• H&R Moderators: VerbalTruist | cdin | Lil'LinaptkSix

Early Recovery

Hi Casper i just finished reading i thoroughly enjoyed it i felt his pain and also his highs i thought it ended a bit abruptly
 
Got a good lead on a part-time job. Interview tomorrow. Wish me luck!
But don't pray for me. Here's why:

Way back in 2006, the John Templeton Foundation published the results of its study on prayer and its effect on people who were suffering from major heart conditions and undergoing heart surgery. The study was double-blind and used a control group. Two groups were chosen, one of which were prayed for and the other which was not, but neither were told which group they were in. A third group served as a control were prayed for and told this.
After 2.4 million dollars invested from the Templeton Foundation and 2.3 million invested from the federal government, here are the results:

  • More people in the control group-- 59% --suffered more complications than in the groups who did not know if they were being prayed for-- 51%
  • 18% of those in the uninformed prayer group suffered major complications (including heart attack) as compared to 13% in the group that did not receive prayers.
These results have precedent: the New York Times reports on a study done in 1997 studied 40 alcoholics in recovery. Those who were prayed for did worse than those who were not.

(I'm not judgin', I'm just sayin')

Hope everyone is well and happy.

Peace&Love,
jasper

"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." -- Carl Sagan
 
Hello darlin!

Best of luck today j!! I really hope you get it, you deserve it, you're doing such a great job and have come so far!!

Please update and let me know how the interview goes today!!! Fingers crossed!!

Hugs,
your friend,
Ash.
 
Hello, Ash, my darlin! You are so sweet. And hello, everybody else! I love you guys, too!

Yee-fuckin'-haw!*
I got the job!



I start tomorrow at 7am and I'm stoked about it. If it works out, this means I can pay off my damn fines and maybe even save some money. Also, my manager is a recovering alcoholic which is icing on the cake.

Hope you all are well and happy.

Peace&Love,
jasper

* Tennessee-speak for "I am delighted."




"Changing is what people do when they have no options left." -- Holly Black
 
Congratulations from the west side of the state !!! That's definitely Tn talk. If everyone on here heard me talk they would think I had an outhouse and a moonshine still in my yard, lol.
 
Sheeyut-far. Y'all don't tawk funny. They's the ones what tawks funny. And while ah do have indoor plummin' ah did drank more'n mah share of moonshine back in the day.

Peace&Love,
jasper


To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone. -- Reba McEntire
 
^^^^^ hilarious. Gosh Dayum , pass that clear ova here boa . Very good quote from one if the best singers of all time also
 
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Yay jasp!!! So happy for you!!! Look at you go!!!!!


Big hugs, I'm really so proud of you my dear friend!!

Hugs,
Ash.

Hello, Ash, my darlin! You are so sweet. And hello, everybody else! I love you guys, too!

Yee-fuckin'-haw!*
I got the job!



I start tomorrow at 7am and I'm stoked about it. If it works out, this means I can pay off my damn fines and maybe even save some money. Also, my manager is a recovering alcoholic which is icing on the cake.

Hope you all are well and happy.

Peace&Love,
jasper

* Tennessee-speak for "I am delighted."




"Changing is what people do when they have no options left." -- Holly Black
 
Thanks Ash! I'll be staying pretty damn busy now (be careful what you wish for, right?) so y'all may not hear from me as much. I'm just so grateful to be able to handle the workload. Not long ago, it would have been impossible.
Sobriety rocks!

Yeah, hik, we get some good shine in East TN. The best stuff comes from in & around the Smoky Mtns. Ever heard of the late great Popcorn Sutton? I've drunk a lot of his whiskey. (I mean before he died and his name was appropriated for the commercial crap)
I also had a small still of my own at one time; I ran about half a gallon a week. It was decent, too-- about 120 proof and fairly smooth.

random thoughts...
The trick to cursing in the South is to lengthen short terms and shorten long terms:
damn = die-yum
shit = shee-yut
son of a bitch = sumbitch

Hope everyone is well and happy!

Peace&Love,
jasper

​You know how if you wear a hat all day and then take it off it feels like you're still wearing a hat? It's not the same with underwear.
 
