scanned possum

or "an Opossum"? No, just go with possum.
Ever see these guys? They have an expression that is the original sh!t-eating grin.
Opossum: nocturnal arboreal marsupial having a naked prehensile tail found from southern North America to northern South America.
Yep, that naked looking tail is rat-like. But opossums are cleaner than rats, although they will go through your garbage, but hey, who doesn't like to rummage every once in a while?
I saw one the other night in my recycling, yelled at him, clapped, ran him off. He kept grinning and walked away, not the slightest bit in a hurry. Didn't even turn to look at me.

fine print:
I got a new scanner. This is a postcard, I cropped the heading "Hanging out in Georgia".
Copyright Jenkins Enterprises, North Little Rock, AR. 501-945-2600. Photo by Garry Walter.
Send money, not subpoenas.

Happy Easter 2005

This cherub has seen much come and go.
Keeps facing the rising sun and holding on.

Garden in Charleston, SC

This idyllic locale is a
pre-revolution colonial plantation
upstream from Charleston, S.C.
Producer of rice, indigo, mosquitos, and whatnot.
Remember triangular trade from 5th grade Social Studies?

Japanese Orchid

They bloom all at once and last a short time so they're a real treat for a week or so every Spring.

Southern Pit Bar B Que

I wrote 3 things on a napkin
so I'd recall what mattered:
1/ Flat Top
2/ Buttermilk
3/ Dawn '99

1/ The proprietor wore a white apron and a flat top.
He was clearly the man in charge because he spoke and others listened. Seemed like a nice guy but anybody with a flat top sans irony, well, it is a question mark, isn't it?
What to expect from someone with a haircut mentioned in the first line from the Beatles Come Together?
At least with a mullet you know you're dealing with a wild card, but a flat top, White Hanes T-shirt (too small), and a white apron - what is this, a casting call?

2/ They had buttermilk on the menu.
When's the last time you saw that? Better yet, ever said:
"and I'd like a buttermilk with that." Never.

3/ Our waitress was named Dawn.
My fellow diners said she waited on us last time we were there, circa 1999. I took their word for it because I wanted it to be true, but I started to doubt their observation because they didn't catch her name tag strategy.
I saw the name tag promptly. "Dawn" was proudly displayed on a name tag pinned to a lovely strategic location.
My fellow diners were both 80-plus year old men so maybe their eyes didn't wander to the name tag region of Dawn's uniform.
If you know what I mean, and I think that you do.

Career Waitress Dawn led our table of Senior country boys through the "confusing" menu, knelt forward and practically shouted in their face "so you want the regular dinner plate and sweet tea?"
while nodding her head "yes".
Career Waitress Dawn knows how an exchange can be simple or can go off track and take forever. She led us by the hand. Good move!

Buttermilk Dawn upsold me on desert by a slight of hand technique:
Dawn pointed to the menu on the wall while directing my eyes towards that name tag region of her uniform.
Buttermilk Dawn offered peach cobbler, then added the ice cream suggestion while she had me hyp-mo-tized.
I said yes. If Dawn wants me to have "peach cobbler a la mode" then I say
Yes, thank You, I want that which you are directing me towards.
Dawn even threw in an experienced waitress clarification saying "That's with ice cream" regarding "a la mode".

Maybe she has been there since 1999, she's Good!

Oh, & the Q.
Good Stuff, smoked.
How can food not be good when the owners card has a Bible verse on it:
"In all thy ways acknowledge Him
and He shall direct they paths".
Speaks to Faith and to trust in your creator to know your needs better than you know yourself, since He is the Creator. Understand?
Well, actually I have stayed in a few Motels that had the sign of the fish and the Cross everywhere but lacked much that good motels should have, like working light bulbs and a door knob that functions consistently, but at least they are forgiven.




Clockwise from Q:
1/ it is smoked which makes it a real A+.
So good that I got some to go, to take to the support team, it was wonderful even after frozen - still tender and smoky. I know why it's so tender but lack the room to explain right now about the Steam Table. Included a slightly sweet red sauce. Also very good, not too hot or sweet, just right.

