This is a test post to see how the text looks after it is cut and pasted from word pad.
On Republitardism
Posted in Uncategorized on March 28, 2010 by braincoffeyEverybody is talking about the Republitards lately.
The IP often tires of the endlessly cranky Howard Kunstler, but sometimes he sums up big-picture issues fairly well:
At least this once a workable majority in the government has stood up to the forces of cruelty and injustice, and whatever else happens to us in the course of this long emergency, it will be a good thing if the party of fairness and justice identifies its adversaries for what they are: not “partners in governing,” or any such academical-therapeutic bullshit, but enemies of every generous impulse in the national character.
I hope that Mr. Obama’s party can carry this message clearly into the electoral battles ahead, painting the Republican opposition for what it is: a gang of hypocritical, pietistic sadists, seeking pleasure in the suffering of others while pretending to be Christians, devoid of sympathy, empathy, or any inclination to simple human kindness, constant breakers of the Golden Rule, enemies of the common good. In fact, the current edition of the Republican party has achieved something really memorable in the annals of collective bad intentions: they have managed to create a sense of the public interest whose main goal is the destruction of the public interest.
And Frank Rich over at the New York Times is good at noting the extreme nature of this scary crowd:
Yet it’s this bill that inspired G.O.P. congressmen on the House floor to egg on disruptive protesters even as they were being evicted from the gallery by the Capitol Police last Sunday. It’s this bill that prompted a congressman to shout “baby killer” at Bart Stupak, a staunch anti-abortion Democrat. It’s this bill that drove a demonstrator to spit on Emanuel Cleaver, a black representative from Missouri. And it’s this “middle-of-the-road” bill, as Obama accurately calls it, that has incited an unglued firestorm of homicidal rhetoric, from “Kill the bill!” to Sarah Palin’s cry for her followers to “reload.” At least four of the House members hit with death threats or vandalism are among the 20 political targets Palin marks with rifle crosshairs on a map on her Facebook page.
Both of the above note that these so-called Tea Partiers are a minority in this country, but they approach the topic with a bit of trepidation. And when you read about some of their rallies, it does make one a bit nervous.
Sometimes things get worse before they get better.
More Stupider!!!
Posted in Uncategorized on March 20, 2010 by braincoffeyThe IP has wanted to feature one of the area’s more stupider McMansions ever since it was “completed” about five years ago. That was way back when the Incredulous Pithecanthrope was the Gregarious Misanthrope; remember that?
This is one of those McMansions with ADD: Architectural Dysfunction Disorder. It can’t seem to decide what it wants to do or say or be, architecturally speaking. The small roundabout drive with the fountain and the palms and the mish-mash of bays, dormers, gables, and fenestration amounts to a design puke. Note the unfinished fencing that was supposed to be between those stone pillars. And oh, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. Check out the back of this place that overlooks a busy road:
One could call it a “Peeping Tom Special” with all those windows. WTF? No wonder this travesty has sat unsold for over five years. Would you want to live in a house where all the drivers on Briarcliff road can stare into your daughter’s bedroom? Again, WTF?
The bad news (good news to some) is that the Atlanta MSA’s real estate bubble looks like it’s being inflated again…the same old shit. New housing starts are up and The IP heard some developer on TV say he was building a new subdivision in Cobb County because he “had a gut feeling.” That’s what created this whole McMansion clusterfuck in the the first place.
Starting tomorrow, The IP is launching Heavy Equipment Equinox, a Springtime review of various road-building equipment, all of which is reconstructing the roads near The IP’s abode, and is parking directly across the street from the same:
The IP is also reconstructing his blog, getting rid of dead links and designing new features…stay tuned and…
Blog at ya later!!
Watchin’ “Weeds” In Da Hood
Posted in Uncategorized on March 14, 2010 by braincoffey
The IP can’t get over the beautiful carpet of purple that is transforming the meadow outside his abode.
