Anubis, King Niuserre, and unknown goddess {Isis?} - 5th Dynasty

I try to think logically and the result of that is most people think I'm a satirist.
-Robert Anton Wilson, novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychonaut, futurologist and magician (1932-2007)


Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
-Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)


It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
-Ansel Adams, photographer (1902-1984)


I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us.
-Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824)


Shadow owes its birth to light.
-John Gay, poet and dramatist (1685-1732)


Lawyers can be pests and often are.
-Nero Wolfe (in A RIGHT TO DIE by Rex Stout)


Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.
-H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)


A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood.
-Chinese Proverb


All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
-Voltaire (attributed)


What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
-P.D. James, writer (1920- )


It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.
-Jorge Luis Borges, writer (1899-1986)


I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
-Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)


Sometimes the squeals of politically correct indignance are more harmful to the communities you seek to protect with cowardly language and sidestepping of issues.
-PK


Please! That is not your mind speaking, it's the foam of churned feelings and has no meaning. I do not wish to be your enemy.
-Nero Wolfe (in FER-DE-LANCE by Rex Stout)


It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.
-Lewis Carroll, mathematician and writer (1832-1898)


All writers are punks.
-Raymond Chandler, author (1888-1959)


I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)


Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be!
-Miguel de Cervantes, writer (1547-1616)


It was only four tracks on the machine, but I was picking up twenty from the extra terrestrial squad.
-Lee 'Scratch' Perry, musician, magician, producer and scientist (1936- )


It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.
-William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)


Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)


To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
-Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)


Readers may be divided into four classes: 1. Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3. Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic (1772-1834)


There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
-Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (1935- )


It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.
-Leo Buscaglia, author (1924-1998)


Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
-Hanlon's Razor


If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.
-Thomas Pynchon, writer (1937- )


He that is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
-Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809)


Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
-Scott Adams, cartoonist (1957- )


You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.
-James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987)


A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
-Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955)


I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)


Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.
-Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832)


A person of power attains their goal and remains whole as a person. To truly have power, you must first love yourself enough to stay in your own center of truth.
-Lynn Andrews, Shaman, healer, writer, teacher


What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
-Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)

It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.
-Aristotle


I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
-Isaac Newton, philosopher, alchemist and mathematician (1642-1727)


When a man and his horse differ seriously in public, and the man feels the horse has the best of it, it is wise for the man to appear to accommodate his views to those of the horse, rather than risk a defeat. It is best to let the horse go his way, and pretend it is yours. There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse.
-from MR SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR by Robert S Surtees


Words are things; and a small drop of ink/Falling like dew upon a thought, produces/That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
-Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824)


The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: Humility is endless.
-T.S Eliot, poet (1888-1965)


Life is mostly froth and bubble/Two things stand like stone/Kindness in another's trouble/Courage in your own.
-Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet (1833-1870)


Of all the stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind must have been his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very distant either in time or place, speaking with those who are in the Indies, speaking to those who are not yet born, nor shall be this thousand or ten thousand years? And with no greater difficulty than the various arrangements of two dozen little signs on paper? Let this be the seal of all the admirable inventions...
-Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)


Man's brain, enlarged fortuitously, invented words in an ambitious attempt to learn how to think, only to have them usurped by his emotions. But we still try.
-Nero Wolfe (in DEATH OF A DUDE by Rex Stout)


Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.
-Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)


Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (3 BCE - 65 CE)


It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.
-Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)


Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
-Buddha (c. 566-480 BCE)


If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.
-Margaret Fuller, author (1810-1850)


Books seem to me to be pestilent things, and infect all that trade in them...with something very perverse and brutal.
-John Locke, "philosopher"


The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
-William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist (1564-1616)


Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
-Anonymous


He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)


The wastebasket is a writer's best friend.
-Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, Nobel laureate (1904-1991)


To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.
-Theophile Gautier, writer (1811-1872)


Traveling is a fool's paradise... I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher and writer (1803-1882)


The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.
-Jean Cocteau, writer, artist, and filmmaker


Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge...
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)


You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)


In order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty.
-Imbesi's Law of Conservation of Filth


As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
-Albert Einstein


No one knows how ungentlemanly he can look until he has seen himself in a shocking bad hat.
-from MR FACEY ROMFORD'S HOUNDS by Robert S Surtees


Beauty is only sin deep.
-Saki (HH Munro)


By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
-Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)


Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
-Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)


Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.
-Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (1924-1998)


I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body.
Then I realized who was telling me this.
-Emo Phillips, comedian, actor (1956- )


He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.
-Confucius (c. 551-479? BC)

It's a little after 1 AM and it's 82.2F (almost 28C). The humidity is only 59%, but it's enough - and the breeze is little enough - that the heat index is 85F (29.4C).

