A Spot of Heaven; an "H" Word

I was a bit negative on Savannah. Hey! I call'em the way I see'em. Every city puts off vibes and has a general respect, or a degree of a lack thereof, for individuals; for people in general. I have a sense for those things, and found Savannah lacking. Charleston, on the other hand, exudes respect.

For sure Charleston has it's dark places, and some very dark history. But, it is a city that while respecting its past, doesn't live in it, and goes beyond respect of people to actually honor people and life. Its a good place with good vibes.

The picture above is one I took a few years back while visiting Charleston in the spring. Its one of my favorite small spots in the city, and a friendly, peaceful place to take a few minutes to relax, have a cool drink and just mellow out beneath the Carolina moon.

I do have a question. What do you call a place like this? A portico? A grotto? What? I bet there are places exactly like this in heaven.

Posted by Dread, who will be an office prisoner most of today, and wishes he had a small spot like this locally for sanctuary.

alphabet justice: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Rolling on the River (double "R" words)

This is the Georgia Queen, a fake paddlewheeler at berth on River Street, just behind the city hall of Savannah, Georgia. It similarly sums up my opinion of the whole district. A run down, overpriced fake. If you want living history and a decent, not so seedy, city of historical significance, try Charleston South Carolina.

Below is a picture of Savannah's River Street, supposedly cobbled with ballast stones, just next door to the Hyatt. In fact, this picture was taken just as I stepped off the Hyatt's elevator. I rest my case. Histerical... oops I mean historical, preservation at it's worst. This is a creepy place. A city with tons of dark secrets; and some not so secret darknesses.

That whole book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"? What a farce! If this city gave over its secrets so easily to a damnyankee stranger just blowing through town, it wouldn't have any left. He had the wool pulled over his eyes with smoke and mirrors, a song and a dance. What a shill! And what shills were they that bought into his speil! And the beat goes on. Idiots today still go there for touring, all because of that farce of a book. And what do they find? Just what they deserve. A farce of a city!

Rolling on the River... double "R's" double vision. Those who can see, from the other side of the river, know. Those who live on that side of the river, know. There's a dark side of the moon and a dark side of the river. I'm glad I live on the side I do, here beneath the Carolina Moon.

Posted by Dread, who's headed to bed, and glad to be back on the east side.

alphabet justice: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Sunset over Savannah on the Savannah; all nice "S" words

This past week I spent three days in Savannah Georgia on bidniz. One of the businesses sponsored a dinner cuise on a river boat down the Savannah River and back. I took this pic on the way back. I watched the dolphins play around the bow of the paddlewheeler and remembered my boyhood days fishing on the banks of this river with my grandfather. That was way back upriver though, and way back upriver in time. This sunset was Monday, August 20, 2007.

To the right of the picture is the South Carolina bank. To the left is the Georgia bank. To be homest, I prefer the Carolina side. It's there that you find yourself beneath the Carolina moon.

Posted by Dread, who's in urgent need of a Sunday afternoon nap.

alphabet justice: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Age, That Horrible "A" Word

This guy (the one on the far right) could play George Clooney's dad in a movie, or in real life for that matter. I was searching for a pic to illustrate this post, when I was struck by the eerie likeness. George this is what you have to look forward to.

The reason I was searching for an old wrinkled guy pic was the discussion Doug Thompson started on Blue Ridge Muse (link located over there --->) under his rants listing, about how he knows he's in trouble when he hears the phrase "for your age". He was lamenting a doctor's visit and was told you are recovering well for someone your age, or "for your age." So I left Doug a little comment, and thought maybe it worthy of repeating here.

Bette Davis said, "Old age isn't for sissies!" What an understatement! You and I are the same age. (Doug and I are) I am well preserved for my age. But there again, "for my age" kicks me in the teeth.

I felt I was getting old the first time a polite kid referred to me as "sir". And, I was a bit incensed. Now, I’ve long ago become accustomed to “sir”, but "for your age", the backhand of a compliment, shadows me.

I've adopted a quote from a lady who, now passed on, was ancient when I first met her, and horribly crippled with arthritis. When asked how she was doing, she would always reply, "I'm doing fine for the shape I'm in!"

I guess that's about the best any of us can hope for. We all age, if we're fortunate, even here beneath the Carolina moon. It's hard to believe isn't it? Then again, we're all probably doing fine for the shape we're in.

Posted by Dread who hardly pays attention to joint popping noises, and gets a chuckle out of other people's reaction to them.

alphabet justice: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Let's All Get Mad! (an "M" word)

The following is an unpaid, unpolitical, announcement.





How is the next commander-in-chief going to fight the number one killer of Americans under 85?

Dear Friends,
I am no longer content to let the cancer question go unanswered. It is possible to stop this disease, but we are not making it a priority or applying the resources needed to stop cancer from killing 560,000 people each year.

That is why the Lance Armstrong Foundation is hosting the first-ever LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum to make sure our next President knows that Americans across the country expect cancer to be a national priority.

Sign the LIVESTRONG Army petition today to show all presidential candidates that they must make the fight against cancer a priority of their administration.

The LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum offers a unique opportunity to make cancer part of the national dialogue by asking the presidential candidates to go on the record with their plans to fight the disease. The Forum will be co-hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and me on August 27 and 28, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and will be a historic event that puts cancer on the same national stage as other tough questions our country faces.

The LIVESTRONG Army petition will make it clear that our next President must be prepared to answer the cancer question.

