The octopus spider wants an open thread

Rush Limbaugh’s billboard, which was quietly removed from Tucson after the shooting.

http://gawker.com/5732700/rush-limbaughs-tucson-billboard-is-just-perfect

I hated the television show Love American Style.

You need to find a way to get George Clooney on your puppet talk show when he’s in town.

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/george-clooney-ann-arbor-ides-of-march/

I hear that Neil Gaiman was doing something with the Simpsons. I pray to god this isn’t it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/14/neil-gaiman-appears-simpsons

There’s a really interesting piece in the New Yorker this week by Jill Lepore regarding the Constitution. It’ll make you wish you could reach back in time and give Benjamin Franklin a hug.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/01/17/110117crat_atlarge_lepore

Has there even been a case of an adult not losing his or her baby teeth? I’m not sure why, but I’ve got this stuck in my head. On a related note, wouldn’t it be cool if they could mix human and shark DNA so we could have people with rows of razor sharp teeth?

Something for the conspiracy theorists among us. Loughner’s high school girlfriend, Ashley Figueroa, has made the following comment to the press.

“I think he’s faking everything. I think the outburst that he had in class — I think he’s planned everything. I think that he has been planning this for some time.”

http://gawker.com/5733873/jared-loughners-ex-hes-faking-everything

FE FY FO FUM…. I smell the woodchips of a puppet…. lol lol lol lol ypsi needs a flea market again……. we should sell advertising space on the facades of city hall to the highest bidder, (how many cars pass it daily)…. stop moving the cemetaries examples: store at normal & mich ave, phelp sellers hall emu, prospect park, dr’s office at grove and prospect…. hire a blight officer if we have 1 get a 2nd one…. become a more business friendly city. lower the property taxes… install a trolley…. get more business incubators…. make ypsi so damn booming rich that instead of a defecit and taxes it has a surplus and gives back to its citizens in profit sharing…. tare down all the condemed buildings and plant gardens and sell the produce to help pay for a part of it. for god sakes build a parking structure in this city… heck put ads on the yfd, ypd, ycua, and plow & salt cars and trucks just like nascar…. bring in a minor league baseball team… build a casino, convention center and hotel on water street. bring in the history channel to film it all as a reallity series called YPSIWOOD: a city in transition. about a city that goes from being a blue collar factory town to an entertainment meca during the worst economy since the 1930’s.

Patrick Elkins shaved his beard.

Anything fun going on in Ypsi or Ann Arbor this weekend? I heard that Laurie Andersen was going to be performing as some kid’s birthday party, but I don’t know where it is.

This morning I was shocked to see a worker for my landlord out on our sidewalk pretty early this morning. “Wow, I thought, they are actually going to shovel my walk!” Then I peeked through the blinds and laughed outloud…the worker was sweeping the sidewalk off with a big push broom! I watched him for a while, never used a shovel…but he did put down salt after he “swept” the snow.

Is Mark OK? I saw that he’s wasted on the streets of Ypsi trying to film people at a bus stop.

Good I hope he follows through with it. Independent journalists have suspected for some time that some of the big banks who have received bailout money are laundering the drug money of the cartel savages who are cutting people’s heads off on the Mexican border. I this info helps trace drug money and tax evasion, angering people who opposed the bailouts, and motivating people to take action. Hopefully this gives evidence of lots of tax evasion from big bankers and CEOs of corporations who have defense contracts with the U.S. government.

I’d like to call you a douche in person, EOS. Where are you planning to be tonight at about 7:00?

Can’t handle the truth? I’m just reporting what the governor and county clerk have said. If he’s not really the Prez, then Obamacare isn’t a valid law.

There were commercial planes on 9/11. But it wasn’t a commercial plane that hit the Pentagon – that was a missile.

First thing you said that I agree with! :-)

Yesterday (1/19) it was reported that the new governor made another announcement.

“Officials in Hawaii have tracked down papers indicating that President Obama was indeed born in their state, according to its new governor.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who took office in December, told Honolulu’s Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that “our investigation” indicates there is a recording of his birth.

“It actually exists in the archives, written down,” he said.”

Great – show us the papers! If not, why not? That’s all that’s necessary to end all speculation.

I never saw Reagan’s birth certificate. Nor have I read sworn statements by the attending physician.

