Invisible Man at the Madi Gras

Recently , out of curiosity, I ate at a fast food restaurant that is known for its Cajun flair. It shall be nameless in this post.

I wanted to try their Cajun chicken. At the counter I ordered 2 pieces of “spicy or Cajun Chicken” I said. And a Diet Coke. The lady behind the counter talked me into a combo, and I got coleslaw instead of fries.

When I took my traay there were two young ladies, maybe late teens or in their early 20s hanging out in front of the counter that had the drink dispenser and the plastic-ware and napkins, drink cup tops, straws, etc. they already had their food and the stuff this side counter had to offer. They were just talking.

I stood there politely. That is one of the main reasons I am invisible. I am polite and quiet – and mostly still.

I noticed the youngest looking of the two had on shorts and a low-cut blouse. The other one had a beach towel wrapped around her and part of it was hiked up to the end of her thigh…. Her fleshy thigh, with nothing covering that fleshy thigh. Oh-oh.

One of them finally noticed me and the one wrapped in a towel said, “I’m so sorry sir! I didn’t realize you were waiting behind us.”

I said, “No problem.”

She said you want napkins and a straw? And within a flash she had placed a plastic spoon/fork wrapped in cellophane, a straw and a plastic cup cap on my tray. I thanked her.

Then I looked at the drink dispenser. It was a State-of-the-art drink dispenser. There was only spout. I didn’t know where to start.

Again, the young lady wrapped in a beach towel came to my rescue. She showed me where to place the cup, and what to press for ice (the brace behind the cup) and then what did I want to drink? I told her Diet Coke and she pointed at the Diet Coke icon on the plastic thing above the dispenser. She told me to press that. This time the plastic thing changed icons. About 4 or 5 different flavor Diet Coke icons materialized. She asked me did I want the cherry flavor Diet Coke. NO, I said, just the regular flavor.

She told me I could have spurted a little of each type of Diet Coke if I wanted. They had Cherry, grape, lemon, regular, and maybe more.

I thanked her and carried my tray and sat down. The two females continued standing in that same spot, hogging the counter space of the extra stuff for no apparent reason.

Oh well,.

I tried the Cajun chicken. I had a thigh and a breast. It wasn’t as spicy as I hope. Chick-fil-a has them beat in spicy chicken arena.

However, I think this Cajun fast food restaurant’s coleslaw was better than Chic-fil-a’s.

There was only other person in the dining roor:. a guy on a lap-top and cell-phone. I suspect he was the manager. In fact, I am pretty sure he was. The cashier walked over and talked to him in a cheese-eating fashion. And also the two ladies did the same, walked over and talked to him in a very friendly cheese-eating way.

Which tells me the duo were probably employees that dropped by on their off day to either pick up their check or get some points in. And, I suppose all the assistance I got by the side counter was a points getting ploy.

The two females finally sat down and ate a while. Then the lady with the towel stood up. The other one stood up too and pulled out a cell phone from someplace on her scant clothing. The one with the towel dropped it.

Before, as I mentioned, I thought of the possibility that she was nude under the towel. She wasn’t naked. She had on an itsy bitsy bikini. It was not polka-dotted.

The cell phone was also a camera. It had a flash. The one with the bikini posed and the other one took the picture. I thought that the probable manager was in the background. I looked over to him and he was engrossed in his laptop and cell phone and didn’t seem to notice.

I bet he will when someone shows him his picture on a blog or something.

I saw that on both doors as you enter from either side there is an embedded sign that said something like, “WELCOME! EVERY DAY IS MADI GRAS HERE!”

I looked over at the girl clad in teeny bitsy bikini posing for pictures and thought this could be something like the Madi Gras, without the beads and the booze.

1958 OLYMPIAN Ys

Served Cold

We belong to a video-by-mail club. You can watch as many movies as you can per month. In order to get our money’s worth we keep the postal service busy receiving and mailing back movies.

In this situation we see movies we would not normally see. Which is a good thing and also a bad thing.

We watched COLD SOULS last night with Paul Giamatti. Paul plays himself, but hopefully he is not as neurotic or nervous as he self portrayed himself.

