The setting: this Søciety6 Penguin Snuggles design by KiraKiraDoodles on a bathroom shower curtain (71″ by 74″) — found for me by Kim Darnell:
(#1) The fancifully named designer KiraKiraDoodles (whose actual identity I do not know): “I like cute stuff so I make cute stuff” — in this case, really cute rainbow penguins
An assemblage of recent appreciative gifts, mostly collected in this photo:
(#1) Objects of appreciation (in front of a wall mostly devoted to William Haefeli gay-themed cartoons from the New Yorker)
I do not disguise the fact that this photo is in part a demonstration of my mastering (slowly but successfully) yet another skill in posting to my blog: taking photos with my iPad, sending them to my Stanford account, and editing them there for publication. (As an example of the photographer’s art, it’s not much, but the point is that I can do it at all.)
In very difficult times — my list of physical afflictions has expanded considerably (you don’t really want to hear the details), leaving me little time in the day to write postings on my blog — friends and family have given me presents to comfort me. Three recently (with an advance notice of a fourth to come in the mail in a surprise package).
The fourth installment in the story of my 80th birthday. The core of the story:
The day itself was quiet but pleasant (though I refused to go out of the house for any purpose, since it was a goddamn oven out there). Kim Darnell brought me a large assortment of salmon-based sushi, plus a collection of tartlets, mostly with fruit — enough for two substantial meals, the second of which was my breakfast today. Mostly I spent yesterday responding to birthday wishes, of which there were many hundreds. I know an awful lot of people.
A surprising development was that for this birthday I got not one, but three (different) Jacquie Lawson ecards (charming brief animations developing a scene or story, accompanied by music, usually classical music). Details below.
They are the (rainbow) penguins on a face mask from the Monterey Bay Aquarium — a gift to me from Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky, brought to me this morning by Opal Armstrong Zwicky (providing me with, oh fabulous delight, an actual visit from my grand-daughter, in my own house, where we could chat at length before she goes back to some version of her senior year in high school in western Massachusetts):
(#1)
From Facebook friends, hot herpetological news. From Reptiles magazine, the story “Rainbow Snake Seen In Florida’s Ocala National Forest For First Time Since 1969” by John Virata on 2/20/20:
quoting from a Fish and Wildlife Research Institute posting from 2/19:
A Rare Sighting! Tracey Cauthen recently reported stumbling upon a ~4 ft Rainbow Snake, Farancia erytrogramma, while hiking in the Ocala National Forest.
Recently posted on Facebook, this melding of the traditions of Judaism with the traditions of Jedi-ism for the holiday season, in French:
(#1) ‘May the light be with you’: the Jedi Master Yoda wields a lightsword menorah for Hanukkah (Fr. Hanoucca) — Happy Hanukkah! (Joyeuse fête de Hanoucca!)
The logo appeared last spring, but it’s especially appropriate for the Day of the Dead, yesterday:
(#1) Gaysper (as he was quickly dubbed), the gay ghost: a Casperesque wraith in rainbow
(Penguins and art, no linguistic content to speak of.)
On the Plain of Teak at Ramona St., the presiding penguin, La Púrpura, greets the newest resident, Pingüino Gaudí:
(#1)