Thanks Ash! I'll be staying pretty damn busy now (be careful what you wish for, right?) so y'all may not hear from me as much. I'm just so grateful to be able to handle the workload. Not long ago, it would have been impossible.
Sobriety rocks!

Yeah, hik, we get some good shine in East TN. The best stuff comes from in & around the Smoky Mtns. Ever heard of the late great Popcorn Sutton? I've drunk a lot of his whiskey. (I mean before he died and his name was appropriated for the commercial crap)
I also had a small still of my own at one time; I ran about half a gallon a week. It was decent, too-- about 120 proof and fairly smooth.

random thoughts...
The trick to cursing in the South is to lengthen short terms and shorten long terms:
damn = die-yum
shit = shee-yut
son of a bitch = sumbitch

Hope everyone is well and happy!

Peace&Love,
jasper

​You know how if you wear a hat all day and then take it off it feels like you're still wearing a hat? It's not the same with underwear.
I have a a friend who used to bring some "likker" that was made around the Smokeys . The first case was so good it was dangerous. The second case was some skanky sugar only shine that was probably fermented too warm ( fusel oils ). I did the hobby moonshine thing too for a bit until my wife got fed up with 5 gal containers of mash fermenting stinking our house up like a brewery ,lol . I used a 24qt stainless cooking pot with a giant SS mixing bowl as the cap then used wheat gluten and flour as the sealant then clamped with mini vise grips . It was fun until I figured out that I liked buffalo trace Wheatly vodka much better.
 
That's so awesome. I've noticed you like stand-up comedy I do to been watching it my whole life I've seen Gabriel Iglesias and George Carlin (right before he died) live on stage. Sad that Mitch Hedberg is gone from us rip. Have a good night Jasper you're doing great brother! Keep it up... much love.
 
Yeah, Mitch was great.

Peace&Love,
jasper

I don't have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who'd be mad at me for saying that. -- Mitch Hedberg
 
Awesome work J. Thanks for letting me know you'l be pretty busy, I won't have to worry about you. Sp proud of you my dear friend!!! Please keep me updated, I want to hear all about your new job and just how how you are in general.

Love ya.
your friend,
Ash.
 
I have part of my great uncle's moonshine still. It has to date from the 1940s-50s. He operated a farm until Interstate 295 was built and bisected his property, basically making 2/3 of the acreage unusable (or at least not practicable) to run a farm anymore. My dad bought the property when he retired from practicing medicine in 1995. After he died in 2013 and we were cleaning out the property, I found the remnants of a still, right in the chicken coop where it should have been. It's in pretty good shape - solid copper. I just quietly took it because my mother wouldn't have the foggiest idea what it is. I asked the folks at the history museum in Jacksonville if they'd be interested in such an artifact and they sounded enthusiastic, but then never followed up. It's still sitting here next to my worktable.

I was riding in my dad's truck with him down Normandy Blvd. one time (now a traffic-choked 6 lane beast) and we passed over a small bayou and he said in the 50s when it was the middle of nowhere, the thing to do was stop on the bridge and flash your headlights and the old codger that lived there would come out sell you white lightnin'. Never cared for it myself, but I'm inclined to think I never had any that was any good. A good potato vodka became my poison of choice but I pretty much drank anything that would get me lit.

I went once with a date to a Tracy Morgan show at the height of his drug use. That was a big mistake. It was the grossest, most un-funny, scatological shit show (pun intended) I've ever witnessed. I loved his characters on Saturday Night Live, like Dominican Lou (my personal fave), Astronaut Jones and Brian Fellow and kept raving about how great he is. My date was undoubtedly mortified that I would be into such a comedian, but she must have been living under a rock to be so unaware of his tv work.

I have tickets to see Lewis Black on my birthday coming up next month. Also saw Hedberg shortly before his death. And we don't really talk about food addiction here in SL, but I was always a big John Pinette fan "So I went to this Chinese buffet..." but food (or lack thereof) can be as big a killer as anything else we talk about here.
 
Thanks, Ash! I'll keep in touch as much as possible.

Great post, aihfl! I'd love to have an old still like that just for display. And what a perfect piece of decor for an AA clubhouse!
I missed Lewis Black when he came to Chattanooga cuz I couldn't afford the ticket. More important "needs" back then, ya know?

Hope everybody is well and happy.

