Geraldine Beasley has been charged with murder after blowing away a homeless man who asked her for a quarter. Donald Francis, who police think was homeless, stood outside the Marathon station at Eighth and Linn streets in Cincinnati Monday night, panhandling.
Chief Tom Streicher said "he asked her for a quarter," and that annoyed Geraldine Beasley so much, she shot and killed Francis.
Beasley, 62, of Walnut Hills, complained to someone else at the scene about the panhandling, Streicher said. Then, according to Chief Streicher, when Francis asked Beasley for money, she pulled out a gun and fired. "That's apparently all there was to it," the chief said.
1973 stands out in my mind among many of the years I have stomped through. Life was very good. I was in my second year working as a full time volunteer at a community center, for $40 a week, mostly doing draft counseling, writing some grants, working on the crisis/help hotline of The Sixth Chamber, handholding people on bad acid trips, referring people to doctors, and talking people out of committing suicide until they could actually talk to someone who knew what theywere doing.
I was living at a new apartment complex east of Kent, Wash., with another fellow worker at The Sixth Chamber. He was on public assistance, and had a welfare aparment--two floor, two bedroom. We split the subsidized rent of $37.50 a month. Although I did kick in my $18.75 a month, along with me came my dearest friend, Scooter. Scooter was broke, jobless, probably depressed, and parked himself on our couch for the three months between college terms.
Scooter didn't work that summer, but somehow scraped by. Once a week, however, there was an escape. The Sundowner Tavern, virtually located within our apartment complex, ran a special on Thursday: all the draft beer you can drink for $2. The doors opened at around noon, and the special continued until closing time (2 A.M.). You can imagine the potent forces that coalesced sometime around midnight. A gigantic welfare complex where no one worked, and a fair number of the denizens were on "mental disability." Endless beer, virtually free, and wackjobs with time on their hands, and a grudge against the world. Considering how bad it could have been, I don't remember that many fights or arrests, and the ones I do remember usually involved another friend of ours, Mel. Somehow Scooter survived the couch, the lack of mon and food, and still succeeded in having at least a couple of girlfriends on the line. He would serve one more term surfing my couch in utter poverty--in the fall of 1978, when he joined us in New York City, a city where he still rests his bootheels.
I am hoping Scooter is lurking here and can amplify this story. I know it has to be better than I am telling it. There must be some juicy anecdotes that have slipped my mind...
. . .but this afternoon, is not so bad. I was in the pool fifteen minutes after landing. I swam for a while hit the hot tub, and then worked for a couple of hours, and now I am off to walk to a great Mexican grill a mile and a half from here (the dreaded NB Radisson). They grill snapper, squid, and these incredible fat, juicy shrimp marinated in lime and herbs and serve them with a fantastic jicama-radish-mesclun salad, perfect chipotle beans, a stack of fresh, warm corn tortillas, and salsa that is on a par with those at La Carta de Oaxaca. Oh, and ice cold Pacifico on tap. The last time I was there, dessert was grilled pineapple sprinkled with lime and a sort of turbinado sugar that carmelizes with the lime. When I come back I can work on some poetry. Life could be worse. If my family was with me, it might even be living. ---o0o---
A mother of five who married another woman while still married to her husband was given a suspended prison sentence today. Suzanne Mitchell, of Shrewsbury, pleaded guilty earlier to breaching a British Act, which allows same-sex couples to “marry”. She admitted lying about being single to enter a civil union with Caroline Beddows last year. At Shrewsbury Crown Court, Judge Robin Onions said Mitchell repeatedly lied in pursuit of the partnership, and her offence was one of “cruelty and deception”. Handing Mitchell an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years, Judge Onions said jailing the 30-year-old would have had a damaging effect on her children.
A Dutch man accused of having sex with a sheep got off the hook yesterday because the animal was unable to testify. The Dutchman, from Haaksbergen, in Holland, was arrested after a farmer caught him having sex with one of his sheep. The case, however, was thrown out of court as the sheep could not testify about consent or that it had suffered emotionally.