No, the “Birthers” are a band of bigots unwilling to believe that a black man can become President.

I demand to see his penis and inspect it for proof of circumcision.

Oh, and while we’re broadening the scope of the American mythos, we have precious, rich legacies from this very land and from Africa and beyond. May all these stories be told–in classrooms, among ourselves, on cable news, even on the nearly godforsaken talk radio.

Birtherism Part Deux–The Afterbirthers
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That dastardly Kenyan can fool the RNC, CIA, and the FBI but not EOS.

Andy Ypsilanti is dead. I killed him.

though I’m sure certain ypshipsters with punk labels would argue that Jack hasn’t been worth a shit since the record he made before he made his first record…this was pretty freakin’ cool. Love the big band. I think it’s the guy from Steppin’ In It on bass and one of Jack’s older bros on piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzDfYidKU5c

“like her old band better.”

Joe Maphis was one of the best guitarists ever. He hasn’t played so good the last twenty-five years though.

This isn’t the place for it, but Jack has been a dick to some people in Detroit, most notably his former producer. The music is still OK, though.

This should have probably made the local news headlines. Last night Frank Allison quietly took the stage at Dave Boutette’s Woodruffs, open-mic night thing to do an unannounced set. Almost the first time he’s ventured in to public to sing since his throat affliction forced him into retirement more than fifteen years ago. Frank Allison, if you don’t know, is one of the greatest pop songwriters this area has ever produced. He owns and operates the Clinton movie theatre down the road.

His voice, if you know his condition, makes for a different approach. He taught himself to sing around the problem. It’s a more falsetto style and he seems to favor a Ukulele these days. But it’s still uniquely Frank, thank god. No one else like him. He has been writing songs all along and has some new stuff available if you check out his website http://www.frankallisonmusic.com/ Word is he’s looking to gig again in some capacity and he has some stuff coming up, including opening up for the Ypsitucky Colonels at the Circus bluegrass Wednesday soon. His new songs are as clever and original as ever.

I’ve said things here a few times about recent scholarship about George Washington, his slaves brought to the Philadelphia White House, and that he was skirting the law, but I was weak on substantiation and full meaning–still am but am trying to learn. Think maybe more cagey than criminal, letter of the law being more malleable than spirit of the law. On NPR’s “Tell Me More” on 21 Feb. 2011, Michel Martin interviewed two authors about the black history of the White House. Here’s a chunk (modest portion of interview, where copyright issues are concerned!) that relates to Washington–so very interesting and also sad:

From Martin’s interview with Clarence Lusane, associate professor at American University’s School of International Service, author of The Black History of the White House and Kenneth Walsh, White House correspondents and author of Family of Freedom.

Ken Walsh, you tell a fascinating story of actually the lengths to which George Washington went to hold onto his slaves in violation of the law in Philadelphia, where the presidency was at one point housed. Would you talk a little bit about that?

Mr. WALSH: As Clarence said, the early presidents, you know, I saw it a little bit differently in that I was looking at the White House, per se. And 8 of the first 12 presidents had slaves in the White House. Many of our others presidents had slaves, but these people had them in the White House.

But the point you’re raising, Washington realized that there was a law in Pennsylvania that allowed slaves to be free if they were in the state for six months. So he surreptitiously decided to send his slaves back to Mount Vernon within that six-month window so that they wouldn’t become free.

And these early presidents had this notion, maybe they came to it late in life as Washington did, that slavery was wrong, but they didn’t do anything about it politically because they didn’t want to alienate the southern states. And we’ve seen that pattern through our history – all through our history in the United States.

And, secondly, they didn’t want to disrupt their own livelihoods because they felt that slavery was essential to the running of their plantations. And that’s – so they kept slavery and didn’t really challenge it.

MARTIN: Well, you talked about the fact that this was a deliberate stratagem in Washington’s part. You’ve delved very deeply into his correspondence in this matter.

Mr. WALSH: Right.

MARTIN: That shows that he was deliberately swapping out people to avoid the law.

Mr. WALSH: He was. Right. And the people who he was talking to to help him arrange this sort of shuttle of his slaves, he said, don’t let anybody know about this. I want this to be deceptive. He was very open about that to his friends and within his family. He didn’t want the public to know because he didn’t want to have any question about his own integrity and yet he was defying the law.

