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SUNDAY FUNNIES!!! John Severin at CRACKED



The artist is John Severin.   John was one MAD's four original artists.  Somehow he got rooted out.  His connections to MAD creator and editor go way back years before there was a MAD - they share office space, along with Will Elder and a couple more, when they were all freelancing. 







Saturday, May 30, 2020

Birth of Rock Hunter






1957.  In English class the class welcomed a new kid.  The new kid was tall and lanky.  His last name was Crane.  The teacher had him sit an empty desk fairly close to me.  To be friendly I called him Ichabod , as in Ichabod Crane, in THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.  He failed to see the humor.  He glared at me.

At lunch that day I was standing around the bunch of boys that were hiding smoking and suddenly I saw Crane coming at me swinging his fists like a windmill. 
I think someone told him to beat up somebody on his first day to establish his dominance, just like in prison.  
Although swinging those fists like a mad man he left his face opened.  I popped him in the face.  He again came at me swinging at the air and this time I  popped him and he had a bloody nose.  He ran off holding his face.
I honestly don’t remember seeing him again.  He was probably around but just avoid me.
The boys I was standing with more or less said, “Wow!”
The late Jackie Turner, who died of cancer last year said, “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?”
It just so happened that week in downtown Marietta at the Strand Theater WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER staring Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield was showing.
And then and there my nickname Rock Hunter was born.  Which I answered to among  my high school and Navy friends.
Maybe Crane goes by Ichabod Too.
Not that it matters but my ancestor Joseph Bookout (1701-1806)’s brother John Bookhoult, I have this information :
"The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" (the Headless Horseman) started in the cemetary at the Dutch Reform Church, Tarrytown, New York (near the Hudson River.

     John BOOKHOUT or his son was serving on the Board of Elders when the legend was born.  Later Washington Irvin made the legend into a published story.

And two years ago

I am a big fan of a New Orleans street band TUBA SKINNY.  A couple years ago they came to Atlanta and played.  The leader Shaye Cohn politely and gently told me to get out of their faces with my camera.  I think Shaye Cohn is either grandchild or step grandchild of Jayne Mansfield (star of WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER)

It’s a small world isn’t it?




Class Clown?





1981.  Here is Rocky with his kindergarten teachers Mrs Tollinger & Bidey.   Maybe he heard me bragging about being the class clown.

Friday, May 29, 2020








This picture was taken of me sitting by the top of a waterfall in North Georgia, about 1967, smoking a cigarette.  Everybody knew back then when you took a long healthy draw of a cigarette, you could see things deeper and see the meaning of life.

I remember what I was thinking as I inhaled.  I was wondering if I peed into the waterfall, would my urine flow into the Savannah River and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean or would it flow into the Chattahoochee River and go into the Gulf of Mexico? 

Or into a drinking supply and into someone’s coffee?

Questions, questions!  And no answers.

W. G. Bruce R.I.P.






W. J. Bruce did Wednesday.  He was a retired carrier that had a route in Zip code 30066.

  He had a sharp quick wit.  The exampled that I always remember once a clerk named Debby was appointed a detail which was not distributing mail.  W.J saw her walking by with a pen and clipboard.  He asked her shouldn’t she be helping getting the mail to the carriers.  

Debbie said she was on detail.

He said, “Well get off DE TAIL and do some work”

He was an excellent country singer.  All you had to do was mention a subject and if there is song about that subject and he would sing the first verse in perfect sound as the hit.

On his route a lady complained about him.  What did he do?  Nothing.  Why did complained?  She just did not like him and wanted someone else to deliver her mail (WJ. had a Van Dyke beard cut).  Which the manager of the post office branch W.J. worked at accommodated her.  Another carrier had to go out of his or her way to please her.

As sharp as W.J. was he came down with Alzheimer's Disease.  Alzheimer's  can strike the best.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Strange Encounter



Yesterday we went to the hospital complex to the wound center for an appointment.  They have been packing my wound about every 2 weeks and is healing, or closing up slowly..

Outside their office, just before we entered a lady approached us pushing a shopping cart that had her clothes and probably the rest of her belongings,  She asked if we knew where the Witcher Medical building and told us the time of her appointment.  The Witcherf Building is a block away.  We told her how to get there.  Then she started telling us her life story. 

Anna broke in and said, "You better hurry, you only have five minutes to get there."
The lady said, "I an't worried about that." and went on talking.

We were!   I think we pride ourselves on getting to our scheduled appointments at least an hour before we should. 

Nancy Petty & Winfield Scott


My g-g-grandfather Elijah Petty's daughter Nancy Petty (1841-1917) and her husband Winfield Scott Murray (abt 1820 - ?)






