{"id":174,"date":"2006-03-19T11:15:10","date_gmt":"2006-03-19T17:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/03\/19\/the-line-part-iii\/"},"modified":"2009-04-17T12:55:28","modified_gmt":"2009-04-17T17:55:28","slug":"the-line-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/03\/the-line-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"The Line, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are three parts to this consideration. Here is Part I<\/a>. Here is Part II<\/a>. The subject is the Bring the Troops Home from Iraq march and rally of Saturday afternoon, March 11, 2006. Both papers estimated 500 people attended, which is a lot. Here is a decent recap.<\/a><\/p>\n

Chalk Line<\/h2>\n

There’s a joke that I recalled before the march and it crossed my mind again during the speeches. It’s Jewish-Yiddish in origin. And try as I might, I could not make Google come up with some authentic version of it to paste here.<\/p>\n

That’s good, because even though it’s a political joke, that would be found funny in the Gulag told among Russian Christian Orthodox (and probably was), it’s vile. Without documentation, I am free to revise the joke. It should have the exact same impact without the sexism.<\/p>\n

A pair of pamphleteers is working in their rundown apartment on the next broadsheet when two members of the national secret police break down the door. They apparently already know who’s who between the men and take the editor to the bedroom to try to beat information out of him. The young printer is told to stay in the living room.<\/p>\n

“Don’t bother thinking about escape. Lots more agents are in the hall and outside,” one agent tells him. Then the official takes a piece of chalk from the pocket of his trenchcoat. He draws a line on the wood floor well away from the door, windows and telephone, and pushes the young fellow across it.<\/p>\n

“Stay on this side of the line, or you’ll get it worse than the old guy.”<\/p>\n

An hour later the agents leave. The editor limps from the bedroom, collapses into an armchair and gasps, “I didn’t tell them a thing.”<\/p>\n

The young printer smiles conspiratorially. “And I stepped across the line 10 times!”<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are three parts to this consideration. Here is Part I. Here is Part II. The subject is the Bring the Troops Home from Iraq march and rally of Saturday afternoon, March 11, 2006. Both papers estimated 500 people attended, which is a lot. Here is a decent recap. Chalk Line There’s a joke that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-home-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":327,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/06\/dave-barry-but-seriously\/","url_meta":{"origin":174,"position":0},"title":"Dave Barry, But Seriously","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- Amazing speakers addressed the opening morning of the 31st annual conference of the National Conference of Christians and Columnists, er, National Conference for Columnists and Justice, er, National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Time, and the potential for flagging interest (mine or readers?), prevents a full transcription of today's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia Phreedom"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia Phreedom","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/philadelphia-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"With endless good humor, Dave poses with everyone.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/daveben.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":369,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/11\/keep-laying\/","url_meta":{"origin":174,"position":1},"title":"Keep Laying","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Every time work gets weird I think of this old joke. Its application gets broader and broader. This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken.' And the doctor says, 'Well, why don't you turn him in?' The guy says, 'I would,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":226,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/08\/modern-art-balm-for-our-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":174,"position":2},"title":"Modern Art, Balm for our Times","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fayetteville's Walton Arts Center has asked the state Highway Department about installing sculptures along Interstate 540 for the cultural enrichment of us all. Today's Northwest Arkansas Times wrote it up, but its photos are not online. They're palm trees, more or less, in bright colors. Wood, though made to look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":173,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/03\/the-line-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":174,"position":3},"title":"The Line, Part II","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"There are three parts to this consideration. Here is Part I. Here is Part III. The subject is the Bring the Troops Home from Iraq march and rally of Saturday afternoon, March 11, 2006. Both papers estimated 500 people attended, which is a lot. Here is a decent recap. Party\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":293,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/03\/thems-good-eggs\/","url_meta":{"origin":174,"position":4},"title":"Them’s Good Eggs","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I make good eggs. Of course, I ran a bed-and-breakfast for a year. Making muffins and, yes, eggs got me hired. But that's not what I mean. I make good eggs. A year and a half ago, I put up a Brick that toward the end included my daydream that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":275,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/ic-a-loose-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":174,"position":5},"title":"“Ic,” a Loose End","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago, the president made a joke at his own expense by referring to his, the \"Republic Party.\" He was a guest at a gathering of congressional Democrats. Days earlier, the president made reference to the \"Democrat Party.\" He was being inarticulate. That in large part is what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}