Sherman was in the Men's Restroom

Not long ago I mentioned  a picture above the urinal in the Men's Restroom of  Smoke Jack BBQ  restaurant  in Alpharetta.   I think it was Janice Grant Jennings Barker said retorted that women's restroom did not have pictures above their... wait!  That might be the problem!  There are no urinals in the women's restrooms are they?

Anyway, I said back to her that it isn't rare to see something to look at while a man is standing in front of the urinal .  I have seen sports pages, Wall Street Journal pages, The New York Times... or maybe I did not say all I just mentioned, but I meant to.

I capped it off by saying the Men's restroom at the Marietta Museum of History did have a picture of Sherman above the  urinal, but it wasn't still there, somebody must have complained.

In order to preserve history even disappearing pictures in the restrooms, luckily enough, I took a picture of it.    

Portrait of Congress & Private Entrprise

A portrait of the government (L) and private enterprise (R) working hand in hand.  

National Electronic Game Day!

Happy National Electronic Game Day

Although  the day  is about to call it a day, there is still time to celebrate National Electronic Game Day - in fact, I suspect most electronic games are played very late at night and in the wee hours of the morning.

I started off play Pac-Man, then Frogger, and Donkey Kong.  The excitement got too much for me so now I  play on the computer Solitaire, Dirty Bird, and Pool - and occasionally a game of Scrabble on the i-pad. - and also my JEOPARDY game!  I keep forgetting about the JEOPARDY game, and it is the best trivia game I have.  

As a matter of fact, I still have my Pac-Man's wrist pain.  True!

I wonder if they have a National manual game board day?    

Manual?  What's that?

Paul Everett Foster Taking a Spin in a Studio

The one closest to the camera is Anna's grandfather, Paul Everett Foster, Sr (1895 1936).

I commented on another photo a few weeks ago that back in the early 1900s  one of the props in portrait studios was the new fangled automobile.  See!  

These Jones men are brothers and cousins, also on Anna's side, her mother's mother's side.

This is Will Tyson.  He is on my side.  He is my father's mother's brother.  He knew how to pinch a penny until until it pleaded for mercy.

Does Anybody Know What Time It Is, or Really Care?

A fellow blogger, Susan, of  Patchwork  Reflections, http://patchworkreflections.blogspot.com,  had an interesting post about time pieces, such as watches, clocks, and the math of it all.   Check it out at http://patchworkreflections.blogspot.com/2014/01/got-time.html.

I heard recently that there is a trend among the elite, fashionable, and pacesetters to not to wear a watch for the sake of seeing what time it is.  If I understand it right it is OK to wear a watch like an expensive gold bracelet, it doesn't even have to hands or other moving parts, as long as it is chic.  It is like making the statement, "I'm so cool and worldly, time is not important t me, it is too materialistic."

If this trend continues to spread a whole lot ways of life will have to change.

When attending church is when  does the sermon start, when the pastor arrive or the  most of the  congregation?

When making a doctor's appointment  make it for "when I get there.  If you get there at  4 hours after the office is closed you can say, "How crude!  And  call the doctor at home to come back in, he didn't take into account you are a chick person that doesn't believe in watches that tell time.

If people tell  you to spring forward one hour in the spring time look at them  in pity and feel sorry for them.

If  in school your child's school principal calls you and tells you your child never arrives on time.  Just smile and shake your head and explain to them there is no such thing as time.

If you come into a movie theater and the movie has already started, demand they stop and it and start over.  If they tell you that you are late, you can say, "Not late at being cool and fashionable!  Now,  restart the movie like I told you."

If you go to a concert, the same applies.

When McDonald and other fast food restaurants take down their breakfast menu at 10:30 and you show up when the sun is in the middle of the sky (don't use the word "Noon")  demand a sausage and biscuit and tell them you might not wear a watch but your money is good as anybody's.

If they get this trend to work, next they might work on throwing away calendars unless they like seeing the monthly pictures.

Happy National Chuck the Powefulr Killer Day

True, today is NATIONAL CHUCKY THE POWERFUL KILLER DAY.   With today's shooting and killing trends is anybody surprised?

Because it is one week from Halloween, Chucky the Powerful Killer day might be Halloween's kick-off.

Today is World No-Tobacco Day

It used to look cool, manly, wise, and glamorous to smoke.  That is why many of us fools got addicted.  We wanted to look cool, or manly, or wise, or glamorous.  It appeared many of looked as if we got a deep insight into the subject at hand if we took a long draw off your choice of smokes, inhaled it, held it, then exhale it.  How could anyone argue with the logic of that?  It was all over the movies.

And many of us suffered with cancer and just plain dumbness.  And unfortunately, our loved ones suffered too with second hand smoke.

Those were the days!

Hack!

Who Will Win the Debate Tongiht?

The answer is in the eyes and ears of the beholder.