2/ Brunswick Stew. If you cannot tell if it's stew or hash remember: stew has corn in it. It was tasty but I heard one of my 80+ year old dinner companions say it was too spicy. - sure Pops, spicy compared to oatmeal.

3/ Cole Slaw. Nice presentation with that circular dollop & a pickle slice on top. Like the way a ringing bell might taste.
You'll hear that joke again in another time, another place.

4/ Cornbread. Of course it is Yum!
Grainy goodness, cooked in a triangle to you get more crust, it's like a muffin that's all top. Get it?

Go on & get yourself some!

McGhin's Southern Pit Bar B Que
2964 North Expressway
Griffin, GA 30223
770-229-5887

Dogwood in full bloom

means Easter is near.

The Private Booth

with the starting line-up, then a dust-up in the first few laps.
click on the photo to enlarge - I admit it's not the best pic yet.

VIP Food: OK
VIP Booth Babes: "C+"
Overall sense of being a VIP at a "Big Event": High
- after my senses were seduced (a la wine in a soda can).

Those NASCAR Fans are intense, not like the
Frisbee crowd I usually hang with on a Sunday afternoon.

Atlanta Motor Speedway

& you are there
through the magic of QuickTime.
opens in a new window

on a cellular modem @ 75MPH

Just because I can, Posting to the blog while driving to Atlanta on I-20. Just passing Athens, G-A.
I am a passenger with a cell modem 56k connected Laptop struggling to hit the right keys while on a moving desk (Ford Explorer) enroute to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for my 1st photoblogging NASCAR experience. Viva la access to info. Push Button Publishing I'm an air-conditioned gypsy, I'm Mo-bile!

[Posted a few days later:
this post has no relation to the post below.
I was NOT riding in that auto-crap-mobile]

Clean your car!

This mess is the responsibility of . . . I'd better not say.
But if you:
are over 40, are sporting a comb-over,
have never moved out & left home,
are driving your Fathers Oldsmobile,
and the only healthy thing you've eaten in the past
4 months or 4,000 miles
is 1 banana (evidenced by the peel in the margarine tub)
then come on cousin, get it together, will ya?

Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist Church

Sounds critical to say "Primitive Baptist " but that's their name. Liberty Hill Georgia is home of some of the most interesting music and dynamic people the US of A has ever produced.

In the cemetery rests several of my ancestors, including Confederates, Colonists and Huguenots.
So this is an image of the distant future according to those folks. I think they'd say the trees are bigger now.
We're living in the future!
Lest We Forget.

Two Landmarks

Q: Guess where I was last week.
I didn't actually eat there, my California constitution would not like it anymore.
Fun to see again and as the marquee says: "World Famous".

A: On the left is The Varsity, sells more onion rings than any place in the world. In the shadow of CNN and Coca-Cola HQ.

On the right is the Big Chicken. If you've ever driven in NW Atlanta, GA (Marietta, pronounced: May-retta) you've used this big 'ol sign as a landmark.
Legend has it Delta pilots couldn't land straight when the Big Chicken blew down a while back. The rebuild featured moving eyes and beak.

Legend has it alright. Uh Huh. "They say", but there's no such thing as they.

Burning Man Jr.

We had a bonfire last weekend to chase away the dark.
Some picnic tables and at least one Adirondack chair
were ashes the next morning. They took a torch for the team.

::
Burning Man takes place in 6 months.
It last occurred 6 months ago. It's like we're on the dark side of the Burning Man Moon.

Burning Man's 2005 Art Theme will be
"Psyche: the Conscious, the Subconscious and the Unconscious."
Our theme explores psychology:
self-expression, self-reflection
and the unconscious power of dreams.
::
Tales from the Playa
::
You can only do things for the first time once

Pocotaligo Restaurant

The latest installation at MOMA:
Pocotaligo Restaurant.
a multimedia still-life display
exploring an Americana theme.



click photo to enlarge in new window


Note the two clocks - each with their own sense of time.
Possibly the artist was using the juxtaposed beverage themed clock faces to represented an ongoing universal dichotomy and thus the epic struggle of the marketplace.

