"DO NOT SEND THIS B--- S--- RAG FOR ME TO READ."
Fri, 12/05/2008 - 09:36
Granville Township Trustee, Fred Abraham sent an email to The Granville Press requesting that he no longer receive email notification of new stories in the online newspaper. Abraham’s complete, unedited email is below.
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Brilliant.
I for one am glad Jack still sends me this rag…I almost missed this little gem of comedic gold. I think me and my roommates will be calling each other BALLUS FICTIOUS for the next week.
I like this "RAG"
Fred you asked to be removed from the email list just in time.
Go Bucks
Just Plain Lazy
Could he not even take the time to proofread? I’m sure Jack won’t bother to “respone through and e-mail” to this sort of nonsense…
I also enjoy the suggestion of restricting freedoms in a future vote. Nicely done!
Open? Transparent?
Good to see that one of our local elected officials is so approachable and cares about open and transparent government.
Not.
Hey "Agitator" what do you expect?
Openness and transparency are not characteristics that get a person appointed (or even elected) to our Township Trustees.
We are seeing the good-old-boys club in action. We shouldn’t expect them to listen to us or even let us speak.
After all, they know what’s best for us.
It looks to me like you’re just an agitator who expects our elected officials to be open and responsive to the electorate (Fred: “electorate” refers to the people who voted for you.).
Following your tangent....
I’ll follow your tangent, I guess…. That’s Bob Dylan all right. When he was a new folksinger taking NY by storm, Bob apparently made it up on the fly and dug deep (had a lot of grit, I suppose). Following is a transcript of a 1961 interview and song session with established folkie Oscar Brand that I received a few years back:
WNYC Radio Studio,
New York City, New York
October 29, 1961
Sally Girl (Woody Guthrie)
The Girl I Left Behind (trad.)
Bob Dylan (vocal, harmonica & guitar)
Oscar Brand:
November 4th, Saturday Bob Dylan will be singing at the Carnegie Chapter Hall. And that should be a very special occasion. Bob was born in Duluth, Minnesota. But Bob you weren’t raised in Duluth, were you?
Bob Dylan:
I was raised in Gallup, New Mexico.
Oscar Brand:
Do you get many songs there?
Bob Dylan:
You get a lot of cowboy songs there. Indian songs. That vaudeville kind of stuff.
Oscar Brand:
Where’d you get your carnival songs?
Bob Dylan:
Uh, people in the carnival.
Oscar Brand:
Do you travel with it or watch the carnival?
Bob Dylan:
Travel the carnival when I was about 13 years old.
Oscar Brand:
For how long?
Bob Dylan:
All the way up till I was 19 every year off an on I’d join different carnivals.
Oscar Brand:
Well I’d like to hear one of the kinds of music that you’ve been singing and I know you’ve been doing quite well, and I know you’ll be singing at the Carnegie Chapter Hall. Do you wanna pick something out ?
Bob Dylan:
Well I’ll pick a carnival song that I learnt. Wrote. Do you wanna hear one of them?
Oscar Brand:
Thank you Bob Dylan for Sally Gal and we’ll expect you back tonight before the end of the tonight’s Folk Song Festival.
I’m Oscar Brand and I’m here on WNYC New York.
Now lets return to our guest this evening. His name is Bob Dylan and on November 4th he will be at Carnegie Chapter Hall in a very exciting concerts of songs that he’s collected since his first days. When he was born in Minnesota, and then he went down to the southwest. He travelled around the country with carnivals and as we heard earlier he’s collected a lot of many songs from many people Bob I know that that means when you travel that much that you hear a lot of songs. But doesn’t it also means, mean that you forget a lot of songs that way?
Bob Dylan:
Oh yeah. I learned, forgot quite a few I guess. An once I forgot ‘em I usually heard the name of them. I looked ‘em up in some book and learned ‘em again.
Oscar Brand:
Can you read music?
Bob Dylan:
No I can’t. But this here song’s a good example. I learned it from a farmer in South Dakota. An err he played the autoharp. His name was Wilbur; live outside of Sioux Falls, when I was visiting people and him. Heard him do it an …., I was looking through a book sometime saw the same song and remembered the way he did it. So this is the song.
Oscar Brand:
Thank you very much Bob Dylan. And the very best of luck on your concert November 4th at Carnegie Chapter Hall.
(?)
singlepie
grit
Sand is grit. He had the grit…or, enough grit to go with his own identity.
singlepie
Abe's tirade
I may be revealing myself as an ancient, but Fred’s e-mail reminds me of a sketch from when Steve Allen hosted the Tonight Show in the 1950s. He’d put on a funny hat and read actual newspaper letters to the editors in the angry, “bang the table” voice intended by the writer. It was funny and revealing.
