chamblee54

At about 1:30, PG called Uzi, and said to meet behind the waffle house. Today, the sunday walk was going to be in East Atlanta.
PG was true to form in making a wrong turn on the freeway, forcing a drive down Spring Street to North Avenue. There was little traffic, and soon the men were on Moreland, crossing I 20, and making that weird turn off Moreland onto Flat Shoals.
The East Atlanta shopping district is not very big. It can be covered on foot in a few minutes. There are plenty of unused buildings, and former parking lots with a fence in front. The transitionality of the neighborhood is a work in progress.
There are plenty of places to get a drink in East Atlanta. While PG was taking pictures of graffiti on the side of the Earl, Uzi said that he never did care to be in a bar on Sunday afternoon. PG thought back to his drinking days and agreed. Sundays are for riding bikes, hiking, watching football, but not to be spent inside with cigarette smoking drunks.
On the way back to the car, Uzi saw a tree stump in a vacant lot. He decided to count the rings on the stump. By his reckoning, the tree was 130 years old when it was murdered. There was some serious fighting in this area during the War between the States. This would have been 144 years ago, or before the tree was planted.
There was once a fill in band leader on the Tonight show named Tommy Newsome. Johnny Carson made comments about Mr. Newsome going to Central Park, and taking charisma lessons from a tree stump. The stump in East Atlanta is utterly lacking in charisma. It was not in Central Park forty years ago. Reports of local musicians taking charisma lessons from this tree stump are not to be believed.

There is a twelve foot tall statue of Tom Watson in front of the steps to the Georgia State Capital It is on the west side, looking at Central Avenue and Atlanta City Hall.
Mr. Watson is a curious figure. At first a populist who supported the right of freed slaves to vote, he became a rabble rousing anti semite and anti catholic. His publications called for the reorganization of the Ku Klux Klan. During the imprisonment of Leo Frank, he said “The next Jew who does what Frank did, is going to get exactly the same thing that we give to Negro rapists.” Mr. Frank was later abducted from jail and hung from a tree in Marietta, near the site of the Big Chicken.
The green metal likeness of Mr. Watson, with his left armed raised in rhetorical combat, has seen many things over the years. Today, there was a rally for the right of same sex couples to marry. The expression on the statue did not change during the event. One suspects that the anti catholic crusader would have been amused by the call for the church to mind its own business.
The rally was a happy, friendly event. There have been reports of racial unrest at previous prop 8 rallies, but that was not seen by this reporter. In fact, the best costume of the day was worn by a black lady. Another black lady spoke, and said “we are not fighting hate, we are fighting ignorance.”
There was a bulldog in the crowd, who was not camera shy. It was noted that very few people have pet yellow jackets. The dog’s owner did not understand this comment.
Spell check suggestions for this feature:
semite- smite

PG– Good Morning
Poovis Widget– Good Morning to you, sir
PG– how is Gnarlene?
PW– mean as ever. lord, i don’t know what it takes to make her happy
PG– well, what do you expect. she married you
PW– yea, but you do what you have to do
PG– I always think of you too when i hear that gays can’t marry. Lord knows, enough do, it is just to females who play the role of beard
PW–well, this one is dangerously close to getting shaved
PG– so, what do you think of this whole prop 8 mess
PW– this is what you can expect from lawyers and supreme courts. things were fine and dandy until some lawyer with too much time filed a suit so some queens could marry each other. As many fag hags as they have in california, you would think that would not be necessary. Just marry a woman that will play the game, and keep your mouth shut
PG– dude, telling a queen to keep her mouth shut is dangerous business. What galls me is the backlash from this after the election. Anyone with any sense could have told you that prop 8 was going to pass. There has been a lot of finger pointing, and the whole thing is so unpleasant.
PW– people just have to play the blame game
PG–so, they had this rally in los angeles after the election. Some of the bois were upset about prop 8 passing, and there were some reports of the bois shouting the n word
PW– what would that be, nail polish
PG– no, the other n word. you know, the six letter one that refers to african americans.
PW– oh that one. so some folks said the n word at a rally. What happened next
PG– word got out in the blogs about this rally. When the news got to some hot heads in the south, the thing had blown up into a glorified klan rally. i think  about the people at the rally who were not shouting race slurs, but got tagged as bigots because they were in the same crowd as a few people who don’t know when to shut up.
PW– you know, these things happen. When you go talking about racism, it is best to look in the mirror and see who is doing the talking.
PG–so, there is going to be a rally at the state capitol tomorrow about this prop 8 business. how do you feel about meeting up and going down there.
PW– that might be hot. maybe we could out later and have some real fun
PG– thats the spirit. I am sure Gnarlene would understand. They will have reruns of “The real housewives of Atlanta” on tomorrow.
PW– Yes, Gnarly is hooked on that show. She was so upset when that fundraising party turned out to be a flop.
PG– so, getting back to the rally at the capitol, there are going to be some people in costume. That should add a festive touch to the day.
PW–I know what I want to do. I am going to wear a bedsheet and pointed hat, and be a klansman. If we are going to have a glorified klan rally, then I want to dress the part.
PG– dude, i wonder about you sometimes.

