Francis Porkloin

Francis Porkloin is a reporter for today, for you, for me, for us, for our children, for our children's children, and for our children's children's grandparents - which is us, again. Francis Porkloin is devoted to giving a voice to all people, including those who do not have mouths or have had them wired shut and can only make incomprehensible "Mmmrph! Mmmrph!" sounds. Francis Porkloin is committed to delivering the unbiased truth and telling the stories that others have no interest in telling - and that the public has no interest in hearing. Francis Porkloin is a Sagittarius.

Local Gen Y-ers stop complaining for two hours during Neutral Milk Hotel concert

Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel

In an unprecedented occurrence yesterday at the concert venue Track 29, it was reported that all local members of Generation Y – people currently in their teens through the age of 30 – had collectively stopped complaining for two hours, during the performance by the indie-rock band Neutral Milk Hotel.

This evening was enjoyed by local Gen Y-ers unironically, all of whom refrained from slavishly checking Facebook or Twitter updates on their smartphones for the entire concert.

Witnesses on the scene reported that not one utterance of the phrases “This town sucks” or “This is so lame” was heard during the performance, which featured songs from Neutral Milk Hotel’s widely praised album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Local members of Generation Y – commonly thought of as a generation of whining and entitled praise-junkies and narcissistic attention whores – enjoyed their first experience of true fellowship and honest, heartfelt reverence at the concert.

Samuel L. Jackson addresses motherf-cking snake problem at Brainerd High School

Samuel L. Jackson (Used under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license. Source: flic.kr/p/5d5Lww)
Samuel L. Jackson (Used under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license. Source: flic.kr/p/5d5Lww)

One week ago, it was reported that Brainerd High School experienced sightings of snakes, after a replacement of the facility’s heating and air conditioning system had spurred rodents to enter the school to search for food, followed by snakes who hunted for rodents.

One former Chattanooga resident has been unhappy and vocal about the situation, prompting the Hamilton County School system to take quick action with exterminators to eliminate the snake problem.

“Enough is enough,” said actor Samuel L. Jackson, who was raised in Chattanooga. “I have had it with these motherf-cking snakes in this motherf-cking school!”

Some residents opposed the use of exterminators to kill the snakes, citing alternate, more humane methods, but Jackson expressed a hardline stance against the snakes.

“Yes they deserve to die,” said Jackson. “And I hope they burn in hell!”

Jackson, who serves as narrator for an orientation film for the new Chattanooga History Center slated to open in 2014, offered to help with the extermination efforts himself.

“I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers,” said Jackson. “And you will know my name is Samuel L. Motherf-cking Jackson when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

Councilman Chris Anderson reveals he is straight on National Coming Out Day

District 7 City Councilman Chris Anderson
District 7 City Councilman Chris Anderson

At a press conference yesterday afternoon, District 7 City Councilman Chris Anderson surprised his constituency by announcing on National Coming Out Day that he was actually heterosexual.

“Fooled ya,” said Anderson, with a smile and a wink to the crowd of reporters and citizens. “You could say I pulled the wool over your eyes. The wool vest, to be specific.”

“My opponent in the election back in March, Manny Rico, claimed that I ran on the platform of being gay,” said Anderson. “I vehemently denied it at the time, but actually, he was right. My little ruse has been years in the planning, and what can I say, it paid off.”

“There are negative stereotypes, and then there are positive stereotypes,” said Anderson. “For example, there are the stereotypes that Jews have good financial sense and that Asians are good at math and science.”

“I totally took advantage of the positive stereotypes attributed to gay people – that homosexuals are smarter, more creative, artistic and sophisticated than average people,” said Anderson. “And I rode that stereotype to victory.”

“Here is my real partner, Staci,” said Anderson, standing beside his tall, platinum blond girlfriend. “She’s a massage therapist by day and a bartender at the Electric Cowboy by night.”

“I’m just a poon-loving breeder, like most of y’all,” said Anderson.