I’ve known Fred for years and have been a satisfied customer of his business. I understand why Fred feels angry and defensive. But the truth is, it’s his own darn fault. Anyone with a passing understanding of Granville knows there’s no support for sewerizing the southern township with Pataskala sewers. Yet Fred and Wes stood by silently by when the new unknown trustee tried to make it happen. Fred says in his e-mail if only we knew the “real skinny.” But we do know the real skinny. The trustees have said so publicly that they are trying to get Pataskala sewers here because Owens wants these sewers as an option. We know the real skinny from e-mails published on this web site. Wes said in an e-mail that Pataskala sewers may not be right for Granville but then he supported it anyway. Fred did the same.
I voted for Fred and Wes and others because they were good people who wanted the best for Granville. But they’ve shown that were not equipped for the job. They think they work for Havens and Habig. Wes and Fred would be surprised how little support these policies have among the good old boys and nearly everyone would count me among those boys. Fred and Wes didn’t campaign on the promise of bringing Pataskala sewers to the township. We voted for Fred and Wes because we trusted them to look out for Granville. They let us down.
If this site is to be believed, Bill Mason is the next trustee. I can testify that Bill is a real good guy. He’s even smart. I’d count on him to be his own man. But the past has told me that this won’t happen. If Bill can’t figure out that Pataskala sewers is a mistake for Granville, then you’ll have another old timer who gets his reputation tattered to serve Havens and Habig. I suspect Bill has been informed his role is to take over Wes’ job as the public relations trustee who leaves the development decisions to Habig, while Fred builds his barn.
I’m getting myself wound up again. Let me just close by saying that Fred can end his worries about dividing the community by abandoning plans to bring in Pataskala sewers. The state turned down Owens’ grant request to do this. The Village has offered sewers at half the price. If Fred and Bill Mason resurrect one of the most divisive issues in the community, they cannot blame others for dividing the community. They will have done it themselves.
Fred’s next e-mail should say that Granville will get its sewer service from Granville, not Pataskala, and that it will come with zoning rules. Fred should say that is township policy, period, and that’s why people elected me. He should say the real skinny is he’s a trustee and he doesn’t take orders from anyone.
You've said it all
Thank you “loosechange” you’ve said what needs to be said.
This shouldn’t be about name-calling or right or left - it’s about Granville.
I hope Fred listens to you and acts on your suggestion. He should also ensure that the new trustee is someone representative of the community, not someone who necessarily thinks like he does or like Bill Habig does.
If he does that, we will all win and I’ll vote for him again.
But, unfortunately, maybe he isn’t reading this “B—- S—- RAG.”
Abe
It has to frustrate the GP to know that Fred can go out and get 70% of the vote any time.
The “old guard” is Granville!
signed Clandestine Brent
BEHIND SOME OTHER BALLUS FICTIOUS NAME
Isn’t it funny how Fred complains that Jack and “his” bloggers don’t use their real names, but he somehow knows to address his email to Jack when writing to the editor of the Granville Press.
Everyone knows that Jack Thornborough is responsible for GP - he makes no secret of it - even Fred knew.
As for the bloggers, I just went down through the entire list of comments and only Christopher_Hawkins, Don Andrews, Tracee Karaffa, kittyconsolo, Sarah Thornborough, and Kate_Thornborough have used their real names. I apologize if any others have, but I didn’t notice them in my quick look at the list.
Most of us do not use our real names, and think about this - even the most vocal critics of GP hide behind fake names: Buckeye, TroutFishing, Bucknut, brent, NoSpin43023, and Cyclenut.
So, who’s hiding “BEHIND SOME OTHER BALLUS FICTIOUS NAME” as Fred has accused? Certainly not Jack. Certainly not the Granville Press.
Unbelievable
I just don’t know what to say.
I have successfully decoded most of the message. But just what was intended by the letter combination “BALLUS?” The OED tells me it refers to a genus of the Salticidae family (jumping spiders for those interested). Somehow I don’t think that is what he meant. Did he mean BOGUS?
Never mind, I don’t think I really want to know.
Ballus...it had me confuzzled too
“BALLUS FICTIOUS NAME.”
Ballus is definitely the best word in Fred’s e-mail.
I believe he meant ball-less — or is that balless or ballless? — as in someone who doesn’t have the balls (courage, in the good ol’ boy vernacular)to give his (or her?) name in a posting.
And while talking about novel words, I thought that “fictious” was an improvement on “fictitious” because it’s shorter and gives the added sense and sound of friction and fractious, a meaning Fred also seeks to capture.
Not to say that the e-mail is art, but it does have a powerful authenticity that more formal language sometimes misses. “BALLUS FICTIOUS” is pretty darn effective communication, despite the nontraditional spellings.