Superb expression of post-modern consumerist conflict
via the symbol of the wall clock!

Ah, the multiple levels of allegory!
Oh, the Humanity!

or is this the back room of
Harold's Country Club, Yemassee, South Carolina?
No finer food anywhere, 3 days a week.
Wednesday: dogs and burgers.
Thursday: Pot-Luck buffet
Saturday: Steak (call ahead on steak night).

Harold's Country Club
97 US Hwy 17A-21
Yemassee, South Carolina
843-589-4360
***** = 5 Stars, the food and people are wonderful.
The atmosphere is comfortable, very comfortable.
Come as you are & smile.

Manure Basics

What will you do for your Saturday Bull Session?
Figuratively shoot the bull or literally spread the manure?
Decisions decisions . . . .

There's even a flower on the bag! Now that's good marketing!

Ice.

Dang, it iced up since yesterday!


The deep freeze iced up, that is . . .

Wow! People toughing out a cold winter sure get bent about a sub-tropical climate! Yesterdays post triggered an avalanche of responses from Snowbirds and el Rain-os.
For those wintering in Boston, Alaska, Minnesota, and that one responder where English is a second language
(I got your point brother, you are on Planet Earth too),
OK! OK! Chill! (I crack myself up)
Here, this is for you:
we have ice too. Sure do, plenty of it, too much of it, for a few more hours anyway.

Any Archeologists out there wanting to study ice fossiled boiled peanuts labeled "1997" just hit "reply email" (top left of page) and send a self addressed stamped envelope.
Act now, offer expires around sundown when I get back from the beach.

They're re-lighting the ol' lighthouse today & I'm on the VIP list. I'm wearing a vintage Surfing Magazine T-shirt, fleece vest and Long Pants - not shorts. It's not all that warm.
Toe-tay Buckwheat?
I'm not even wearing sandals. Things are tough all over ;-)

72 degrees in February

Is it getting warmer or is it just me?


so tempting to comment about how
the Valentines flowers are working, but I'm keeping it clean.
And smooth. And soft. And warm.
My mind is not in the gutter, it's in the sand dunes.
Enjoy, snowbirds! & all y'all el rain-os in CA!

Two more roses

By popular demand, Red Roses.
Some of you folks are traditionalists.
You loved the Peonys & Pink Perfections but asked for the default standard - you got it!
Beautiful aren't they?
Yep, beautiful. Delicate red velvet petals.

Happy Valentines Day, Sweetheart!

Don't you just love the names of things?
Like flower names. Pink Perfection.
Wow! I'm sold, sign me up. That's what I want,
Pink Perfection. Especially on 2-14.

One reader writes that today he was empty handed but his idea is to give his sweetie a nickname for Valentines.
Hmm. A nickname.
Everybody on the playground knows you cannot give yourself a nickname, but has anyone ever heard of a Valentines gift being Intellectual Property?
Free advice:
The anti-consumerism aspect of your Valentines idea is a plus, but dude - go pick some wild flowers on the way home. Even a backrub is free and it's a more tangible gift than a nickname.
You two can re-name each other while talking in the dark.

Keep those cards & letters coming!

Don't let This be You.

You are a Matador.


Even wearing your Suit of Lights, one mistake and you get a schooling you don't want.
It's Sunday so you really should have taken care of business by now. You have -0- more shopping days 'til Valentines.
Do not panic!

