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November 24, 2019
Pilgrims Going to Church, George Henry Boughton (1867)
Posted by JD Hull at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2019
A Friday: "Johnny we hardly knew ye..."
Today marks the 56th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in downtown Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was 46 years old. He was born May 29, 1917. He died on November 22, 1963. A Friday.
Sure, a Friday. When we first heard I was in a grade school science class of about 25 students in Cincinnati, Ohio where my family had moved from Chicago eighteen months before. I was sitting next to my best friend Chip Conway in the farthest lab table in the back row. The class for us was the first after lunch period. The teacher was the popular and hardworking Robert Terwilliger, or Mr. "T". Half-way through it the principal broke into our class over the loud speaker system. In just a few sentences she slowly but solemnly told us that the president had just been murdered in Dallas during his visit there. School was let out early. Few students lived close enough to school to walk home. So we all headed immediately to the Indian Middle School's two dozen yellow buses.
I don't remember one thing anyone said to one another. Or even if anyone did say anything. There was not much noise. The 600 or so 4th, 5th and 6th graders moving in the halls and stairs of the sprawling two-story building (that during the 1950s had served as the community's high school) and on the walkways leading to the buses that were already dutifully pulling up to the long curb three hours early were earnest and quiet.
I don't remember anything about the two-mile bus ride home. I just know it took me to our house on Miami Road in front of the big beautiful old stone water tower.
Below is my favorite photograph of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, taken in late 1942. He was then 25.
A stick in me hand and a tear in me eye
A doleful damsel I heard cry,
Johnny I hardly knew ye.--from "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye", popular Irish anti-war song written in early 1800s.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2019
Stop Training Dogs. Yes, You. Just Stop It.
Me today in bad mood on elevator with unknown GenY with her new rescued dog who jumps up on me...
HER: I’m so sorry! We just got him! He hasn’t had much training!
ME: It’s a DOG, Honey! A gorgeous boy DOG. It wants to jump, run, go outside, get drunk and hump everything. It’s a dog!
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
HR Departments
Why are most HR Departments based on “snitch culture” of women, gays and effeminate men?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2019
White Boy Action Wear
Twenty-one years ago I started a company called Black Dog to sell tees, sweatshirts, jackets and the like under the name of "White Boy Action Wear". The WBAW logo and "White Boy" (see T-shirt image above) would have appeared on every product.
We shelved the company and the clothing line when we realized something while selling a few items initially to obtain trade and service marks: very few people outside of the largest U.S. cities and some fun (but insular) snowboarding, skateboarding and extreme sports communities (a) "got it"--the name, that is--and (b) felt comfortable with it and the "concept", such as it is. Lots of people said they felt uncomfortable with White Boy Action Wear--the words, the concept, the tee shirt--and in ways they could not always explain to us. Me? I think it's funny (read: hysterical) and always have.
It makes fun of white people, by the way.
And although I’m a white guy, I think anyone can make fun of white people. I don’t believe in “cultural appropriation.”
Help me out:
1. Does, for example, the T-shirt product above offend you?
2. Would you buy it?
3. Would you keep or wear it if it were a present?
4. Would you let your kids wear it?
5. Would you wear it at your country club? An Irish bar?
6. Would you wear it into the "Soul Lounge" in Madisonville, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb of mainly black (or Afro-American) residents? Or at a mainly white working class bar in nearby the suburb of Norwood?
7. Even if you have no problems with it, and think it's wonderful and funny, what problems do you see other people having with it?
8. Have things (and sensibilities) changed or loosened up enough for people to understand the mild fun and satire connected the "White Boy Action Wear" idea and the goofy White Boy who would appear on every product?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
Paul Cezanne, Les joueurs de carte, 1892
Paul Cezanne, Les joueurs de carte, 1890-1892
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2019
2nd Tuesday MAGA
DCMAGA Meetup: Happy Hour at The Trump Hotel
Tonight November 12
6:00 pm to 9:30 pm
1100 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004
United States
Now more diverse than ever...😀
Posted by JD Hull at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2019
Pantheon: Julianne Moore.
An astonishingly versatile actress and human being.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2019
Work-Life.
923. Work is never about Employees.
Employees while important are always third.
Repeat after me:
1. Customers.
2. Employers who serve them.
3. Employees.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)
Rick Garcia Art Greenwich CT November 7 2019
Posted by JD Hull at 02:50 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2019
The Woke Section of My Local Bookshop
MenBad WomenGood section of my local bookstore. This section of the store is much larger and is even more handwringing, self-righteous and morally smug-superior than this.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2019
Cosmos
The Cosmos Club. My grandfather’s retreat. The scene of my wedding. The place of definitions. You needed way more than money to get in here. Way. Thanks, Grandpop. I still miss you. I’m still trying to get it right. I will.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)