If you are a die hard Republican you will know feel Romney won the debate even before he opened his mouth.

And if you are a die-had Democrat you will know Obama won without a question.

The debate is less than one hour away and you already know, in your heart, who won the debate.

As a matter of fact, they don't even have to show up.  The results are already in.

What I Learned While Listenilng to NPR

If you are reading an e- book on your Kindle or your i-pad there is a good chance you are telling publishers how to make a book more readable.

As you read an e-book your reading device is sending messages to the publisher telling the details.  If you put it down for a while the devices report on what page you put it down and how long of a break you took.  An analyical expert can figure why you put it down - was it that you didn't like what was going on, or just boring?  From what your actions are they will know how to design a book that you will probably like.

The next book or the next you read could be computer generated - that you unknowingly created the formular.

It is like used to at Blockbusters they displayed a video and said,  "If you like this video, then you will like these:"

The e-book I am currently reading is a novel based on historical facts.  If I linger too much in one spot or even quit reading, it is possible my actions will distort future histoical novels based on the same time period so it will sell .  For instance I could go on a trip and forget to carry my i-pod and the next novel about Tom Dooley would make him out a successful man who never had V.D.

Who needs facts and a creativitive writer  when you have a analyical statistician?

Memories of the Peachtree Road Race in the 80s.

I ran the Atlanta July the 4th Peachtree Road Race for several years, from about 1983 to 1987.  In 1988, I had my number but two days before the race my brother-in-law drowned.  I sold my number that year and have not been back.

A few years when I was running it I trained on Sunday mornings.  I would drive to Piedmont Park, get my bike out of the back, chain it to something and then drive back up Peachtree to Lenox Square , park, and run back down Peachtree.  Usually about one or two hundred other people were also training.  I felt part of something, which is a rarity for me.

About the only thing that stands out on my Sunday morning training runs wasacross from Piedmont Hospital I saw an old man in rags bending over doing something by an alley.  Being the nosy person I am, I made a point to run on the sidewalk to see what he was doing.  He was digging through a garbage can by a restaurant back door and gnawing on rib bones.

On the 4^th, race day, before the race began, I always found it amusing to go around and look at the people.  At one place, across from Lenox, was a temporary fence called the “World’s Longest Latrine.”  I remember standing by the small trench of the World’s Largest Latrine relieving myself and in walked about a half dozen women with numbers on.  They hunkled down over the little trench and relieved themselves too.

I don’t blame the ladies.  There were not nearly as many facilities  for women as there were for men.  I remember a patch of woods by Lenox Road at the time – in the trees almost behind every bush and tree was a women stooping behind it.  Remember everybody was suppose to drink plenty of liquids before the run – well, what do they expect?

I saw several semi-famous people lingering around before the race, mostly news people, including anchor people – John Pruett comes to mind.  I saw Jimmy Carter two years near the back of the line of people to start racing.

When the race started, they did not have waves or segments as they have now.  After the real runners  got underway everybody else began their run.  I always started near the back and worked my way up some – not a whole lot, but some.  Up enough to be in the middle of the mass of people making a party or a happening out of it all, which was always interesting.

I think just about every time we started out walking because it was just too crowded to do anything else, and someplace between Piedmont Road and the Roswell Road fork the cadence of walking gets at a faster beat and find you are finally running and you get a “group feeling” of running with the crowd.

A lot of people like to put on a show – some dress like Uncle Sam, some dress like the Statue of Liberty – It seemed there was surprised dresser about every few feet.

There were a lot of volunteers handing out cup of water and sometimes just spraying people with water which was welcomed.

Piedmont Park was crazy with colors; people making announcements over the loudspeaker; loud music; thousands of people moving thousands different directions; t-shirt lines; beer lines, a lot of vender tents, and a stage and rows of seats which was meant for invited speakers to say something.

Which reminds me:  One year the officials of the Atlanta Track Club invited a famous female award winning  runner to come and participate in the race and give a speech afterwards.  She was paid for this and was treated as she should be - royally.  After all the festivities, riding back up Peachtree with someone I knew to take me back to my car I saw the famous lady making the long 6.2 mile back up the road alone.

New Word (to me): GENTRIFICATION

While watching HARRY I was introduced to a new word:  GENTRIFICATION. 

I looked up GENTRIFICATION on Wikipedia and read this:

"Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people ("gentry") acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities.^[1] Urban gentrification is associated with migration within a population. In a community undergoing gentrification, the average income increases and average family size decreases. It is commonly believed that this results in the displacement of the poorer, pre-gentrification residents, who are unable to pay increased rents or house prices and property taxes. Often old industrial buildings are converted to residences and shops. In addition, new businesses, catering to a more affluent base of consumers, move in, further increasing the appeal to more affluent migrants and decreasing the accessibility to the poor."

Now I know why The Clay Homes Low Income Projects, where I spent my first seven years, and my old paperroute neighorhood has been bulldozed away.  The rich rule!

