Cotter Pen

Dread Tamales

2012-01-04T20:22:00.002-05:00

My friend Pascal and I were in the fifth grade together, back when there were no computers, no e-mails, no music videos. Imagine. Or remember. Whichever. These days Pascal and I attach music videos to e-mails we exchange on the internet. Before Christmas, he sent me a YouTube from Gounod’s opera Faust. Pascal and I have been planning to attend the encore showing at the North I-85 Regal

An Instrument to Measure New Years With

2011-12-26T14:48:00.003-05:00

While I was paying attention to something else, the people who provide the internet application for my blog were collecting statistics on my readers. I maintain a mailing list of a few dozen friends and relatives, as well as some loyalists I have never even met. The shelf-life of a new blog posting of mine is usually about three days for those of that number who are interested. Then

The Right Side of History

2011-12-13T19:53:00.015-05:00

James Monroe, fifth President of the United States, articulated in his 1823 State of the Union address that the door was closed for European colonization of the Americas, both North and South, and interference in American affairs would be considered an act of war. Subsequent US Presidents have taken The Monroe Doctrine very seriously, none more so than John F.

November 22

2011-11-22T17:00:00.019-05:00

Chris Matthews, formerly of The San Francisco Examiner and currently host of MSNBC's Hardball, may be the closest thing remaining to the sort of old fashioned journalist I grew up wanting to be. As he has mentioned several times on his television show, he has written a new book about John F. Kennedy. He avoids using the term "Camelot," but his memory of President Kennedy is certainly admiring.

Of All The Gaul

2011-11-19T11:34:00.060-05:00

The U.S. Army stationed me in France when I was only a few months no longer a teenager, making me among the last in a line not easily kept down on the farm after they'd seen Paree. For two years, I lived and worked near the small French village of Saran, which is just outside the city of Orleans, 111 kilometers (66 miles) south of Paris. That was enough for me to become a life-long

a.k.a. "A Rose"

2011-08-01T08:08:00.026-04:00

The writer widely known as William Shakespeare, possibly a pen-name, put these words in the sweet mouth of his character Juliet:'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,Nor arm, nor face, nor any other partBelonging to a man. O, be some other name!What's in a name? that which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as

Thimblerigger

2011-06-26T10:23:00.020-04:00

The shell game dates back to the ancient world, Egypt, Rome, Greece. It is depicted in European paintings from the Middle Ages.The game requires a pea and three shells, walnuts will do, but thimbles, cups, whatever is handy and covers the pea. This worldwide street swindle is usually played on a mat lying on the ground, sometimes a cardboard box.The person handling the shells and pea is called

Cochlear Implant Studies

2011-06-02T08:19:00.014-04:00

Two studies of Cochlear Implant experiences have invited me to participate, and I have been delighted to do so. Why not? When I lost 100 percent of my hearing in both ears five years ago, there was not anywhere near enough Cochlear Implant information available to keep me from feeling like I was jumping off a cliff blindfolded. Now, a Cochlear Implant, an electronic device provides me bionic

Encore! Encore!

2011-05-23T20:36:00.013-04:00

Performances from the award-winning series The Met: Live in HD encore this summer Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. in shopping mall movie theatres. Click here for the location nearest you. Ticket prices are less than the American Idols Concert Tour, more than a bleacher seat at the Braves. Popcorn and soft drinks available at the concession stand.Puccini’s Madama Butterfly June 15. Running time: 2

Rain Man, Forrest Gump, and Khan

2011-04-21T20:09:00.020-04:00

My Name is Khan is a Bollywood film about stereotypes. Bollywood is not a real place but is the nickname for the film industry niche in India famous for stylized song and dance fantasy confection. Bollywood is headquartered in Mumbai, known in a previous incarnation as Bombay.Khan, a Muslin immigrant to California from Mumbai, has Aspergers Syndrome autism, which is characterized by symptoms that

排便 Happens

2011-03-26T13:32:00.023-04:00

Help wanted--Immediate Opening: Nuclear Heroes.Maintenance and repair workers needed for nuclear power plant at seaside location in beautiful Pacific archipelago. Record earthquake and Tusnami have created need for emergency workers to prevent catastrophic meltdown. Preference given older workers, who will probably die of something else before the cancer risks from radiation exposure.Japan

Shores of Tripoli

2011-03-13T14:52:00.010-04:00

Before the military coup in 1969 that established Muammar al-Gaddafi as leader of Libya, he had risen the rank of Colonel in the army, not generalisimo or field marshall or even commander of the elephants. Now he shoots his own citizens, who have watched their neighbors in Tunis and Egypt successfully overthow tyrants. Gaddafi is not the first thug in Tripoli.In the early days of the United

Streets of Cairo

2011-02-01T12:26:00.017-05:00

I arrived at the American Embassy in Cairo the same month Jimmy Carter was sworn in as President of the United States. I got off on the wrong foot with Cairo and never found a better one. “Tomorrow is Friday, but you’ll have jet-lag,” my new boss said. “I’ll send a duty driver for you on Monday.” However, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and fever hallucinations, Pharaoh’s revenge, immediately overtook