Panic leads to egregious lapses in judgment,
as shown in these headlines:

1) Give Your Valentine the Royal treatment
Looking for Valentine dinner reservations she'll remember-always?
Tell your sweetheart you have reservations for dinner - in Cincinnati. When you pull into the White Castle parking lot, she'll definitely be surprised.
White Castle restaurants in Cincinnati are accepting reservations for dinner by candlelight. You'll receive table service complete with wait staff, from 5 to 8 p.m. Valentine's Day, Feb. 14.
-------------------------------------------------------

and this headline:
2) Real or Fake, Gas Station Flowers Gaining in Popularity
I have a story here:
Once I bought a fresh floral bouquet for her. Much ado upon presentation, I wore a rainbow aurora. I hoped to upgrade to a halo.
Ah, Foolish me . . .
I made the mistake of saying I got them at a convenient location. While in a grocery store (for her) I grabbed a cash and carry bouquet. The flowers, once their purchase venue was known, were no longer a thoughtful gift. They weren't even considered fresh anymore.
"Look at the brown spot and this one is wilting"!
My glory was fleeting.
Nothing wrong with the gift, the bouquet had glowed just moments earlier.
I botched the presentation.
Don't let this be you.

TCB early and often.
Your domestic tranquility depends on your actions.

Rose Froze

It may seem counter intuitive but the best way to protect a rose in freezing weather is to encase it in ice.

Some people use counter intuitive interactions
in their inter-personal relationships.
----------------------------------------------------------
Woman jailed for ripping off lover's testicle
LONDON (Reuters) - A woman has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for ripping off her ex-lover's testicle with her bare hands during a drunken brawl after he refused her sex.
Amanda M., 24, flew into a rage after Geoffrey J., 37, who had ended their long-term relationship, rejected her advances.
Amanda grabbed him by the genitals, tearing off his left testicle, then hid it in her mouth before a friend of Geoffrey handed it back to him saying "that's yours".

[it's not clear why a friend of Geoffrey was so conveniently located]
----------------------------------------------------------
Man Held in Chat-Room Effort at a Mass Suicide
GRANTS PASS, Ore., (AP) - A man used an Internet chat room to try to arrange a mass suicide on Valentine's Day involving more than two dozen women across the United States and Canada, the authorities say.
The man, Gerald K., 26, was arrested at his mother's mobile home and has been charged with solicitation to commit murder. The chat-room participants planned to log in on Valentine's Day and commit suicide while keeping in touch over the Internet. Investigators say the total number who planned to do so was 32.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Anyone in a new relationship should not be allowed out in public," said Liz Tuccillo, a co-author of "He's Just Not That Into You," a best-selling dating advice book.
"Sometimes people in couples don't think," she said.
----------------------------------------------------------
“Happy Loving Couples”
You know what I mean
Happy loving couples
In matching lamb turtle-neck sweaters
Reading Ideal Homes magazine
Yeah!

Wanna be, wanna really be what my friends pretend to be
Be it in my own good time
Being kind to myself till I become
one of two of a kind

Happy loving couples make it look so easy
Happy loving couples always talk so kind
Until the time that I can do my dancing with a partner
Those happy couples ain't no friends of mine

- Joe Jackson, on Look Sharp!
----------------------------------------------------------
Love is a rose. Mind the thorns.

Three days 'til V.D.

An Eternity Ring.

A diamond isn't the only thing that's forever.
Valentines Day is looming.
The Greeting card/Floral/Jewelry market forces prove
that Love is a verb made tangible by a sales receipt.

Don't let your marketing-pitch-susceptible significant other think you have stiffed her.

Guys, you cannot coast on:
past dinners, backrubs, walks along the beach (at sunset), Oprah books,
toilet seats placed correctly, toothpaste tubes re-squeezed per standard,
dust bunnies hunted and captured, spiders exorcised,
any past white knight episode of the day (you got lucky once),
doors opened, cars washed, light bulbs replaced,
remembering where everything goes per prior agreement,
“does this make me look fat” answered with affection,
wearing those clothes she picked out for you at the Mall,
(she shopped, you paid, you hoped none of your friends saw you),
eating your brocolli and tofu together while watching Judging Amy,
or ending every sentence to her with “Yes M’am”.

Your prior flowers have wilted and been discarded.
On 2/14/2005: "What have you done for me lately?"

Uh-oh, I'm not helping myself out here . . . Gotta go make reservations at Chez Swank.
Gargoyle! Bring us your best Giraffe of Wine!
- a Cheech & Chong quote I'll never forget.

