SUNDAY FUNNIES - Double Feature of QUIPS!

These quips are from MAD #13. Editor Harvey Kurtzman always claimed with MAD he was one artist short. First we will do the letter page, then on to the quips, which are photos, to make up for that one artist short claim.










I don't know of any one who can predict the future, certainly not Harvey Kurtzman. You can look at his career time-line and see he had no idea about his future. But, with that said, with the above, he was the only writer of MAD at that time, he gave us a hint of his future: HELP magazine which he would be editing in the future used plenty of quipt style pages. They were cheap!

Also note that the HELP quips are bolder and maybe even controversial. The MAD ones were, well, comicbook limited.

On This Date In History, September 11, 2001

Suddenly everything changed, including state of minds.

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Fuzzy St. John and Lash LaRue

On this date in history, September 10, 1893, Al “Fuzzy” St. John was born in Santa Ana, California.

Fuzzy had a lot of fans in Marietta, especially among the young Saturday morning Strand Theater movie going crowd. On the big silver screen he kept us laughing and howling. He was a regular Charlie Chaplin; an excellent body-language mime, except Fuzzy talked and fussed a lot.

One time Fuzzy came through Marietta. Exactly why, I do not know. I know. It may have had something to do with another well-known cowboy, Lash LaRue, Fuzzy’s sidekick, who also had a stay in Marietta about the same time. When Lash was in town he was down and out. It was about the same time period.

At the time, my father was chief of the Cobb County Police. One evening he met Mr. St. John.

Fuzzy died in 1963, which were not too many years after his Marietta visit. He lived about 70 years.

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My Petty Relatives

These are some of my distant relatives that lived in Fannin County, Georgia, in the early 1900s.

Just judging from the body languare I would expect the boy, Jim Petty, to have one ear swollen from being pinched and Mrs. John Petty to have a muscular thumb and finger.

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All GOBAGs Either Present or UnAccounted For

This video is a little different than most of the videos on Chicken-Fat.com because I am in it. Usually I am on the other side of the camera, but this time one Paul Roper commandeered the camera for a cllip.

Our GOBAG meeting was nice. They are always nice. There was nothing big going on. I think each of us and/or have our ailments and complaints but keep our bitching to a minimum. We joined two round tables together at the American Legion and talked about our Navy years, other friends not there, restaurants, and a few adventures or mis-adventures.

I got one historical fact straight during our meeting. Back at the Cobb County Fair in about 1958 or 59 a group of Marietta High boys went into a hoochee-choochee show at the carnval part of the fair. The girl did not strip all the way, almost. I heard Arnold G. demanded that the girl strip completely or they, he and his freinds, would topple the tent poles and bring it down. For over 50 years I have thought it was Arnold. Why not, he was big and bold. He Arnold was sitting next to me, so I asked him was. He said, "No, it was Lawton." Lawton was also big, ballsy, bold, and brash. That made more sense. Now, that historical fact has been settled.

That also spurred somebody else to remember a stripper another time at the carnival where a girl, stipped naked, lit a cigar, dropped it, and squatted down and picked it by her "gripper". He even remembered her name. He said then she put it in her mouth and smoked it! As if that was the punch line. I said I heard that she also, when she was holding it by her "gripper" she made it puff smoke! That was a God-given talent.

In earlier times we might have been sitting around a pork barrel at a general store. It is a pleasure to see them every week. We have a revolving door of about 30 to 40 that come or don't come every week. Our little band of light drinkers are a holdover from our teenage years. We cling to our memories by clinging to our old friends. It is sort of like a Beer Fountain of Youth served with Cheetoes.

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Remembering DragonCon 13 Years Ago

The above picture is a tee-shirt I bought during our 1997 Dragoncon visit.

The Atlanta Dragoncon’s last day for the year was yesterday. By now all the people have packed their super hero and/or space monster costumes and their comic books and have went back to their homes to return to normalcy.

My son Adam and I went to the 1997 Dragoncon and I haven’t been back. We didn’t go dressed up as fantasy characters. What you saw was the real us.




We saw underground comic artist Skip Williamson, who is a friend of mine. In fact, if it wasn’t for him we probably wouldn’t have gone. We also saw the creator of BONE and Peter Bagge, the creator of HATE!*

Denis Kitchen owner of Kitchen Sink Publishing was there. He and I had a nice talk.


He and Harvey Kurtzman were co-collaborators on some publications and he republished all the LI’L ABNER comic strips, among others. His company went bankrupt since our little talk.

