Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > December > 24 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USFive who made a difference
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s the mellow season of the year, a time to reflect on our blessings of family, friends and people who have made a difference in our lives.
I’ll not take the bait from the morning paper’s front-page feature on Cynthia McKinney’s bid to become the Green Party’s presidential nominee. But one quote in it is priceless. It’s from Joe Beasley, Southeast Regional Director of the Rainbow/PUSh Coalition. “She says things nobody else is saying.” Yes — and there’s a reason. But it’s Christmas.
There’s a front-page warning, too, that Americans are falling behind on credit card payments at an alarming rate and that the worst may be yet to come. Hey, man, it’s Christmas. Lighten up. Preach to me about carelessness with credit before I make the extravagant Christmas purchases — and after we’ve experienced the joy of opening our presents.
The season does invite us to remember those who are or were important in our lives. That’s today’s assignment.
Identify for us here five people — not necessarily by name — who have made a real difference in your life. Mothers, fathers, spouses and children are a given. So identify others. My list:
• Fred Tucker, a newspaper carrier supervisor in South Macon and a father figure through most of my high-school years. During the long hours I rode with him as he checked on carriers and responded to customer complaints, he talked me through some of the most difficult questions of a teenager’s formative years.
• Betty Lou O’Keefe, a high school English teacher, who decided I shouldn’t wait to go to college, as I’d planned, and got me in Mercer University on a Saturday morning in the spring of my senior year.
• Otho Pirkle, a guidance counselor, always upbeat and positive, who provided sound fatherly advice and many kindnesses throughout high school.
• Durwood McAlister, former editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal, who hired me twice. He, like Fred Tucker, is the kind of person you’d want at your side in trouble, good fortune or a long journey through space.
• There is another, but since I’m writing about him tomorrow, I’ll keep that surprise wrapped.
Merry Christmas. And thanks for the pleasures, the laughs and enlightenment, your contributions have brought us this year.
Comments
By jbmlaw
December 24, 2007 10:33 AM | Link to this
Good morning Jim, and Merry Christmas. I posted my extraneous stuff at the end of yesterday’s posts, so I am free to address today’s topics. Your untold Cynthia joke is great – we can each write our own. I assume, from the nature of the essay that we are also to exclude those whom we never met in the flesh, e.g., Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman, etc. The bias in the question seems to demand a list of those who left us the most important of life’s lessons. I realize all of mine are white males, but I am trying to be honest here for a change, instead of politically correct:
Rendigs Fels, Economics professor at my alma mater, taught me how to think. Until that junior year in college, I had been skating through life, relying on dazzle to carry me.
Terry Cothran, my high school calculus teacher, who resigned the year after he taught me, to take a real job in private enterprise. Left me a love and appreciation for pure logic and mathematics.
Durward Jones, tax professor – taught me the value of enthusiasm in imparting wisdom.
Don Pritchard, an early boss, in my bureaucrat days, taught me much about managing talent in others.
Coy Hinton, preacher, added a dimension to my faith when I thought I was too old and too intellectually-rigid to learn anything.
By Redneck Convert
December 24, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
Well, long as Wooten is listing his top 5 I reckon I need to list the top 5 on this blog. People that have made a diffrence on it this year. So here goes.
I would of listed this Captain guy but he disappears for weeks at a time and can’t be counted. He may be doing some jail time or maybe spending a lot of time in some of them bath houses.
Anyhow, we are really having a good time around the new Christmas tree here at the trailer. Joe Bill just brought in a six-pack of PBR he says is the present for little Sonny Zell George but I don’t think it will last long, what with all the people showing up here.
Merry Christmas everybody and I sure hope the missus likes her crock pot.
By Jim Wooten
December 24, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this
Morning, jbmlaw. Your contributions enrich these discussions. Merry Christmas.
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this
When did lawyers discover humility, Jim? I missed the bulletin. Jbm calls his perfectly efficient brief on the “Zeitgeist” movie “extraneous”, when it has to be some of the best lawyering he’s done since the day he talked Al Gore into suing the Crown Observatory for its fraudulent notion of “time”, noting that more than 400 scientists worldwide believe that the alleged thing does not exist.
