of african american union soldiers streaming over the intercom… does life get any better? PG knows the answer to that, and is in steadfast denial, but then it could always be worse. Stream of consciousness is more fun to write than it is to read.
The next file to come through…these are big files, and you can do a lot of writing between clicks to download another one…is titled “Child named Carl who became a soldier; with handwritten note and lock of hair in case”. The note is legible and heartbreaking, even though this is a yankee we are talking about. “my beloved son Carl taken from me on April 1, 185 at age 18 killed at (unintelligible). In another week or so, the south surrendered, and the war was over.
8- In this chapter, Mr. K takes an Arab girl to a musical performance, goes to a bar, and leaves before a fight breaks out. There are a few paragraphs that are just a few words long, and they tell the bulk of the story. “I teach her Christianity…I just don’t know…You’re kidding…Paris is a rough town”. The page threatens to fall out of the book, but with gentle persuasion stays in place.
We now have a working title for this effort. Typing With Mr. K. You can’t talk about Jack Kerouac without mentioning the quote by Truman Capote. “That’s not writing, thats typing.” Mr. K was more butch than Mr. Capote.
9- This is a short chapter that does not advance the plot. Mr. K remembers his grammar school teacher, who went on to be a nun in New Mexico. How did this happen, or is it nun of my business? So, Miss Dineen, as she was known in the pre Sister Mary days, wrote that Jack and his sister were friendly children with unusual charm. Miss Dineen was told that the K kids were descended from French aristocracy. She believed. Later, Jack became a drunk, “Because I like ecstasy of the mind.”
10- The supertitle here is ( Strange Chapter) Below this is a thin line, stretching from border to border. Then there is a space, and then 10., with a period, centered in between the top line and it’s twin line, stretching border to border one space below the 10. This is the format used for all 38 chapters. There was not an ink shortage when this 5th printing was produced.
Mr. K is searching for the National Library, so he can research his family. The gendarme gave Mr. K bad instructions, and he got lost. While he is wandering, some men in uniforms give him unwanted attention, but do not arrest him. Finally, Mr. K goes into a bar, and the bartender gives him accurate directions to the Library.

Visitors to this blog (thank you one and all!) quickly notice the historic pictures. They come from two primary sources at this time. This are The Library of Congress and ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
PG learned about the LOC collection by reading Shorpy , where the slogans are ” e pluribus pablum/ always something interesting”. There is a header ad for Levis today. The GSU collection is featured at Atlanta Time Machine. Both sites can steal hours of your time.
The LOC collection that PG mines is the “Prints and Photographs” collection of the overall Library of Congress. At last count there were 67 groups in this collection, with more added from time to time. One of the better new collections is the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs . It is a collection of framed portraits of soldiers from the recent unpleasantness.
The pictures at the GSU library are from two primary sources. They are the Lane Brothers Photographers Collections and the Tracy O’Neal Collections. Regarding the Lane Brothers: “The Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection consists of about 258,100 (196,800 4×5 inch and 61,300 2 1/2 inch) acetate negatives which are housed in 43,486 envelopes. The collection spans the years 1920 to 1976 with the bulk of the negatives dating from 1939 to 1975. Some of the images are copy negatives of photographs which date as early as 1864. The envelopes are organized into six series (1) Corporate bodies, (2) Geographic places, (3) Events, (4) Portraits, (5) Things, and (6) Miscellaneous-sized negatives.
The collection consists of photographic negatives and prints of the Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers (Atlanta, Ga.) and its predecessor the Lane Brothers Photo News Service from ca. 1920-1976. Early materials (1920’s-1939) include glass plate negatives and photographs taken by Jack Lane and his brother W.C. Lane as freelance photographers for the Atlanta News, other newspapers, and wire services. “
“The Tracy W. O’Neal Collection consists of about 31,500 4×5 inch acetate negatives which are housed in 10,814 envelopes. The collection spans the years 1923 to 1975 with the bulk of the negatives dating from 1950 to 1974. Some of the images are copy negatives of photographs which date as early as 1889. The envelopes are arranged chronologically by year, then alphabetically within each year.”