Cochlear Bone Connected to the Cell Phone

2010-11-26T09:10:00.053-05:00

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Anniversary after anniversary since my miraculous Cochlear Implant surgery, I’ve been trying to find a way to connect my CI personal audio cable to my cell phone. When I try to listen to a CD or tape via my direct connect audio cable, what I hear is my best experience with sound, because the signal is clean, unpolluted electronics, without any airborne sound

George Ann Bohling

2010-10-23T21:30:00.015-04:00

9/27/30 - 9/27/10Dear Curt,It was great to see you at your mother’s memorial service. I believe the last time I saw you was at John’s memorial service. We really need to stop meeting like this.I wanted to say a few words about your mother, but the stairs at the service made me fearful of falling. As you may know, I was hospitalized four years ago with meningitis. After three weeks in a coma, I

The Met at the Movies

2010-09-25T17:48:00.022-04:00

The Met: Live in HD opens its fifth season at a Shopping Mall Movie Theatre Near You. Ticket prices vary: Adult, Senior, Child -- more than the latest Brad Pitt charmer, less than the Atlanta Zoo.Click Here For Details and TicketsWagner’s Das RheingoldLive Sat. Oct. 9 at 1 PM. Encore Wed. Oct. 27 at 6:30 PM.3 hours.Conductor: James Levine. Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan for the first

Take A Bow

2010-09-11T20:08:00.014-04:00

Two carnies are walking down a country road in the pouring rain. The carnival has folded, and they are walking to the next town. They’re cold, wet, and bedraggled. They pass a house and look in the picture window. A father is sitting by the fire reading to his children. His wife sits by his side, smiling at him and the children. One carnie says to the other, ‘Look at that poor bastard. I’ll bet

It Ain’t Necessarily So

2010-08-13T14:10:00.039-04:00

My wife Annette wanted to go to Charleston for her birthday. Since I knew where the party was being held, I enjoyed some of the cake. You can ask Annette how many candles, if you want. Charleston is a little like Savannah or New Orleans, only more New World American than Old World European. The old stuff is what people want to see. They could stay home and visit suburban shopping malls. Maybe the

Our Fathers

2010-06-20T07:25:00.004-04:00

I was wrong to wait so long to read Cormac McCarthy’s novel THE ROAD, which has been out a couple of years. I have believed that Cormac McCarthy should be the next American winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, but I had concluded since All the Pretty Horses that like Hemingway after For Whom the Bell Tolls, his best writing was behind him. Also, I am not a big fan of post-apocalyptic

Sixty-Six

2010-06-06T09:40:00.003-04:00

My oldest best friend Pascal reminded me this morning that he had seen nothing on the news about D-Day. Here's something I posted last year, on my previous birthday:The armada of American Allies invaded the coast of France at Normandy 65 anniversaries ago. Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Sword Beach, Pointe du Hoc. Paratroopers and gliders floated silently from the sky into French farm fields and

They May Play "Taps"

2010-05-28T22:16:00.012-04:00

In my childhood, Memorial Day was observed on May 30, no matter what day of the week. Now, in the interest of a long three-day weekend to begin the summer, it is the last Monday in May. Originally called Decoration Day, it was to remember those who have died in our nation's service. Before the end of the Civil War, groups of women in the South organized and decorated the graves of their fallen.

Encore! Encore!

2010-05-15T09:53:00.009-04:00

The Metropolitan Opera of New york is a box office smash hit at a Shopping Mall Movie Theatre Near You. According to Time magazine, the Met has sold 2.2 million tickets during 2009-2010 for its nine live high-definition telecasts, 400,000 more than the previous season. Now the Met will debut a new Summer HD Encore Series, replaying six favorites on Wednesday nights at 6:30 p.m.:Verdi’s Aida, June

Dangerous, Uncontrolled and Uncontrollable

2010-05-09T09:49:00.002-04:00

Surreptitiously parents and grandparents inventory every newborn baby. Ten fingers. Ten toes. Two eyes. Two ears. Two feet. Two hands. Two legs. Two arms. Erin Ingram of Lithonia had two arms to hug her mother around the neck and wish a Happy Mother’s Day for seven years. Then in March, she was attacked by two dangerous, uncontrolled, and uncontrollable dogs, which dragged her down the street.