(And if you want to know the unvarnished, Jim, it’s that jbm doesn’t want anybody to know that it was that case which has put him on Easy St. ever since.)
By Dennis
December 24, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this
“[Cynthia McKinney] says things nobody else is saying.”
I am no fan of Cynthia MccKinney and her brand or racism. However, she does “say things nobody else is saying” when it comes to the crookedness of Congress and the White House.
What she says is a what millions of Americans think about the corruption of their government, but which the mainstream media, including “Thinking Right”, glosses, over as it suits.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By jbmlaw
December 24, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this
Thanks Jim and Glenn and Redneck, Merry Christmas to you all.
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 11:31 AM | Link to this
Merry Christmas, Redneck. Glad you and Jim Earl got the tree y’all deserve, one way or t’other. Hope you can get the pine needles out of the camper OK. Say hello to everybody down at the Church of Holiness, and tell ‘em they is welcome at First Bromidical anytime they’s in Roswell.
By ron
December 24, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this
One of the kids I went to school with was mentally handicapped.From him I learned a lot of life lessons.We're still friends today.Happy holidays all y'all,one more time.By Glenn
December 24, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this
thanks, ron. It seems that your friendship is one of the rare and enviable ones. All the best in the holidays and in the year ahead as well.
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 1:01 PM | Link to this
My five most important peoples person guys things nyauhgg. (jerry lewis).
Jerry Lewis. (“LADY!”)
Adam. Against God’s strict orders Adam ate the partridge in the pear tree, the dirty rat. Even today, the partridge is the first thing people wish for at Xmas. Are they that tasty?
Christ - What did christ know about his divinity, and when did he know it? During his ministry, he visited his home town, and they all laughed at him, after all, for years they had thought he was the kid who was stealing their newspapers. Christ’s only real criticism about people came during that visit. How did it dawn on Christ that he was the Son of God? Satan’s tempting him in the desert must have given him a clue, after all, why would Satan bother if he wasn’t the SOG? The angels appearing to him was probably a turning point. Of course the blessed mother ever virgin appeared to him everyday. But it was on the cross where Christ showed his most doubt. “Why have you forsaken me?” Must have been unnerving for his supporters, with all those Romans w/spears around, for Christ to start having second thoughts on the cross.
Sanjaya
Cynthia McKinney. I may join her campaign. I wonder how far my pen can take that girl. Hmmmm……
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 1:33 PM | Link to this
Do NOT, I say with emphasis, add to your offenses by serving as amanuensis to the densest parenthesis.
If you dare do so, then I shall send Los Dos Pepes, the notorious Panamanian naco Pepe and his diminutive cohort Pepe, they of the greasy Members Only jackets and necklaces of human teeth, to take out Santa and frame you for it. For me they’d do it in a heartbeat, that’s how much pull I have, and we’re talking no fingerprints here, just you with your back and then right shoulder against the wall in that accusatory surgical glare, looking for all the world as inescapably guilty as Hugh Grant.
Don’t test me on this one.
And Happy Jerry Lewis Day, next week.
By Jim is a Joke
December 24, 2007 1:42 PM | Link to this
Based on the p** poor way jimmy writes, I should think his five mentors were the three stooges, and laurel and hardy. Come to think of it, all five figures are now represented in the Chimp-in-Chief’s cabinet. BAN THE AJC ON THE TECH CAMPUS!
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 2:20 PM | Link to this
He writes fine, you unjustifiable snob. Usually windowpane stuff. If you hadn’t flacked for L. Ron and written the screenplay for “Barbarella”, you’d know how hard it is to write cool stuff in plainsong.
Demonic changeling.
By Dusty
December 24, 2007 2:36 PM | Link to this
Dear Jim Wooten,
a Christmas “thank you” for your interesting and informative editorials. I learn a lot in a most enjoyable way. Always look forward to your writings.
To blog “friends” here, have a good one. It is always amazing to me that the airwaves can bring those who are most enjoyable, even without the touch of a handshake. My pleasure, friends.
To all the elves here, both naughty and nice, enjoy yourself and TRY TO BEHAVE, RedNeck. I wish you all a merry Christmas and I shall have one too. And so…until tomorrow…or the next day…adeste fideles..