Under Dutch law, bestiality is not a crime unless it can be proved the animal didn't want to have sex.
Other recent beastiality stories appearing on All This Is That:
Abram came to a place later known as Bethel Where, as usual, he built an altar and prayed to the Lord Lot, Abram's nephew was with him on the range
Abram's shepherds quarreled with Lot's shepherds There was not enough grass for both their flocks There was not room for them all in that place
Abram said to Lot: "Let there be no quarrel Between you and me or your men and my men We are like brothers to each other
You take the land on the right hand And I will take the left or if you choose The left hand, I will take the right."
Abram, was the older and could claim the first choice And God had promised all the land to Abram So he might have said to Lot "Go away, this is all mine"
But Abram showed a kind heart And gave Lot his choice of the land Lot looked over the land from the mountain
Where they were standing And saw down in the valley the river Jordan Flowing between the rich soil of the green fields
He saw Sodom and Gomorrah out on the plain Near the mouth of the Jordan Where it flows into Dead Sea
And Lot said "I will go down yonder to the plain" He took his tents and his men and flocks of sheep and cattle Leaving the land on the mountains to Uncle Abram
Lot may not have known that Sodom Held the wickedest people in the land But he went to live near them
And gradually moved his tent closer and closer To Sodom until he was living in that wicked city After Lot separated from Abram, God said to Abram:
"Lift up your eyes from this place, and look East and west north and south All the land that you can see
All the mountains and valleys and plains I give to you and your children And their children and those who come after them
Rise up, and walk through the land--it is all yours" Abram moved his tent from Bethel and went to live Near the city of Hebron in the south
Under an oak tree Where he once again Built an altar to the Lord. ---o0o---
Rudolph Giuliani is reportedly in a snit over the fact that Jeri Kehn Thompson's photos have been appearing all over the internet and blog world. Until those photos began appearing, Giuliani's photos in a gown had been far more prevalent. "OK," Giuliani said on the phone to an All This Is That stringer, "yeah, people in the south and the flyover states didn't like my pictures in drag, but let's face it, they weren't going to vote for me anyhow. " Giuliani then characterized Fred Thompson as a person who has relations with barnyard animals.
The ex-mayor continued: "I look at it like they say, all publicity is good publicity. But these Jeri Kehn photos, man, they're chiseling away at me. And in my favorite picture, I have a Vera Wang on!"
Since over 100 of you come here daily looking for Jeri Kehn Thompson photos, we try to accomodate you. Other recent photos of Jeri Kehn Thompson on All This Is That:
The Grateful Dead perform Birdsong at Radio City Music Hall in 1980. Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia wrote this song about Janis Joplin—not long after her death. I'll put the lyrics following the video.
Bird Song
By Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
All I know is something like a bird within her sang, All I know she sang a little while and then flew on, Tell me all that you know, I'll show you snow and rain.
If you hear that same sweet song again, will you know why? Anyone who sings a tune so sweet is passin' by, Laugh in the sunshine, sing, cry in the dark, fly through the night.
Don't cry now, don't you cry, don't you cry anymore. Sleep in the stars, don't you cry, dry your eyes on the wind.
All I know is something like a bird within her sang, All I know she sang a little while and then flew off, Tell me all that you know, I'll show you snow and rain. __________________________
Fourteen years later, in Las Vegas, on 6-26-94, the Dead perform Peggy O a/k/a Fennario. Jerry's voice is fragile, but he plays an excellent solo on this moving tune, and even his delivery adds to the tenderness of the song.
Peggy O - American folk song
As we rode out to fennario, as we rode on to Fennario Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove And called her by a name, pretty Peggy-O.
Will you marry me pretty Peggy-O, will you marry me pretty Peggy-O If you will marry me, I'll set your cities free And free all the ladies in the are_-O.
I would marry you sweet William-O, I would marry you sweet William-O I would marry you but your guineas are too few And I fear my mama would be angry-O.
What would your mama think pretty Peggy-O, What would your mama think pretty Peggy-O, What would your mama think if she heard my guineas clink Saw me marching at the head of my soldiers.