Each picture has its own web address. When you view a picture at Chamblee54, hold the mouse over the picture for a minute, and a number will be shown. This number can be used to look for more information about the picture. Typically, when the picture is processed for blog use, an x is added to the end of the number. ( If more than one detail is used from a picture, there will be an extra letter after the x. Typically, this is xa, xb, xc and so forth. Also, some LOC numbers are used for more than one image, and xa xb xc is used to distinguish between the images.) If you are looking for more information about the pictures, you should disregard the x, and any letters after the x.
For the LOC pictures, it is fairly simple. Enter the number in the search engine field, and click go. For the GSU pictures, it is different. The number is a code. Take picture LBCB023-113ax. LB stands for Lane Brothers. CB is corporate bodies. The drawing is in box 023, and envelope 113, and is picture a. The x indicates that this picture has been processed for blog use.
Most of the Lane Brothers categories are self explanatory. Geographic Places ( GP, no kin to PG) has Named Streets (NS), Facilities (F), and Outside Atlanta (OA). Portraits are indicated by P. Events are a bit trickier. LBCE is corporate events, with the E at the end. There are Person events (LBPE), Movie Premieres (LBMPE), and others. The last two are things (LBT) and miscellaneous (LBSCB and a few others). The system can be confusing.
In blessed contrast, the O’Neal Collection is signified by an N, followed by a box number and envelope number. N10-67b is O’Neal, box 10, envelope 67, picture b.
Many of the images in the LOC are public domain. There is a note on each page about the copyright status, along with the message that “Rights assessment is your responsibility”. (This is in red letters.)
One of the more popular collections is the Farm Service Administration / Office of War Information. This was a Government sponsored program to document American life during the Depression, and later during World War Two. It produced the famous image known as “Migrant Mother”. The majority of these pictures are public domain. According to the rights and restrictions page, “Most photographs in this collection were taken by photographers working for the U.S. Government. Work by the U.S. Government is not eligible for copyright protection (see page 5 of the Copyright Office’s Circular 1, “Copyright Basics”).”
The photographs in the GSU library are owned by the library, and some restrictions apply to their use. For information about use of these pictures, contact archives@gsu.edu.

An Atlanta Blogger named Mingaling put up a post the other day about a new challenge, 30 days of lists. It is now the eleventh of March, so the month is one third gone. Maybe we can get a post or two out of this… Celebrities to appear at Northlake Mall when PG worked for the Mall… Ginger Rogers , the Budweiser Clydesdales... Power adapters plugged into the power strip on the desk… modem, router, cell phone, speakers.. Items on desk top…Computer box, monitor, speakers, router, usb wire,and modem…empty box with monitor on top… pad of deposit slips…black #2 pencil, red pencil, black inkpen…pocket knife…piece of marble broken into a triangle…kitchen timer…spoon, empty glass (on coaster), empty bowl…notebook, old envelopes with notes on the back … Last things watched on tv…Super Bowl, something before that… Comedians seen at Great Southeast Music Hall… Martin Mull, Steve Martin, Billy Krystal… Cars owned… chevy nova, vw van, datsun 510, ford fairlane, plymouth satellite, Oldsmobile delta 88, datsun, ford truck, nissan, oldsmobile century, honda accord … jobs involving food…Dipper Dan at Lenox square, Harry Barrron’s at Phipps Plaza…. Blogs that have banned Chamblee54…Fido, Pyromaniacs, Centurion, Neo Prodigy, Purgatorio (Providing links is too much work for this.) …Downstairs neighbors while living in duplex…. Linda Mills, Steve Lackey, Gordon Oeming, John Humphries, Ray Deacon, Ron Clevinger, Kevin Brown, Rob MacGrogan, Robert Deck, Kitty Wilson… Most of these involved households, with more than one person living there. Six had dogs, often with unpleasant results. One of those last names is made up. .. Architecture/ Engineering firms where PG has represented blueprint companies…John Portman, Turner, Carlsten, Newcombe and Boyd, HESM, LAS… Teachers in eight grade…Coach Stubbs (science), Mrs. Ollinger(math), Mrs. Geist(study hall), Mrs. Bartow(english), Coach Casteel(gym), C.D. Puett (Georgia History)… Anchor stores at Buford Clairmont mall/outlet square/plaza fiesta…Woolco, Burlington Coat Factory …Pictures for this are from The Library of Congress. They were taken by Dorethea Lange for the Farm Service Administration.