The movie is about after scientists discovered the souls of humans are actually a physical mass , about the size of a marble, embedded deep within the brain. Probably for the convenience of movie making no operation is required to remove the soul . You are put ins a MRI –like contraption and your soul is extracted.

When your soul is removed from you it doesn’t change that much about you. It does not damage your daily functions although you are likely to get emotional when you hear a sad story or watch a sad movie. And you may not laugh at something funny.

It just occurred to me that it did not seem to effect Paul Giamatti’s relationship with his wife. It seems it would.

In the movie there is a need for certain individuals to have their souls plucked, for professional reasons. Having a soul might influence their judgment. In Giamatti's case, he felt it would make him a better actor.

The soul, after it is removed, is kept locked in a vault with the owner having the only key. This soul removing is of course for the wealthy.

Of course, like any other good thing or fad, it won’t be long before the gangster element get their grubby hands on it. They began stealing souls out of the safe deposit box and I would tell you how they managed that, but honesty, I nodded during that time.

The underground element who was swiping the souls and selling them on the black market was the Russians! (just to make matters interesting).

Did I tell you this was a dark comedy? I usually thrive on dark comedy, but sometimes WHISH! (me making an upward motion) the y go over my head.

1958 OLYPIAN - continued -

VJ Day in Honolullu

Click here!

Click above for a little WWII history in the Pacific. It is VJ Day, August 14, 1945, in Honolulu.

1958 OLYMPIAN - More Music & Stage Stuff

Kennesaw Mountain and the Big IF

One hundred and forty-six years ago was the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was raging. It started on June 19, 1864, and lasted several days. The fighting w as not only on Kennesaw Mountain but was scattered here and there, such as Cheatham Hill, and Kolb Farm.

I better stop telling the history of the battle before I blunder.

My great-grandfather William A. Trammell fought at Kennesaw Mountain. He was in the North Carolina 39th Infantry, Company I. Their camp was on the ridge that connects Kennesaw Mountain to Little Kennesaw Mountain.

William was shot in the knee by a Yankee when he was stooping down at a spring getting water. His friend was shot in the head and was killed instantly. His other friend, Posey Wild took off running. William fell and played dead when the Yankees ran by him chasing Posey.

Posey lived to be an old man in Macon County, North Carolina.

William lived to an old man too. He recuperated in a private home in a little small community just north of Woodstock, Georgia, named Andersonville*

*Yes, there were two Andersonvilles in Georgia , at the time.

William probably got to know the people of Andersonville very well. About 14 years later, he and his family moved to roughly the same area, just west of Woodstock.

If he had not been shot in the knee, and if he had not played dead for the Yankees, and if he had not recuperated in Andersonville I would not exist, or at least with the same DNA makeup anyway. And that is also true for my many cousins with the same Hunter ancestry.

There is a bunch of “if”s there. Whole mankind is based on a chain of ifs.

William was married to Emaline Ray before his Kennesaw Mountain mishap. So, that part of the genes would still be intact. But if William and Emaline stayed in Macon County, North Carolina after the war, and his off-spring would have went forth and multiplied most likely in North Carolina.

Instead, they went forth and multiplied here in Cobb County and Cherokee County, Georgia.

At this time I do a bow and sweepingly extend my ball cap outward and say, “And here we are!”

SUNDAY FUNNIES - CHECKERS1

The is EC's TWO-FISTED TALES comicbook no. 11 recycled. It was orginally published in the early 1950s. Just about every issue of EC two war comics had a story about the war in North Korea. Why? Because it was going on as the reader read it for the first time. The name of the story is CHECKERS which is not hard to figure out why. The story was written by editor Harvey Kurtzman and the two artists were John Severin and Will Elder. All three men were be better known for being the first pioneers of EC's MAD Comic book. The top picture was the cover, drawn by Kurtzman. The picture relates to the CHECKERS story (which has nothing to do with Nixon's dog).

Over-The-Hill Game Turf Rumble - Almost

The video says the concert on June the 26th. Oopps! I made a mistake (what else is new?). It was actually the June the 25th. Instead of redoing everything , it is easier to just tell you about it here. I can live with that mistake for a few days until I forget about it. Forgetting is sort of like forgiving.