The novel PG is writing is now known as “ The Confessions of Gnarlene Widget. This is more commercial than “ Novel with No Plot”. The role model is “Trout Fishing in America”. When PG runs out of things to say, he reads a bit in TFIA, and is inspired.
The next chapter is a little story that takes two pages and change to tell. Some people were going camping, and looking for a good place. While on the road they pass a parade. The parade was a shepherd who looks like Adolph Hitler, only friendly. Following him were a thousand sheep, three horses and a wagon. The sheep left organic souvenirs, lots of them.
The campers decided they didn’t like the first site, and went back up the road to another place, The sheep souvenirs were everywhere. Before long the parade was on the road again. They gave the Hitler look alike a beer for his trouble. Finally, the campers found an acceptable place to camp. They caught some trout that looked like leaves for dinner.
As PG types this, the computer music player has a concert by Roger Waters playing. The song on the machine now is “Sheep”. Mr. Waters used to be a key member of Pink Floyd, but had issues with some of the others. They went on without him, and even did a stadium tour under the PF name. The keyboard player recently passed away. He was friendly with Mr. Waters, who reportedly did not like onstage improvisation. PG found the playing of “Sheep” at this moment to be an incident of synchronicity and simultaneity.
Back to the story in TFIA. The campers had a happy camper night in the acceptable place, and looked down the valley to see the sheep, the shepherd that looked like Hitler, and the wagon.
Under the borco bookmark, across the page from the first part of this story…Which was titled “the message”…is a yellowed newspaper clipping. It was written by the Associated Press, and was on page 3a of The Atlanta Constitution, Fri. Oct. 26, 1984. The Headline reads ” Novelist Brautigan found dead in home”. It seems like the 49 year old author had found life to be troubling, and ended it with a gunshot wound. There was a quote from Tom McGuane…” When the sixties ended, he was the baby thrown out with the bathwater”.
Sometimes it is best to enjoy the product of a craftsman, and not use his life as an example.
The other side of the piece of yellowed newsprint is a picture of a whiskey bottle. The paper around the neck of the bottle says Canadian Mist. It must be from the english speaking part, or it would be spelled Canadien. Under the brand name, in fancy letters, it says Eighty Proof. The bottle is lit from the left side, with a bit of a crest visible atop the storage part of the bottle. A four legged animal is standing guard for a coat of arms. Under the watchful animal, The word IMPORTED is in all caps, in the same font as Canadian Mist. The word Canada is in little letters below that,just above the place where scissors separated the clipping from the rest of page 3a.
The message in the title of the sheep/Hitler lookalike story has a meaning. The camper received a one word message that night. The word was Stalingrad.

PG settled back in the frankenstein chair and looked out onto the street. The leaves that were yellow last week are orange and brown now. They are drying, and will be on the ground soon. The tree behind this tree is closer to the next yard, and not visible from the frankenstein chair. The leaves on it are just beginning to turn yellow. It always does this. When those leaves dry out and fall, there will be a lot of organic matter in the yard. This will not happen until turkey day.
When PG was a kid, he liked to climb this tree. It had branches low enough to grab, and pull yourself up into the body of the tree. One new years day, PG took a portable radio up in that tree and listened to the gator bowl. Florida was playing Missouri. Florida had a quarterback named Steve Spurrier. He won the heisman the next year, was a so so pro quarterback, and won a few games as a coach. On this new years day, he chunked a few touchdowns while PG listened in the tree, but Missouri won the game anyway. There is a thing called defense.
There is a story about bowl games from that era. NBC was bidding on the Olympics. At the time, the new years day triple header was the centerpiece of their sports coverage. They gave the presentation, and they talked about the Sugar Bowl, the Rose Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. They did not get the contract to broadcast the Olympic games. After the presentation, one of the Europeans at the Olympic committee had a chat with the NBC representative. Some people thought that the talk about bowel games was in bad taste.
The Spell check suggestions for this feature:
heisman..pantheism, atheism, helmsman, herdsman
spurrier… spurring, slurried, furrier