The post below went up three years ago. It deals with a publicity stunt from the Catholic church, an updated seven deadly sins. The statute of limitations may have run out on this message. The traditional  “seven deadly sins” were anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
The site linked above has a page, the seven deadly sins of Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi. The subcontinental fashion icon lists Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Science without Humanity, Knowledge without Character, Politics without Principle, Commerce without Morality, and Worship without Sacrifice.
After 1,500 years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization. The list, published yesterday in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularized world” and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession. The new deadly sins include polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice. HT to Fox News .( aka the eighth deadly sin.)
One reaction is to wonder, what language was used for the list? Phrases like “obscenely rich” and “causing social injustice” can mean different things, and one wonders about the nuance behind the original expression. Now, Just about all of these “sins” can merit comments. Maybe the Catholic church is thinking of moving its headquarters to hell.
polluting We can talk about something where all have sinned, or who should throw the first stone. If you ride in a car, wear synthetic fibers, through away anything, use a less than perfect sewer system (or a functioning one on a rainy day with overflows), then you have polluted.
genetic engineering Here again, there are semantics galore. Much of the food we eat is tweaked  by genetic breeding. This is something Euros get twitchy about, that doesn’t concern most Americans.
being obscenely rich This is one to wonder what the original Italian said. Compared to much of the world, a 900sf house is a palace. However, compared to many of the neighbors, it is lower middle class. Perhaps the emphasis should be on greed, selfishness, and how you gain this wealth. The tenth commandment says something about coveting. It is the forgotten commandment.
drug dealing Is there a distinction between legal and illegal drugs here? If you go by the damage that substances cause, then this rule will speak to bartenders and the clerk who sells cigarettes. Not to mention the media outlets who advertise cigarettes and beer, the legislators who condone these substances while prosecuting potheads, and a whole host of others. The legally based war on drugs is a disaster in this country. Do we really need to drag the Catholic church into it?
abortion. If Mary had gotten an abortion, would Christians worship a vacuum cleaner? Seriously, the Catholic Corporation has flogged this donkey, to great profit, for years. If you don’t want abortions, promote contraception and adoption. Catholics should find another gimmick.
pedophilia When you up pedophile in the dictionary, you see a picture of a Catholic priest.
causing social injustice Can we have a better translation of this?

This bonus repost is also from early march 2008. BHO was winning the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and the skeletons were coming out of the closet. As the struggle went on, BHO threw Jeremiah Wright under the bus, and got elected.
YouTube is an impediment to work. I was going to write some clever words to go with these pictures, but I looked at some videos first. All I wanted was the embed gibberish so I could show them to you, but YouTube has more videos. The only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it.
I am glad I got to see the videos of Jeremiah Wright. Friday I was hearing the tapes of him on the radio, and it was most discouraging. When I saw the video, I realized that he was just a loudmouth.
I worked for 6 years with a professional Jesus Worshiper. He was selfish, hateful, vulgar and loud. He frequently directed this anger at me. He used Jesus to hurt me, often over trivial matters. His voice sounded a lot like Mr. Wright’s.
Once, this Professional Jesus Worshiper shouted me down, and humiliated me, in the name of Jesus. When he was through, he picked up the telephone and told his friend ” I never felt better in my life”. People like that, and Jeremiah Wright, bring shame to Jesus.