Wednesday, May 27, 2020

I An't Worried about that


Today I had a medical appointment in the Wellstar-Kennesaw Complex.  I let Anna off near it and went to park.  After I parked and came back to see Anna was still outside.  She was talking to a lady that had a grocery cart with clothes and other needs in it.
She had an appointment at a doctors’ office in the Witcher Street Building.  She wanted to know how to get there.  It would be easier to go through the main hospital, down Main Street, which eventually would take you to the long hall that goes over Witcher Street into the Wicher Street Building.   Our directions got her confused.

I imagined the lady pushing her shopping buggy down Main Street of the hospital.  She did not say but I suppose all her earthy  belongings were in that cart.

We told her a way to get there staying on the streets’ sidewalks and she seemed to understand that better, even though it would take her longer to get to her destination.

Anna told the lady she had better hurry; her appointment was in 5 minutes.

The lady said, “I an’t worry about that.”

And there we were, one hour early, which is usual for us.

Twitter fact checked Trump and he wants to shut down social medias. wow!




 Updated on 

  •  
    Attack comes after Twitter fact-checked, labeled Trump tweet
  •  
    Tech companies have faced criticism from conservatives of bias
Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 26.
Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 26. Photographer: Oliver Contreras/SIPA/Bloomberg


President Donald Trump threatened to regulate or shutter social media companies -- a warning apparently aimed at Twitter Inc. after it began fact-checking his tweets.
In a pair of tweets issued Wednesday morning from his iPhone, Trump said that social media sites are trying to silence conservative voices, and need to change course or face action.
There is no evidence that Trump has the ability to shut down social media networks, which are run by publicly traded companies and used by billions of people all over the world.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” he said Wednesday. In a second tweet, he added: “Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country.”

Innards of the cruise ship SOVEREIGN OF THE SEA






















Comfort wise, it beats the USS NEWPORT NEWS which I spent a month on in 1965, especially the head.  For you land lubbers the head is the bathroom.  On the Newport News  it was so crowded with enlisted men we had to stand in line to use the toilet and when you finally got to a seat you had to almost touch bare knees when someone else taking a shit.  I don't think nobody looked you in the eyes during seating time.  Not so on the SOVEREIGN.  You could even shut the door!

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

No Laughing Matter





This was taken in December 1981.  I don't remember why my son was so upset.  I hope he doesn't remember either.

How to Communicate with a Dummy







by

"Mr. Trump rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview, the officials said. Briefing him has been so great a challenge compared with his predecessors that the intelligence agencies have hired outside consultants to study how better to present information to him."

Nature's Plagiarism







About 1985 I went to a family reunion up in the North Georgia Mountains.   I have been to this branch of the family reunion several times before and got to know some of my distant cousins.
I went with George to his car to help him carry drinks to the food table.  George is married to my distant cousin, so that makes George a distant-cousin-in-law.  We had a long walk.  On the way I asked him what was new.  He asked me did his wife tell me he was being considered to be head of his department at a prestigious college he was a professor at.  I said, yes she did.
George said, “Well, I didn’t get it.”
He went on to say how sorry and low-down was the person that did get it.  He said the only thing he had working for him was his mouth, he was a smooth talker.  The more he talked about it the more angrier he got.  His voice was quivering and he was crying.  I calmed him down as best I could and we carried the drinks back to the food table.  I don’t thin anybody suspected he was  very upset just minutes before.
Whoever picked George’s adversary to be head of he department probably knew what he/she was doing.  George died about t wo years later and his wife, also an educator, died shortly after that.
But this story is taking a turn to a completely different subject, abut will tie itself in.

I am reading (or looking) at the book MAN AND SUPERMAN AND OTHER STORIES ILLUSTRATED BY HARVEY KURTZMAN.   The late Harvey Kurtzman is known widely for creating MAD comicbook and  magazine and two EC Publishing War comicbooks.  He also contributed a lot to the other EC comic books, such as SCIENCE FANTASY, CRIME and more.  This book is a collection of his other stories he created for EC.

Today I read/looked/ Kurtzman’s THE MAN WHO RACED TIME.  Guess what it about?  It is about a college professor who had hopes of getting promoted to the head of the department but some else, a smooth talker, was picked instead and he didn’t take it well.
Just like George!
Of course this guy blew off steam by plotting revenge which the rest of tI w  he story is about.

I was amazed at the similarity of George and the comicbook story.  The first 2 pages were identical.  Like I said Georges event was about 1985 and Kurtzman wrote and illustrated the story in 1950s.
No plagiarism.