The plant is called Deadnettle because, although it has some characteristics of a true stinging nettle, it doesn’t really sting, so it’s “dead.” Get it? Deadnettle. Otherwise known in Latin as Lamium purpureum. It’s in the Lamiaceae family which includes mint. It has rather attractive, bilaterally symmetrical flowers and loves moist soil. It’s also an indicator of high nitrogen content in the same, so it’s often found among crop plants and is considered by many to be a “weed.” WTF?
OK. Now that your little botanical lesson has concluded, The IP just wants to say that he doesn’t give the term “weed” any credence. The term weed in its general sense is a subjective one, without any classification value, since a “weed” is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted. The IP also rejects, much to the chagrin of many of his colleagues, the whole notion of “invasive” species; that’s like saying such plants have actual intentions, evil volition. Plants are plants. People are stupid for trying to anthropomorphize plants and animals.
Now if The IP could just get rid of that careless Kudzu; It’s growing like a damn weed!!
SPECIAL IP ALERT!! YOUR HELP NEEDED!!
The IP and a friend up in NH are trying to find a recording of the Dave Dinger jingle. You folks up in Mass (or those who once lived there) know what he’s talkin’ about:
“How does Dinger do it? Come on and see, off of route 128 in Braintree.”
The first pithecanthrope to find a digital file with the jingle gets a prize. This is really important, so please try to help.
Today on Dr. IP: Type Casting and Rival Relationships
Posted in Uncategorized on March 9, 2010 by braincoffeyAs The IP noted in a post almost a year ago, as a thrift-store collector, he likes to have good examples of many things, rather than a HUGE collection of 1 thing. This is a good approach for when he gets sick of it all and rents out a space in one of those “antique” malls or does the e-bay dump.
Well; not just yet:
Above is the stalwart IBM Model C. It came out in 1959, just before it’s more famous cousin, the “Selecrtric;” that’s the one with the round type ball (spherical typing element) that still amazes when you watch it spin and pivot while in operation. The Model C was IBMs last classic “typebar” type typewriter that totaled over 250,000 sales for Big Blue in its first two years after its introduction, and hundreds-of-thousands more into the 60s and 70s. They showed up on Mad Men regularly, a tribute to that show’s stage design team.
THIS GUY has even more cool IBM ads.
Not only was the Model C successful commercially, it quickly gained a well-earned reputation for classic design and simple-yet-innovative technology. Just it’s weight alone is impressive, and it would not be surprising that some might see it (especially in its green color) as a Government-Issue machine for the Army. It probably did end up in many military offices, actually; and in many military-like corporate offices, too. This particular one (at Goodwill) lived at Georgia Pacific (sticker on the back), an appropriately industrious (and local!) company for such a well-built typewriter. One must imagine that there were probably a lot of people working at IBM and using an IBM typewriter…that would be kinda weird.
And, for whatever it’s worth, it purrs like a kitten and smacks the page with a fast and satisfying “Wack! Wack! Whackety-wack wack!!” And if The IP ever gets involved with the Atlanta mob scene, he can use it as a weight when he dumps that stool pigeon into Lake Lanier; while he’s still alive!! Forgive The IP…He’s been watching too many Peter Gunn episodes lately.
PART II: A Relationship Between Rivals
That would be two Rival Ice-O-Matic electric ice crushers, thank you.
The IP almost shat his pants when he saw the above avocado-green Ice-O-Matic staring at him from the shelf of the Buford Highway Goodwill. All The IP can say is that if he finds a burnt-orange or buckskin beige version, he’ll buy it.
ATLANTA SNOWPACALYPSE!!
Posted in Uncategorized on February 13, 2010 by braincoffeyYesterday afternoon, the dj on Georgia Tech’s radio station (WREK 91.3 FM) warned the greater ATL against driving. After all, it was Atlanta’s own SNOWPOCALYPSE out there!!
Well, not really. In fact, it was a rather quaint “storm,” more pretty than dramatic. Even the radar image was pretty, with various shades of blue, green, pink, yellow & orange…
That radar image is kinda gay-looking, if you ask The IP. OMG!! The IP used the word “gay!” Does he mean that as a pejorative, as a homophobic slight against gays? Maybe he means it in the neutral, like he’s just saying the colors are “gay” and care-free, like the older definition. Maybe it’s because those colors and the bar at the bottom are like a gay-pride flag.