As of this week, Democratic candidates Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John Edwards and Governor Bill Richardson have confirmed their participation for the Democratic LIVESTRONG Presidential Candidate Forum on August 27. Republican candidates Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee and Governor Tommy Thompson have confirmed their participation in the Republican LIVESTRONG Presidential Candidate Forum on August 28. The event is open to the public, and tickets are free.

The goal is to get rid of this disease forever. The LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum give all Americans an opportunity to ask the candidates “What's your plan? And where does cancer fit into your policies?”

Join me and thousands of other Americans in demanding answers to the cancer question by signing the LIVESTRONG Army petition today.
LIVESTRONG,







Lance Armstrong, LIVESTRONG Army

Posted by Dread, the Divine Miss "N", the Albino HMS Monkey, and anyone else who want's to sign up and kick some big C arse until it becomes the little c. Or better yet; no c!

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Der Führer (another "F" word) Wannabe

What can I say? Dye and cut the hair just a smidgeon shorter, and voila! It's 1939 all over again! The mouth, the nose, those eerie eyes all give away what lies beneath. Who wants to be the world's first female dictator? Who wants the first female dictator? "Not I!", said the little albino, home made, sock monkey. "Not I!", said Dread as he slipped beneath the Carolina moon. So who does?

Posted by Dread, who previously warned there will be political statements right up until the 2008 election.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Bridging, (a B word) Generations

Sometimes I wonder what it is that bridges one generation to the next and then the next. And sometimes I wonder what gets left behind and how much is brought forward. And sometimes I wonder why our past slips away from us. Sometimes I wonder.

The Albino HMS monkey took a trip into the countryside today to visit a little history. The only remaining historical covered bridge in South Carolina is Campbell's Covered Bridge. For a state that once was richly sprinkled with covered bridges, we are left with this. That's progress. There are other covered bridges in South Carolina today. I saw one only a couple of months back that was brand new going into a private housing development. But this is the only one left from the past. It's in Greenville County off of highway 414 and was built in 1909. Two years to go before it celebrates 100 years, and already its one of a kind.

Following this along, the monkey also visited another historical bridge today, although significantly more substantial and ancient. But, we'll save that bridge for another day. After all, it represents another generation, even further back. There's a lot of memories in these Carolina hills, some lost, some still remembered, some passed from one generation to the next and then to the next. Bridging the generations, here beneath the Carolina moon.

Posted by Dread who is a bit melancholy this evening remembering the bridges to the past, and wondering what will be the bridges to the future.

Le Fartiste (Which is an "F" word)

This promises to be one of my quirky posts and not one of deep philosophical significance. (As if that's anything new!) This could be a long story, but it isn't. The Fartiste was a 2006 musical, awarded "Best Musical" at the New York International Fringe Festival. It was based on the life of Joseph Pujol, whose stage name was Le Pétomane, and lived from 1857 until 1945.

Just to put this bluntly and so as to not consume copious amounts of web space on nicely tippy toeing around the subject. Monseur Pujol was a professional farter. Yes the man got paid to fart on stage, and people would pay money to sit in a theater and listen/watch. Evidently he could blow out candles several feet away, play a flute though a rubber hose inserted in his rectum, and exercised such fine sphincter muscle control that he could fart La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. (I thought the French national anthem was Retreat, as played by General Custer's cavalry bugler, but that's another opinion for another post.) Believe it not, this is a true story. Le Pétomane was so popular at one time that his act eventually moved to the Moulin Rouge, where his audiences included both royalty and celebrity.

I learned all this while reading the comprehensive treatise on flatulence available at Wikipedia. I hate to say this, but we have nothing like this here beneath the Carolina moon. We've got some wild stories of some pretty eccentric characters, both saintly and shady, but no professional, paid for it, made a grand living at it, farters. We've got Buck Gentry, who burned down his house trailer by accident, when he did the obviously adolescent stunt of lighting a fart. I mean what group of teens hasn't peer pressured some looser into giving it a go? You can even find YouTubes of the events today.

But, Ole' Buck was out beside his pickup truck which was missing the gas cap and Buck had stuck a rag in the fill tube to make do. Well, when the fart lit, the truck lit, and then the trailer lit, and Buck's wife lit into him pretty good. We all took up a collection for Buck down at the Elks club and the pool hall. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army pitched in, and in no time, Buck, Becky, and the two kids, were in a brand new trailer.

Buck hasn't lit any more farts, and nobody wrote a musical about the event, although on some Saturday nights, a gang of kids sometimes park their cars around on the vacant lot where Buck's old trailer used to be, and play music, sip beer, and pass around funny smelling cigarettes. Buck Gentry was the only person that I ever knew personally that came close to being paid to fart.

I don't go around there much anymore. Buck just never was the same after the accident, and Becky developed a mean streak. But sometimes, that's just how life turns out to be, here beneath the Carolina moon.

Posted by Dread, who last night, slept fitfully.

42% Favor Hillary for President of the United States

Who are the 42% of voters who prefer Hillary Clinton for President of the United States? Well, after exhaustive research I have found them! Here are a few pictured below.

I blame the Reagan years for this. The, so called, "harmless insane", were turned back on the street and given disability checks! The remainder reside in Chicago and New York as pictured above and vote Democratic in every election.

Okay, from time to time, or until the election is over, you're going to continue to hear from me in a sometimes political froth. Especially on the Hillary Rodham-Clinton issue. Yes, "it" is an issue! At least it is here, beneath the Carolina moon.

Hrumph!

Dread