NOVEMBER 5, 2024

 

THE VICTOR VICTROLA

In the Greek short film "The Village", there is a scene featuring a Victor Victrola.

They were in production from 1901-1929 carrying the famous logo featuring Nipper:

I remember that my Dad's folks had one in an upstairs bedroom and that my cousins and I played records on it. I thought it curious that it was located in a bedroom-did my Slovak grandparents listen to music in bed? Or, was it re-located from the crowded living room downstairs? Funny, the things one remembers from childhood.

 

THE VILLAGE

From 2010, a stop action short by Greek filmmaker Stelios Polychronakis. 

If you are interested in the translation of Greek found in the beginning and the newspaper article, please give me a holler.

FIVE SECOND STORIES

11/1-Happy Samhain! This is a Gaelic festival that marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. 

 

This symbol was often painted or carved on homes and barns to protect from evil spirits and bad luck. It is also known as Bowen Knot, Gorgons Loop and St. John's Arms.

In Mexico, this is the Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead which is celebrated 11/1-11/2. Orange marigolds aka cempasúchil are a key part of the celebration and are considered the flower of the dead. 

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I finally got out and mowed up the leaves in the Back 40 and front. It's been unusually warm and very windy with a forecast of much colder temps and perhaps some rain. These past days meet the criteria of an Indian Summer: a warm and dry period after a hard frost 28° or less.

One of the young forsythia is still blooming:

Sunsets have been glowy:

The Farm Bureau complex to our North.

 The Autumn drought continues with only 2.4" of rain in the past 2 months. Normal is more than twice this amount. Historically, November and December are dry. 

Meanwhile, all our wild neighbors have been busy bulking up for the cold months. My old pals, Stubbs and Freddie have been out and about.

Freddie hiding some treasures.

DHS decided to be rude and dominant the Diner and chased Stubbs up the birch.

Duffy has been a twilight regular at the Diner nearly every evening. Blossom has reappeared and often joins him.

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Fun Stuff:

1950's photo of woman standing next to a Giant Sequoia tree in CA for scale.

 

Hidden in Brussels' historic Cimetière de Laeken is a mausoleum that reveals its secret once a year in a stunning display. Built in 1920 for Léonce Evrard and Louise Flignot, the tomb features a solemn mourner with an arm outstretched toward a blank wall. On June 21, the Summer Solstice, the mausoleum's magic unfolds. At noon, sunlight creates a heart-shaped beam that appears above the mourner’s hand, as if reaching for this glowing symbol of love. This brief yet captivating moment has drawn visitors for decades, symbolizing eternal love.

Pamukkale, located in southwestern Turkey, is one of the country’s most stunning natural attractions. It is known for its unique travertine terraces and ancient calcium-rich thermal pool. 

Marble sculpture by Greek artist Argires Rallis.

 

10th Century Viking skates made of leather and horse bones.

Sir David Attenborough next to femur from a Titanosaur who lived in the Cretaceous period (145-66 million years ago) and were around during the last extinction event.

The colors of petrified wood:

The Shell Grotto of Margate, UK

Located in a cave, it was discovered in 1835 by a farmer in the county of Kent and is believed to contain 4.6 million shells.

Who created the Grotto is unknown with theories including the Knights Templar, the Phoenicians, the Romans and sea witchcraft.

Predjama castle, Slovenia:

A Renaissance era castle built at the mouth of a cave. As seen at night:

The first human to float in space without tether to spacecraft:

NASA

February 7, 1984, Captain Bruce McCandless II USN, left the Space Shuttle Challenger for 82 minutes.

Unusual horns of Kuri cattle:

From Wiki: The Kuri is a breed of the humpless longhorn group of cattle. The humpless longhorn grouping relates them to the N'dama  cattle. They are used for meat, milk and work. They are intolerant of heat, sunlight, and can not stand long periods of drought. They are good swimmers and spend much of their time in Lake Chad located at the junction of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. 

 

Lesser blind mole-rat aka Spalax found in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey and Ukraine:

Gouldian Finch chicks:

They have luminous nodules called papillae on the sides of their beaks and markings on the inside of their mouths. They act as a sort of “beacon” to direct the parents to the hungry mouths of their chicks in dark nest cavities. 

The Spiny Flower Mantis native to southern and eastern Africa with fabulous camo:

Orchid Forest walk in Cikole, Indonesia:

Environmental murals by Brazilian Street Artist Fábio Gomes Trindade:

 

Street architecture in Barcelona, Spain:

The purple house in Sirmione, Italy on Lake Garda with a giant bougainvillea:

Oddities

Who knew? A national study found that Idaho drinks more wine per capita than any other state. 

Hellish concept: a ball of tongues. Also, see below.