At last month’s concert somebody beat Monty to his regular spot, by the Liberty Bell to set up his tarp, chairs, and cooler. This month he and Paul decided to stake out the spot at 2:00pm. At 2pm, or shortly after that they met and laid it all out.

A city park official came by and told them that people cannot claim their spots until 4:00pm. But, he added, they could set up it up 3:30; Which they did.

Paul called and told me they had the old spot by the Liberty Bell claimed and secured.

We showed up about 6:30. At the Monty’s favorite spot by the Liberty Bell was being sit on by some people that weren’t us. Monty’s tarp was folded up with the metal pegs on top, on the ground, on the edge of the sidewalk. A blanket was where the tarp normally is.

We called Paul to tell him the situation and he in turn called Monty.

Not long afterwards, Monty came rushing up with a determined focused look on his face. Who he perceived to be the enemy was a lady sitting in a chair close to the blanket. Monty told her in no uncertain terms that they were sitting wrongfully on the spot he earlier claimed.

The lady politely, but firmly, strongly disagreed with him. She said it was like that when they got here, but someone else, teeny boppers, she said, took up the tarp and laid their blanket down. She said she told the teeny boppers that they couldn’t do that. They said, well, they aren’t here, are they? After that they but down the blanket and folded up the tarp (neatly, I might add) and left to get something to eat and socialize.

Then, across the walk a lady came over and concurred what the lady said. She saw it all. She had on a very low low-cut purple dress and she bent over a lot. Like her, I saw it all too.

What the teeny boppers didn’t realize, they made rules to go by when they said, “But they aren’t here, are they?” At the moment “they were not there were they?”

So, we took their blanket up , and put our chairs down. However, we were nice. We replaced their blanket behind us, so they did not lose a place, they just got related a few feet.

Strangely, when the teeny boppers returned their first words were an apologetic “We’re sorry!”

Whew!

Also, during this conflict it was brought out that tarps are no longer allowed in the park. It kills grass. And it was brought out that one official was telling people they could claim their spots at 3:30 and another official was enforcing the 4:00 rule. The right hand and the left hand needs to communicate so that each will know not to conflict with the other.

Also, I think possibly the parks people were making up rules as they go. I wonder if there is a list of rules and regulations for Glover Park or any city park visitors?

Speaking of tuff claims on concert nights and at the end of the attached video that states that “there is more than meets the eye” one of the things, in the video that didn’t meet the eye is a man I have watched for years at these concerts. He drives a motorized wheelchair, the turn-around or something like that. He likes to wheel his wheels up to his favorite spot and enjoy the concert there. If people are already there, which there usually are, his machine will root them away. Most of the time, because he is handicapped, people will move out of the way of the machine. But some people have stood their grounds and told him it was not marked “handicapped” and he would drive away with a scowl on his face.

One time, I mentioned to him, if he wanted a certain spot, he needed to arrive earlier before anybody else had claimed it and beat them to it. He looked at like me like was a nut. Well, at least he is a good judge of character.

1958 OLMPIAN - Music

Lurking Around a Concert at a Church

We went to a concert at the Pavilion at the First Methodist Church in Marietta yesterday. It was the first time we have visited this sedate park created by the church. It is very nice.

And when I was wandering around the natural area of the park and thinking how sedate it is I thought it is only two blocks from the downtown Square.

During the concert, behind the pavilion that we were facing is a green grass area that is also part of the church property. On the green area solo was a man practicing his skills with a soccer ball. I couldn't resist walking down and videoed a very dedicated athlete.

The Cobb Symphony Orchestra did a wonderful job concerting. They always do, even it hot swealtering weather as last night.

I did everyone a favor and overlaid their music is 1812. My tiny little mike on my tiny little Flip camcorder would not have done the music justice.

1958 OLYMPIAN - Yearbook and Newspaper

Around About Town on Tuesday

Yesterday I went to Physical Therapy. While sitting in the waiting room waiting for the therapist to come and get me I noticed an elderly man and lady at the counter. I think it was their first visit, well, actually, a pre-visit. They had their daily planner out trying to find a day they had available that the physical therapy outfit could fit them in.

Suddenly from the back therapy rooms was a loud blood curdling scream. It was ignored and they continued to stand at the counter comparing available dates.