New climbing wall complex to be crawling ramp complex instead

Crawling ramp (Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/7VBtig)
Crawling ramp (Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/7VBtig)

At a press conference yesterday held by the River City Co., it was announced that the former Bijou theater downtown, originally slated to become one of the largest American climbing wall complexes, will now be home to the largest crawling ramp complex in the United States.

“It was a tough decision,” said Gretchen Staplemont, the director of River City Co. “We crunched the numbers over and over again and came to the realization that we were kidding ourselves. Chattanooga just doesn’t have enough physically fit people to make a huge climbing wall complex a sustainable venture.”

“Sure, the Ironman Chattanooga triathlon competition sold out in three minutes, but those were all out-of-towners,” said Staplemont. “Remember, Chattanooga is the birthplace of the Moon Pie and the Krystal burger.”

Originally, the facility was to be called “The Block,” but now, the River City Co. is calling the new complex “The Ramp,” which is set to open this Saturday.

“We have all kinds of ramps, for the novice crawler to the most experienced speed-crawler, plus some specialty ramps,” said Staplemont.

“The Slippery Slope” features a lickable surface covered with movie theater-style butter, to motivate crawlers to reach their destination.

“Maybe some day, a giant climbing wall complex can be sustainable in Chattanooga, but we’re taking baby steps,” said Staplemont. “We’ve got to crawl before we can climb.”

The Ramp logo
The Ramp logo

 

Fired police Emmer and Cooley to star in wacky sitcom as crime-fighting duo

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Former Chattanooga police Sean Emmer and Adam Cooley
Former Chattanooga police Sean Emmer and Adam Cooley

After an incident caught on video in June 2012 involving halfway house inmate Adam Tatum, which left him with two broken legs, Chattanooga Police Officers Sean Emmer and Adam Cooley were terminated from their positions for using force that was deemed excessive.

However, administrative law Judge Kim Summers ruled that Emmer and Cooley should be reinstated as officers, saying that they were following Chattanooga Police policy and behaving according to their training, to apprehend a violent criminal on cocaine.

Mayor Andy Berke, all City Council members and police Chief Bobby Dodd opposed the ruling, but new developments have emerged which give the pair of former policemen options for their future.

This past Monday, news was released that Emmer and Cooley were offered jobs at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, where their “dedicated, unrelenting vigor” would be useful when interrogating international prisoners, outside U.S. legal jurisdiction, but the federal government shutdown put the job offerings on hold.

This proved to be a minor setback, since at a press conference yesterday afternoon, it was announced that Emmer and Cooley would star as themselves as a crime-fighting duo in a scripted sitcom pilot episode for the Spike cable network.

“Fun for the whole family, the new show Emmer and Cooley: Cuffs and Hollers presents the hilarious antics of the two cops as fish out of water: two good ol’ Southern boys on the mean streets of New York City,” said Spike representative, Martin Willstom.

“Cooley will star as a fictionalized adaptation of himself, playing the chatty, wisecracking Adam ‘The Cooler’ Cooley,” said Willstom. “He’s a former bouncer with a Master’s degree in literature who quotes from classic novels and poetry at unexpected times, for comedic effect.”

“Emmer stars as Sean ‘The Freezer’ Emmer, a former Tennessee Titans linebacker, known for his hulking figure and droll, chilly demeanor,” said Willstom. “When he’s fed up with his partner’s hijinks, he says ‘Cool it, Cooley!’ which is a catchphrase that you will never get tired of hearing.”

The pilot episode, which has yet to be filmed, features a story where Emmer and Cooley bust an international jewel-smuggling ring, which culminates in a side-splitting scene where the two employ their catfish noodling skills to retrieve stolen diamonds swallowed by large exotic fish in a millionaire playboy’s giant aquarium.