By Attn: Clayton Parents
December 24, 2007 2:53 PM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten,
How ironic that Lyle Harris mentions the Open Records act in his editorial against the Clayton school board as an Open Records act has CONFIRMED Rod Johnson’s wife Celeste Johnson has been illegally “double dipping”.
Mr. Wooten, correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t you constantly assailed Democrats for using government as a “jobs program”?
Then why has the editorial board been COMPLETELY silent on Democrat State Rep. Celeste Johnson illegally “double dipping” by drawing a Clayton County school salary when she was away serving in the Georgia General Assembly?
There have been two editorials and about half a dozen stories on the SACS intimidation, excuse me “investigation” into Clayton and you don’t find that a school board member’s wife illegally “double dipping” is newsworthy?
This is why the “Citizen Journalism” that the AJC talked about exists. It exists when traditional newspapers FAIL to do their job.
If you want the “professionals” to work the story, have Lyle or anyone at the AJC put their money where their mouth is and post a fax number, so you can see first hand the Open Records request yourself.
Or is the AJC afraid to do that, because then it has NO excuse to sit on a story that doesn’t fit into their Clayton County agenda?
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 3:11 PM | Link to this
Sure, I followed THAT along, glenn. I think it’s high time our government take another hard look at allowing turpentine filler to be added to the castor oil. Glenn’s mom thought she was doing good, and I think it’s a damn shame.
Glenn, promise me you will make a new years resolution to stop trying to be witty, clever, sardonic, or…..in fact, just promise never to make any allusion whatsoever. Nobody gets it but you. Inside jokes are fair, but when the insiders number only you, then it’s called insanity.
Einstein was wrong. Insanity is an inside joke that only the comedian gets.
I should know. I’ve been boo’ed off more stages than lenny bruce
By Awards Van
December 24, 2007 3:25 PM | Link to this
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
By Captain Freedom
December 24, 2007 3:29 PM | Link to this
THE Captain wishes to join the spirit of festive merriment and cross-the-aisle comity so evident here today. Why, even the knuckle-dragging Redneck was able to find kind words for his fellow-travelling tftt.
However, in THE Captain’s own defense against the yokel’s inferred criticism, he wishes to point out that THE Captain’s sporadic publishing habits are indication of His higher intelligence. As tftt and Redneck and Dusty amply demonstrate, frequent publishing does not necessarily point to consistently high content. THE Captain speaks when there is a Need. Not more, not less.
THE Captain would point out to Redneck (and his close compadres tftt and Dusty), that regularity is a good thing when it comes to bowel evacuation, but perhaps not in all other walks of life.
And while THE Captain truly appreciates Mr Wooten’s planned tribute to Him and His blog brilliance, THE Captain humbly begs Mr Wooten to re-write his Christmas Day column. THE Captain, while surely deserving of such accolades, prefers to toil in relative obscurity. So, Mr Wooten, THE Captain demands that you confer your praise on a different, albeit less worthy, honoree.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Except of course the Islamoecolesbiamericahating sodomites, who can all continue on their merry path to Hell itslef.
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 3:32 PM | Link to this
Well!
By Another taxpayer
December 24, 2007 3:49 PM | Link to this
Merry Christmas to all the learn-ed individuals that may pass a glance my way. I will dispense with the Happy New Years when the hour of reckoning is nearer.
Yours Truly,
Phil ” O sopher
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 4:06 PM | Link to this
I’ve discovered something about the sexual revolution of the 60’s. (like every generation doesn’t think that THEY invented sex).
