Dog Heroes!!

We were celebrating Cynthia’s birthday on Saturday with a spirited round of drinking and board games. Cynthia and Steffi hosted and around 1:30 we were spent from Apples to Apples (featuring a truly awesome argument why “Screeching” was the only possible choice for “Natural” by Megan) so Gabe, Megan, Matt, Ginny, Robin, Knut and I headed out the door in a big herd.

Outside, about a half a block from the apartment, we saw a man sitting on the curb and a black labrador wandering on the street. We just assumed the guy owned the dog, but he asked us if we knew her and explained she was blind. He was outside half a hour previous and saw her and now he was nervous.

The dog didn’t look too old and she was plump and silky despite a few bare patches, but there was clearly something wrong with her. She did not have a collar. She was wandering aimlessly in a little circle in the middle of the street, shying at shadows and manhole covers. The guy, Kirk, explained that he has called animal control, but they wouldn’t be in until seven the next morning. What could we do with her in the mean time?

She was a sweet dog. She gratefully accepted our petting and sat politely on the pavement when asked. While we petted her, Gabe got out her phone and rang Cynthia. Cynthia gamely agreed to let the dog stay in her backyard until animal control could pick her up. Now we just had to get a sweet blind dog to walk up the street, into an alley, and into a strange backyard.

Matt walked with her, holding a hand on each side of her body to guide her. The rest of us walked on all sides to help steer her and encouraged her with whistles and frequent exclamations of “Good Girl!” We got her into the tiny backyard and went home—where we promptly worried about her all night. We were afraid someone had taken off her collar and dumped her in a nice neighborhood.

Then on Sunday, I received these emails:

From Cynthia:

so in case any of you are curious as to what happened to our canine
friend -- as luck would have it, she's actually back with her owner!

apparently she belongs to one of my neighbors, who heard her barking in
the middle of the night. he had been looking for her and was worried
(apparently she just went blind two days ago), and thought the barking
sounded familiar so he followed the sound to my backyard, hopped the
fence, and took her home (probably just a couple of hours after we put
her there). luckily i had left a note to the other tenants in my
building which included my name and phone number, so he was able to call
me this morning to let me know what happened. i'm glad i was still
asleep when he called -- i would have been really perplexed if i'd woken
up and found that she wasn't there. anyway, he sounded like a nice guy
and said he really appreciated us having kept watch over her.

sadly, due to a mixture of grogginess and surprise, it didn't occur to
me to ask him the dog's name until after i'd hung up the phone. but
it's nice to know there's a happy ending to the story. thanks for
spearheading the rescue mission! i'm really glad everything worked out
the way it did.

And then this one from Kirk:

Hi all.

Thank you SO much for your compassionate assistance with the dog last night. In a bizarre twist, it turns out I know the dog and her owner, though the dog was unrecognizable to me last night. Last I'd seen her, she was in perfect health, ten pounds lighter, fully sighted, and totally sprightly ... so I couldn't imagine that we were dealing with the same dog last night.

Her name is Shadow, and she's only six years old, but due to illness she's gone blind and aged a great deal in the last month and a half. I visited her owner today, and she's back in their care. Her owner is incredibly attentive to her, so she'll get great care, but without the small team we had last night, I'm pretty sure things would have gone a great deal worse. [Her owner] was overjoyed that we had all taken time out to bring Shadow in, and out of harm's way.

Cynthia, thanks so much for putting Shadow up for the night. Apparently she heard her owner's car and barked, and they heard her and took it from there.

So here’s my appreciation to the Dog Heroes: Cynthia, Matt, Gabe, Robin, Megan, Ginny, and Kirk!

Super Chef, Super Spy!

This news story seriously had me pumping my fist. How cool is it that Julia Child worked for the OSS?

I think most people find this era of spying the most exciting. It seems a bit more gentlemanly that the Cold War and the backdrop is too glamourous.

In any event, I’d always admired Julia Child. Cooking on television is a risky proposition, but her charisma and humor always made her so entertaining. I particularly enjoyed some of her more practical suggestions like that no one knows what happens in the kitchen, so if you drop something just pick it up and wash it off. It’s a nice departure from the slightly paranoid views expressed on Food Network these days. Remember, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger… unless it irreversibly weakens us to the point where something else kills us.