“Emmer and Cooley will use their ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ routine to gain valuable information from suspects,” said Willstom. “However, it’s not entirely clear if they’re good cops, strictly following police procedures and training guidance, or bad cops, using excessive force with bloodcurdling brutality.”

Emmer and Cooley: Cuffs and Hollers is a laugh-out-loud, wacky comedy that’ll tickle your funny bone, right before it breaks it,” said Willstom.

Mayor Berke upset that Obama stopped “Liking” his Facebook posts

Mayor Andy Berke
Mayor Andy Berke

Eight weeks after President Obama’s trip to Chattanooga to visit the Amazon fulfillment center, Mayor Andy Berke expressed disappointment that Obama has apparently stopped “Liking” his posts on the Facebook social network.

“I don’t understand it,” said Berke, getting choked up while attempting to remain composed. “I thought we really hit it off, during that presidential limo ride together from the airport to the Amazon facility.”

“We had a great conversation. We talked about how crazy and awesome that new Kanye West album is,” said Berke. “Then we chatted about the new season of Arrested Development, and he told me about a bunch of obscure jokes and references on the show that I didn’t get upon first viewing.”

“It blew my mind,” said Berke.

Berke said that soon after the visit, he sent a “Friend” request to Obama on Facebook, which was accepted within minutes.

“For those first few weeks, Barack liked almost everything I posted to Facebook,” said Berke. “Selfies, Grumpy Cat pics, that weird video where they removed all the music from that Miley Cyrus video.”

Berke noticed that Obama gradually began to “Like” fewer and fewer posts, until there was practically no online interaction on Facebook, to his dismay.

“Yesterday I posted a clip from The Big Lebowski that I know Barack loves,” said Berke. “Nothing. I even tagged him in the post.”

“I was thinking that we should try to get Amazon to open up another facility here in Chattanooga, so that Barack can come visit again,” said Berke, with hope.

Bearded hipster community tapped for Civil War reenactment

Left: Bearded hipster (Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license, source: flic.kr/p/aaZRFD). Right: Civil War soldiers (Used under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license, source: flic.kr/p/5uv9hK)
Left: Bearded hipster (Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license, source: flic.kr/p/aaZRFD). Right: Civil War soldiers (Used under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license, source: flic.kr/p/5uv9hK)

Local historian Lester Goggin, one of the head organizers of the reenactment of the American Civil War Battle of Chickamauga, scheduled to commemorate its 150th anniversary, was facing a crisis several weeks ago.

“We were looking at the number of participants, and we were nowhere close to having enough authentic-looking reenactors to properly stage the Battle of Chickamauga,” said Goggin, speaking of the event that will be held this weekend at Mountain Cove Farms in Chickamauga, GA.

“The unusually low participation rate among the local bearded community was totally unexpected,” said Goggin. “Apparently, much of our base this season is either following around ZZ Top on their latest tour or engaged in intense Duck Dynasty viewing marathons.”

Then, Goggin got an idea while walking past the Flying Squirrel Bar one evening, which changed everything.

“I saw this young man standing outside smoking a cigarette, with an outrageous beard, wearing skinny jeans, plastic neon-green rimmed sunglasses and a trucker cap that had a rebel flag and the words ‘Heritage not hate’ on it,” said Goggin. “There were dozens more like him inside.”

“At first, I thought, ‘What a douche,'” said Goggin. “Then I thought, ‘These hipsters just might be the solution to our Civil War reenactment problem.'”

With the promise of free Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Goggin recruited around twenty bearded hipsters for the Battle of Chickamauga reenactment before encountering another problem: word spread quickly on Facebook and Tumblr that doing Civil War reenactments was becoming too mainstream.

“I had to think fast and not lose this pool of hipsters,” said Goggin. “So, I planted the idea that although doing Civil War reenactments was becoming mainstream, a hipster could do it ironically and still keep his hipster cred.”

It worked, and Goggin was able to successfully recruit thousands of local bearded hipsters for this weekend’s reenactment.