One thing I learned while working with the Professional Jesus Worshiper was the importance of the audience. These hatemongers do not just talk to themselves. They need an audience. These audiences enable these poison spewers. To pray with a loudmouth who shames Jesus is morally equivalent to buying whiskey for an alcoholic. Barack Obama is that audience. (spell check suggestions: Barrack, Bareback, Barabbas, Alabama)
Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

This is a rendering of Cat’s Cradle. Parts one, two, three, four, five , six, seven, and eight are previously published. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. They were taken by Dorethea Lange for the Farm Service Administration in 1937 and 1938.
114-when I felt the bullet enter my heart The business of disposing of Papa Lorenzo’s remains was postponed for a little while. Ambassador Horlick Minton, the husband of the lady who indexes, was set to give a speech. The ambassador threw away his prepared text, and spoke of the futility and cruelty of war. He recited a poem from “Spoon River Anthology”, a book that PG read in tenth grade english. This was 1969, the year of the Vietnam War Moratorium. A massive protest was held in Washington, and in high schools around america, students who opposed the war wore ( which is how you say war with a southern accent, the waw wuh is ovah) black armbands. In the english class where “Spoon River Anthology” was studied, the teacher told the one girl wearing an armband to take it off. She refused, and was sent to talk to the principal.
115-as it happened After the speech by the Ambassador, the celebrants went to see the military display. The only trouble was, one of the planes was malfunctioning. It crashed into the base of the castle, destroying the foundation of the castle (the building, not Julian and Philip Castle), and sending most of the people at the ceremony into the ocean. It was a bit like 911, except there was no hijackers, only a plane engine that was not working. Or maybe it was intentional, and Kurt Vonnegut was the mastermind of 911.
116- the grand ah whoom Somehow, John, Frank, and the Crosby’s are spared the fate of the castle, to fall into the ocean. The remains of Papa Lorenzo goes hurtling into space, and into the water below. As Papa goes, so goes the Ice-Nine in the room. Suddenly, the ocean is frozen, and the sky is full of worms. Wendy’s will be making a lot of hamburgers that afternoon.
117-sanctuary John and Mona found a hidden chamber that had been outfitted for emergencies. They were there, as the rest of the people at the castle descended into chaos. The word sanctuary has had many meanings over the years. Not all of them have been evident to the casual observer. In his first quarter of college, PG had an English 101 professor, who was an admirer of William Faulkner. It seems that a woman said to Mr. Faulkner that she had read “Sanctuary” four times and did not understand it. Mr. Faulkner said to read it a fifth time.
118-the iron maiden and the oubliette In their dungeon hideaway, John and Mona are alone from humanity. The radio does not work. Tornadoes are whipping the earth above them. John wants to screw Mona, but she is afraid of becoming Pregnant. And the book of Bokonon is consulted, and the first thing it says is to close this book, it is full of lies.
119-mona thanks me After a few days in the dungeon, John and Mona climb out into the world. It does not appear to be very hospitable. When PG was a kid, we assumed that the Russians were going to drop the bomb on us. Many people built fallout shelters, so they could live underground until the radiation faded enough to come out. The only problem was, what were you going to do then.
120-to whom it may concern John and Mona go exploring, and find a lot of corpses. It seems like Bokonon came across all these people, waiting for him to deliver them, and he told them to eat ice nine and die. This was thirty years before the jonestown kool aid party. No only was Bokonon a prophet, he didn’t have to worry what flavor of kool aid to use. When you ask google “what flavor kool aid did they use at jonestown?”, you get 6,300 results. It turns out that the magic potion was flavor aid, a cheap imitation of kool aid. The flavor used was grape.
121-I am slow to answer Mona looks at all the frozen bodies, thinks it is cool, and kills herself. John then steps into a taxi, along with H. Lowe and Hazel Crosby, and Newt Hoenikker. The appearance of the cab is one of those plot devices that does not make sense. This is near the end of the book, and it makes less and less sense all the time. Mr. Vonnegut has been quoted as giving three of his novels a grade of A+. Those are Cats Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, and Mother Night. Slaughterhouse is the best known of his books, and was made into a movie, thus becoming the most profitable book of the Vonnegut archive. It is said that when a young author cops a contract to publish a book, 95% of the people he tells about it will say “Will they make a movie of it?”.