These kinds of questions stalk The IP when he hears (as he did yesterday) Public Service Announcements on college radio stations that give instructions on how to confront people who call things “gay” or “totally gay.” The ironic thing is that most young males in this country would actually say that a PSA that gives instructions on how to deal with people who call things “totally gay” would itself be totally gay. Gee whiz. Some people call The IP a “total douchebag” and he doesn’t freak out.
Sticks and stones? Or broken bones? Hurt feelings? Whatever.
It definitely was a “queer” storm, in the traditional sense of the word. It’s unusual to have a decent snowfall this far south, and while it was not like the big storms of the NE, The IP will take all the snow he can get, quaint, queer, or otherwise.
All this sensitivity about words reached its apex this past week in Atlanta. MARTA had recently color coded its rail lines and named the one that went to Doraville “YELLOW.” That’s right. Like the color. But because of a few outspoken “Asians” (that’s a pretty dumb descriptor as well), a big hub-bub dropped and soon MARTA’s racist transit line became national news; they quickly changed the color of the line to “GOLD.” That was a classic WTF? chain of events and questionable capitulation. Don’t you pithecanthropes think so? Aren’t there already a bunch of YELLOW transit lines in the world?
Well, yesterday’s snow was very WHITE, and, by popular demand, below are a few dumb snow pics from The Quaint Storm of 2010 (please note that The IP is taking care of Beatrix The Wooly Bear again):
Saxby
Posted in Uncategorized on February 8, 2010 by braincoffey
That’s Saxby Chambliss, Georgia’s old-school homophobic lawmaker. It’s a ridicuolous quoute when you think about it. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, especially if you consider what he said just before it:
Today we know we have gay and lesbian soldiers serving. They’ve served in the past. They’re going to serve in the future, and they’re going to serve in a very valiant way.
So, just what is he trying to say? He’s in favor of keeping the “Don’t ask/Don’t tell” policy, so, for Chambliss, if one is gay and doesn’t declare that he or she is, they serve their country in “a valiant way,” and therefore don’t have a “propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts?” Conversely, if you say “I am gay,” all of a sudden you are likely to “demonstrate” the same in front of your fellow soldiers? Logically speaking, it’s all fucked up. It’s a giant WTF?
Then again, what else could we expect from such a person as Chambliss? Oh yeah, he also has a problem with ”body art.” The more Chambliss speaks, the more he makes himself sound like the biggest idiot in the world.
You see, Chambliss represents a large cohort of our population (especially in The South) that just doesn’t know how to deal with the mere existence of gay people. In fact, Chambliss and his ilk just hate gay people. He hates gay people more than most servicemen do. You can’t tell The IP that most soldiers don’t know who is or isn’t gay because of don’t ask don’t tell. And how about all those fine, heterosexual pillars of moral virtue that come home after a tour of duty only to abuse their wives when they get back? Or of the thousands of female victims of sexual assualt in the military?
It’s quite clear that the most problematic sexual orientation in terms of immorality relates to heterosexual men and women. That Chambliss is just grandstanding (quite incoherently) for his good ol’ boy constituency is beyond obvious. How about our famous Lyndie England? Not only did she proudly pose while torturing prisoners, she ”demonstrated” her “propensity” for engaging in heterosexual acts by becoming pregnant. Then the dude that impregnated her dumped her for another female soldier. Talk about morality. The more you think about it, there would be more unit cohesion (and more fun!) if our armed forces were entirely gay!
Two thumbs up for heterosexuality! Lyndie and her boyfriend created their own form of “body art” by using bodies of prisoners to form a living sculpture. Nice.
That’s a rainbow military helmet from WWI. That was before rainbow colors became those of the gay community. No doubt, however, there were plenty of gays wearing them without irony. I bet Chambliss would want gays in military to wear such helmets today so others will know of their propensity to engage in homosexual acts.
OK enough of this depressing discourse. It’s Carnaval in Brasil and The IP is going to put on a cool Paul Mauriat LP and try to forget about Saxby Chambliss and his never-ending crusade to make Georgia look one of the stupidest states in the Union.