Why Sarah Palin is a Quitter

2010-05-02T08:26:00.006-04:00

Just for the fun of it, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) compiles annual lists of “most corrupt lawmakers,“ and this year has added a new group to its hall of shame: the nation's "Worst Governors." My governor, Sonny Perdue, has been CREWed. Although the list is heavy with governors from the South and Republicans, there are two Democrats and a former bodybuilder movie

Not a Fiduciary

2010-04-24T20:25:00.005-04:00

I guess maybe the watchdogs at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were watching internet porn while Bernard Madoff went unnoticed, his Ponzi scheme defrauding $65-billion from investors, including humanitarian and philanthropic foundations. Now the boys at the SEC apparently have taken a break from internet surfing long enough to file a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street

Hal Holbrook Any Night

2010-04-16T09:46:00.009-04:00

My senior year in high school (1962) I worked at Tenth Street Cut-Rate Sundries, located in a storefront long since torn down to provide Peachtree Street frontage for the Crescent Street apartment building now known to tourists as the Margaret Mitchell House, but which she called “the dump.” I worked after school for an hour each Tuesday and Thursday, then on Saturday from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. I

Drummed In Your Ear

2010-04-10T21:00:00.011-04:00

During the Great Depression of the 1930‘s, my Daddy worked for 50 cents a day. He supplemented his income in the pool hall, as a snooker shooter and numbers runner. By the time I was born in Atlanta, we lived in the Capitol Homes on Butler Street, directly across the from the Georgia Legislature and Governor’s office. I thought the Capitol lawn was a park for us neighborhood kids, because we

The Stradivarius in the Basement

2010-04-06T19:08:00.009-04:00

In her new book THE STRADIVARIUS IN THE BASEMENT, Kristina Simms shakes her family tree like a middle-Georgia pecan farmer harvesting crop and out fall writers back to the immigration in 1766 of her English ancestors to North Carolina. Tina’s Georgia-born grandmother Adrianne “was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, her father having fought in the Civil war, and I know she was

Float Like A Butterfly

2010-03-27T21:17:00.010-04:00

The sky is falling. Socialized medicine. New taxes. Rationed healthcare. Government takeover. Euthanasia. Still, the U.S. Congress passed a Health Care Reform Bill, and President Obama signed it into law. Although serious information on the subject has been out shouted by the sound and fury of the politics, some facts can now begin to trickle down. Among them, the new Health Care Reform

Maps and Puzzles

2010-03-20T19:40:00.007-04:00

I discovered two unforgettable things on the free-time play shelf in the fourth grade. One was a book with blocks of words lined up in rows like a column of soldiers, and words at the end of certain lines sounded a lot like words from other lines. This really got my attention, and I would keep the book at my desk and sneak peaks at it even while the teacher did pluses and minuses and times

Haiti Diary

2010-03-17T20:06:00.010-04:00

(Paw Paw Bill Note: Remember the Marshall Plan? You’re welcome, European Union and the Euro. But who needs gratitude? Americans lend a hand when a hand is needed. Wherever Americans go, America comes along. CARE relief worker Rick Perera’s reports from Haiti, particularly this one, capture the feel and paradox of American ducks out of American water and remind me of my own experiences 30

Economics Pluribus Unum

2010-03-13T10:06:00.008-05:00

I never attended the University of Georgia, but I own rental property in Athens. Therefore I drive back and forth on U.S. 78, a long enough trip to get to know every convenient restroom along the highway in Stone Mountain, Snellville, Loganville, Monroe and Between. Between is between Loganville and Monroe. In addition to driving U.S. 78, being an Athens landlord consists mostly of time spent

Voicemail Sandwich On

2010-03-02T13:05:00.005-05:00

I tested a new voicemail service that does transcription for the hearing impaired and can be read by cell phone text message or by computer e-mail. Don’t be surprised if “transcription for the hearing impaired” becomes “sandwich on for hearing in pairs.“ I keep thinking I am going to write an entire blog of nothing but the malapropisms of captions and transcriptions. Those of us who depend on

Magical Mystery and Manners Tour

2010-02-23T15:38:00.021-05:00

I took a long sabbatical from Paw Paw Bill last year to write a more or less serious article of conventional magazine length about Flannery O’Connor. Nobody gave me this assignment but myself. I thought it would be an interesting experience, a good excuse to travel to Flannery O’Connor landmarks, re-read old favorites, learn some new things. SHENANDOAH, the prestigious literary review of Virginia

Wind Chime

2010-02-13T11:11:00.008-05:00

I received an e-mail from Dr. Joseph Chime, who introduces himself as manager, auditing and accounting section, Bank of Africa, Burkina Faso. He urgently wants to transfer $11.5 million into my account. He will split this with me 60/40. Well, you can imagine my excitement and sense of good fortune. This transaction is absolutely legal and risk free, “since I works for this bank,“ Dr. Chime

Nine Smokers

2010-02-07T21:43:00.012-05:00

Don’t stop me, if you’ve heard this one. I just have to tell new versions, because things keep looking different the more I look at them, and maybe sometimes something has changed for other people, too. So, I turned 65 my last birthday. Getting old is not for the faint of heart, but consider the alternative. Four years ago next month, I went to bed one night complaining of my worse headache

Blowing Smoke Up My Asp

2010-01-27T19:38:00.006-05:00

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, maybe my friend Carl Bergman, an informed and insightful political observer, will blush that I have stolen an idea he posted on his blog, including comments I could not resist making. Carl quotes U.S. Department of State briefing officer Ian Kelly blowing smoke up every available orifice of Foggy Bottom press corps members inquiring about how

