My Werewolf Relatives, and Other Obscure Miscellany

In the village of Rowenna, near Marietta, there's a small graveyard that is supposedly haunted by ghost dogs and a white werewolf. It's called Shock Graveyard or Hans Graf Cemetery. Hans Graf is an ancestor of mine. Some say that some of his descendants were murdered for being werewolves and are buried in this graveyard. Supposedly Hans put a curse on the graveyard to keep his descendants safe in death. Legend has it that if you walk the perimeter seven times in the light of the full moon, you will be hunted down by the white werewolf and killed before dawn. It is rumored that Hans is the werewolf.

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Interviewer : After you left the Johnson administration, why didn't you speak out against the Vietnam War?

Robert McNamara : I'm not going to say any more than I have. These are the kinds of questions that get me into trouble. You don't know what I know about how inflammatory my words can appear. A lot of people misunderstand the war, misunderstand me. A lot of people think I'm a son of a bitch.

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Collected Insights From Across the Internet:

When You’re A Kid, You Don’t Realize You’re Also Watching Your Parents Grow Up

Gummy Worms Have More Bones In Them Than Actual Worms Since Gelatin Is Made From Animal Bones

Your Paycheck Isn’t Based On How Hard You Work, It’s Based On How Difficult You Will Be To Replace

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Journalist- "They think your haircuts are un-American."

John Lennon- "Well it was very observant of them because we aren't American, actually."

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It's the 51st anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. 

In a psychological test to see if he had the mental rigor to be an astronaut Michael Collins was shown a blank piece of paper and asked what it made him think of. He said, "19 polar bears fornicating in a snowbank." 

Want to know what the psychologist asked him? 

"Why 19?"

Hahaha!

July 16, 2020

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Anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. You know the best evidence that it happened? You can look through a powerful telescope and see their tracks with your own eyes.

July 16, 2019

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On this day in 2018, Trump's joint press conference with Putin. Has anybody ever seen such subservience from a president??? That was the point that many of his own party left him. McCain's comments in full:

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.

“President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.

“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world. 

“Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.”

July 16, 2018

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Jean-Luc Picard- "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose."

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Fun time at the lake this weekend. So rare that I can allow myself the luxury of an intermittent cell signal.

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Of course George Romero picked the most horrifying way to die- peacefully in his sleep. You think I'm kidding? You drift off to sleep one night and then unexpectedly spend the next infinity years in the void of nothingness from where we came. Gives me the creeps.

(But although he has died, maybe he'll be back Barbara.)

July 16, 2015

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Today is the greatest TV day in history- Game of Thrones premiere, Twin Peaks begins its second half, History of Comedy is back after being pre-empted for months, The Nineties, and Federer just won his 8th Wimbledon. Time for some midday fresh air. I don't like many shows but they've all come into alignment today.

July 16, 2017

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I'm seriously disturbed by the pokey-people... poking around the park... so... slowly... eyes on their phones... with all of their friends... nobody talking... just staring... at..... figments.

July 16, 2016 (as the Pokemon app swept the country)

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From Taste of Cinema's 30 Greatest Closing Lines In the History of Cinema

 What is this movie Mary and Max??? 

“He smelled like licorice and old books, she thought to herself, as tears rolled from her eyes, the color of muddy puddles.”

From Taste of Cinema's 30 Greatest Closing Lines In the History of Cinema

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I'm off to a rattlesnake hunting expedition with Sloth... you know we're going to have to touch their tails.

July 16, 2010

Postscript- We did and he picked one up! That's the difference between simply crazy and certifiably insane.

Update, found video:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10150254820423512&id=741063511&mibextid=irwG9G

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Celebrating 8 racquetball wins with a bowl of night-time Fruity Pebbles.

July 16, 2015

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I won an ollie contest at work. No big whoop.

July 16, 2013

Postscript- It was most certainly a big whoop! I don't know who I thought I was kidding.