Then another blood curdling scream that even reached a higher pitch. The elderly lady put her planner back into her pocketbook and said something to the effect of, we better wait, I want to check on some things. They left before the receptionist could say anything.

A few minutes later the receptionist walked out into the center of the waiting room and announced to all 4 of us sitting that they had the TV on the World Cup Soccer Match . I said, “I’m glad to hear that.”

Then she invited all that wanted to could go back and watch the game too. She had no takers.

Shortly, my therapist came to get me. She is a small frame lady with a nice gentle nature about her. She was working with me doing my exercises and two other people nearby. We each had something different going on.

There were also two male therapists. One of the males and my therapists would scream out at the TV when they should have taken a shot at the goal but didn't. They were really into the game, but yet at the same time knew exactly what was going on with their patients.

Then U.S. Player Landon Donovan scored for the U.S. This was the only score in the game. The U.S. won.

As soon as the wining goal was struck all three therapists had a loud cheering session and high fiving. It energized my therapist so much she started jumping up and down very high, which made her look she was more like bouncing - then she jumped up on a bench-like bed and started doing jumping jacks.

I think I heard a door up front slam shut. Had another potential patient made a break for it?

It made everybody there happy. My therapist was in glee.

After that I went to Brandi’s World Famous Hotdogs. Brandy’s Mama waited on me. I sat at the counter and ordered a chili dog and a hamburger. Coincidentally, so did the two men on each side of me. Great minds think alike I guess.

Then I met Anna at Kroger’s to shop. It is 5% Discount Day for us elderly old souls.

In the deli section I overheard an old fart asked a clerk in the deli section where was the free samples. I couldn’t hear what the clerk replied back but the old fart said, “Well, how will we know if we like something or not?”

The young man left for a second and got permission to open a box of cookies. The kind of Kroger cookies that have M&M on them. The old fart reached in the box and got one, and walked away eating it.

The young man quickly disappeared behind the counter with the opened box.

I wondered what they were going to do with the remaining cookies. Maybe they will put a strip of tape over the lid, and nobody will miss a single cookie or maybe they will pass it around among the workers.

I wondered if I pitched an “Old Fart Fit” would I be awarded with a cookie too?

1958 OLYMPIAN - Clubs

Street Music in New Orleans

Here I am sealing someone else's work again. Instead of saying "stealing" lets say something cleaner. Lets say I am presenting their work.

If you want to listen and watch a flow of endless Dixieland jazz-Blues go to youtube and search for Tuba Skinny and Meschiya Lake.
The first three videos below are of the Tuba Skinny band. I dug through and found three that I think show the characters of the performers.








In the above youtube videos on the Tuba Skinny band did you notice the coronet player? Her sitting postion is second from the right. Her name is Shaye Cohn. I think shaye can really blast out a good tune. She complements the bellowing singress Erika Lewis.

While flipping around on youtube searching for some good Dixieland to listen to I came across the Meschira Lake and the Little Big Horns. And yep, there was Sheye sitting right in the middle of them, blowing her coronet. Do musicians switch around to releive people in other bands sometimes? Even if that band is a compeitor? I think they are alll in the same fun-loving laid back community.

Public Information Law is a Law

Forsyth official on leave while officials review racy e-mailsShareThisPrint E-mail .By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The planning director for Forsyth County has been on leave the past six weeks while officials review thousands of e-mails that include photos of naked women, bedroom talk and lewd jokes he exchanged with his girlfriend, county employees and others.

Jeff Chance, who makes $92,104 a year, was put on administrative leave with pay May 12 after the e-mails and his deletion of thousands of other e-mails came to light. E-mails of county employees and officials are part of government records, and the law requires that they be preserved.

- 1st 2 paragraphs of a story in the AJCONLINE.COM this morning.

If it is a law the the sex talk, nude women pictures, and lewd jokes be preserved and another law, the Public Information Law require that all tax paid buiness be available for viewing - I think these two laws can work hand in hand which will probably cause the Forsyth County website one of the most visited in the country.

That should be good news for them, right?

1958 OLYMPIAN - More Living

What Did We Do Without Computers?

This is a progress report on changeover from my old computer to the new computer, in case you care. But mostly I typing it all as a method of organizing my brain to see how I stand with it all.