A special shout-out to Solange Braga who is on her way to Sao Luis to enjoy Carnaval!
Psyched On Sikes
Posted in Uncategorized on December 26, 2009 by braincoffeyThe IP discovered another vintage chair and its venerable American manufacturer this weekend:
The manufacturer is Sikes out of Buffalo, New York. Much like the Gunlocke Co., Sikes Chair Co. made sturdy furniture beginning in 1859, and even produced some nice Arts & Crafts furniture at the turn of the 20th century.
Sikes pioneered “ergonomic” design in their chairs even before that word came into popular use. The particular chair pictured here has “Fixed-Floating” seat and “Kradl-Tilt” back action. One of the charms of these particular Sikes chairs is the impressive hardware underneath the seat that allows for four adjustments to “…shape this chair with tailor-precision to your individual build, height, weight and comfort-consciousness.” The basic design dates to the 1920s, but it may be a later version as it was one of their workhorse designs that was often updated with varying upholstery and features. The IP guesses 1940s.
That aforementioned hardware also makes this already substantial piece of furniture heavy as a son-of-a-bitch. Yet once on the floor, it provides a one-of-a-kind sitting experience. That’s an actual leather backrest, too. It looked pretty filthy at the thrift store, but all it required was a thorough cleaning with some Old English and some elbow grease. The IP also washed, scrubbed, and vacuum-cleaned the remarkably un-worn seat cushion.
Since The IP is running out of room for another chair at home, he will likely bring this Sikes chair into work for a “visitor” chair outside our Branch’s cubicles; he hopes visitors will appreciate the nice seating.
Merry Christmas From Ohio Bell (and The IP)
Posted in Uncategorized on December 24, 2009 by braincoffeyIn 1996-97, The IP worked in Chicago as an archival assistant for one of the “Baby Bells” that resulted from the Government-mandated break-up of AT&T. Using the same regional organization that AT&T had already established for its own operation, the Baby Bell in Chicago consisted of five former AT&T state-based phone companies: Ohio Bell, Wisconsin Bell, Michigan Bell, Illinois Bell, and Indiana Bell.The IP had the honor of processing the photo collection of Ohio Bell, and whenever there was an original negative and several prints, his boss let The IP keep one of the latter. The result was a sizable Ohio Bell print catalog owned and operated by yours truly.
Below are some images from Ohio Bell’s “Holiday” category. They feature both “real” Ohio Bell employees and some subjects in professional studio shots (usually out of Cleveland) associated with TV shows or images for Ohio Bell’s employee magazine, Insight. Click on the images to see a larger version. Enjoy:
A Female Ohio Bell Employee Sits Beside a Very Modern, Metalic Christmas Tree 1958
A Group of Women From Cleveland's Engineering Department Ready Gifts and Foodstuffs For Needy Clevelanders 1958
Billing Department Employees Pose Before Their Metalic Tree and Gifts for the Needy 1959
Cute Kids Pose With a Wreath In This Shot For Ohio Bell's Employee Magazine, Insight 1961
Women From an Ohio Bell Business Office Put The Finishing Touches on Their Christmas Tree 1961
An Only Child From an Ohio Suburb Dreams of Sugar Plums in This Studio Shot For Insight 1963
An Ohio Dad Chooses an Odd Time to Lecture His Kids About The Birds and Bees in This Still From a TV Movie 1963
This Out-Take From an AT&T Movie Clearly Shows A Child Actor Tiring From This Christmas Charade; What Looks To Be Father Knows Best and Doris Day Look On 1965
It Seems The Directors For This AT&T Movie Experimented With Different Scenarios For "On The Housetops." 1965
The Newly Formed EEOC Had Their First Successful Discrimination Case With AT&T, Resulting in The Company Hiring More Blacks and "Ethnic" Types 1972 The Three Happy Folks Above Are Acutal Ohio Bell Employees Out of Cleveland