“They’re fine with wearing the uniforms, running around with bayonets and speaking with ridiculous southern drawls,” said Goggin. “Now, the only problem I have is keeping them from looking at their damn smartphones all the time.”

R. Kelly to debut new album “Black Depends” about senior fetish at Track 29

R. Kelly (Used under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/6fGpBz)
R. Kelly (Used under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/6fGpBz)

R&B singer and recording artist R. Kelly has announced that next month, at the Chattanooga venue Track 29, he will debut his new album, Black Depends, by performing it in its entirety.

The controversial, court-embattled singer is known for his intense fetishes for elderly women and urolagnia, which are the two passions combined on his upcoming twelfth studio album, Black Depends, which takes its name from the absorbent undergarment.

Kelly is one of the most successful R&B artists of the last two decades, having sold over 54 million albums worldwide, and in 1994, the shocking news was revealed that Kelly had wed poet Maya Angelou, although the marriage was annulled soon afterwards.

Black Depends will feature fourteen new tracks, including “Assisted Loving,” “Gin and Prune Juice,” “GILF Hunter” and “Ride Me Like A Rascal.”

Taco Bell introduces “Burger Taco” to Chattanooga test market

Taco Bell's new "Burger Taco" (Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license. Source, left photo: http://flic.kr/p/2WUtH)
Taco Bell’s new “Burger Taco” (Left photo used under the CC-BY-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/2WUtH)

One month ago, the fast food Tex-Mex restaurant Taco Bell introduced a breakfast taco, consisting of a U-shaped waffle filled with eggs and sausage, to test markets including Chattanooga, and now, in a similar manner, it has unveiled a new product in the Scenic City.

The new menu item, called the Burger Taco, is currently available city-wide, and it features a new twist on a familiar favorite.

“First, we take a fluffy bun made of harina blanca, and add a carne picada patty,” said Taco Bell spokesperson Sally Mittelvander. “Top it with lettuce, cheese and salsa catsup, and you’ve got the Burger Taco.”

“Oh, who are we kidding?” said Mittelvander. “It is just a regular hamburger, but folded in half.”

“After the Breakfast Taco, we have given up on even trying to have any reasonable semblance of Mexican cuisine in our menu items,” said Mittelvander. “It hardly matters, though, since the public will pretty much buy anything we put out there, no matter how insulting, ridiculous or disgusting.”

Mittelvander mentioned plans for a “Dessert Burrito,” consisting of tapioca pudding and gummi bears enclosed in a fruit roll-up.

 

Local businesses suffer tech support crisis while nerds attend Dragon Con

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Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/dsG2wz
Used under the CC-BY-2.0 license. Source: http://flic.kr/p/dsG2wz

Many Chattanooga businesses have found themselves in the middle of a collective technical support crisis this weekend, with the temporary mass exodus of nerds from the city.

All computer and Information Technology nerds in Chattanooga and surrounding areas are simultaneously attending the annual Atlanta event Dragon Con, which gathers over 50,000 aficionados of science fiction, fantasy, anime, comics, horror, role-playing and video games.

“Our DNS server is down and our lead computer tech Wendell is down in Atlanta with his whole team, getting their photo taken with Xena, Warrior Princess,” said local CEO Timothy Chasington.

“I’ve been trying to get our firewall administrator Silvia to talk me through changing the VLAN trunk configuration, but she just keeps texting me back, ‘I just hugged the Fifth and Seventh Doctors!'” said Technical Manager Kris Terblanche. “Or she sends me photos of her dressed up as some character called ‘Hit Girl.'”

“We really should just temporarily shut down our business every year at this time,” said Terblanche.

ERRATUM (9/5/13, 10:46 am): We at the Chattanooga Bystander were informed that “DragonCon,” with no space between “Dragon” and “Con,” is an incorrect spelling of the event’s name. The proper event name is “Dragon Con: A Gathering For Nerds.” The Chattanooga Bystander regrets the error.

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