Happy 4th, yo.













A bit phallic innit.

It's almost 11 PM and it's 80 effing degrees.

Not terribly long ago, local news interviewed a gentleman named Art Heist.

Yes. Art Heist.

I am not inventing this. Many years ago, Mrs and Mr Heist named their baby boy Arthur.

D'you suppose they'd've named a daughter Jewel?

Yes, I do realize they may pronounce it 'heest' but I ain't ahem buyin' that.

While searching for Indian slippers wif turned-up toes, I came across these bindis:

Which put me in mind of these:







I like looking at Egyptian perfume bottles, but I'm not into collecting/lusting for 'em.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
The Birthday Party

It's a very happy day
We are at lots of fun fun fun

And it's ice-cream and jelly

And a punch in the belly
How much can you throw over the walls?

And see how his face glows
It's a bike! What a surprise.
It's a big bike. What a big surprise.

It's a red bike. What a red surprise.
Oh, what a surprise.

But the best thing there
But the best thing there
Was the wonderful dog chair

Was the beautiful dog chair
That could count right up to ten
It could count right up to ten
It went woof, woof, woof, woof, woof,
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof.

And it's another happy day
He was born eleven years ago
And this year it's long trousers
And a very smart tie.

Just think in five years he'll be shaving.

And see how his face glows
It's a ninja sword. What a surprise!

It's a samurai sword. What a metal surprise.
He'll remember this day for the rest of his life.

But the best thing there
But the best thing there
Is that sensuous dog chair

The immaculate dog chair
That could count right up to eleven
It could count right up to eleven
It went woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof,
Woof, woof.

But the best thing there
But the best thing there
Was my darling the dog chair

The cool, cool dog chair
That could count right up to eleven
It could count right up to eleven.

And it ran round and round the house.
It ran round the house.

I'm glad you're here! Welcome!
What can I get you?

Spot of tea...



...Chimay...


...or champers, Luv?


Hummus?
There's more than enough, as you see, so eat all you want.


Tabouli?


Baba ghanouj?


There's lotsa pita bread to go with...




...or maybe you'd prefer some crab and/or lobster sushi?


U can haz cheezburger.

Once you wade through the lolcats, you'll find plenty of cakes. Pick a cake or three and have a slice whenever you're ready.


Spot of dope, Luv?

Party favo/urs!

Yup. Sushi thumb drives.



They're all over the place, so go ahead and take two or three of your favo/urites.






Or u can haz cheezburger/z.

Hooray! The bands have arrived!
Toots!


The Residents!


The Fall!

10000 posts!

I do not lie when I say I have no life.

I thought you might be interested to know that, on Tuesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, concluded the fourth in a series of hearings to explore some of the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis. These hearings are the culmination of a year and a half long investigation by the Subcommittee.

As I mentioned at the onset of these hearings two weeks ago, the goal of this investigation has been to bring to light the policies, procedures, incentives, compensation structures, and regulatory failures that collectively led to the meltdown of the financial services sector. This man-made economic catastrophe put our economy into a tailspin, costing millions of jobs, depleting retirement savings, closing businesses, and necessitating drastic and unprecedented federal intervention to stave off a second Great Depression. This federal intervention was a bitter pill for Congress and the American people to swallow and made it clear that our country’s financial regulatory system was in need of broad evaluation and overhaul.

The Subcommittee’s first hearing on April 13th explored the role of high-risk mortgage lending. The hearing focused on a case study of Washington Mutual Bank, known as WaMu, whose reckless strategy to pursue higher profits by emphasizing high-risk exotic loans not only created hardship for borrowers, but also added excessive risk to the bank’s balance sheet. WaMu would then sell off these high-risk loans as mortgage-backed securities, building a conveyor belt that dumped toxic assets into the financial system.

Our second hearing looked at how federal regulators were aware of WaMu’s risky and reckless policies, yet completely failed to rein them in. Instead of exercising prudent regulatory oversight, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) repeatedly failed to act on major shortcomings it observed, and it thwarted other agencies from stepping in.