This reminds me too of one of my favorite novels, Shining Through. PLEASE don’t confuse the novel with the film dreck of the same name. The novel is witty, exciting, touching, funny, and very well researched. Linda, our heroine, is a real person and her actions are not always so heroic. Really really great. Compare the climaxes:

The book: Linda (a Queens stenographer turned spy) has been discovered in Berlin. She has found the mole in the operation and made the decision to kill her, only after being wounded herself. She is saved by Edward, her former boss, a New York laywer and WWI hero, who speaks no German. He is posed as a Nazi General (in the hopes that such an important rank will not cause people to question him) whose war wounds prevent him from speaking. Linda poses as his mistress going to Switzerland to get an abortion. The final border guard recognizes something is wrong with the papers, but is muffled by the sight of Edward’s scars, manner, and a huge wad of Swiss francs. The guard smilingly ushers them to freedom. It’s tense and funny and real feeling.

The movie: Linda (Melanie Griffith who was only good in Body Double (although I think that was more about casting than acting) and has gross wormy glossy red lips) and Edward (Michael Douglas… eh.) stagger across the border to Switzerland with Nazis shooting at them. When they cross the invisible line (which isn’t invisible) the Germans magically stop shooting them. Because the Nazis were all about respecting boundery lines. Linda then reveals that the microfilm (yes, microfilm. This is not in the novel) was hidden in her glove because she “knew that it would be discovered if I was examined by a doctor, but not by the SS.” Indeed. If I were looking for microfilm on a dead body, I expect that not only would I remove all clothing, I would probably search all body cavities. Perhaps this is my German efficiency speaking?

Ugh. It’s so awful when they destroy a novel you love in a lame film version. Anyway, I heartily recommend the book.

A Work Day Fantasy

I’m not having a particularly nice day at work today, so I think I’ll lapse into a Walter Mitty style fantasy for a moment. Where would I like to be…

There is a beach in Hong Kong, not far from the worlds largest seated Buddha (not to be confused with the world’s largest reclining Buddha which is in Bangkok).

And on this beach, there is a pretty outdoor restaurant where the tables are set in the sand under a canopy. The sand is a little gritty and gray white.

The restaurant is owned by Ex Pats, so they serve bread to start with. We order seed bread packed with poppy and sesame seeds. We order Sangria. It’s clear red wine served in a small round wine glass, garnished with a stick of cinnamon and a slice of green apple.

We kick our shoes off and our toes dig like hermit crabs into the sand. We sip the sangria and nibble seed bread while the sun floats just above the horizon.

We spot another table beneath the red striped canopy. They are Englishmen dressed in traditional Indian white cotton outfits. We sneer a bit as we admire our seersucker and sundresses. The Englishmen have ordered many bottles of wine, but their inebriation is wholly cheerful.

We order grilled shrimp and crabs steamed with garlic. This is some of the freshest sea food in the world. We lick our buttered fingers and smile as the sun fades and pretty strings of miniature lanterns glow above our heads.

There’s still a bit of light so we leave our shoes under the table and take a a stroll along the tiny beach. A few children make grainy sandcastles but our attention is caught by something else. A feral cow stands on the shore, briny water lapping at its hooves. It’s furry and rather small. It wears no brand or ear tag. It will not let us touch it but is not bothered by our presence. The children jump up and we join them in chasing the cow down the beach. The cow jogs lazily along, clearly not too bothered by the game.

The sun goes on to warm the other side of the world and leaves us, the cow, and the children with only the glow of the party lights and the stars.

The Puppet Bike!

Knut and I were going to the Kriskintel Market in Daley plaza Christmas of 2006 and we were instantly smitten.

We met the Puppet Bike.

I am a huge Puppet Bike Fan.

The Puppet Bike is a tiny puppet theater mounted to the back of a bicycle that weeds its way around Chicago delighting many and mystifying a few. It’s a brightly painted box just large enough for one person to stand inside with a tiny stage at eye level. There two frolicking hand puppets dance their way through blue grass, swing, or old favorites. They don’t speak, just dance. Their trademark is when the two puppets join paws and twirl forwards and then backwards.

So far I have seen a sweet little bunny, two tigers, a cat, a bear, and a monkey. If you show your appreciation for the dancing animals by putting a dollar in the little tip box on the front, a puppet will pop out of a side slit and wave enthusiastically. I highly recommend tipping such a great (but tiny) institution.

The Puppet Bike usually hangs around the Loop in all kinds of weather. I’ve mostly seen it on Lake or Michigan Avenue and if you want to take a photo with the bike, the puppets will gladly pose with you.

See The Puppet Bike Perform!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcPgTxbPdGQ

The Joys of Fireworks

Since it’s the 4^th of July tomorrow, I was thinking about the fun we used to have when we’d go to 7-11 to buy Snap Caps, Smoke Bombs, Snakes, and Witch Whistles. They started selling small fireworks like that in mid June and it was a time of excitement! My brothers kindly always bought me some of the girly fireworks like poppers and sparklers too. I love this Black Cat logo, but we never had that kind of fire power until we were adults.