Today is veterans day. Formerly known as armistice day, this was the end of the first world war. That was ninety years ago. Only a handful of veterans from that conflict are still around.The last living American-born veteran is 107-year-old Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, W.Va. On the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the fighting would cease. If you got killed on the tenth minute, too bad.
Today, it is called Veterans Day. The idea is to honor the Men and Women who have served.
PG is not a veteran. He came of age in the Vietnam Era. There is a post at his old blog which tells the story. The bottom line is, by the time PG was old enough to join, the War in Vietnam was essentially over. Our government was trying to get a fig leaf peace treaty, so we could get our troops out. Mr. Nixon called it Peace with Honor, when it turned out to be anything but.
America is at war today. The war in Babylon has been out of the spotlight lately. Neither side in the election saw advantage in talking about it. The official line is that we are winning, and there does seem to be a certain amount of progress. However, when discussing war, a b.s. detector is a handy tool. PG has opposed this war from the beginning, and does not see much good coming out of it. However, how does that relate to the individual soldiers?
Last week at the bloggers night out, PG met Muskrat. He didn’t make a big deal about it that night, but the man has been to Iraq. When it is a person you have met, war takes on a different meaning. Today, at his blog, Muskrat talked about some of the kindness that he has been shown after his deployment. PG commented “Even…or maybe especially…those who are opposed to the war should thank the men and women who have served.”
Opposition to the war has been the target of many right wing types. Many say that opponents of the war are hoping for American defeat. ( “They have the ribbons and balloons already ordered for the defeat party.” The hideous Mark Steyn said that on the Michael Medved show). The fact is that a defeat in Iraq is a defeat for all of us. While many of us had these concerns before the war…and many of us expressed them… the fact is that we are there, and we need to make the best of the situation. Whether BHO is smart enough to do this is a good question. Like participation in the war, the presidency of BHO is now a done deal. The patriotic thing is to pull together, and try to make something good come out of this.
Osama Bin Ladin has been quoted as saying the he will defeat the United States the same way he defeated the Soviet Union. This is to say, he will prolong the conflict, and bankrupt the great power that is fighting him. Al Queda does not have to win battles to do this. All Al Queda has to do is stir up enough trouble so that America cannot leave. The longer we are in Iraq, the more damage we do to our economy. It is already happening. ( PG is not able to find a link to show that Mr. Bin Ladin said this. This may prove to be a fabrication. However, it is not far from the truth.If Bin Ladin did not say it, then he should have.)
The Men and Women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have performed a difficult task with honor and courage. The why and how of this conflict is out of their hands. The fact is, they have been given a job, and they have done it. They deserve the Thanks of America.

Back to empathy for a minute. The word always takes PG back to an auditorium in Clarkston GA in 1971. PG was in his first quarter at Dekalb College. Today,the institution is known as Georgia Perimeter 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 abortion 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 choice and 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.
PG 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”.
PG left the auditorium, and went to world history class.