The Arsenal and Museum

 

Once housed a shrunken head but no one believes me. The people I grew up with know it's true but nobody else believes a shrunken head was displayed in here.

The building also served as a Magistrates office where I once had to state my case on why a friend was riding on the hood of a car I was driving. To top it off, it wasn't my car and I had no clear right to operate it. I was 15, does that help explain the lack of plausible explanation?

Thank goodness the magistrate had also been my 5th grade Health teacher. I lost my license for 30 days by mutual agreement. The magistrate / 5th grade Health teacher took my license, put it in his shirt pocket, I came back in 30 days and got it back. He had it in his desk.
No points off, no insurance rate increase,
and no repeat offenses, Sir.
Justice was served, I was reformed.
And I have never again driven around town in a semi-stolen vehicle
with someone riding on the hood! Not Once!

Mardi Gras Express

 

Take Amtrak in a big circle back to where you started.
This train was so long I had time to get bored, get the camera, change my mind because the train must be ending by now . . . . and then take a few photos of the first perpetual motion railway. I finally figured why this train refused to conclude. The key clue was there was no caboose; this railway train twisted and turned until it was wrapped around and around loops of track whereupon it then hooks back onto itself.

This photo has nothing to do with Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Lent, the Big Easy, New Orleans, or any Parrish in Louisiana. I just wanted to post it. For one reason: Kinda needed to get the fleshy female frontal photo off the front page of the blog (below) before I'm tempted to create a full frontal front page.
I've caught more flak from the photo than from having banner ads. I think people are OK with Google Ads since they aren't typical banner ads. No flashing, no claims that you've won something if you -->click here<--



And No, you still don't know who she is (below).
Stop it. Grow Up. [like she did] H00-OO-oo! Did she ever!

Your Ad Here

 

What you suspected is now official:
At midnight I went down to the crossroads
and I sold my soul to the Devil.
Robert Johnson sends his regards, he served as my agent and helped broker the deal.
Elmore James couldn't make it. Elmore was busy instructing an audience how to best shake yo money maker using Google ads.

Google ads are bannered across the blog.
Play around with the ads - open a post in a separate window and you can get a feel for just how content-sensitive the Google AdSense can be. It works well and was an ease to implement. Not 100% simple and it took two tries, but hey my reflexes are not what they used to be.
My next goal is to post content that will cause the AdSense to post banner ads featuring Pigs Feet. And some such stuff.
[test]
Most Provacative Billie Holiday song title:
"Gimme a Pigs Foot and a Bottle of Beer"
(...)

Regarding the photo above:
1) No that is not anyone you know. Stop emailing your guesses.
2) It is from eBay, a woman was auction off her charming self for a banner ad of her own. I think she is from England, based on the term "advert" and a few other clues. Recently a guy sold his forehead for 1 year for a ad tattoo.

We can all start saving up for our soon-to-be required
US Government Barcode Tattoo.
One World Government, The Apocalypse is near,
Have A Nice Day.

Oh, and please click on the links from our kind sponsors.
In Economic terms it's: TANFL, there ain't no free lunch.
No Mo anyway.
The Sky is Crying, Look at the Tears Roll Down the Street.

February first, sweetheart

These are for you.
Time to start finding out what your honey will find special on Valentines Day 2005. You are welcome for the reminder.
The featured flower is the Peony.
[say: Pee - OH! - Nee]
Flowers Do It!
Order today
Bittys Flower Shop
Beaufort, SC
843-524-4547
say "Burton Sent You"

isolated year round

;

January scene on the South Carolina coast.
Undisclosed island, but here's a hint: Not a tourist destination.

Jail Tree avec fort

This is the Jail Tree. Actually several Live Oaks.
The nickname came from the unusual ring formed by the tree trunks growing in a circle around the original Grandma tree. Looks like a Cypress and its Cypress knees volunteering forth.

The 2 by 4s and platform are a recent addition, added for the sake of Grandkids.
No trees were hurt in the building of this tree fort.