Premises Protected by Johnson & Johnson

2010-01-22T16:05:00.007-05:00

My yard, front, back and two sides, is under constant threat of being reclaimed by nature. Thanks to the inability and/or unwillingness of the U.S. Congress to enact functional immigration laws, I can always find help in front of the Stone Mountain Cut Rate 24/7 Magic Quick Stop Generic Gas Station and Georgia Lottery Franchise. I always wonder, when the swarm encircles my car: does this

Haiti 1492 - 2010

2010-01-17T12:08:00.007-05:00

As every school-child knows,In Fourteen-Hundred-and-Ninety-TwoColumbus sailed the ocean blue.And discovered…Haiti.Right? Look it up. Columbus had navigated west to his destination, the East, an untested route at best. When he arrived wherever, he called the people who already lived there "Indians," though they had never heard of India or even Spain. Within 25 years, the Spanish colonized the

Violate My Copyright

2010-01-11T16:56:00.016-05:00

By William C. CotterI don’t do New Year’s resolutions. It is humiliating enough just to have an idea, without bringing unnecessary attention to the inability to enact it. Nonetheless, I have resolved to quit including any sort of copyright notice on my blog.Abbie Hoffman wrote a best seller entitled Steal This Book, do-it-yourself instructions on cannabis cultivation, pirate radio, communes,

Two Old Guys at The Waffle House in Hapeville

2010-01-07T17:29:00.015-05:00

You never know what you might overhear at the Waffle House. Two old guys sat at a booth by the front window. They huffed and puffed like characters in a Hemingway story remembering the great DiMaggio. “Pavarotti is not the only one who ever lived. Placido Domingo is my favorite.”“Placido Domingo won the Birgit Nilsson prize. A million dollars, provided by her will. He was her own first

Three Holiday Wishes

2009-12-24T09:22:00.008-05:00

My favorite Christmas wish is Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards All Mankind. A hard hunt, if you can find any. Happy Birthday, Prince of Peace. Not prince of profit motive, or even making the world safe for shopping malls and drive-thru fast food.In Oslo, President Barack Obama recently accepted the Nobel Peace Prize and told the Norwegians that “Evil does exist in the world,” as if they

My Sister Martha 8/8/38 - 12/5/09

2009-12-06T08:41:00.023-05:00

Before Martha Cotter Kirkland was a writer, she was a singer with a voice so beautiful that when she gave her first classical recital, her self-centered teenage brother could not hide from public view his tears of awe and pride. The first time he, I, ever realized she could sing in any special way, she performed in her high school talent show: the Edith Piaf international smash hit La Vie En

Dash Away All

2009-11-25T09:05:00.001-05:00

Did you get the e-mail calling itself “Getting to Know Obama’s Czars?” The extensive list names appointees of President Obama’s and shamelessly describes their backgrounds with loaded labels, booby-trapped, ready to explode at the slightest touch: ultra liberal, pro-abortion, Black radical, Communist, homosexual, gay activist, socialist, radical environmentalist, and “married to a reporter for

A Day I Can't Forget

2009-11-22T07:48:00.001-05:00

Today’s current generation may well be defined by 9/11 for the rest of its life the way my parents’ generation was irrevocably shaped by December 7. For my own generation, the unforgetable date was November 22, the day in 1963 that John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his motorcade drove past the Texas Book Repository in Dallas. That anniversary comes and goes with a certain memory of being

Toxic Xmas Tree Trimmings

2009-11-14T11:27:00.012-05:00

Will Rogers, Oklahoma Cherokee cowboy humorist, social commentator, vaudeville comedian, and movie actor, always said he avoided Washington, D.C., because he did not want to compete with the professional clowns. “All I know is what I read in the papers,” Will Rogers would say as he twirled his lariat. Congress is still congenitally incapable of resisting loading down the legislative Christmas

You Can't Say That In The L.A. Times

2009-11-08T10:18:00.021-05:00

As day leads on to day, and the years pile up, I experience a greater investment and interest in the obituary pages. Jack Nelson, 80, Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Washington, D.C., for over 20 of his 35 years with that newspaper, died recently at his home in Bethesda, Md.Jack Nelson was a hard-hitting newspaper reporter of an old school before hairspray and endless television cable chatter

Only an Emergency

2009-10-30T17:47:00.008-04:00

Don’t Panic. It’s only a National Emergency. President Obama has declared the H1N1 (Swine) flu threat a National Emergency. However, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Emergency designation just allows hospitals to cut through the red tape, set up triage centers, determine levels of care, and treat the sickest patients first, as well as establish

Cowboy Festival at Booth Western Art Museum

2009-10-19T20:06:00.011-04:00

Blessing enough to be a cowboy or a poet. Baxter Black answers to both identities. In addition, he is a former large animal veterinarian, DVM. I guess that means horses and cows.On National Public Radio, Cowboy-poet Black says things like, “Always drink upstream from the herd.” If you‘ve heard his cowboy twang on NPR, you probably remember. He says he still doesn't own a television or a cell