Anyway, I was watching an old Margaret O’brien flik. She was a child acting genius. Anyway, they cast her in roles that were too young for her for too long a period of time, and there occurred, in nearly every scene, an innappropriate sexual tension with every old man she tried to steal the scene from. It was laughable. The movie is “Tenth Street Angel”, and the very sexy Angela Lansbury is in it. For straight sex, a young angela lansbury is the very, very top. No one can touch the adulterous, incestual, and child-molestation fantasies that she created in the minds of audiences around this great country in the 40’s and 50’s, (which had to just totally reinforce the same identical feelings that the too-old Shirley Temple elicited in the thirties), and it occurs to me that the GOP is correct about Hollywood: they create our monsters. They probably dont mean to, but they do. We are monkeys. We see. We do. But worse, if we are observing closely an elaborated presentation, (like a movie), with our peers, we are influenced in ways that will never be quantified. Inferred subliminal messages, over time, will make us act out. Deduced subliminal messages, over time, will force us to act out and be all that we can be. That explains why many doctors, lawyers, and politicians are sexual deviants and belong behind bars. They want children. they need children. They will get your children, trust me. Nothing can stop them. Not even the blithely unaware Bill Gates and his naive ideas about the internet.
So, to protect our children, our wives, and even our own sphincters, (gay perverts are out there too), I propose a new rule: the internet is 4 email only. Dont ever go to a movie, you’ll see something that will end up with your wife’s legs up in the air and thats not you pumping away, pal. We’ve been had. We want what we see; dont you all the modern ideal of a hero. We want whatever we see. We are an observing experiment created by god. Whatever we allow in, we absorb and become. It’s true. Know it. Believe it. Live it. (That’s why I would like to throw my halo in the ring of possible Brittany Spears suitors)
I’ve discovered this sex-reality fact, and offer it up freely to all, so that you may protect your family. The people you trust are waiting to F you and yours, (but good), and you know, the idea is just so nasty…….on fact, I admit that I liked it! I LIKED IT! (Carrie, 1977).
So take care of your families; they are sitting ducks for the easily-impressed-by-movies. Who in your own life should you suspect?
EVERYONE!!!!!!
Just Kidding, God Bless Us Everyone.
theuniversewascreatedwhenmanfirstobservedit.
By AmVet
December 24, 2007 5:23 PM | Link to this
Is anyone here familiar with the country Christmas hit, “You’ll be a Yule’in by the Log this year”?
Man, I love Pandora…
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 5:50 PM | Link to this
Wasn’t I this time, Timesis. When I bore, I bore with the best of ‘em. I bore in earnest. I bore for God and Country. I bore so you don’t have to. I bore hard and long. I bore so that the world might be made safer for the boring and the bored alike. I bore from the rooftops. I bore from every mountain and mole hill, every recondite byway of this great land. I bore myself sometimes. I bore when others aren’t looking. I sometimes bore like Bill Casey did: just to throw ‘em off the scent. I bore with my left till they let down their guard, then bore right in with my boring right. I bore so well that I bore my dog to sleep. I bore plaintive children in Wal-Mart until they STFU. I bored in a Veterans Day speech once, so well that the stupefied vets forgot I wasn’t one of them. I bore better than a beery vet at the Legion Hall. I can outbore Dr. Laura before breakfast, and Janine Garafallow at lunchtime just to prepare for boring the hell out of all of you in the afternoon. I bore best when I bore and then go on a good boring jag. I bore better than a Columbia Sophomore explicating her latest cosmology. I bore even the writers of DNC-AJC editorials. I bore so vigorously that the squirrels fall out of the trees and Ella’s shattered Champaign glass reassembles. I bore even in movie theatres, and once bored so intently that I changed the ending of a boring Woody Allen movie. I bore till the cows come home, weeping. I bore by beginning sentences with the First Person Singular Pronoun.
The arc of my boredom is long, but it bends toward me, a bore.
But not this time.
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 6:10 PM | Link to this
It must be hard being trapped in that mind of yours Glen.
I dont get a word of anything you write anymore. Not a lick.
Anyone else? Does anyone get even one reference? I dont, and I’m not afraid to admit it.
Glenn: My prescription? More eggnog. More carols. More family time in general. Wrap some presents. Read some science. Try quantum theory. Any era. Any theory.
Then go stick your head in the……just kidding.
GBUE!!
Santa must be warming up his raindeer about now, and I’m getting real happy. I wished for a crash test dummy for xmas. I’m researching the forces on adultering philanderers who are hiding underneath the bed of spouses who are making love after the husband unexpectedly came home for a lunchtime quickie, which totally interrupted the afternoon delight of the sinners.
Safety first, is all I’m saying.