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The last apparition of the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France on this day in 1858. 

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On this day in 1861, Union troops began a 25-mile march into Virginia for what became the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

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Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game want to stay in 1941, a monumental achievement in baseball.

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The Atomic Age began on this day in 1945 when we successfully detonated a plutonium-based nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

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Eyes Wide Shut was released on this date in 1999.

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J. D. Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye on this day in 1951.

"When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody."

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Barbara Stanwyck was born on this thing in 1907. Damn, that Double Indemnity dialogue crackles!

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Another silver screen legend was born on this day too, Ginger Rogers in 1911. 

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But perhaps the greatest screen legend of them all was also born on this day- Phoebe Cates in 1963.

"If the film, play or any project I'm involved in requires some sort of violence or nudity to advance the plot, scene or character in any way, then I would be considered unprofessional not to oblige. Of course, I want to make sure -- and I think I always have -- that the scenes are shot in good taste. I try to have some control; now that I know what I'm capable of including in a contract, I can continue that control. Nudity is not something I necessarily want to avoid and yet it's not the most fun thing in the world to do. It's part of the job as far as I'm concerned because you bare yourself emotionally and that's just as terrifying as baring yourself physically. It's all part of acting."

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Hetero-pride enthusiast, Margaret Court, was born on this day in 1942.

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Mary Todd Lincoln left us on this day in 1882. She has a great quote about Abe Lincoln. "He said that he wanted to dance with me in the worst way, and then he did."

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Philly Mayor and Jerky Boy pseudonym, Frank Rizzo, died on this day in 1991.

Frank Rizzo's Nicknames for People:

Sizzlechest

Bottlenose

Picklenose

Nits

Sweet Charlie

Toots

Smartmouth

Rubberneck

Barrelass

Bologna tits

Salami tits

Fruitcake

Liver lips

Chief

Babe

Tough Guy

Jerky

Speedracer

Lefty

Sweetnuts

Flapjack

Happy ass

Butt Nut

Fuck Face

Milky Licker

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I like Will Ferrell, but I never really understood why people find him funny. He was born on this day in 1967. Anchorman, the cowbell thing, the cheerleader... I don't understand how any of it's funny.

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On this day in 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.

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Other notable birthdays- Shoeless Joe Jackson (1887), Corey Feldman (1971)

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The philosopher Harry Frankfort died on this day in 2023. I love his book, On Bullshit. The main premise is that the bullshitter is a greater enemy of the truth than the liar, because at least the liar has some kind of regard for the truth. Bullshitters are indifferent to the truth.

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Another notable deathday- John F. Kennedy Jr. (1999)

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Bill Burr- "I drink a milkshake once a week, that's my big fucking thing. I'll have a root beer float, it's fucking sad."

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Salinger, Catcher in the Rye again- "All morons hate it when you call them a moron."

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Arizona Republican proposed a bill that would not allow atheists to graduate high school. Not fans of free will, apparently.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/01/25/arizona-republicans-propose-bill-that-would-not-allow-atheists-to-graduate-high-school/

July 16, 2013

Postscript- By definition, forced allegiance is antithetical to freedom. 

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Salman Rushdie- "Free societies...are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom's existence."

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Can't get The Rolling Stones' Sitting on a Fence out of my head...

July 16, 2015

https://youtu.be/1ySdd2DKoyM

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Chalmers and the Puzzle of Consciousness

Huh, it's possible that those in charge of the simulation of reality are just running the program showing what would happen if Trump had won. Sure, it might be possible, but what reason is there to believe it? None.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-07/david-chalmers-and-the-puzzle-of-consciousness/8679884

July 16, 2017

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KellyAnne Conway said criticism of her is gender-based

Oh of course it is. Other things that are based on gender: the earth revolves around the sun, Andre the Giant was born in France, alternative facts are not facts, cicadas are the harbingers of fall, and who put the bomp in the bomp ba-bomp ba-bomp?

http://hill.cm/3rWYiof

July 16, 2017

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Republicans Responding to the Trump/Putin Press Conference

https://businessinsider.com/trump-putin-press-conference-republicans-respond-2018-7

I presume their colleagues believe they've fallen victim to the Fake News media... you know, the media that quotes the president verbatim.