We successfully loaded most of the stuff I deal with on the new computer. There are a few more things I will have to deal with, but nothing life threatening if I don't have it.

I figured how to flip photos and let them stay that way. I was having problems flipping photos and coming back a minute later and they unfllipped themselves. You might ask why would I want to flip them at all? Because in some cases every other one was upside down, that's why. Going through the Olympian high school yearbooks scanning pictures I had to turn everyother one upside to scan it, or the weight of the book wouold make the book slide off the scanner. And up until the new computer, it was no problem to flip it and save it. The new picture system I cannot find a selection to save the picture. So, I flipped it and look at it a second later and it was back like it was. However, I found by experimenting that if I flip the picture when it is the thumbnail status, it stays that way.

Trial and error. Sometimes that is the only way you can move forward. Just so surgeons do not have that positon, it works with me.

Up until this morning I could receive email and not send it out. I had to go through the internet provider. My son, by remote from his office, took over my computer and corrected the outgoing mail problem. It is fixed now.

My old genealogy program Legacy 5.0 that I had several years would not work on my new Windows7. I downloaded the latest version Legacy 7.4 and it seems to be working great. For several hours I was concerned that the 35 years of my life was wasted, because if the data was unretreiveable...my skin crawled. But now, all is up today with my latest genealogy findings.

I forgot to mention on Father's Day when we downloaded files it also downloaded over 2800 incoming emails. When an email comes in, I sort most of them. Apparently Bellsouth didn't care if it was sorted or not. If it was incoming it pulled the emails from their files with them kicking and screaming and threw them in the box car headed for my computer. Then, when he got back into my computer this morning, it resent all those again, for a while today I had 5600 emails in my incomg box. I deleted all about the last few weeks. I made copies of them ton my externa harddrive last week anyway.

I could find my MAGIX CLEANER program which copied the music from LP records and converted it into MP3 music, so I am in the market for a cheap version of something like that.

The video movie editor that came with the MS programs looks promising. I think it will be better than I had with the old computer.

Also my MAD collection of the first 300 issues of MAD could not be loaded. So, I looked around on the net and found the latest version if the first 500 issues for about $50, which this time it is on one DVD. The earier version with 300 issues was on 5 CDs and it cost $45. It has only increased $5 in the past ten years, but you get a lot more.

Wouldn't be nice to live in a hut to get in it when it rained hard and just pick berries, fish, and hunt and pick fleas off your companion and not worry about all this computer stuff?

1958 OLYMPIAN - Life Away From School

Hold Your Horses!

I have a new computer. I am trying to learn it. Right now I am having a problem with some of the pictures upside down and I can turn them rightside up but the second I leave the picture and before I can post it there it is upside down again.

Hold on.

SUNDAY FUNNIES 2 - HAPPY FATHERS' DAY!

Father's Day is upon us. This is an actual fact: The Postal Service delivered more one-day Express mail on Mother's Day than any other Sunday. Also, this may no longer be true with cell phones, but in recent history more collect calls were placed on Father's Day than any other day. True.

This is one page out of MAD's BRINGING BACK FATHER, which is a lampoon on the comic strip BRINGING UP FATHER A.K.A. Maggie & Jiggs. The artist was Will Elder.

SUNDAY FUNNIES - MAD's MARK TRADE

This is the last story in MAD #11. This is MARK TRADE which is lampooning the comic strip of not so long ago, MARK TRAIL. MARK TRAIL was created by Georgian Ed Dodd (1902-1991). The MARK TRAIL comic strip did a lot to show the appreciation of wild life and the natural order of things, which also means respecting the environment and ecology. My cousin, Jo Hunter, worked as an assistant for Ed Dodd, as she worked her way through UGA. And cartoonist Jack Davis did exactly the same working his way through UGA. Jack got to use his MARK TRAIL skills again later on in life, this story is illustrated by him.

Here is an interesting notation. In the last panel, see Mark Trail chasing his assistant trying to hit him. They are distant silhouettes. This is not the first time MAD editor/writer use that same type of action to close out a story. He did that same kind of scene at least one other time, probably more that I can't think of.