Peace&Love,
jasper


"A severed foot is the perfect stocking stuffer." -- Mitch Hedberg
 
Just my two cents for y'all who ain't from the south, I don't care how much Dukes of Hazzard, In the Heat of the Night, Designing Women, Nashville, Walking Dead or True Blood (South Louisiana is it's own culture altogether) you've watched, you're never going to get is so perfectly right that you can pass yourself off as a native. You just can't. Take for example "hello." Think "hey y'all," or even worse "howdy" is correct? Think again. It would be "howsyourmommanem." Not only is it already a tongue-twister, you have to say it in a way that compresses five grammatically incorrect words into one, no easy feat.

Or maybe you've lived in Atlanta, Nashville or Raleigh for four years and think yourself appropriately southern-ized. Let me ask you this: I went to college in Chicago for four years. What do you think would happen to me if I walked into some shitty Southside bar and started talking like Bill Swerski? If you answered "you'd get curbstomped by some 350 pound guy who actually does sound like Bill Swerski," you are correct.

Hell, we're not even one, two or even three cultures. Rufus from Demopolis, Alabama "in the pines," is going to have very little in common with Elrod from the upland south (Appalachian Plateau and Mountains) and they both might as well be from the moon to Legare from Charleston, South Carolina. And don't even get me started on the Ozark people over in Arkansas. They might as well be from outside the asteroid belt to me, and I grew up only one state over. And I feel the need to address the people who say "Well Florida isn't really the south." Let me see what you think after I take you on a scenic outing to Bottle Caps Bar in Bithlo, Florida, just 15 miles from the trendy clubbers on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando
 
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[I said:
I don't have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who'd be mad at me for saying that. -- [/I]Mitch Hedberg

Bahaha, now that's funny cause it's always true!!! ; )
 
Southern accents can get pretty complex in some areas . Some east Tennessee folks say "you'ens" , everyone else usually says "yall" . I saw "naw" instead of no , unless I'm telling my dogs NO . When I answer my phone from my parents I usually here " welllll, hiyall doing " . "What's for supper? , dont know, I'm still full from dinner" . " Gosh dayum, I got a flat tar on my truck" . There is also several different sub-type people in the south like country , redneck, hillbilly, backwoods, river rats etc.... South Florida definitely has some country folks ,especially around Okeechobee area . We toured that area years ago and it definitely had the down home country vibe going on .
 
I find the upland mountain accents from Northeast Tennessee all the way well up into West Virginia unintelligible because people there tend to mumble and not clearly enunciate their words. When I interviewed for a teaching gig at ETSU I was embarrassed I kept having to ask the girl behind the counter at Eckerd to repeat herself, and she gave me a bemused look and asked where I was from and she was not expecting to hear "Clarksville." People are a lot easier to understand in the Smoky Mountain area, partly probably because of its proximity to Knoxville and partly because there are a lot of tourists who need to understand what you're saying. But who EVER goes to the Tri-Cities (not that it isn't a beautiful area)? And I already mentioned the Ozark Mountain people. Also difficult to understand and the syntax is like nothing else I've heard anywhere else in the south, or planet earth. And their food is unmistakably southern, but it is different. One of the local specialties is spaghetti and fried chicken. It wasn't until I spent a summer in the Ozarks though that I discovered catfish is really tasty because the ones from the Cumberland/Tennessee Rivers tasted like mud with notes of untreated sewage and chemical spill (with a hint of spent reactor fuel for Tennessee River catfish specifically).

Oh Florida is still a plenty southern state, just so many other people have decided to move here that the natives are more incognito. You can start at Mar-a-Lago at the corner of Ocean and Southern in Palm Beach and drive west for 20 minutes and you'll be in a neighboring galaxy. There was a beautiful moment when Lawton Chiles destroyed Jeb Bush in the 1994 gubernatorial debate when he said, "Let me tell you something else about 'this old liberal.' My momma told me sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. And lemme tell you one other thing, it's the old he coon who walks just before the light of day." That moment resonated with enough real Floridians to swing the election to Chiles, who was expected to lose re-election. But you'd never hear that kind of homespun talk except maybe for someone running for local office up in the Panhandle because it doesn't mean anything to enough people anymore.
 
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