122-the swiss family robinson John, the Crosbys, and the Hoenikker brothers settle into an idyllic lifestyle. Everything they could want has been frozen, and need only be thawed out. Being swiss does not mean they have been sliced into sheets with large holes.
123-of mice and men This book is essentially over. PG has read through to the end. The five remaining humans on the island are never rescued. How the manuscript of John’s book got to New York is a mystery, along with the cab that worked after the ice nine catastrophe. There are a lot of questions at this stage, such as, what was PG thinking when he thought doing a rendering of this book was a good idea? Of course, writers block is a cruel inmate, and this concept may be in for another go round. Maybe a chapter by chapter rendering of the Bible will keep the Jesus worshipers amused. PG was once told, by a professional Jesus worshiper, that “you are nothing but the devil”. Actually, he heard that more than one time, from the same professional Jesus worshiper. If, as some say, PG is the devil, then it might be his duty to do a chapter by chapter on the magic book of.
124-frank’s ant farm Frank has built an ant farm, and watches it intently. Cable tv does not reach the island anymore, and the ant farm is the only live entertainment. Frank says the ants work well together because they cooperate. PG thinks that cooperate is French for “shut up and do it my way”.
125-the tasmanians Errol Flynn was from Tasmania. When he was a child, he tied a piece of fat onto a string. The fat was fed to a goose, who immediately eliminated it. The piece of fat was fed to another goose, while still tied to the string that ran through goose number one. The second goose eliminated the fat, while keeping the string going through his body. The process was continued until several geese were thus connected by a string.
126-soft pipes, play on John and Newt Hoenikker consider going to the top of Mount McCabe, and leaving a symbol on top. At first it was going to be an American Flag, but the seamstress was sewing on six pointed stars, and it did not seem right. John could not think of what would be a proper symbol to leave on top of the mountain. This is the reason PG never got a tattoo. He could not think of an image that he wanted to be permanently connected to his body.
127-the end This is the last chapter of Cats Cradle. We still don’t know John’s last name. We still don’t know how the manuscript gets to New York, much less the five caucasians still on the island. We still don’t know what the Americans and the Russians do with their ice nine supply. The rumors that the collapse of the castle, and the subsequent contamination of the region with ice nine, the rumors that this was a cia sponsored test of the capacity of ice nine…we don’t have the answer to that either. Mainly because PG just made that up. We do know that Bokonon (spell check suggestions: Boondocks, Nabokov, Beckon) makes a guest appearance in the last chapter, and talks about killing himself. But this is the end. Jim Morrison was 16 when this story was set, and probably had never heard about Bokonon. This is the end. The killer awoke before dawn…

A while back, an ad copywriter named Greg Rutter put out a list of 99 things you should see on the internet. Chamblee 54 wrote a a four part series about this phenomenon. Sometime later, Mr. Rutter put out Greg Rutter’s Second Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re A Loser or Old or Something. PG is going to take a look at this.
After looking at 11 of the suggestions, PG has decided that Mr. Rutter has very low standards. Most of these are from youtube, and many are not that amusing, educational, or inspiring. The first entry on the list ( which is not in any sort of order) is http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/. This is an animated musical, with badgers, a snake, and a mushroom. Maybe Mr. Rutter is kept in the dark and is fed animal waste.
Number 11 is fun, and is the first one PG wants to bookmark. Texts from last night. should deliver hours of fun … I found a horn on the street but it’s okay I disinfected it with vodka // I got lit on fire and andy went to jail last night. Totally unrelated incidents though. // You know, I had the money for a pregnancy test, but at the time, tacos were more important. // He could tell i had a fever by feeling my tits. He gets docter of the year. // Now accepting hypotheses about how i managed to get a bruise between my boobs…. This site has three ads for Groupon on the front page.