This is supposed to one of the great icons of American history, but we see this again and again that our presidents really did not live up to the early ideals of the country through most of our history.

MARTIN: And, Clarence, he did not fully succeed. Will you tell that story? Actually, I found it rather heartbreaking as a mother, but tell me that story.

Prof. LUSANE: Yeah, what Kenneth is referring to is the Gradual Abolition Act, which basically said people could be free if they stay six months. But there’s a loophole that if people left, then – and they came back, it would always start over. So that’s why, as Kenneth was pointing out, they were doing the rotation.

But there were at least two people who were in Washington’s household while he was in Pennsylvania, who escaped. One was a woman named Ona Maria Judge. Fascinating young woman, early 20s, had mostly been enslaved to Martha Washington – would clean for her, dress her, help cook. She found out at one point that Martha was planning to give her away as a wedding gift to one of her relatives.

And so, she decided that that would mean she probably would never get out of slavery. Because the Washingtons had kind of promised that once they died, they would free people who were enslaved to them. But if she was being sold or given away, that was not going to happen. So she made plans to escape. She was in touch with the free black community in Pennsylvania. And then one day in the spring of 1796, she took off.

The Washingtons actually discovered where she was at. She ended up in New Hampshire. And Washington sent his nephew to try to coax her to come back. And he met with her and sat down and said, you know, basically things got out of control, but if you come back, we’ll basically set you free eventually. And her response was, well, I’m free now.

Mr. WALSH: Right.

Prof. LUSANE: That really doesn’t work and…

MARTIN: And Martha was outraged at the ingratitude of this slave. And there’s another person who escaped even at the cost of leaving his daughter. Will you tell that story?

Prof. LUSANE: Hercules. Hercules was Washington’s cook who was actually one of the most famous cooks in the country at the time and was extremely well known. But Hercules also took off towards the end of Washington’s presidency in 1797.

MARTIN: And then what happened? You both quote this in your story, which, as I said, as a mother, I found heartbreaking. At some point had occasion to ask the child if she missed her dad. And what did she say?

Prof. LUSANE: Right. It was a little girl and there was a visitor from France. And he knew that Hercules had escaped, so he asked the little girl, did she feel sad? And her response was, like, no, I’m happy that my father is free.

Mr. WALSH: Yeah. Well, yeah, I actually, you know, I remember this line. She said, I miss my father, but I know that he is free and so I’m happy for him. . . .

MARTIN: And (unintelligible). So, Ken Walsh, when did the practice of holding slaves in the White House, enslaved Americans, let’s put it that way, when did that practice end?

Mr. WALSH: Well, Zachary Taylor was the last president to have slaves in the White House. And he died, I believe, in about 1850. But succeeding presidents had had slaves earlier in their lives. People don’t realize that, for instance, Grant, Ulysses Grant, the hero general of the Civil War, had had slaves earlier in his life. So did Andrew Johnson. This was a very common thing for American presidents.

But Lincoln had amazing relationships with the African-Americans around him during the Civil War. These were emancipated African-Americans. A seamstress named Elizabeth Keckly and a valet named William Slade. And a lot of historians are particularly interested in William Slade because Lincoln actually consulted Slade on his major speeches, including the Gettysburg Address.

He brought Slade with him to Gettysburg. And the night before the Gettysburg Address, he ran the most important lines and themes past Slade because he respected his judgment and thought he understood what everyday people would think and what themes would be resonant.

So it’s really quite remarkable that he had this confidence in this African-American on his staff. But this has been common throughout our history. The people on the household staff have been confidantes and very much trusted by the presidents throughout American history.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133877485&ft=1&f=46

Sitting my my cube, listening to WWOZ, and imagining that I’m at Mardi Gras.

http://www.wwoz.org/programs/streams

Today I learned that Malcolm X had “queer affinities”.

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2011/04/27/gay_city_news/community/doc4db86c4bea410503495445.txt

Bristol Palin lost her virginity drunk on wine coolers.

That is all.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/06/18/bristol-palin-memoir-book-levi-johnston-drunk-virginity-pregnant/

I’m lonely. Can we be friends? Here’s my picture.

http://i.imgur.com/BDdcj.jpg