PG found himself in a blog battle. It started with the passage of Proposition 8 in California. PG was not surprised at the result, nor was he surprised that an estimated seventy percent of black people voted against the measure.
Next, some people in LA had a protest outside a Mormon facility. The Mormon church financed a large chunk of the ad campaign in favor of Prop8. At the rally, according to reports, some protesters expressed their displeasure at black people to some African Americans in attendance. The n word was heard. People were not pleased.
PG first heard of this at a local blog. He left this comment:
“Two wrongs do not make a right. The African American Jesus Worship Church has been spewing out hatred of Gays and Lesbians for years. They were a big factor in the passage of proposition 8. This does not justify what allegedly happened at that rally.
I say allegedly because I was not there. I take what Jasmyne Cannick says with a grain of salt. While a handful of people shouting the n word is too much, I can’t help but wonder if it was really as bad as these reports say.”
PG thought he would hear more. He was correct.
Neo-Prodigy has butted heads with PG before. Neo-P pulled out the rhetorical artillery on this one. The rally was a “glorified klan rally” with “pink robed cross burners”. There were comments about the “Gay Mafia” , why Prop 8 lost, and a lot of other things. If you follow the link, you can read to your heart’s content.
The one comment that caught PG’s eye was “Operation: Blame The Negroes rages on as gay leaders continue to scapegoat blacks for the passing of Prop 8 in California. Among those leading the charge are columnists Andrew Sullivan and Dan Savage“. PG was curious what Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Savage had said, and he was curious as to who Dan Savage was. The commentary by Neo-P did not have links back to the comments by Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Savage. PG went wading through Mr. Sullivan’s blog, which was quite a chore. Andrew Sullivan posts a lot of material. Finally, PG found a reference to a column by Dan Savage. It turns out Mr. Savage writes a sex advice column for a Seattle Gay Newspaper. PG wonders who appointed him a community leader.
PG made a comment, using the name Chamblee54. The first comment listed the links to Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Savage. He added “As for the rally in Westwood, what I am reading sets off my b.s. detector. While shouting race slurs is wrong, I was not at the rally. I have to take the word of the reports on the internet. Frankly, I don’t believe the race baiting at that rally was more than a few fringe performers. I could be wrong, and there is really no way to find out for sure.
The point is, you cannot believe everything you read. You should do a bit of research, and not just paste in verbatim from other sources.”
Neo-P was not amused. ” First of all, what happened in Westwood has been covered extensively by everyone from Jasmyne Cannick to the Huffington Post. Those people aren’t making up what happened….Fourth of all don’t f*****g tell me about researching my sources just because you don’t want to hear the truth that the gay community is filled with some bottom-feeding bigots. It’s that blind-eye mentality which is why shit is so f****d up now. Next time you tell somebody to do more research, take your own f*****g advice.” He did not offer any more links.
PG replied “If you are going to say that “Among those leading the charge are columnists Andrew Sullivan and Dan Savage.”, then you should supply links so we can say what they said.” He also asked for a link to a post at the Huffington Post about the rally in Westwood. PG went looking at the HuffPo, but could not find anything about the rally in Westwood with the race baiting. PG did find a report of a rally in San Diego, where the crowd protested the passage of Prop 8 without apparent incident.
Neo-P replied “And once again, still full of fail. Go read Racialicious to read Savage’s bigoted comments blaming black people for the passing of Prop 8. Because we’re all homophobic and we’re all racist…I’ve got the links and I’ve done my research but since you’re so hellbent on defending these bigots regardless, you can look it up yourself as you’re going to believe what you want in spite of what the facts say.”
PG replied ” I am paying you a compliment by paying attention. When you quote someone, or accuse them of “leading the charge”, it is not too much to ask to provide a link so the reader can see for themselves what was said.”
To PG, this is no longer about protesters shouting racial slurs at African Americans. He does not doubt that it happened, although he suspects it was a tiny part of the overall crowd. To PG, the issue is basic journalism. When you say someone is “leading the charge”, you should provide a link to the original comments. The reader can judge what the person says. The reader can also decide whether to get upset about the comments of a sex advice columnist.
The final reply was by Neo-P. He said “fair enough”, and listed a series of links. There was not a link to Huffington Post.
The moral of this story is that you should not believe everything you read. And, when you go telling tales on the internet, it is easy enough to show links to the source of your information. You should do it. If you give a teacher a term paper, you are expected to use footnotes to show where you got your information. When you go posting on your blog, you should use the same standard.
PG strongly condemns the use of racial slurs. PG also condemns the branding of bystanders as bigots, because someone in the same crowd uses a racial slur.