The Smoke Bombs could be set off anywhere it was amusing to have a cloud of green smelly smoke. I do recall that you couldn’t throw them because they were made of something like pressed sawdust and would disintegrate upon impact. And it was hard to relight the pieces.

Snap caps were generally reserved for stomping on in the driveway, but we did occasionally put them under the tires of the neighbor’s cars. They never noticed. You could also pop ‘em between your fingers, which hurt a bit but was totally worth it to see other kids’ expressions. The really brave kids (I think Jamie did this) would pop snap caps with their teeth, which is probably not a hugely clever idea.

Snakes are interesting. They were these little black tablets and when you touched a lighted match to a side long coils of stinky black ash would push forth, looking appropriately like snakes. You got maybe 18 inches of ash from a tablet the size of antacid. They were pretty cool and left permanent char marks on the front steps.

The Witch Whistles were the most memorable. They were these orange waxy tiny rockets, about the size of a golf pencil, and when they flew off they emitted a high pitched screech that was highly appreciated by the adults in the neighborhood. We would set them off in the alley and every so often they’d backfire and we’d go tumbling out of the way. Good times! Once in a while we’d try experiments with them like, could you tie one to a popper and have it pull the string? They never worked, but we were all very good in high school Physics.

Sparklers were just for pretty, mostly, and running around with after dark.

That was fun. Knut and I checked and they don’t sell any of those things any more, not even Sparklers. In fact, the Park Ridge Fire Department sign now reads “Protect your family and friends by avoiding fireworks and sparklers.” You know, in case you stick one in your eye or something.

I think that’s sort of sad. I mean, I suppose we could have gotten burns or cause minor property damage, but it was so interesting! You got to experiment with something and cut it apart to see how it works and learned what it could do.

I feel a little bad for today’s kids. Many of the parents I know are scared to let them out of the house or do anything even a tiny bit dangerous. They probably don’t have much alternative to video games or tv.

Single Lucha Libre Mask Necklaces

Loyal fans of this blog may remember these cute little luchador masks from my Shrinky Dink Ruler tutorial. I made them waaaay too big to have five on a necklace.

I originally toyed with the idea of making them into magnets but I thought a single layer probably wasn’t strong enough to deal with the day to day realities of being on a fridge. I didn’t want to just get rid of them because they’re quite nicely done. What to do.

I can’t think why it took me so long to remember Lauren’s suggestion that I make necklaces with one single mask. Here they are! A single mask on a ball chain necklace. They’re very attractive and tough at the same time. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so because I sold Blue Demon last night! I’m sort of hoping Aztec Skull doesn’t sell because I want to keep that one, but etsy is all about clearing your toy collection so you can make more toys!

Since all of them besides Blue Demon and Santo are original designs, I had to make up names for them (hence “Aztec Skull”). I decided not to go Spanish with the names for two excellent reasons: I know roughly 10 words in Spanish (half of them involve counting to 5) and I figure the majority of the etsy audience is in the same boat. Maybe 20 years from now my little Aztec Skull will be repeatedly bootlegged and I’ll see a real one in the ring. Heck, they did it with UltraMan.

Up for Sale! $4 per Necklace!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12740317

Krauss Plant Music

We saw Alison Krauss and Robert Plant last night, which was very cool. I particularly like Alison Krauss, she has such a sweet voice and I’m partial to old fashioned country music (as opposed to new fangled country. Think Johnny Cash vs. Garth Brooks. I’m not crazy about cowboy hats or pick up trucks either).

I do like some Led Zeppelin songs, but I’m not hard core. They’re firmly in the realm of “boy music” along with Pink Floyd. For the record, No! I will not get drunk in your dorm room and watch The Wall! I refuse! I like intellectually interesting music. Either witty lyrics or complex mixes of sound. I quite admire “Wall of Sound” technique and the use of unusual instruments in music, like timpani in “Da Do Ron Ron” or African chant in Paul Simon’s Graceland album. It just tickles me. I like to be surprised.

This has led me down the path to stuff like Senor Coconut performing Kraftwerk songs with Latin sound or Brazilian jazz interpretations of Christmas carols or Japanese pop music that just twists Western styles in a whole new way. Or even The Who or Roy Orbison who tell stories in their song quite different from the usual “Oooo… Baby… Oooo…” kind of stuff.

The opposite side of this is that Cat Steven’s lyrics make me want to bang my head against a wall.

Anyway, this concert merged the rock and the country in an interesting way. They took Zeppelin songs and slowed them down and added fiddles, bass, and more melodic country vocals. Then they’d take classic country and zip it up with heavy bass or drums. A great sound and a fun night. Too bad it was so cold, though! I’m still chilly.

Cubbies!

We went to the Cubs game last week. Cubs vs. Dodgers. It was a pretty tense low scoring game, but the Cubbies managed to win in the 10th inning. Go Cubs!