The Audacity of Peace

2009-10-14T13:31:00.012-04:00

President Barack Obama recently traveled to Scandinavia to try to bring home the Olympics but got the Nobel Peace Prize instead. Critics have complained about both. In fact, pretty much the only thing for which President Obama has not been criticized since being sworn in as President was taking his wife out to dinner on their anniversary. No, I stand corrected. I actually I did hear somebody

Our Fathers

2009-10-10T20:52:00.011-04:00

The Met: Live in HD

2009-09-29T20:26:00.012-04:00

At a Shopping Mall Movie Theatre Near YouTosca – Giacomo Puccini1 PM Saturday October 10, 2009Encore: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:30 PMAida – Giuseppe Verdi1 PM Saturday October 24, 2009Encore: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 6:30 PMTurandot – Giacomo Puccini1 PM Saturday November 7, 2009Encore: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 6:30 PMLes Contes d’Hoffmann – Jacques Offenbach1 PM Saturday December 19,

Health Care Option

2009-09-03T09:05:00.022-04:00

Health Care Reform rally on the grounds of the Georgia Capitol. Thomas Watson looms over Paw Paw Bill's head.Here’s what will happen to you in America when you get sick. Not IF you get sick, but WHEN you get sick. Human organisms, even Americans, are born guaranteed to get sick and die. First you will lose your job. After you have exhausted your sick leave and all the protections provided by

Flannery O'Connor's Milledgeville

2009-08-26T10:31:00.067-04:00

I am writing an article about Flannery O'Connor for the print world, as if a good enough excuse were needed to visit some of the landmarks of her life.Flannery O'Connor lived out the last years of her all-too-short life and wrote many of her stories in this farmhouse. She called the farm Andalusia. It is located on U.S. Highway 441 North, about four miles north of historic Milledgeville, a

Flannery O'Connor's Savannah

2009-08-14T08:55:00.028-04:00

I just returned from Savannah, its historic squares and boulevards, canopied with centuries old live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, excuse enough for a trip only slightly over four hours drive away. Even so, I wanted to focus on Flannery O'Connor, who was born there and lived her childhood at Lafayette Square.This is the living room of the O'Connor house, family photos on display.The Flannery

Sixty-Five

2009-06-05T06:11:00.004-04:00

The armada of American Allies invaded the coast of France at Normandy 65 anniversaries ago. Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Sword Beach, Pointe du Hoc. Paratroopers and gliders floated silently from the sky into French farm fields and towns. Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Bayeux, Carentan. The charming fishing village of Arromanches was turned into an instant deep water port. Sixty-five birthdays ago for me

Flanders Fields

2009-05-23T10:49:00.015-04:00

The city where I live, population 621, kicks off the Memorial Day weekend with a Children’s Parade, little flags, bunting decorated bicycles, wagons, scooters, skateboards. The parade convenes at the Pine Lake Community Center and winds its way two blocks to the Beach House for hot dogs, hamburgers, and pot luck. Krogers and Publics do booming business for Memorial Day weekend. So does NASCAR

H1N1 Swine Flu 4U2

2009-05-02T21:04:00.010-04:00

I have been busy remodeling the condominium that belonged to my sister, who died at the end of 2007, naming me as executor of her estate, with instructions to sell her condo, which had fallen into disrepair during the years of her declining health. In addition to executor, I am thus the contractor preparing the property for the market. For years, I have employed day labor help with real estate

Dunking Stool

2009-04-25T09:05:00.005-04:00

Our American pilgrim forbearers, between arriving at Plymouth Rock and becoming colonial revolutionaries, felt threatened by witchcraft. In their zealous self-defense, they resorted to all manner of, what shall we call it, torture? Root out the names of all the witches. There was something called a dunking stool or ducking stool, a chair at one end of a see-saw, teetering over the water.

Banking Crisis

2009-04-17T19:29:00.006-04:00

I opened my first bank account with less than five dollars at the Citizens and Southern Bank branch on Peachtree and 12th Street. I cut through their parking lot every day on my way to and from Clark Howell Elementary School 50-plus years ago. The school, on 10th Street between Juniper and Piedmont, is long-gone in favor of a fire station and the old brick bank building replaced by a sleek,

Pirates of the Arabian

2009-04-10T12:22:00.013-04:00

Pirates off the coast of Africa have attacked a cargo ship flying the U.S. flag and taken its captain hostage. The vessel, named the Alabama, is owned by Maersk Line Ltd., of Denmark. This was the sixth attempted seizure at sea in a week by pirates in the area where the rhinoceros horn of Africa tries to bump the bulge of Arabia. The attack on the Alabama was the second in two days. Captain

Din! Din! Din!