One of the blogs PG reads almost everyday is Twenty Two Words.The idea is to say what needs to be said in 22 words or less. It is a good goal, even if it is frequently ignored. As a general rule, people talk too much, and could say a great deal with fewer words. In the telegram days, Western Union charged by the word, and short messages were prized. Much the same thing is going on today with text messaging, albeit with the added punch of abbreviations. RU Gr8 2day?
The plan for this weekend is to encourage his readers to put up a post of 50 words or less. On Saturday, PG began to peruse the list of posts<50 words. The problem was, most of them were Jesus Worship oriented, and those railroad tracks are a different gauge from PG’s rolling stock. His engine simply won’t go anywhere on that line. The tunnels don’t have enough headroom.
There were a few that caught his eye. There was the lady working in Columbia. The title was If I hear another story about a dismembered body, I’ll scream! “Forming close friendships in Colombia is harder than you might think, given that Colombians are such a friendly people. When people start to share their lives with me, instead of helping us find shared interests or points of contact, their stories of utter horror and anguish often leave me reeling.”
Another one…with links to a series of lectures, and a two hour youtube video…said “Our greatest problem is that we esteem self more than we esteem God.”
Some would say that G-d lives in man, and is in fact indivisible from Man. If this were true, then esteeming self is the same as esteeming G-d. The division of G-d and man is a problem with Jesus Worship.The answer is to see G-d and man as one, thou art that. PG leans toward this unified view of the world. He does not have all the details worked out.
G-d (or the Devil) is in the details. This saying is credited to Frank Lloyd Wright, among others. It is a cliché that PG sees as being more true the more he thinks about it. There is, for instance, the Moonie view of G-d. They teach that there is personality and body to anything, or body personality, or peanut butter. The moonies teach that G-d is the personality of the cosmos. The difference between a box with seven dollars worth of chemicals and a human being. Yes, you can gather the needed chemicals, but how can you assemble them into human form? You need G-d, and when you add G-d to these chemicals, you get a human being. Is it too much of a leap to say that G-d lives in the heart of all babies, young and old.? That G-d is the heart.
Which brings PG to the last post that he will quote tonight. The Daily Scroll calls itself “news and more from the Christian blogosphere”. The post is an invitation to answer some questions for publication. Here, the questions will be in gray, and the answer in blue.
What compelled you to start blogging? I had been thinking about having a blog, and had even collected material. It was more or less inevitable. Then, I saw something at a place called Fide-o. They were discussing something or another, and I had a comment to make. To make a comment, you needed to sign up for a blogspot account. In effect, that is when my blog, Chamblee 54, got started.
The comment was about the notion that the bible is “the word of G-d”. I am of the opinion that G-d does not write books. This concept (that the bible is “the word of G-d) elevates a book written by man into the position of being like G-d, to being “the word of G-d”. This is wrong on a number of levels. The first commandment says to have no other G-d before you, and you violate this common sense rule when you take a book written by man and proclaim it as the Word of G-d. Needless to say, the Fidomites did not agree.
After a few days of fun filled debate, I went in the back yard to take some auto timer self portraits. Noting that the neighbors were not looking, I dropped my pants before one of the shots. I posted a picture of my “Better side”. The Fidomites were outraged, and I was banned from commenting.
How would you describe the purpose of your blog(s)? To feel good after I have posted. Hopefully, I can do this by bringing some enjoyment to those who visit. My current motto is ” pretty pictures and ugly opinions” . Image manipulation is one of my hobbies, and the pictures are an essential part of the blog. Often, the text is just words to put between the pictures. The words are in colors. I use a medium sized font, which is easier to read. Black fonts are obsolete.
What unique responsibilities do you think Christian bloggers have? They don’t have any. A bit of humility is appropriate, and the realization that not everyone thinks they are so wonderful. Christians use a lot of arguments that sound good to each other, but do not appeal to those who disagree with them. You should remember that the blogosphere is not a church. If you go to a church, it is rude to argue with the message. If you have open comments, you should not be shocked to find that not everyone buys what you say.
What are your own favorite blogs or news sites? Twentytwowords, JoemyGod, Puntabulous, APWBWGTTD ( Atlanta people with blogs who get together to drink), Centurion, and whoever else has caught my eye that week. There are literally millions of blogs right now, and I can only really appreciate a handful. There are probably a lot that I might enjoy, that I don’t get around to. Oh, and there are those with mp3 downloads. I enjoy collecting free music.
How would you be spending your extra time, if you didn’t blog? Reading, photo taking and editing, making faux stained glass pictures, cleaning the house, riding my bike, walking, enjoying the privilege of being alive in 21st century America.

Ben told Mrs. Robinson the room number
It was number five hundred sixty eight.
It was a good idea to tell her that.
Soon Ben was in the pool
Ben knew he was a different man
Simon and Garfunkel
could not express the silence of the moment

PG looked out the window, and saw the yellow leaves in front of the gray sky. Autumn was in full bloom, the election is over, and the turkeys were nervous. The skies are teasing the parched humans with the suggestion of rain. Only the gullible are buying. Perhaps it is the day to talk about Nanowrimo.
Nanowrimo is the thing where you agree to write a novel in one month. The goal is 50,000 words. November is for word counts and a first draft, and editing is for December. PG is into day seven, and his word count is 14,920. The pace for 50k calls for 11,167 by day seven. Another motto of nanowrimo…and the title of the handbook…is “No Plot, No Problem”. Of the books that PG has enjoyed, most do feature plots. The concept of developing a plot on the fly does have its appeals. If a room full of monkeys can produce the works of Shakesphere…
The first role model is “Trout Fishing in America”. The product moved two million units for Richard Brautigan, but it did not make him happy. Written in the early sixties by a poet living in beatnik California, it is a curious lighthouse for a detoxed Georgia pothead. Each chapter in TFIA is like a prose poem. They stand on their own, and as of yet, no plot is apparent.
The last chapter is about this guy drinking wine in a San Francisco park. He is hanging with two broken down artists, who talk about getting committed to a nuthouse for the winter. This is noble savage thinking…it sounds good on the surface, but,any acquaintance with the ha ha hilton will tell you that it is a bad idea. Even for a bunch of nineteen sixty winos, under the statue of Ben Franklin, in a north beach park.
The idea of editing this mess is terrifying. The working title is “Novel With No Plot”( or “ The Confessions of Gnarlene Widget”) The idea that anyone would wade through this donkey flogging is beyond adjectives. Even adverbs and conjunctive clauses fail to assess the damage done to the language. PG is having a grand time, and sees it as mental jogging. The Marathon will go down Peachtree on thanksgiving morning. Last year PG took pictures, including a teenager who ran barefoot. This could be a plot opening.
Nanowrimo has a younger brother now, Nablopomo. The idea of Nablopomo is to agree to post something to your blog every day in November. Nablo is not nearly as organized as Nano, and sounds a lot like Nambla. PG signed up for Nanowrimo and Nablopomo, but will pass on door number three.
Spell check suggestions for this feature:
nanowrimo…unanimous, matrimony, patrimony, nanometer, acrimony
Brautigan… Brigantine, Beautician, litigant, brigand
nuthouse….outhouse
nablopomo…aboninable, abloom, personable
nambla…gamble, ramble, ambler