If ever I return pretty Peggy-O, if ever I return pretty Peggy-O If ever I return your cities I will burn Destroy all the ladies in the area-O.
Come steppin' down the stairs pretty Peggy-O, Come steppin' down the stairs pretty Peggy-O, Come steppin' down the stairs combin' back your yellow hair Bid a last farewell to your William-O.
Sweet William he is dead pretty peggy-O, sweet William he is dead pretty Peggy-O, Sweet William he is dead and he died for a maid And he's buried in the Louisiana country-O.
As we rode out to fennario, as we rode out to Fennario Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove, And called her by a name, pretty Peggy-O _______________________________________
The Dead perform Eyes Of The World at Giants Stadium 0n 6-17-91, almost a year after Brent Mydland's death. Bruce Hornsby joined the band for the next year or so, helping to break the new pianist Vince Welnick (R.I.P.) in. The breaking in never worked, but it was always wonderful to see Bruce in the band, and many of their late shows became great due to the interaction between Hornsby and Garcia. Bruce knew his way around the Steinway.
Eyes of the World by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
Right outside this lazy summer home you ain't got time to call your soul a critic no. Right outside the lazy gate of winter's summer home, wond'rin' where the nut-thatch winters, wings a mile long just carried the bird away.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world, the heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own. Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin' brings, But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenin's and songs of it's own.
There comes a redeemer, and he slowly too fades away, And there follows his wagon behind him that's loaded with clay. And the seeds that were silent all burst into bloom, and decay, and night comes so quiet, it's close on the heels of the day.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world, the heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own. Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin' brings, But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenin's and songs of it's own.
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own, And sometimes we visit your country and live in your home, sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone, sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world, the heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own. Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin' brings, But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenin's and songs of it's own ---o0o---
One of my favorite sites for UFOlogy is the UFO Review, edited by Stuart Miller. They cover a wide range of paranormal and UFO, and cover the skeptics as well as the fanatic believers. They even link to All This Is That when we publish an article in the Alien Lore series, or art on the UFO or Grey phenomenon. In an editorial yesterday Stuart Miller wisely addressed the UFO wars here on earth:
"My criticisms are directed to those who are convinced science is the answer to the subject of UFOs. It is if we’re dealing with natural phenomena; it isn’t if we aren’t."
It's Seafair week in Seattle. When I was young, this was the event of the year: The Torchlight Parade, The Greenwood Parade, The Pirates landing at Alki Beach, and, of course, the hydroplane races, and, in later years. the appearance of the Blue Angels flying all over town in formation.
This is the week the Navy arrives too. You still see sailors walking around town once in a while, but during Seafair, the fleet comes in, usually several ships and submarines, and you see hundreds of sailors in dress whites looking for------------well, who knows what? Seeing one of the big ships reminds me of this folk song we used to sing in school and Boy Scouts. I doubt if it is much sung anymore due to political correctness considerations.
What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor
What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor What shall we do with the drunken sailor What shall we do with the drunken sailor What shall we do with the drunken sailor Early in the morning?
Hoo-ray and up she rises Hoo-ray and up she rises Hoo-ray and up she rises Early in the morning
Shake him take him try to wake him . .
Shake him take him try to wake him . .
Early in the morning
Give him lashings with a rope end .. Bathe his wounds with salty water . . Sling him in the long boat till he's sober . . Pull out the plug and wet him all over . . Put him below until he's sober . . Get a hose and wet him all over . . Shave his tummy with a rusty razor . . Send him up the crow's nest until he falls down . .
That's what we'll do with the drunken sailor That's what we'll do with the drunken sailor
Because of my past And because of my present Because who knows what might come out Because I will say almost anything for a laugh Because who has the time to raise $200 million Because I would work to repeal the 2nd amentment Because I would also work to repeal the 22nd amendment Because much of my platform begins "mass involuntary _____" Because I would mandate mandatory music at least five hours a day Because we could never build enough holding tanks, prisons, camps, and islands of exile ---o0o---