I was most moved by seeing and talking to Albert Feldstein. Al was the editor and co-creator of all the EC Horror and Science Fiction comicbooks of the 50s. He is also the one who lost his job when the parents were convinced that these types of comics were bad for their children. At about the same time MAD, edited by my hero Harvey Kurtzman, was the only one of the EC publications that flourished.




Then suddenly MAD changed editors. Al Feldstein was the editor and Harvey Kurtzman was popping up as editor of various MAD’s newly competitor magazine such as TRUMP, HUMBUG, and HELP.

During this period MAD changed its personality. It changed to a mag that appeared to a larger audience. We previous MAD followers, under Harvey Kurtzman, were drawn to its warped and inside sense of humor.

Financially, I’m sure it was a right move, to have Feldstein as editor. But I was still pissed off at Al Feldstein for ruining a good magazine. Although by the time of this Dragoncon I knew the story of how Kurtzman demanded more money and controlling interest and he was let go, not for artistically differences, but because of his own greed. It was Kurtzman’s reason he was fired, not Feldstein’s or publisher William Gaines. But, as I said I was still pissed off at Feldstein for changing my favorite magazine.

Then, at the Con there was Al Feldstein in person. He is a very likeable guy. He was nice and friendly and seemed impressed about how much I knew about different issues. Either he was impressed with my knowledge or thought I was a compulsive nut. Either way we got along fine. At times it seemed that he couldn’t wait to hurriedly sign one of the EC Horror comics to get back to our conversation.

At his booth he was hawing his original art work of the three witches (The Crypt Taker, etc, etc). He also told me he retired after being editor of MAD for 30 years and bought a ranch in Colorado or Utah and has created some great paintings of the surrounding area.




I walked away feeling great, because I forgave him.

*Don’t let the title fool you, HATE is an in-depth study of a typical family as seen through the eyes of the son, who is becoming of age to make it on his own. It was very well done. In fact, it was done well enough to pull out the back issues and re-read sometimes.

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Watch out! Be careful where you sit. Somebody left boogers in the boat!

Threatened?

The picture above - why do some people, when they see something praising the working class they scream "Communists!!" ?

I have some good news for David Poe, Sam Huff, Williamson Brothers, Slopes family, Old South BBQ family, Smoking J’s, Smokey Bones, and Eat Good BBQ Here. The good news for these fine folks is that I am no longer a threat to them when it comes to cooking baby back ribs.

Of course, they may ask, “Was he ever a threat?” Well, that is immaterial now isn’t it?

I cooked a rack of ribs about twenty years ago and made a mess. I waited and tried again this past weekend. I made another mess. The ribs were hard and burned to a crisp.

I researched how to cook baby back ribs looking at Google and the Food Channel website. There were many variations but all agreed to cook them long and slow at a low heat, which I did. They also all agreed that when you can easily pull a bone out, then the ribs are ready.

I kept my grill between 225 and 275 as they all said. I waited and waited, checking every fifteen minutes. Hours went by and it never got to the point that I could easily pull out a bone. It was dried and crusty black before I finished with it.

I guess I’ll stick to turkey dogs, turkey burgers, and steaks.

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SUNDAY FUNNIES - Fantastic Fables

Basil Wolverton's FANTASTIC FABLES might have been a success in the late 1930s if it wasn't for BUCK ROGERS, a similar space comic.

Marietta Weekend Festivities, Part II

The first part of the Marietta weekend festival was an art walk Friday evening. See the video for yesterday on yesterday's blob that will explain what that was about.

The video today has the same music as we are on the same subject, sort of.

On Saturday (yesterday) was the first day of the Labor Day Arts & Crafts Show on the Square in Marietta. If was about a dozen rows of booths for people to show off their handmade wares and bargain and/or seal a deal. The festival started Saturday and will last through Monday.

It looks like Marietta people are always festive doesn't it?

There are hoards of people, mostly money spending yuppies*. The Saturday Farmer’s Market had to move down by the railroad tracks to allow room for the booths.

As in Friday’s video I am somewhat reluctant of actually showing art work close up. They made their art to sale and to make money and me showing the art does not help them make money. If it makes them feel any better, I don't make any money on this either.