The night before, the Atlanta Bloggers had met at the Bone Yard Cantina. It was a bright space, in a new building. The area is called Midtown West. Those realtors have a way with words.
There were six present when PG arrived. He ordered coffee, which was good quality, plentiful, and had a tab of a dollar seventy five. Two of the others had food. The table kept the server busy with beer. Discussions included twitter, the greatest cd of all time, and something unintelligible (but funny) at the other end of the table.
It was team trivia night. After intense competition with Mrs. Paul’s home for battered fish, the Atlanta Bloggers had the most points. One of the bloggers…a work neighbor of the BYC… took possession of two certificates. The papers, complete with crimp stamp, were good for a twenty dollar bar tab.

There is a blogger named Scent. He writes a space called Centurion. PG is banned from commenting at this place, which might be a good thing. This does not stop PG from following the discourse , and sending appropriate emails. Today, the subject is abortion. It should be noted that Scent is a Jesus Worshiper, and does not like abortion.
Abortion was a big deal in the last election. BHO got tagged a baby killer, despite his loving relationship with his own daughters. Those girls will be teenagers while daddy is in the white house. At any rate, BHO did not condemn abortion in terms strong enough for the wingnuts, and this became a loud issue.
This also may have helped BHO get elected. While abortion is an emotional focus to the right wing, it is a source of …negativity…to the center and the left. Very few people are really happy about the fact that millions of babies are murdered. It is just that many see the shades of gray. Once you get past the shrill speeches, there is a lot of discordant emotions in play. While the right wing likes spout the rhetoric, the rest are just a touch uncomfortable. After all, this is human life.
Another thing that complicates the matter is denial and compensation. No one really knows what women have been to a clinic, and even fewer know the men that sent them. PG suspects that a lot of the more shrill “pro life” people have in fact been party to an abortion. This is one reason why these converts are so obnoxious.
Scent is having a discussion about abortion. In the comments, Scent says ”There is no question that all sorts and types of murder are illegal in our country — but two kinds of life-taking are not: capital punishment, and self-defense.”
PG see this, and sends an email with this commentary “I am following your discussion about abortion from a distance.
“There is no question that all sorts and types of murder are illegal in our country — but two kinds of life-taking are not: capital punishment, and self-defense.”
You forget a third form of life taking…war. As we speak, we are killing men, women, and children abroad. Maybe the war is justified…it might even be classified as self defense. But the fact remains we are killing G-d’s children in a foreign country, and losing our own people in the process.
How can we claim to be “pro life” when we support the killing of human beings in a foreign country?
I don’t have any answers to the issue of abortion. Believe it or not, I like it about as much as you do. However, I don’t think the politicization of abortion reduces the number of procedures.
And maybe, just maybe, if we have more respect for human life in a country eight time zones away, maybe we will have more respect for human life here.”
The candidate, who was hailed as pro life, once dropped napalm on women and children. Forty one years ago, America was involved in another war. It would soon get tired of this war…many never wanted it…and spend the next few years looking for “peace with honor”. At the time, abortion was illegal. Within a few weeks of the Paris accords, which ended one phase of the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court issued Roe vs. Wade. Abortion was now legal. The debate over Vietnam was never tainted by those who claimed to be pro life, and yet wanted to drop napalm on Asian women and children.

The comparison  PG makes is to 1932.The nation was in economic tumult. The repubs had been in power too long, and were ready for a vacation. Franklin Roosevelt was the man chosen to lead America. FDR was crippled, and he smoked cigarettes. The cigarette holder was one of his trademarks. The public was well aware of the cigarette holder, but was clueless about the leg braces. Such were the times…smoking was profitable to the advertisers, but polio was not talked about.
At a point in the fifties, a vaccine for polio was discovered. The disease became something for the medical textbooks, instead of a horror for families. At roughly the same time…very roughly… reports started to come out about the health hazards of smoking. Bit by bit, smoking came to be seen as a bad thing. The print media paid lip service to this, while accepting advertising from the tobacco mongers.
By the time BHO became a national figure, politicians were careful not to be photographed smoking. The tobacco habit of BHO was whispered about, but the visual confirmation will not be seen. Not even the scandal magazines have pictures of BHO lighting up. And yes, BHO plays basketball, and is not remotely crippled. If he hobbled on a cane, while wearing braces, the media would have been all over it. Is this right or wrong, or just different?
There are lots of postmortems today, and PG might as well join the fun. He is not overjoyed at the election of BHO. The man has a lot of flaws. PG questions his commitment to the basic constitutional rights. Mr.Bush has done damage to many of our rights in his “War on Terror”. PG is concerned that BHO is going to use this opening to create a police state.
BHO faces a lot of challenges. PG remembers the reception given Bill Clinton in 1993. The wingnut media fought him tooth and nail for eight years. Finally, in his second term, they caught Slick Willie in an improper situation. America wasted a year trying to impeach the President. None of this fighting helped to achieve energy independence. This business of buying oil from hostile foreign powers is at the root of the tumult in the middle east, and today’s financial crisis. America has known this was a problem since Richard Nixon was President. The media spent more time fussing about Bill Clinton’s zipper problem.
PG has two hopes for the new administration. One is that the opposition maintains the watchdog status, but gives BHO the chance to perform. This simply did not happen with Bill Clinton. The second is that BHO doesn’t get caught in any scandal, but remains focused on solving the problems of this age.
It might help if BHO were to quit smoking.