More famous nonsense
from Bob Dylan, Playboy interview, circa Feb. 1966, on how he choose his career. Follow the boucing train of thought:
Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I’m in a card game. Then I’m in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a “before” in a Charles Atlas “before and after” ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy — he ain’t so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I’m in Omaha. It’s so cold there, by this time I’m robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain’t much to look at, but who’s built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything’s going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?
and another famous rant
Lee Elia then-Cubs-manager, on the hot seat after a bad start:
(heavily censored)
”___ those ___ fans who come out here and say they’re Cub fans that are supposed to be behind you rippin’ every ___ thing you do. I’ll tell you one ___ thing, I hope we get ___ hotter than ___, just to stuff it up them 3,000 ___ people that show up every ___ day, because if they’re the real Chicago ___ fans, they can kiss my ___ ___ right downtown and PRINT IT.
“They’re really, really behind you around here… my ___ ___. What the ___ am I supposed to do, go out there and let my ___ players get destroyed every day and be quiet about it? For the ___ nickel-dime people who turn up? The _____ don’t even work. That’s why they’re out at the ___ game. They oughta go out and get a ___ job and find out what it’s like to go out and earn a ___ living. Eighty-five percent of the ___ world is working. The other fifteen percent come out here. A ___ playground for the ___. Rip them ___. Rip them ___ ___ like the ___ players. we got guys bustin’ their ___ ___, and them ___ people boo.
"had enough sand"
What about that line? Fred says the only blogger who “had enough sand” to stop by was Chris Hawkins. I read it as the only one “who had enough balls.”
I’d never heard the expression “had enough sand” and couldn’t find anything on Google. It’s quite charming and visual. Is it an Ohio-ism?
————————
By the way, confuzzled is a word popular among some Granville kids. It’s a combination of confused and puzzled, as in “the math problem confuzzled me.”
Atta boy, Fred II
Yes, sir, Fred. How to send a profane, all caps, angry, barely literate e-mail to a local blog.
Fred is a good person. Stipulated. Fred is a hard worker. Stipulated. Fred hit the “send” button in a moment of passion, a mistake anyone could make. Stipulated.
But the e-mail reveals more than the profane text intends. It shows a basic lack of professionalism. This type of yahoo amateurishness is not seen in the operations of the Village, the school district, Denison, the library, the fire department or aspects of Granville life. It should not be seen in the township.
The Old Guard, which profits from a government run like a club of good ol’ boys, will, of course, say “atta boy!” to Fred sending an ill-considered e-mail. This clique does Fred no favors. It led him astray earlier on his conflict problem and his robocall and his other misadventures.
But this isn’t about Fred…or Jack or YesMan. It’s about Granville. We have a township government that is wasteful, poorly run and embarrassingly amateurish.
It’s time to hire a township manager — same as the Village has a manger to run its day-to-day operations. Granville Township has a multi-million dollar annual budget, and it’s run by the seat of its pants like a scene from dumb, dumber and dumbest. It needs to be run professionally, efficiently and with respect for its citizenry. The old way — “the atta boy, Fred” way — is hurting Granville, not to mention the reputation and happiness of a guy named Fred who doesn’t realize that he’s not the problem and Jack is not the problem. It’s the final days of an Old Guard hanging on to an atta boy system that doesn’t work.
Fred’s great accomplishment could be to professionalize and systematize township government. He’s a business person. He should have the tools to do this. But he’s also captive of the ol’ boy network that picked him for the job, that wants government run by the seat of its pants, handing out atta boys and favors.
Let’s hope that Fred disables his Caps Lock and writes a common sense memo on how to make Granville Township government work for the whole community.
Oh my
So much for an adult approach to the situation.
It would be helpful if the trustees would clean up their act. This sort of conduct does not reflect well on Granville. Small wonder we came in near last on the Owens Corning grant.
Paul
Atta Boy Fred!
I love it! Fast Freddy steppin’ up to defend his honor. It’s a great day.
Don’t let Jack and Dennis put words in your mouth. I’d say that near 70% of the population support you and your decisions.
Keep up the good work. Pick the best replacement for Wes Sargent and keep doing what has made the township the preferred place to live in Granville.
lots here read the garbage, but know the truth about a lot of things that aren’t discussed in their entirety.
how about
Calling the EPA to have a look go see at the septic situation in a certain business on River Road….
Super Secret Septic issue….
FIGHTING FRED
Love the email. Fred’s a crazy mother——— like me! My mother used to say about me, that you can dress him up but you can’t take him out. Don’t let the Granville elite take the old school out of you Fred.
FURIOUS FRED
“YesMan” suggests we nickname Abraham, “Angry Abe.”
I think “Furious Fred” might be a better moniker.
Why, Abraham might even use “Furious Fred” to log on to the Granville Press!
FRED ABRAHAM -- GRANVILLE'S ANGRIEST MAN
Wow.
I’ve commented often about how Township Trustees have nothing but contempt for the opinions of others. But I never thought Fred would give such a raw display of that contempt.
Wow. OR, AS FRED MIGHT SAY, WOW!!!!