July 16, 2018

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CNBC- CDC Says US Could Get Coronavirus Under Control In One To Two Months If Everyone Wore a Mask

I'm sorry, but in this country we have a personality cult that trumps public health. How many died at Jonestown, 900? How many tens of thousands would be saved if Trump used his bully pulpit to push mask-wearing? And it underscores how incompetent he is... even if he cares about nothing else, it would help his re-election!

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/14/cdc-says-us-could-get-coronavirus-under-control-in-one-to-two-months-if-everyone-wears-a-mask.html

July 16, 2020

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Huffpost, July 16, 2020- Chuck Woolery Changes Stance On COVID-19 'Lies' After Son Tests Positive

There are two types of people in the world... those who form their beliefs and values by considering hypotheticals, and those who need something to affect them personally before they can understand things. Going forward let's call these two types of people Normals and Dumbasses.

http://huffp.st/1ciTRqm

July 16, 2020

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Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls:

I had an inheritance from my father,

It was the moon and the sun.

And though I roam all over the world,

The spending of it’s never done.

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Marcel Proust- "Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade."

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Salinger yet again, from Catcher in the Rye- "Sleep tight, ya morons!"

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Addendum

Milan Kundera, from Life Is Elsewhere:

The worst thing is not that the world is unfree, but that people have unlearned their liberty.

The more indifferent people are to politics, to the interests of others, the more obsessed they become with their own faces. The individualism of our time.

Not being able to fall asleep and not allowing oneself to move: the marital bed.

If high culture is coming to an end, it is also the end of you and your paradoxical ideas, because paradox as such belongs to high culture and not to childish prattle. You remind me of the young men who supported the Nazis or communists not out of cowardice or out of opportunism but out of an excess of intelligence. For nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of nonthought… You are the brilliant ally of your own gravediggers.

In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty.

How to live in a world with which you disagree? How to live with people when you neither share their suffering nor their joys? When you know that you don’t belong among them?... our century refuses to acknowledge anyone’s right to disagree with the world…All that remains of such a place is the memory, the ideal of a cloister, the dream of a cloister…

Humor can only exist when people are still capable of recognizing some border between the important and the unimportant. And nowadays this border has become unrecognizable.

The majority of people lead their existence within a small idyllic circle bounded by their family, their home, and their work... They live in a secure realm somewhere between good and evil. They are sincerely horrified by the sight of a killer. And yet all you have to do is remove them from this peaceful circle and they, too, turn into murderers, without quite knowing how it happened.

The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order. Or to put it the other way around: the desire for order is a virtuous pretext, an excuse for virulent misanthropy.

A long time a go a certain Cynic philosopher proudly paraded around Athens in a moth-eaten coat, hoping that everyone would admire his contempt for convention. When Socrates met him, he said: Through the hole in your coat I see your vanity. Your dirt, too, dear sir, is self-indulgent and your self-indulgence is dirty.

You are always living below the level of true existence, you bitter weed, you anthropomorphized vat of vinegar! You’re full of acid, which bubbles inside you like an alchemist’s brew. Your highest wish is to be able to see all around you the same ugliness as you carry inside yourself. That’s the only way you can feel for a few moments some kind of peace between yourself and the world. That’s because the world, which is beautiful, seems horrible to you, torments you and excludes you.

If the novel is successful, it must necessarily be wiser than its author. This is why many excellent French intellectuals write mediocre novels. They are always more intelligent than their books.

By a certain age, coincidences lose their magic, no longer surprise, become run-of-the-mill.

Any new possibility that existence acquires, even the least likely, transforms everything about existence.