Relic of the post-Clinton presidency-from 2007. A must have in any conservative's kitchen. Bill, who can't keep his pants zipped:

 

And his ballbusting wife:

This is wayyyy out there-the Licki:

Want to relate to your kitty in a very personal way? Buy the Licki-a human tongue prosthetic to mimic your furball's licking obsession and truly make it feel loved.  $14.99 on Amazon where it is known as the Lick'em Tongue. Uhhh, I'll pass.

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One has to wonder about male actors who are part of violent franchises where they kill a lot of people-how do they deal with this in their personal lives? Are they able to just switch those memories off? They must have flashbacks throughout the day and how do they sleep? Charles Bronson, Tom Cruise, Jason Statham, Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson to name a few.

 

FIVE SECOND STORIES

 Saturday late afternoon 10/26:

Freddie found the peanut butter jar I put out at the Diner:

A late molting Redbird-at first I thought it was a female. Usually, they molt August/September-I bet he's freezing:

Senor Junco stopped by: 

Big Woody flew back and forth from Father Birch to the feeder-I've noticed a major uptick in seed consumption this week. Winter is coming.

 Another Redbird:

Shadows: 

 Our big Burning Bush starting to show color on top:

Inside with a nice fire going, Bud with a new feature in celebration of Halloween-a ceramic jack-o'-lantern. We've carved jacks throughout our marriage but jacks generally last only three days before they decay and mold. I thought it would be nice to have one to extend the celebration. Fittingly, it incorporates a witchy black cat as we are a feline-centered household as well as a shout-out to our late pal Bin.

Bud's first encounter was to jump up on the table, give the jack a couple of sniffs and then mosey over to the window to view the Back 40. Ok! We have DHS approval!

A cool feature is a crescent moon and star are carved into the hat. The light shining through projects a number of crescent shapes on the ceiling.

We're re-watching The Good Place which came out prepandemic. It's a curious show about the quandaries of ethical and moral philosophy as a group of dead people try to prove that they have led good enough lives to go to "The Good Place". Problem is that they are trying to do this while in The Bad Place, constantly being harassed by demons and the insanely byzantine bureaucracies in both the Good and Bad Place. It seemed fitting in the current situations we find in our world.

Ahhh, receiving premium belly rubs from Mum near the hearth.

10/27-morning low of 28°.

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Somethings things transcend species when it comes to couples-In the dog house on the savannah:

 

Where have you been? I've been stuck here all day with your children and finally you wander back because you were "on patrol to protect us". No you haven't, you've been at Harry's pub-I can smell it on your breath! You're sleeping out in the bush tonight, pal. And no, there is no supper. Your children ate all it up. Maybe there's some bones left to gnaw on. I really don't care. Why don't you get off your fat, furry ass and catch something and don't you dare tell me that it's my job.

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Major corporate jackasses: 

Seen while out and about: Tesla Cybertruck. All electric starting at $82,000. For me, this is an ugly tank. Coming from Muskrat, it's an absurd expression of manliness-no feminine elegance and curves here-all sharp corners and tough.

And another rich bastard and like most, a fucking coward:

My feeling is that he met with the actuaries who ran the numbers and presented two scenarios: a) he endorses Harris and pisses Roach off. "He can make your business life very difficult" was the conclusion. b) he endorses Roach or no one at all and becomes a social pariah to friends, family, employees, colleagues from the extreme blowback of betraying his newspaper's tagline "democracy dies in darkness". He chose (b)-to protect his investments, grandiose space plans and continue to make money even though he has more money than the deity who exists in theory (but not as much as Muskrat). 

Now in fairness, Bezos clashed with Roach on a number of occasions during his 1.0 term and considering that one of the advertised features of 2.0 is vicious retribution to anyone opposing him, certainly was on his mind. It shows Roach's power to intimidate and emasculate.

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I've been watching the 1967 series "The Prisoner" starring Patrick McGoohan. In episode 2, many aspects of The Village of life under authoritarian/prison rule are revealed: no names-you're a number, everyone dresses the same (although rather natty after all, they're British!), everyone is under constant surveillance-in their residences, out and about. Also, every residence has a radio which blares constantly-wakey, wakey every friggin' morning. I wondered who started this and found it was the Nazis. They were determined to push propaganda to the masses and began manufacturing basic and affordable radios called Volksempfänger (people's receiver) in 1933. Communist nations picked up on this idea-Russia, China, N. Korea, Vietnam. George Orwell extended this concept in 1984 with the ubiquitous telescreens featuring Big Brother.

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The work of Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde "Nimbus":

How the artist creates clouds inside buildings:

 

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Welp, I never caught sight of Comet A3 despite clear skies for several nights. Sigh.

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Fun Vids:

Mola mola or ocean sunfish:

Goats with pool noodles on their horns to protect others when they get too rambunctious:

Trippy Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction: 

Blowing soap bubbles in extreme cold:

Mangalitsa pigs:

Utah waterfall flowing in reverse due to high winds:

Orca putting out bait to catch birds:

The Unity Portal Network-meet people in another country in real time:

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