2009-04-07T17:00:00.007-04:00

I just finished "The Snow Leopard," the Zen adventure classic by Peter Matthiessen. I saw the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" only recently. Inevitably, depictions of life outside North America and Europe remind me of Cairo. "The Snow Leopard," particulary its closing homage to the author's favorite porter, brings to mind my friend Sheroni, whose full name was Mohammed Ibrahim Hussein Sheroni, a

All Aboard

2009-04-05T13:46:00.005-04:00

On television, 14 busses per day are reported leaving Winston-Salem, N.C., destination Mexico. They are all full. Busloads of construction workers, dishwashers, landscapers, chicken-pluckers. Maybe this is happening in other parts of the country as well, but something about Winston-Salem will always occupy a special place in my heart and lungs. Business is bad all over. Gone are the

Emerging Writers Network

2009-03-31T10:47:00.019-04:00

I bought a new computer a couple of weeks ago, and it has not yet broken me in correctly. It sent out my blog to everyone with whom I have ever exchanged an e-mail. Customer Service Chat Reps. Yard Sale Scavengers. Republicans. So now I am fielding angry complaints like hard grounders at third base and removing the names of the grunting disgruntled as quickly as I can, but it is like pulling

Virtual Silence

2009-03-27T12:05:00.015-04:00

I logged on to whitehouse.gov for President Obama’s virtual Town Hall Meeting, only to discover the video feed was not captioned. My cochlear implant, a miracle but far from perfect, makes me a member of the statistical 10 percent of the population which is hearing disabled. Thanks for network television. How can I utter such an absurdity? Life is full of contradictions and puzzlements.

Whistling Past The Gutenberg Graveyard

2009-03-25T07:10:00.009-04:00

Before I became Paw Paw Bill, I always included my middle initial in my writing byline, William C. Cotter. I grew up reading the legendary foreign affairs correspondent Joseph C. Harsch in The Christian Science Monitor, even before I discovered Ralph McGill and Furman Bisher in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Monitor arrived in my childhood home delivered daily by U.S. Mail. The

Bait and Crumbs

2009-03-20T05:12:00.006-04:00

Elie Wiesel, born in Romania, author, professor, and Nobel Prize winner, survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, before he met Bernie Madofff, native New Yorker and a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. Wiesel invested the Norwegian Krones he received from his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize and established a humanitarian foundation whose mission was “to combat indifference, intolerance, and

Dennis Crews Stained Glass

2009-03-14T12:56:00.048-04:00

Photos copyright by Dennis Crews.When Dennis Crews was commissioned to design and install new stained glass windows, the artist told the pastor and his committee that if the windows made their children look forward to going to church every week, he would feel he had done his job well.The new windows for Southern Asian Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland were installed in

Mark My Ear

2009-03-12T08:12:00.013-04:00

I get confused about earmarks. Sometimes I think maybe they’re some kind of tattoo. Then I get mixed up, wondering if it's the same thing as pork, and if somebody is trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s earmark. Thankfully, Congress knows the difference and can pass legislation like the current fiscal year budget, a physical year late, of $410 billion, which includes, according to

Yes She Said Yes

2009-03-09T09:04:00.006-04:00

I sometimes tell people I was an English major. It is a lie, but it simplifies explaining my employment history. Everybody understands and laughs at Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion repertoire joke that English majors never have any problem finding a job, as long as they can remember how to say, “Do you want fries with that?” Nonetheless, I was not an English major, because I loved

Limbaugh Limbo: How Low Can You Go?

2009-03-06T13:24:00.005-05:00

Minnesota Democratic Senator-elect Al Franken, the former television comedian from Saturday Night Live, wrote a best-selling book entitled Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. You would think that just about says it all about the radio talk show super mouth of right wing conservatism. Limbaugh was recently the star attraction at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where his declared wish

Pine Lake, Ga., Swiss Chalet

2009-03-04T07:58:00.018-05:00

What does Switzerland have that Pine Lake, Georgia, usually doesn’t? Fondue? National Healthcare? Yes. Yes. Also snow. Except for this past weekend.I have lived in Maryland, which is still among my favorite places. One of the main reasons was the snow. For a while, I lived on a farm in Poolesville, about an hour plus outside of Washington, D.C. I rented the 100-year-old farmhouse in

Jump Out the Back, Jack

2009-03-01T12:16:00.011-05:00

I had just finished the fourth grade on Friday before the Monday first thing in the morning bright and early when my Mother left my Daddy. That Friday had also been payday, and my Daddy had cashed his check and dutifully brought home the housekeeping and grocery money, such as it was. My Mother put me and my sisters on the bus with a transfer to make at Five Points in downtown Atlanta, as the

Dear Senator Shelby

2009-02-23T22:10:00.004-05:00

Get a life. Even better: Get a brain.Maybe you are just an old fool and missed all of the 885,000 entries listed by Google on the web about this subject. Here is only one.Copyright 2009 by William C. Cotter

Contaminated Nuts

2009-02-19T21:17:00.006-05:00

How nutty can it get? More than five hundred people in 43 states and one Canadian province have gotten food poisoning, and eight have died from salmonella contaminated peanut snacks. You’d think that it could not be worse. However, it turns out that the company was aware of the contamination prior to shipment of peanut butter products, including packs of crackers, snack bars, and dog biscuits