The third hearing dealt with credit rating agencies, specifically case studies of Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, the nation’s two largest credit raters. While WaMu and other lenders dumped their bad loans and regulators failed to stop their behavior, the credit rating agencies rubber stamped these high-risk financial products with AAA ratings. These credit rating agencies operate with an inherent conflict of interest – their revenue comes from the same firms whose products they are supposed to critically analyze, and those firms exert pressure on rating agencies who too often put market share ahead of analytical rigor.

Finally, Tuesday’s hearing explored the role of investment banks in the development of the crisis. We focused on the activities during 2007 of Goldman Sachs, one of the oldest and most successful firms on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs was an active player in building the mortgage machinery that contributed to the economic collapse the following year. During the period leading up to 2008, Goldman made a lot of money packaging mortgages, getting AAA ratings, and selling securities backed by loans from notoriously poor-quality lenders, such as WaMu, Fremont and New Century.

The Subcommittee investigation found that in 2007, Goldman Sachs was betting heavily that the housing market would decline while it was selling investments in that market to its clients. It sold those clients high-risk mortgage-backed securities that it wanted to get off its books in transactions that created a conflict of interest between Goldman’s bottom line and its clients’ interests.

The Subcommittee’s extensive work has shown that at every stage of the game, the rules must be changed. This only further highlights the urgent and pressing need for comprehensive reform of our financial industry. I am disappointed that the full Senate has yet again failed to bring legislation to the floor intended to do just that. I am hopeful that the information brought to light as a result of these hearings will help persuade my colleagues of the dire need for reform of our financial services sector.

My opening statement from Tuesday’s hearing contains more information on the Subcommittee’s investigation and is available on my Senate website at [http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=324210].

Sincerely,
Carl Levin

Bizarre spam of the day:

10:51 Pansy Rockette
CiIais Soft Tabs at a price lower than you can imaigne - C/anadian phraamcy offers high_quIaity meds. www.cameoislandhomes.at the suppression or …

I thought you might be interested to know that, earlier today, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, held the first in a series of four hearings aimed at unraveling the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis.

The crisis was not an act of nature; it was a man-made economic assault that cost millions of jobs, evaporated billions of dollars in retirement savings and put our nation in the worst economic tailspin since the Great Depression.

Extreme greed was the driving force of the crisis. And, it will happen again unless we change the rules.

Our hearings are based on a year-long bipartisan investigation conducted by the Subcommittee. The first hearing focused on the role of high risk loans, using Washington Mutual Bank as a case history. It showed how the bank originated and sold hundreds of billions of dollars in high risk loans to Wall Street in return for big fees, dumping toxic mortgages into the U.S. financial system like polluters dumping poison in a river.

The next three hearings will look at the role of regulators, credit rating agencies, and investment banks in contributing to the financial crisis. The Subcommittee will present additional case histories to examine each stage of the assault.

The goals of the hearings are threefold: to construct a public record of the facts to deepen public understanding of what happened and to hold some of the perpetrators accountable; to inform the current legislative debate about the need for financial reform; and to provide a foundation for building better defenses to protect Main Street from the excesses of Wall Street.

My opening statement from this morning’s hearing goes into more detail and is available at [http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=323765].

Sincerely,
Carl Levin

Dunno whence most of these came...









This one came from ebay UK!

The Tigers' opening day game was yesterday, and the Sun came out for about 60 seconds.

The crowd cheered the Sun more loudly than any play.

I got this today:

from: rttttew@fihaggun.com
subj: VICODIN RITALIN ONLINE

That address sounds distinctly Lovecraftian.

Ta much, dear MSiegel


Less formal....


Now yr talkin'!


Wipe those Chucks on this bad boy, whydoncha.

I always thought the Mach 5 was sexy, and I had a crush on Speed Racer when I was a little girl.

This reminds me....

I joined a friend in taking a series of busses over the course of eight hours in August of 91, so she could visit an obscure blasted-heath-edge-of-Hollywood video rental what rented obscure videos.
I'm not kidding about the blasted heath bit: beyond the piles of junk/parking lot behind the building loomed desert and a junkyard. Both encroached on the store: tiny piles of sand on the floor rose like little tornados in the hot puffs of air which passed as breezes, it was at least 95°F inside, and a fine sandy dust lay on almost everything. Crumpled bits of paper and other trash hung out in sandy, dusty corners and other places where the 'breezes' and last year's Santa Ana had deposited them, echoing the outdoor junk piles and junkyard.
They had every weird movie you can think of - not just Yankistani ones - and so many more that you can't.