The concept was for PG to visit all 99 spots on the list, and report back. Ninety nine bottles of this on the internet, ninety nine bottles of this. Take one done, pass it around, ninety eight bottles of this. Ninety eight bottles of… you get the idea. A couple of years ago it provided enough matter to populate four posts. The only problem is the spam guard computers are on a rampage, and “99 things” has been deemed unworthy. This web page at http://www.youshouldhavealsoseenthis.com has been reported as an attack page and has been blocked based on your security preferences.
These are strange days in the internet security sphere. This site, chamblee54 , was suspended last night for a terms of service violation. An attack of the automated anti-spam controls. It seems as though the digital servants are turning on the vacuum tube masters. As for 99 things, there is no shortage of places to look online for cheap thrills and expensive education.

PG stared out at the gray sky, and thought that the sunday before mardi gras might be the most depressing day of the year. A cd was playing, a promotional device recorded at an ATT convention once. Bjork sang “Gloomy Sunday“. The ever cheerful PG has an idea for a repost . Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
Billie Holiday had a hit with”Gloomy Sunday”in 1941. The legend is that people would listen to the song, and kill themselves. As a result,  the song was banned from the radio. Or was it?
“Gloomy Sunday” was written in 1933 by Rezső Seress. Additional lyrics were later written by László Jávor. It became known as the ” Hungarian Suicide Song”, and was reportedly banned in Hungary. An english translation ( which is said to not do justice to the original Hungarian) was rendered.
The song has a melancholy sound, even as an instrumental. The story is about a person…it is not gender specific…who decides to join a loved one who has died. A third verse was added, to the english version, where the singer says it was all a dream.
The song became popular in the United States. And the suicide stories started to spread, along with rumors that the song had been banned from the radio. ( It was indeed banned by the BBC) There are indications that these rumors were part of a publicity campaign.
The urban legend busters Snopes calls the story “undetermined”. Legends like this get a life of their own. A grieving person hearing this song on a dreary Sunday is not going to be uplifted. One thing is known for sure…the original composer did take his own life. Rezső Seress jumped off a tall building in Budapest in 1968. The legend is he had never had another hit song after writing “Gloomy Sunday”.

There is a bit of instant wisdom floating around facebook…”Charlie Sheen 45, is all over the news because he’s a celebrity drug addict. While Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25 are all soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention. Honor THEM instead by re-posting this status” This brings to mind the sign in stores, “all credit cards honored”.
As some have noted, Charlie Sheen in in the news this week. The publicity given him does not make the problems of substance use and human abuse any less painful. Just like ignoring those servicemen will not end “Operation Enduring Freedom”.
The Virtual Warriors’ Walk has this report. “Spc. Andrew C. Wilfahrt, 31, of Rosemount, Minn., died Feb. 27, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 504th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.”
Minnesota Public Radio has an interview with his mother. It is noted that Spc. Wilfahrt was gay, and went back into the closet so he could serve his country.
The Department of Defense reports on Brian Tabada. “The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Brian Tabada, 21, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Feb. 27, in Konar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire and a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.”
Syracuse.com has the story of Rudolph Hizon. “Spc. Rudolph R. Hizon, 22, of Los Angeles, Ca., was killed Feb. 28, in Logar province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “ A netflix popup ad went along with this notice.
Waronterrornews reports on two more deaths. ” The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Feb. 28, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Chauncy R. Mays, 25, of Cookville, Texas. Spc. Christopher G. Stark, 22, of Monett, Mo. They were assigned to the 63rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion, 20th Support Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. “
All five of these men died in Afghanistan. There is no indication when we will have exacted sufficient revenge for 911, and bring our troops home. There are few reports in our media of the names of Afghanis who have made the ultimate sacrifice in this conflict.
The media, mainstream and conservative, has had few reports on drone attacks. These unmanned aircraft fly over Afghanistan, and supposedly neutral Pakistan, and dispatch death to those on the ground. Some of the dead are insurgents, some are Al Queda, and some are women and children. The media has reported almost no names of people killed in drone attacks.
The pictures for this report are from The Library of Congress.