Today is Saint Barbara’s feast day. Draw near and sit with me, for today’s telling of the lives of the saints. There will be miracles.
(#1) St. Barbara as envisioned by sculptor Corrado Parducci at St. Barbara’s Church in Dearborn MI
Archive for December, 2018
Santa Barbara: smite him with lightning
December 4, 2018A Picardy morning
December 4, 2018Yesterday’s morning name was Picardy, no doubt because the song “Roses of Picardy” played on my iTunes while I was sleeping (as I discovered when I got up). This will eventually take us from northern France in the Great War to the Ireland of “Danny Boy”.
Wok it to the golden Lab for analysis, har-de-har-har
December 3, 20183 x 3: three cartoons of linguistic interest for the 3rd of December: a Dave Blazek Loose Parts with merged phonemes; a Wayno/Piraro Bizarro with an ambiguity; and a Zits with an onomatopoeia.
Note: the insect apocalypse
December 2, 2018In today’s NYT Magazine (on-line on 11/27), “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here: What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?” by Brooke Jarvis: an alarming tale of scientists tracking huge declines in the insects in our environment: in raw amount of biomass, in numbers of species, in numbers of individuals in particular species.
(#1) The dramatic cover for the magazine
This is a note on the N + N compound insect apocalypse.
Annals of everyday objects: the garlic press
December 2, 2018In a continuing series about (mostly useful) everyday objects, back to the kitchen, where today I needed some fresh garlic for an Indian dish of brown rice, dal, and vegetable bits with curry spices (a Penzey’s “balti mix”), so I resorted to the household’s (aluminum) garlic press.
Nur in der Schweiz
December 2, 2018A report from Amanda Walker, one of our corresondents in Zürich, with news of a seasonal product promotion at McDonald’s. It’s gooey cheese time again!
(#1) “Der McRaclette ist zurück … Das gibt’s auch nur in der Schweiz”
It’s back, and available only in Switzerland.
A morning in the Blue Period
December 2, 2018That morning was 10/29, and the morning name then was Paloma Picasso: an alliterative double amphibrach. Bringing with it an allusion to her fashionable clothes and accessories, and to her father’s paintings.
Bobby Pyron
December 1, 2018(There will be frank discussions of men’s bodies and accounts in street language of mansex, so probably not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)
Among the many reflections, exhortations, reminiscences, elegies, and tributes for World AIDS Day, today, one from Mike Thomas about three people who died of complications of AIDS who had been important in his life: among them a mutual friend, Howard Faye, who I wrote about in a 12/30/16 posting “Howard at 57”; and Bobby Pyron, someone I didn’t know personally but appreciated as the porn star Lee Ryder.
I’ve written twice about Ryder on AZBlogX — details below — and knew only a little about Pyron (his passion in life was flower arranging, and he was said to be self-composed, unassuming, and a really nice guy), but Mike pointed me to an obit for him (preserved on the AIDS Memorial Facebook page) that filled in many details.
A seasonal groaner
December 1, 2018A terrible Xmas pun committed by Scott Hilburn in a 12/23/13 cartoon (hat tip to Mike Reaser):
(No ‘L’ – Noel)
I figure this is fair game, since tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent, putting us into the religious Christmas season broadly understood. (Then Wednesday is Krampusnacht, and Thursday is St. Nicholas Day).