Our route took us through the LA Zoo, which I found curious and delightful. The bus stopped to pick up a passenger in the zoo, a zoo employee. He chatted with the driver during his brief ride, which happily gave me the chance to stare at him Parisian-stylée.

The zoo employee looked exactly like Speed Racer. My friend was as shocked as I when I pointed him out.
He had nice legs, and twinkly eyes.

I never saw him smile though, not once.

And now for something completely different:

It was 54°F (12°C) today.

Detroit's record high temp for today ('twas th' year 2000) was 80°F (27°C).

Detroit's record low for today (date not mentioned) was -1°F (-18°C).

Mom's got a special name for certain parts of the cross-country ski races.

Their heads start bobbing up and down...

...and she yells, "Whack-A-Mole!"

Bonus: A couple of the Italian gents had really groovy bronzey-colo/ured hats. They looked like they were made of the same stretchy stuff as their suits, and they have a bobble on that's made of the same stuff!

The Flowers of Romance
Public Image LTD


Now in the summer
I could be happy or in distress
Depending on the company
On the veranda

Talk of the future or reminisce
Behind the dialogue
We're in a mess
Whatever I intended
I sent you flowers

You wanted chocolates instead

The flowers of romance
The flowers of romance

I've got binoculars

On top of Box Hill
I could be Nero
Fly the eagle

Start all over again
I can't depend on these so-called friends
It's a pity you need to defend
I'll take the furniture
Start all over again




From Flowers of Romance; 1981

I'm jus' bringin' ya some choc'lates.

Is dat a crime?

Selected stylis/zed Scarabæus sacers - Scarabs.
Clicking the images may produce useful sites/pages.







Ain't this thing a h00t?! It's probably plastic, but it still enavarices meh.
I found it last night - at a now-defunct shopping site - and have never seen anything quite like it. It links to a functional shopping site, Gentle Categorian.











Click the scarabs tag for more ancient, Coleopteran goodness.

No brakes?!?!

Tatra


BAT


Audi R8


Peel P50 - piloted by one Jeremy Clarkson


A plethora of Peels - the Bubbletops are Tridents


Emma Peel and a Lotus


This lush yella Mini fella's known as The Yellow Screamer


Amphicars


Koenigsegg CCS





Koenigsegg CCX


Bugatti Veyron

Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang


Stout Scarab


1968 Pontiac GTO

You got me safe
Safe as the mighty eye

Furahia mwaka mpya!

Bonne année!

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

Gleðilegt nýtt ár!

Sona!

Boldog újévet!

An nou fericit!

Frohes neues Jahr!

Feliz ano novo!

С новым годом!





































Just see that you don't wind up like this poor fellow......

Possessions

Some are into silver


Some are into gold


Some are into having

Something nice to hold


Some are into silver


Some are into gold


Some are into having

Something nice to hold

Eyes snow-slits, my hands
frozen. Winter beauty? Fuck
that, just give me Spring!

22 Dec 09

Pluto Drive
The Creatures
from Boomerang (1989)

Let's go to Pluto, the atmosphere's clear

We'll be really cool there with nothing to fear
Let's go to Pluto, it's cold and it's damp
Where children are heroes, and death is high camp

I want to see Pluto - I want to have fun
I want to turn blue under an alien sun
Oh let me see Pluto, it seems such a gas

With oceans of methane and petrified grass

Let's go to Pluto
Let's live on the dot
See the bad moon rising
in a lunacy knot

Come on, let's do Pluto

It's really not far

An unleaded dream drive
To the prettiest star

I want to see Pluto, but maybe I'll wait
'Til the world turns to meet its plutonium fate

The days will be long here, the years will be more
Let's go to Pluto like we did before

Let's go to Pluto
Let's live on the dot
See the bad moon rising
in a lunacy knot

That's an opium pipe, kids.
So's this one, but it's way fancy; so fancy I couldn't bear shrinking the image.

'Light snow mist' my arse: it's sleeting out there FFS.

No daymn mist gonna slap yo' face like t'shit thass fallin' right now!

It absolutely infuriates me that I can't find a larger picture of the cute little Bat Wings pumpkin!
The top is orange with dark green underneath, and it is actually an ornamental but edible gourd.
Click pic if you wanna visit the only place I could find it. They have other cool pumpkins and ornamentals.