King of the Road

2009-02-10T19:03:00.008-05:00

Craigslist is a great place to buy and sell things on-line. Too bad for the incredible shrinking want ads in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I’ve been looking for a small utility trailer. Some asking prices, near retail new, make me wonder if I’m the only one who heard the news about hard times. I found two trailers listed to my liking, so I answered the ad by e-mail.I would be interested in

Art Buddy

2009-02-08T14:25:00.032-05:00

My art buddy Richard did the heavy lifting to bring his two latest paintings, already framed, over to our house for a private showing before dinner. “Will Paint For Food,” he jokes. Richard Cecil, neo-classical painter and sculptor, is a neighbor of mine in Pine Lake, Ga. I call him my art buddy, because he’s not my baseball buddy or my drinking buddy, since those are not the things we do

The Brig for Brigands

2009-01-31T13:08:00.003-05:00

All during the Presidential Campaign last year, I kept my disagreements to myself about the Obama strategy. Too easy on Hillary. Too easy on McCain. Leaving Sarah Palin to Tina Fey. Nobody would listen to me anyway, and if he won, that was all that mattered. He was welcome to have the last laugh on me. The proof is in the pudding.I read the business pages instead of the comics, because that

Not To Be Confused With Journalism

2009-01-27T10:02:00.006-05:00

I started writing this blog just a few months after I came home from the Emory East rehab center in Snellville, following my near-death experience at the DeKalb Medical ICU. I did not really know what a blog was. I thought finding out might focus my attention occasionally against the fog of recovery from illness. Additionally, I needed to exercise my brain and see if any of it still worked,

I Could Have Danced, Danced, Danced All Night

2009-01-20T07:10:00.010-05:00

Thanks to our new President of the United States, I have been introduced to an exceptional new poet. New to me, anyway. I can’t remember ever learning of a poet through a President. OK. There was Lincoln. O Captain My Captain. But that was not exactly the same. I only just believed that was about Abraham Lincoln. I did not understand about the poet until I heard him sing of himself.

Cotton Exchange

2009-01-18T15:57:00.005-05:00

I spent six months of 1964 at Ft. Gordon, Ga., near Augusta. I took Army Basic Training there, then went to Signal Corps School to learn the new job chosen for me. In Signal School, I was allowed to leave the post on weekends. Sometimes I rode into Augusta on the free Army bus, the late night return trip of which earned its nickname as the Vomit Comet. There was not much to do in Augusta but

The Spy Who Had Sense Enough To Come In Out Of The Rain

2009-01-12T19:23:00.011-05:00

I got hooked on spy novels about the time I turned 21, when John le Carre published The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I’ve grown old with Smiley and his people. I enjoyed Graham Greene, too, but le Carre is the best. I am a sucker for those far away places with strange sounding names, the international political intrigue, slightly seedy characters, ripe for disillusionment again, despite

Bunker Mentality

2009-01-06T10:24:00.007-05:00

I’ve been in the bunker, keeping my head low, and listening to the old Merle Haggard holiday season dirge, “If We Make It Through December.” “I got laid off down at the factory,And their timing’s not the greatest in the world.Heaven knows I been workin' hard,I wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girl….“If we make it through December.I got plans of bein' in a warmer town come summer time,

Neighbors and Heroes

2008-12-25T15:06:00.012-05:00

Pine Lake kids of all ages know the house on Lakeshore Dr., across the street from the gazebo, with the most extraordinary display of lights and decorations, yard art, life-size figures, blow-ups, and cut-outs every Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. Paul and Dorothy Gumz were not shy. They celebrated generously for everyone’s viewing enjoyment. The work involved in putting out these displays,

Pragmatist In A Pear Tree

2008-12-23T10:18:00.005-05:00

I am disappointed with President Obama so far. My buddy Luther says I should at least wait till he has been sworn in on Jan. 20. Obama himself keeps offering the excuse, “We only have one President at a time.” I think Barack Obama mis-overestimates the numerical value of George Bush in his final daze as President.Obama has invited Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren to say the prayer at The

Press Bias

2008-12-19T13:06:00.005-05:00

When my sister Ouida died the day before Christmas Eve 2007, I became the executor of her estate. I filed a change of address in her name to have her mail forwarded to me and keep it from piling up at her condo in Decatur. Big mistake. I was not aware that she had been a regular donor to a list of charities and causes. Five dollars here, and five dollars there. The volume of her mail

Dear Santa:

2008-12-10T14:40:00.003-05:00

First things first. Please bring world peace and good will towards men, women, children, and all creatures great and small. If you can. Even before you fill the stockings of good little boys and girls, including my wondrous grandchildren, who are, of course, too young to understand how much more they would benefit from peace and good will rather than the latest Bratz Doll. Then, if you still

First Line

2008-12-06T17:00:00.006-05:00

En route to age 90, my mother, without a second glance at a second-opinion, had journeyed as a faith healer, unlicensed counselor, and mystic, but when she arrived in the nursing home involuntary and incontinent, she converted to x-rated declarations of love for Nurse Mary, announcements ever after known in the family as, “Mother coming out of the closet on her walker.”I entered this long