A Female Ohio Bell Employee Sits Beside a Very Modern, Metalic Christmas Tree 1958
A Group of Women From Cleveland's Engineering Department Ready Gifts and Foodstuffs For Needy Clevelanders 1958
Billing Department Employees Pose Before Their Metalic Tree and Gifts for the Needy 1959
Cute Kids Pose With a Wreath In This Shot For Ohio Bell's Employee Magazine, Insight 1961
Women From an Ohio Bell Business Office Put The Finishing Touches on Their Christmas Tree 1961
An Only Child From an Ohio Suburb Dreams of Sugar Plums in This Studio Shot For Insight 1963
An Ohio Dad Chooses an Odd Time to Lecture His Kids About The Birds and Bees in This Still From a TV Movie 1963
This Out-Take From an AT&T Movie Clearly Shows A Child Actor Tiring From This Christmas Charade; What Looks To Be Father Knows Best and Doris Day Look On 1965
It Seems The Directors For This AT&T Movie Experimented With Different Scenarios For "On The Housetops." 1965
The Newly Formed EEOC Had Their First Successful Discrimination Case With AT&T, Resulting in The Company Hiring More Blacks and "Ethnic" Types 1972 The Three Happy Folks Above Are Acutal Ohio Bell Employees Out of Cleveland
Billing Department Employees Pose Before Their Metalic Tree and Gifts for the Needy 1959
Cute Kids Pose With a Wreath In This Shot For Ohio Bell's Employee Magazine, Insight 1961
Women From an Ohio Bell Business Office Put The Finishing Touches on Their Christmas Tree 1961
An Only Child From an Ohio Suburb Dreams of Sugar Plums in This Studio Shot For Insight 1963
An Ohio Dad Chooses an Odd Time to Lecture His Kids About The Birds and Bees in This Still From a TV Movie 1963
This Out-Take From an AT&T Movie Clearly Shows A Child Actor Tiring From This Christmas Charade; What Looks To Be Father Knows Best and Doris Day Look On 1965
It Seems The Directors For This AT&T Movie Experimented With Different Scenarios For "On The Housetops." 1965
The Newly Formed EEOC Had Their First Successful Discrimination Case With AT&T, Resulting in The Company Hiring More Blacks and "Ethnic" Types 1972 The Three Happy Folks Above Are Acutal Ohio Bell Employees Out of Cleveland
Women From an Ohio Bell Business Office Put The Finishing Touches on Their Christmas Tree 1961
An Only Child From an Ohio Suburb Dreams of Sugar Plums in This Studio Shot For Insight 1963
An Ohio Dad Chooses an Odd Time to Lecture His Kids About The Birds and Bees in This Still From a TV Movie 1963
This Out-Take From an AT&T Movie Clearly Shows A Child Actor Tiring From This Christmas Charade; What Looks To Be Father Knows Best and Doris Day Look On 1965
It Seems The Directors For This AT&T Movie Experimented With Different Scenarios For "On The Housetops." 1965
The Newly Formed EEOC Had Their First Successful Discrimination Case With AT&T, Resulting in The Company Hiring More Blacks and "Ethnic" Types 1972 The Three Happy Folks Above Are Acutal Ohio Bell Employees Out of Cleveland
An Ohio Dad Chooses an Odd Time to Lecture His Kids About The Birds and Bees in This Still From a TV Movie 1963
This Out-Take From an AT&T Movie Clearly Shows A Child Actor Tiring From This Christmas Charade; What Looks To Be Father Knows Best and Doris Day Look On 1965
It Seems The Directors For This AT&T Movie Experimented With Different Scenarios For "On The Housetops." 1965
The Newly Formed EEOC Had Their First Successful Discrimination Case With AT&T, Resulting in The Company Hiring More Blacks and "Ethnic" Types 1972 The Three Happy Folks Above Are Acutal Ohio Bell Employees Out of Cleveland
It Seems The Directors For This AT&T Movie Experimented With Different Scenarios For "On The Housetops." 1965
The Newly Formed EEOC Had Their First Successful Discrimination Case With AT&T, Resulting in The Company Hiring More Blacks and "Ethnic" Types 1972 The Three Happy Folks Above Are Acutal Ohio Bell Employees Out of Cleveland