Edited to add:
Dear MSiegel has come to the rescue once again - he finds the unfindable!



Click pics to visit the two places he found it.
The second place he found says it's an acorn squash, and the adorable things in their pic do indeed look like 'em.
T'others look nowt like acorn squash. Hmmm.

Edited once more to add:
Dear Anneliese has also ridden to the rescue once again!

This pic is a link too, also.

Edited and bumped again to add:

Dear Ar0cketman is sendin' me goodies too!
He and Anneliese are both weird pumpkin/squash gourd afficianados, and sweeter 'n punkin pie, so I shouldn't be surprised. :)
Oh, and the above pic is also a link.

My email today had a great joke from Our Keef - - -

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him,

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

Tonight I kept Mom up until almost 2.30 AM watching the Speed Racer movie. How cool is that?!

She wittily remarked upon the CGI piranha fish, and all the "cartoon hair" as she so aptly described it.

I have received my first-ever bit of Shakespearean spam.

I never knew such a thing existed until my first visit to my gmail inbox Thursday, and there it sat.

It was from Marco Story and the subject line read, "To buy or not to buy?"

I now wish I'd mouse-hovered over it and copied the little bit I can grab without opening the message.

The next sentence may well have been, "That is the question," and that, Gentle Categorian, woulda wracked us both with mirth.

There's a pheasant in our next door neighbo/ur's back yard. He's very talkative and keeps looking at our yard, where the way smaller birds are making use of our thistle- and mixed seed feeders.

Uncle Vinnie explains how Willie performed the art to Mr Denver, who seemingly doesn't believe him:

"...and as Willie always said, 'Take care of the middle, and the ends will take care of themselves.' "

Today I saw I had a spam msg from someone called Wackerbarth Prizzi. The msg itself was quite dull, but that's one of the best names I've ever seen!

Posada and Co
Each pic's a link to a different site so click away, Gentle Categorian.

ahem Killer strides and sky, mate.

May you never thirst.

¡Señor Cremoso!
Mistah Creeeemeh!

Kandy Korn
Captain Beefheart
Strictly Personal
1967

Yellow and orange and


Well they taste so good I want to eat 'em


And they taste so good I get to need 'em
Can-can-can-candy
candy


Candy corn
yellow and orange and


candy corn


yellow and orange and
candy


be reborn
be reformed
stay stay warm

Halloween socks are important.











I wore these on the 30th. :)

They're very important.











That one pair in the above post is in my own collection - most of these pics are from ebay and Spirit Halloweeen Dot Com.





I found so many good Halloween socks, and saw there were at least as many more good uns on teh Intart00bz; I just had to quit or I'd've been up until 4 PM the next day photobucket'g and postin' 'em!










Update 3 Nov: It gives Your Humble Narrator great pleasure to inform you she now possesses these and.....


these!


'Course, anyone who knows anything buys Hallowe'en socks at their local drug store/s (esp the big chains) on the Day of the Dead, and spends maybe a buck a pair. Hallowe'en specialty joints and costume shops generally have big sales too, also. The wise also buy Hallowe'en t-shirts at Target when they're on sale cheap; they always have excellent ones.

One of the best costumes Evar.






That's the scariest thing I've found this year.
/me shudders

An oldie but goodie

The other night Mom was playing her Mah-Jongg computer game when her (sweet but rather nuts) Aunt June phoned.

You know how it is - you're playing, you're on the phone, there's a Doglet begging for attention, there's a cat who needs rubbing, and then you need to light a cigarette too, also.

Sometimes the unthinkable happens.

Yup.

Mah Momma done set her haaar on faaaar! She could see the flames out the cohnah of her ah!

You'd never know it happened from lookin' at her hair - it wasn't truly awful; she just brushed out the flames with a spare (?!) hand.

XD

Don't feel badly if you're LYAO - we're still ROTFLOAO! XD

My pal Dave (shown here with Your Humble Narrator) has other equally shocking bad hats, is a confessed "smarty-pants" and will be on Jeopardy tonight, 20 October.

"Now, this vicious-looking one; which one was he?"

"That's Sir Hugo Baskerville, sir. It was with him the curse began. Cream and sugar, sir?"

Paper Moon was on t'other night, and I watched a bit of it.












They're at a fair and have an argument when one of my favorite lines Evar happens.