Oil Price Mumbo Jumbo

2008-12-03T17:39:00.002-05:00

Last week, I paid $1.78 per gallon for gasoline. Just a few weeks ago, I sweated finding a place to buy any gas, anywhere, at twice the price. Did I miss the news on television the night somebody explained what happened? The default in economics is always supply and demand. Somehow, I can’t really put that together. The most interesting report I have read is that the current collapse of

Pass The Dog Food Bowl

2008-11-27T11:38:00.005-05:00

The wonderful little town where I live, Pine Lake, Ga., nestled in the shadow of Stone Mountain, just off Memorial Drive, seems to have a recurring dog problem. Of course, everybody loves dogs. Me included. I have owned a couple of dozen dogs during my lifetime. I even owned two at a time once when I lived on a farm that provided them with 160 acres in which to run. However, most of the

Pardon My Turkey

2008-11-23T14:15:00.016-05:00

Not much on television will make me Laugh Out Loud. Recent broadcasts of Sarah Palin’s photo op ceremonial pardoning of a turkey were a rare exception. The Alaska Governor and shooting-star Republican Vice Presidential candidate babbled on and on, oblivious to the feather-flying struggles and squawking taking place in the slaughterhouse and on camera as the less thankful began the journey to

Team Play

2008-11-20T13:35:00.007-05:00

Team player Bill Clinton came to town to campaign for Jim Martin in his Dec. 2 runoff against Saxby Chambliss for the U.S. Senate from Georgia. Speaking at Clark Atlanta University, the former President said, “The person who wins this election will be the one whose supporters want it the most. You can win in this thing if you want it bad enough. You just have to decide how bad you want it.”

Road Test

2008-11-16T14:59:00.005-05:00

Alright, $25-billion here, $170-billion there, pretty soon we’re talking about some real money. Everett Dirkson, the late Senator from Illinois with the beautiful hair and even more beautiful voice, assured himself a permanent place in American history with the model for that analysis.If we are going to socialize the U.S. auto industry, maybe we should just pick one company, let the others sink

Hillary Close At Hand

2008-11-14T10:51:00.007-05:00

A popular phrase during WWII was “Loose lips sink ships.” Today’s world is usually more likely to “Tell All.” Still, the highly disciplined Obama navy is preparing to pull into port, tight lipped as ever. Except for the current chatter that Hillary Clinton may be his choice for Secretary of State. Makes you wonder. Is this a trial balloon, testing public reaction? My bet is more that it is

Billy Shoolbred 3/1/43 - 12/9/07

2008-11-12T12:52:00.012-05:00

Photo Courtesy of Ralph McConigly. Used by Permission.Billy Shoolbred and I used to strike out early on a Saturday morning, meeting somewhere in the neighborhood between where he lived on Juniper, between 10th and 8th, and I lived on 14th Street to ride our bikes down the center line of Peachtree Street to the Paramount Theatre, across the street from the intersection of Forsyth St, Carnegie Way

Not For The First Time

2008-11-04T23:43:00.003-05:00

I was flag captain in my seventh grade class at Clark Howell Elementary School, long since torn down in favor of a City of Atlanta fire station at that site on Tenth Street, between Juniper and Piedmont. As flag captain, I was in charge of daily mounting of the flag to fly from the schoolhouse flagpole. I was given access to the second floor storage room and permitted to climb out the window to

Joe The Plumber's Friend

2008-11-01T07:52:00.004-04:00

Joe the Plumber was a no-show at a McClain rally in Ohio. When the plumber’s friend called Joe’s name, nobody answered. Joe was out trying to trade his 15 minutes of fame for a recording contract as a country singer. Joe came to public attention when he engaged Barack Obama in a discussion of tax policy in front of network television cameras. “I just happened to be here and Barack Obama

A Second Spring

2008-10-27T07:00:00.012-04:00

His Mother’s PlaceBy Kristina SimmsIt was his mother’s place,With scuppernongs and pergolasAnd Japanese magnolias, Rose-of-Sharon,The old fashioned white and purple kindAnd, of course, lycoris andCamellias and azaleas.And now it’s his place:Sawhorses, a stack of splintery pallets,Two trucks—one dead, one with a busted muffler—Gutters full of leaves, pecans unharvested,Cannabis, of course,

Favorite Five, Top Ten, or Dime a Dozen

2008-10-24T14:40:00.034-04:00

I have moved some of the blog furniture around, trying to clear out clutter, make things more comfortable. Blogger controls a lot of the format, and to their credit they launch ideas faster than I can keep up. I was thinking maybe a new reader might want to sample some Paw Paw Bill postings that have been around a while. My Blog Archive and Labels lists have become like staring at crowded book

Unhatched

2008-10-19T20:39:00.004-04:00

I’m really starting to get nervous. It looks like my guy is going to win. I’m not used to this. For a long while, the skeptics asked, “Why can’t Obama close the deal?” Now Obama himself cautions against overconfidence, which is another way of saying don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Polls show Obama with more than enough electoral votes, some estimates as high as 330, a