Cajun John & The Bossman

Not too long ago I read a review on Cajun John's in a little publication that specialized in reviewing local restaurant along with a lot of advertisements. The reviewer spotlighted Cajun John's. He said Cajun John's had delicious New Orleans style shrimp po'boys. He said he also asked for gumbo and from the darkness inside window he was told no gumbo was available. No gumbo available for that day? That week? It was on the menu.

I like Cajun food and I like un-franchised small home-type non-pretentious eateries. I wanted to try Cajun John's.

I knew by the review it was in a little building behind a gas station on Powder Springs Road, and it had a Marietta address. That told me what my limits were. From the beginning of Powder Springs Street in downtown Marietta to the East West Connector, probably about five miles. Each time I rode down Powder Springs Road I looked for it. One day coming form the Cobb County Dump I saw it.

It was a clean white building but nothing fancy.

I mentioned Cajun John's to my friend Brad Martin who is staying just a couple blocks down the street and he said he tried Cajun John's Po'boys and enjoyed it. He said it was piled with shrimp and even shrimp were falling out of it. Brad's wife Susan said there were enough shrimp falling out of the sandwich for her to put on her salad. Maybe she said two salads.

About a week later we were in the area it was too close for dinner, but I pulled and got a menu. When I walked up to the window I tried to look in but it was too dark; just like the reviewer said.

From the darkness a voice said, "What do you need Bossman?"

I asked, "Do you have any menus I can take?"

He very nicely said, "I sure do Bossman!" and slid the little sliding window sideways and gave me a paper menu.

Yesterday, I tried Cajun John's shrimp po'boy. Anna ordered, well, I guess you would it was a shrimp dinner which came with one side. She wanted Okra. From the darkness Cajun john asked, "Bossman, do you want your po'boy fully dressed?"

"Yes, please". I was hoping it would be fully dressed with whatever makes Cajun Cajun, like spices of all kinds and other tasty delights.

Both Anna's and my shrimp were plentiful deep fried popcorn shrimp. It was good. But it was not spicy as I was hoping. It had lettuce, tomato, and mayo and also I think a sauce of some kind. Maybe po'boys are not suppose to be spicy, what do I know?

(Note - I take that back, Po'boys do not have to be spicy. See the comment below from my old Navy buddy Reuben)

However, the okra was a little spicy!



I want to try his Cajun Chicken the next time. Then maybe gater bites and after that frog legs.

I heard Cajun John sing to himself as he cooked and assembled our meals. When I heard movement noises near the window I asked him about gumbo.

"No gumbo, it is too hot of a season".

"Crawfish Etouffee?" I asked.

"No Bossman, too hot for crawfish."

So! That is why! It is a seasonal item!

The next time I heard movement in the darkness he was wrapping our food in butcher white wax paper on the counter inside the window. He told me the price and I paid him. He thanked the Bossman.

As I was putting the food behind the seat in the car Cajun John himself stepped out of his building and was walking hurriedly up towards the convenience store. I asked him if I could take a picture of him. He was very kind. He stopped wherever he was going and posed.


Cajun John out of the shadow and in broad daylight.

1958 OLYMPIAN - PTA & Other Stuff

Rhetta Akamatsu, Marietta Ghostbuster

Yesterday we went to the Marietta History Museum to listen to a talk given by Rhetta Akamatsu.

Rhetta wrote the book HAUNTED MARIETTA. HAUNTED MARIETTA fascinated me for three reasons: (1) it covers the history of Cobb County very well (2) It talks about ghosts of Marietta, and (3) most importantly, it mentions Chicken-fat.com and me several times.

I did a review on the book in October 2009. To read the review, click here .

The talk was to start at 11:30. We arrived 30 minutes (of course) and were the first ones there (as usual). After a few minutes the second party arrived, which was the speaker of the day, Rhetta Akamatsu. In person she is very easy going and non-pretentious.

When we shook hands she recognized my name instantly and seemed delighted that I had come. She said Chicken-Fat was the first to review her book. And HAUNTED MARIETTA was the first book to mention Chicken-Fat - and, to my knowledge, is still the only contender in that category.

Rhetta spoke for an hour and then took questions. We had a doctor's appointment and had to hit the road as soon as Amy, the curator, gave her a gift and opened the floor opened for questions.

I videoed it off and on during her talk but because of the sound quality I am just putting the beginning and end to give you a jest of it. See below.