Moses Pray: ...And stop standing around here checking on me! You don't have to worry. I ain't about to leave some poor little child stranded in the middle of nowhere. I've got scruples too, ya know. You know what that is, scruples?
Addie Loggins: No, I don't know what it is but if you've got 'em, it's a sure bet they belong to somebody else!
[Addie stalks off]

Yup.

"I've always loved you."










A poem by Henry Gibson: The Buzz notes the passing of the poet laureate of “Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In,” Henry Gibson, who, clutching a flower, would recite deadpan poetry.

We'll let Henry have the last word:

"Did you ever stop to figure why the thumbnail is so hard? / Well, it hasn't any choice with all that skin to guard. / It may look fat and pudgy, but its heart is good and true. / It's prettier than a toenail and easier to chew."

Say good night, Dick.

During the past few days, my mom's been watching nowt but the game show network.

You know how it feels when your BF/GF dumps you, only to start going out with something far inferior to your own glorious self? This is even worse. I feel like a fricken geeeenius sitting here posting engrish and news stories about antiques-hoarding classy spinsters.

Wings
The Fall

Day by day
The moon gains on me.
Day by day
The moon gains on me.

Purchased pair of flabby wings.

I took to doing some HOVERING.
Here is a list of incorrect things.

HOVERED mid-air outside a study.
An academic kneaded his chin,
sat in the dust of some cheap magazines.
His academic rust could not burn them up.

Recruited some gremlins
To get me clear of the airline routes.
I paid them off with stuffing from my wings.
They had some fun with those cheapo airline snobs.

The stuffing loss made me hit a timelock.
I ended up in the eighteen sixties.
I've been there for one hundred and twenty five years.
A small alteration of the past. Can turn time into space.

Ended up under Ardwick Bridge

With some veterans from the U.S. Civil War.
They were under Irish patronage.
We shot dead a stupid sergeant,
but I got hit in the crossfire.
The lucky hit made me hit a time lock.

But when I got back
The place I made the purchase no longer exists
I'd erased it under the bridge.

Day by day
The moon came towards me.

By such things
The moon came towards me.

So now I sleep in ditches

And hide away from nosy kids.
The wings rot and feather under me.
The wings rot and curl right under me.
A small alteration of the past
Can turn time into space.
Small touches can alter more than a mere decade.

Wings

Wings

Indian Dragons - the Naga

Three from Singapore







Mongolian Dragons














Chinese Dragons










Japanese Dragons

Feelin' kinda.........

Today as I took my bath, I found myself bursting into song:

"People

Who loathe people

Are the cleverest people

In the wooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrllllllllllllllllllld......"

Yup. It's a laugh-a-nanosecond round here, folks.

Last night I dreamed I was sat in a movie theatre, and the lights were still up and the ads were on for so long that I struck up a very long and pleasant conversation with the stranger in the next seat. The stranger was Gabriel Byrne.

We cracked each other up (quietly - we were being civilised) a lot and got along so well we made plans to hang out again together.

The movie itself was so dull I fell asleep! When the lights came back on and I awoke, my head was on Mr Byrne's chest and he'd put an arm round my shoulder. Just very friendly-like; we were being civilised. I apologised for having literally and figuratively fallen asleep on him, but he said it was fine, "You ain't heavy, you're my sistah!" We had a good chuckle over that one, and he said I'd just kept him nice and warm. He told me I'd missed nothing when I fell asleep - he'd been yawning all through the movie himself.

What a great dream.

And thanks for the pic, dear Matt. :)

Oh, cheeky cheeky
Oh, naughty sneaky

I'm getting back to my Goth roots - I'm listening to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor (BWV 565) as played by the godly E. Power Biggs, using Harvard U's sexy old pipe organ.

It gives me goosebumps; its being 15F outside (-9 in new money) is not a factor.

Since it's got so damn cold here, I knew we'd start seeing the local pheasants in our backyard again. Sure enough, one was eating thistle seed with a group of sparrows when I looked out the kitchen window today. :)
There's one downside. We have to look out for them before letting the dogs out, or we - and the pheasant/s! - are bummed when they get chased off. Sometimes they'll just sit on our garage roof, or the neighbo/ur's, and wait for the dogs to go back in, and they fly back down and resume eating.

Ooh! I know I just gotta get outta this place
I can't stand any more of that mechanical grace
Though you say it's only an industrial squeeze
It looks like luxury
And feels like a disease...

- Elvis Costello
Human Touch
from Get Happy!!
1980

Some of these are links, Gentle Categorian.