PG thinks about the three part advice…pray, vote, don’t worry. The second part is over. When PG walked out of the building at 7:42 am last Tuesday, the election was history. The wawuh is ovah. La Guerre est Fini, or whatever the title was of that movie at the Film Forum thirty seven years ago. That was about the time of the first election for PG, when Tricky Dick whipped George the dummy. Tuesday was the ninth time PG has cast a presidential ballot, and, if the polls are correct, will be the third time he voted for the winning candidate.
Don’t worry is phrased with a negative, and might work better with a positive verb. The first thought is Have Faith. Or maybe Think Well, or Think Good Thoughts. Alfred E. Neumann made a good career out of the phrase “What me Worry?”, even though he was just a cartoon character. It is easy for cartoon characters not to worry.
Having Faith for a living human being can be a bit tougher. PG has always tended to pessimism, and his default face look is sadness. This causes problems, especially with a certain former employer who would harp on PG’s “negative attitude”. When you tell a person often enough that he has a negative attitude, it is the lie that becomes the truth.
The truth is, the future has always looked bad, and turned out to be good. PG is 54 now, in good health below the neck, and has a few things going for him. Once this job thing is straightened out, PG can go back to working most of his waking hours for another ten years or so, and enjoying life as best he can along the way.
As for America and the world, they are more intertwined than ever before. BHO seems to understand this, while JSM is of the old America first school. The national debt is greater than ever, a war rages on eight time zones away, and we are no closer to energy independence than we were when Tricky Dick was the President. This was the time of the OPEC embargo, when America began to realize it’s addiction. We have done nothing since.
PG remains optimistic about the future health of the planet, but wonders what it is based on.
Which brings us to the third leg of the stool. Prayer is an essential part of many religions, and works for many people. PG has a problem with prayer. It is connected to Jesus Worship. PG does not get along with Jesus.
Prayer is talking to G-d. Meditation is listening. Prayer is active, meditation is passive. Prayer appeals to type A americans, who tend to do what they want, and fight those who get in the way. Most of these people are Jesus Worshipers. This is what PG sees of when he thinks of prayer. Not only are they loud and selfish, but they are proud of it. They are loud and selfish for Jesus.
The first commandment says to have no other G-d before thee. This does not make an exception for books about G-d, or for the so called son of G-d. When you get away from this common sense rule, you are going to have problems. Maybe if you pray to G-d, and leave Jesus and the bible out of it, you will be ok. As long as you shut up, and listen to what she has to say.