When I saw a picture someone painted of the Marietta North Park Square I had to break my rule and show the painting up close. The artist is Anni Moller. We have purchased over the years three prints of her paintings. and She is excellent painting local scenes and capturing the pulse of the area. She is not a native. She has a foreign accent, which backs up what I have been saying, artists from the outside can do a better job portraying people in the circle than the people could do themselves.

Speaking of the North Park Square. I purposely showed the Strand Theater, then marched your eyes down to the other end of the street the Schillings Restaurant. In my formative years it was named Schillings then too, but it was Schillings Hardware. When you first walk in the front door was a big weighin scale. When walking to The Strand Theater we most of the time stopped by Schillings and weighed. By the scales was a glass case displaying fancy knives which we then marveled at.

Before the Civil War Schillings was a hotel. In the back was a stable for horses. And later, in the 1930s the building where the stable was became the terminal building for the streetcar. And now it is a lawyers firm. We were in the building on business within a year and noticed the ceiling of the conference room. It is metallically ornate with fancy artwork left over from the streetcar terminal days.

*Which reminds me of Friday when walking into an antique shop a couple were walking out with something wrapped up. One said, “We’ll put it up after yoga tomorrow.” You would have never heard that sentence in that same spot 40 years ago.

Art Walk Is Not a Cake Walk

Note- The second clip the camera lens look at Willow Antiques. Willow Antiques is where my uncle Herbert Hunter had Hunter's Barber Shop for years.

Yesterday was the Art Walk in downtown Marietta.

The event is held the first Friday of the warm months. This is the first one we have been to and we enjoyed it. It is held by various merchants, not all. There were 30 places on a little map you could visit and see artists and their original art, which of course, had price tags. The stores that displayed the art also had merchandise to sell. We bought some stuff from one of the merchants, so I hope she got back part of her investment.

By investment I mean most stores had treats, such as dip and chips. Some had live musicians. I think we came across three, maybe four, small trios playing jazz-like music.

We arrived early, of course. And we did quiet a bit of walking, luckily there are places to sit down and rest from time to time.

We went to the Marietta Art Museum. The Marietta Art Museum was the Post Office in my formative years and I still think of it as that. But contrary to my mind, since the Post Office moved it has been the Marietta Library and for year it has been the Museum. I was impressed with the museum. It had Atlanta museum quality pieces of art.

In the lobby of the museum was Linda Flournoy, painting another masterpiece, right before your very eyes. The lobby room had maybe a dozen of her paintings which I think looked good. Standing near her talking to her while she painted was a man who was signing his book, a book about revenge – or maybe how to control your revenge. But how could one paint while someone is yakking at them. How can one be inspired with constant yakking directing your way? Beats me. She seemed not to be bothered, maybe she read his book.

Linda Flournoy is the widow of an ex-Mayor of Marietta, Robert E. Flournoy Jr.(1982-1985). Robert was also a lawyer and later in life a judge.

Every time I think of Bob Flournoy I remember one time at a Concert at Glover Park all the living previous mayors were asked to come for a special presentation or something. Mr. Flournoy, his wife Linda, and their children had reserved a long table. We were sitting just outside of the ropes watching them. He was spending most his time with his grandson. His grandson had a toy remote racing car. The boy and the judge carried the remote car over to a vacant area near the children’s play area and the boy showed his grandfather how he could make the little car go forwards, backwards, and turn. They were called back to the table to eat.

The reserved Flournoy table had something that looked delicious, I forgot what, and flowers, wine, and fresh baked bread. Grandpa Flournoy sat at the head of the table. While his family members were passing things around he sat there studying the remote car he had on the table in front of him. Then he pressed a button he shouldn’t have and the remote control car went at a high rate of speed down the length of the table knocking everything over it made contact with, then plunged on the ground. For a moment, they were all speechless, then a big laugher.

While on the Square we ate at Old Ephraim's Restaurant. Ephraim’s has delicious pulled pork. It has just enough natural juices, sizzled fat, and crisp burnt edges to be just right. I think Ephraim’s pulled pork rivals Dave Poe’s and Sam Huff’s.

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Book Report on THE DEVIL AMONGST THE LAWYERS

THE DEVIL AMONGST THE LAWYERS by Sharyn McCrumb

A Ballad Novel

Characters: Nora Bonesteel, her cousin Carl Jennings, a reporter, and more reporters.