It also explains the Indian Removal (TRAIL OF TEARS) in 1838. 

It also looks unconstitutional to me.  Pretty soon it will be illegal to be poor, or have a low-income.

We Are a Commodity

It is a fact. The rich get richer and poor get poorer. That reminds me of the above cartoon.

I knew it! I knew it!

Yesterday I was sitting in a doctors’ waiting room reading and watching CNN News when they announced the results of a new study:

The management, in general, is rampant with pyschopaths in big organizations.

The study points out elite pyschopaths are brash; willing to take chances; and don’t care who they hurt or how it effect the economics of the company.

I knew it! I knew it!

I have heard of managers loving to be behind a glass that appears to be a mirror when people are brought in to be fired to watch their faces. Sick!

That is just a sample, or a tip of an iceberg I'm sure.

Not all upper management are pyschopaths. I personally know some who are very kind and humane; take the CEO of the blog CHICK-FAT for instance....

Interesting View

Above - The National Cemetery in Marietta being the view for condo dwellers.

If this cemetery has ghosts I bet they are not happy about giving their lives for their country in time of war and their final purpose is to serve as an interesting view or a conversation piece. If it was me, I think I would moon them.

Yes, I Know It Is After Labor Day, Why?

The Hanging on Television

I know of an elderly man who farmed all his life and his bone were tired. About the same time he was too old to work was about the same time, in the 1950s, watching TV was becoming a way of life. Then he watched some TV, which wa new and a novelty to him. Often he would dose off while watching.

One day, at almost lunch time he said, “Turn on the television, they are going to hang that fellow at noon.”

No Explaination Needed

Some things are just funny on their own without any explanation; for example, an on-line announcement went something like this:

The SHS (Sprayberry High School) Class of 1965 will have their luncheon Friday at 1pm at Golden Corral. Senior Discount starts at 1pm.

Hear the Jingle!!

Here is an interesting little fact pulled from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader*:

China is the largest exporter in the world of artificial Christmas trees.

I think it is interesting that a country that was known for discouraging religion, especially Christian religions, makes big bucks from selling a Christmas item.

Which go to show money is the common worshipee.
A buck is a buck.

*UNCLE JOHN’S UNSINKABLE BATHROOM READER, p21

This Day In History, June 21st

Jane Russell was born in 1921 and died this year, Feb., 28, 2011.

Jane had a hand, or maybe another body part, in the creation of pushup bras which of course led to Victorial's Secret and other hottie underwear companies.

In 1943, Jane Russell was being filmed in the move The OUTLAW which was a Howard Hughes movie. Being a perfectionist, Hughes was not satisfied with the way Jane's breasts looked on film. He wanted to show them off more. Then Howard Hughes, always thinking outside the box, designed the strapless pushup bra. And the rest is history.

When I think of Jane Russell I think of the movies GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDS, UNDERWATER, and THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER.

They Kill Elephants Don't They?

Back in the early 1900s public execution of elephants was a sure crowd getter. People would come from miles around to see an elephant put to death.

The executions were put to elephants deemed no longer fitting to live among us, or a danger to live among us. I’m sure if the elephants could speak in their own defense they would say just the opposite, it was the humans that were dangerous to be around.

Several elephants who tromped to death their trainer or someone else who mistreated them were hung by the neck until dead, with the help of a crane.

One circus realized what a crowd getter elephant hanging had at least once had a spectacular elephant hanging and sold tickets and popcorn to hoards people to see such an event.

Even the hero of American inventors, Thomas Edison got in on the showmanship of executing an elephant. It was no secret that he often executed stray dogs and cats near his lab experimenting with creating an electric chair. It was time for something bigger.

Here is what Wikipedia said:

Topsy (born circa 1875, died January 4, 1903), was a domesticated elephant with the Forepaugh Circus at Coney Island's Luna Park. Because she had killed three men in as many years (including a severely abusive trainer who attempted to feed her a lit cigarette),[1] Topsy was deemed a threat to people by her owners and killed by electrocution on January 4, 1903, at the age of 28.[2] Inventor Thomas Edison captured the event on film. He would release it later that year under the title Electrocuting an Elephant.
A means of execution initially discussed was hanging. However, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested and other ways were considered. Edison then suggested electrocution with alternating current, which had been used for the execution of humans since 1890.[citation needed]
To reinforce the execution, Topsy was fed carrots laced with 460 grams of potassium cyanide before the deadly current from a 6,600-volt AC source was sent coursing through her body. She was dead in seconds.[2] The event was witnessed by an estimated 1,500 people and Edison's film of the event was seen by audiences throughout the United States.[citation needed]
When Luna Park burned down, the fire was referred to as "Topsy's Revenge".[citation needed]
On July 20, 2003, a memorial for Topsy was erected at the Coney Island Museum.[3]