A feature of the digital era is something called a meme. It rhymes with dream, and no one is sure where it came from and what it means. In practice, a meme is a series of questions that are sent out chain letter style to different people. Since PG is not connected to people that would tag him, he is not required to answer memes. ( The spell check suggestions include mimes, mites, meres, and memos). The mothers of mighty memos.
PG sometimes does dim sum with a man named Xwinger. (The spell check suggestion is swinger) This person has a Live Journal, under an alternative identity, Sffilk. XW goes to festivals, sets up a table, and sells cds of folk music. Folk which was misspelled as filk. XW is the source of today’s meme. The question will be in gray. The answer from XW will be in purple. The answer from PG will be in blue.
1. Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post as The Controversial Survey? Yes. Yes. I also have the toenails, eyebrows, and lumbar discs. Guts are overrated, and more plentiful as we move into middle age.
2. Would you do meth if it was legal? No. No. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean you need to join the crowd. Voting Republican is legal.
3. Abortion: for or against it? For Like the lady said to the Pope,if you don’t play the game,then you don’t make the rules.
4. Do you think the world would fail with a female president? There have been female presidents before, like Indira Gandhi. It might, but would pass again soon. Fail and pass are part of the cycle, and should be accepted and embraced.
5. Do you believe in the death penalty? Yes, As long as it is not too severe.
6. Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already? Yes. That should have happened a hundred years ago. Reefer was legal a hundred years ago, and should have remained that way.
7. Are you for or against premarital sex? For. I can’t get married, so any sex I have would be premarital. See answer to question 3.
8. Do you believe in G-d? Yes. This is not a believe kind of thing. PG suspects that G-d does exist, although the semantics of the issue are sticky.
9. Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized? Yes. Yes. However, lawyers and Professional Jesus worshippers should not be allowed to reproduce.
10. Do you think it’s wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA? Yes. As the grandson of immigrants who came here legally, I don’t exactly tolerate the fact that so many people are coming here illegally. If they want to come, let them do so legally! This is a toughie. As a person whose families have been here hundreds of years, this is getting into question 3 territory. If PG was a poor mexican, and the barriers to legal immigration were steep, He might see things differently.
11. A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it? I don’t know. It depends on where she finds it.
12. Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen? I think it’s 18 here in Georgia. . It was 18 when PG was a kid, and he spent many a happy evening in bars. However, in the eighties, big brother federal government said to the states, if you want federal highway money, then you need to raise the drinking age to 21. In asphalt happy Georgia, that was a no brainer. To get back to the question, yes, the drinking age should be 18.
13. Should the war in Iraq be called off? I’m not sure “called off” is the proper term We have dug ourselves a deep hole in Babylon. Even if we were to start to withdraw today, it would take a year or so to get everyone out. There is reason to believe that forces would attack our troops during this withdrawal, and that we would have to fight our way out. There is also the matter of the sunni tribes that we are paying to help us fight foriegn fighters. What will happen when we introduce these guys to the American concept of the layoff? It is a lot easier to start a war than it is to finish one. This is one reason PG was opposed to the start of this one.
14. Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree? I’m not sure. It does seem to be illegal. As to whether it should be legalized…why does a person need help? Shouldn’t it be fairly simple to off yourself?
15. Do you believe in spanking your children? Yes, if they did wrong.? see answer to number 3.
16. Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars? Considering the fact that the proper way to dispose of a worn flag is by burning it, Flag burning was a non issue until 1989. Somebody took a case to the Supreme Court, and there was a ruling made. At that point, flag burning became a “hot” issue. This is similar to what is happening with Gay Marriage now. There is little grass roots support for same sex marriage, but a court ruling has forced the public to decide. While the media account execs in California are getting big commissions now, the rest of the population has been dragged into a divisive battle that few wanted. Maybe we should burn the Supreme Court instead.
17. Who do you think would make a better president? McCain or Obama? Honestly? Neither one. What does honesty have to do with presidential elections?
18. Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers? Yes, but at least I’m being honest. What does honesty have to do with the internet?

The party was just that. PG was busy, tore himself away to go, which is how a lot of saturday nights happen. He made a wrong turn somewhere, and got lost, with an suv motivating him to go faster. This happens a lot north of the river. He finally made it to the house and was warmly greeted by the hosts.
Guod was wearing a caveman outfit, and Liberty had on a handmedown red dress. Holly/Diane/Sasha, the original owner of the red dress, is in California now. Last PG had heard, Sasha fits into L.A.,after being out of place in Vegas. Diane was a stocky construction worker. He started trying on his wife’s outfits, and discovered that he looked better in them. Soon, David was cast aside, and Diane emerged. While the surgery is too expensive to contemplate, Diane is now a she.
PG commented to Liberty that fitting a man’s body into woman sized clothes can be a problem. They agreed that with Diane…who could have played linebacker back in the boy days…this was not a problem.
The food and costumes were lovely, and the people were nice to PG. He wore a Ralph Lauren shirt with a matching Red tie, which got comments from people used to a more casual PG. No one knew that PG had worn the same outfit to another party the previous saturday. A few costumes that were too efficient…the ghoul would know PG, who did not have a clue who it was. Just don’t say anything bad about anyone, you might be talking to that person.
The role model for this novel to be is “Trout Fishing in America”. Or maybe that is a biscuit model, round and lumpy with a flat top. The party had these half sized biscuits, which PG tore in half and put chunks of roast beef in. .
The first chapter in TFIA is about the cover. Mr. Brautigan and a female cohort are in front of a statue of Ben Franklin. Mister F was born in 1706. He would be 302 if he was still alive. He could have done that, if he had been a vampire. However, he would not have gone out in a thunderstorm and watched the lightening cascade off the key under his kite.
Was Ben Franklin at that party last night?
Once when he was a kid, PG took the 23 Oglethorpe bus into town . His neighbor Eric was with him. On the way back, some wino started talking to the two boys. The wino said “ What did Ben Franklin say when he touched the key that had been struck by lightening?…Ouch”. The wino had some work waiting on him at the end of the line, and the two boys went home.