This book is the latest of Sharyn McCrumb Ballad series. I have read all her Ballads and feel I know all the past ballad characters. This time only one former character makes an appearance, Nora Bonesteel. In previous books Nora was someone with a some years behind her. This time she is 12 years old. Nora has the “gift of sight” (or curse) allowing her to see dead people or see quick glimpses of the future. Nora is shown to be intelligent and wise beyond her age. Even at twelve years old, people respected her. At that early age she had a graceful way about her, or was it just my imagination? The first section of the book has the acknowledgments and statement that this book is a fictionalized version of the 1935 murder trial of Edith Maxwell.

The prologue tells of a traveling circus where an elephant named Big Mary stomped her novice trainer to death in front of shocked on-lookers during the circus’s opening day parade. He had denied her a watermelon. The elephant was hanged by the neck until dead by a railroad crane. It was a gala event which the whole town in Kingsport, Tennessee came to watch. People have a cruel, morbid curiosity. It reminded me of a similar elephant killing that took place in South Georgia about the same time period as Big Mary. It also reminded me of Dumbo the Elephant’s protective mother.

The prologue opened with the book’s chief subject, the press. The power of the press and its ability to rile people’s feelings in the long run was the reason Big Mary was hanged like a conniving murderess.

That reminded me of the USS Maine, Hearst Newspapers, and the Spanish American War. The USS Maine was destroyed in the Havana port in 1898, and I don’t think it was ever decided who’s fault it was. Randolph Hearst’s newspapers scared the American public into thinking it must have been Spain’s espionage; thus, a war was born all because of the blasting words of a newspaper.

Ms. McCrumb's book is not so much about the cast of the killing itself, such as the victim, the accused, and the law, but about the press reporting the trial. The trial takes place in Wise County, Virginia. Ms. McCrumb makes a study of the press members reporting the trial and looks at their private lives.

Of course the press characters are creations by Ms. McCrumb’s mind, giving them a life-force of their own, expounding on each one at a time and what made him or her tick. The book explained how the press can report quotes exactly but yet add some interpretive facial expression that will guide the reader how to feel about the person being quoted.


The press had freedom to paint the country side to guide their readers outlook and opinions. The reading public expected to see shacks and children wearing flour sacks, so that is what they got! Although, the photographer had to search all over the area to find some kids who had some of those kind of clothing in the attic.

The accused lady’s brother was one person that probably had less page space than any other of the main characters, but his actions orchestrated the whole plot. He was a natural born salesman who knew the pulse of the public and how to direct them to do as he wished. He made lemonade out of his father’s death, even at his sister's expense. Being the more worldly family member with more knowledge of money, he took charge of things. He made deals for exclusive interviews, sold family pictures, accepted “donations” for the defense expense, which may or may not have all went to the defense. He seemed to have a price for everything he had to offer. Knowing his sister was pretty and innocent looking, he knew the American public would want to keep up with the story if she was the accused and remained in jail for a while. It smells like a double feature tragedy.




In the book the expression "the Code of the Hills" is mentioned several times. And so did Al Capp in his LI'L ABNER comic strip, the above picture came out of the daily strips in 1940. I think Al Capp, a Bostonian used the code of the hills expression often. It was pointed out in the book that the origins of the expression is above the Mason-Dixon Line.

It was good to have another ballad from Ms. McCrumb as I was afraid she was wandering away from them. A good read.

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This Date In History - September 2, 1864

Today’s date in history, September 2, 1864, Sherman captured Atlanta.

A couple weeks before his capture of Atlanta he and his men were camped out on the Cobb County side of the Chattahoochee River. On the opposite side, the Atlanta side, CSA’s General Joseph Johnston’s men were camped out.

It was hot. There was the cool tempting flowing river. The North and South militaries called a temporary truce. Men from both sides left their guns and clothes on the banks and jumped in and had a good time splashing about.

Men from each side joked and splash each other. One of the yankee bathers that was cutting up and splashing the rebs was General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was at arm’s length and naked too! If only they had known.
After the capture of Atlanta, Sherman and his men marched to the sea. He had only about three months worth of shopping days left until Christmas. I don’t know the exact date, but it must have been in December, his forces captured Savannah. Sherman telegraphed President Lincoln saying in so many words, “Your Christmas present is Savannah.”

You might think Sherman was really a good old guy that just had a job to do, and thinking that joisting and playing in the water with the men on the other side proves that. You should also know that in and around Savannah wherever they went they had Confederate Prisoners, and ex-slaves to walk ahead in case of any hidden land mines.

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Look UP, Look Down - It Is High

High Museum in Atlanta.
pictures by me

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