Knut, surprisingly, seems to be the cure for the Billy Goat Curse. He’s never been at a game where the Cubs haven’t won. Unfortunately, no one’s offered to pay him for this service, but we have high hopes. Personally I find it too difficult when the Cubs do well. Last year, they threatened to get into the World Series and they’re famous for not having won since 1908. On one hand, I love the Cubbies and want them to do well. On the other hand, I think it’s awesome that a team with their record still sells out all the time. That’s devotion!

For you southsiders, here’s

The Legend of the Billy Goat Curse

The Cubs were in the World Series again in 1945. During the game 4, Billy Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern (made even more famous by the John Belushi SNL skit featuring “CHEESEBOOGER CHEESEBOOGER NO FRIES CHIPS!”), bought two box seats. One was for him; the other was for his goat.

However, goats tend to smell pretty bad, even those who have box seats, and the management insisted that the goat leave.

Billy paraded the goat around a few times, but he was angry that his beloved mascot was so insulted.

As he and the goat left the field, he cast the curse, “"the Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more."

And they haven’t been back to the World Series since.

Mysterious, isn’t it? The Cubs are a very old team and Wrigley field has an old fashioned picnic-like atmosphere adored by the Northsiders.

The mascot is, of course, the Cubbie Bear! There have been many incarnations of him, including this rather peculiar hat I’m wearing. In shape, it’s much more like the 1910s style, but the bear looks more like the 1960s Cubbie Bear. The inside is marked “Cooperstown Classic” but I can’t think when it’s from. Last year, a hot dog vendor and I had quite a long discussion about it.

Check out the guys behind us in this photo! Great old school fans. They gave the best running commentary during the game and hooted and booed appropriately. The older guy was going into the hospital the next day for gout surgery. Hope he’s okay! Knut told him it was the disease of nobility!

Go Cubs!

Superdawg!!

Today is a frustrating work Monday, so I’m going to take a page from Maria Von Trapp and focus on one of my favorite things… or, possibly, one of my worshipping sites.

Welcome to Superdawg!! Thanks for Stopping!

Superdawg is an awesome drive in restaurant here in Chicago. It opened in 1948 and is still run by the same couple. In fact, the gigantic smiley wieners (they are SUPERDAWGS!) on the roof are named Maurie and Flaurie after there owners. It’s very sweet, you see Maurie and Flaurie (the humans) out working the register or checking on the pickled tomatillos, usually while wearing a Superdawg jacket.

Mind you, I would love Superdawg for the architecture alone (which looks wonderful these days. It was a little run down when I was a kid), but it doesn’t hurt that it has terrific food. They specialize in hot dogs, hamburgers, milkshakes, and other favorites. Each hotdog or hamburger is nestled in a bed of crinkle cut fries along with a dill spear and a pickled tomatillo.

The hotdogs are terrific, but the Superburger is only rivaled by Schultz’s steak sandwich in Sheboygan, WI. It’s lovely and juicy and comes topped with mustard, onions, and brilliant green pickle bits genuinely referred to as “radioactive relish.”

Each dawg or burger comes in a specially printed box emblazoned with hilarious sayings like “Thank you from the bottom of my pure beef heart” and the Superdawgs in pin up poses.

As you can imagine, it is very popular and has been featured many times in food and Americana documentaries. The best thing is that you don’t have to leave Superdawg alone. You can grab a t-shirt, magnets, plush figures, and a host of other things.

If you’re despairing because you live too far away to visit Superdawg, don’t worry. They have a little online store with some of the souvenirs. You can also read testimonials of other devoted fans.

Maria was right! I do feel better!

Top Secret Activities— REVEALED!! Part 2

Our second big secret was our gift to Eli.

Not much music is exported from Norway EXCEPT Death Metal.

Norway, with its grassy mountains, glittering fjords, and fuzzy adorable sheep is home to a surprising amount of death metal bands. These bands combine dark lyrics and heavy metal thrashing with naturally rosy cheeks and Moms who cheerfully make potato dumplings on Thursdays. They occasionally burn down churches. The musicians, not the cheerful Moms.

Eli, who loves Death Metal, proudly proclaimed Knut a Death Metal Norwegian despite Knut’s record collection leaning heavily towards Bananarama and Howard Jones. When we told him Magnus was a family name and we had thought of naming a son “Magnus Graabein” (“graabein” is an old word for “wolf”), Eli decided Magnus would be a death metal prodigy and he would be Magnus’s manager and godfather.

Fine with us!

So for Eli’s birthday Knut and I conspired to make him a t-shirt for Magnus’s fake band, MidgardsOrm. The Midgardsorm is the Norse mythological serpent that swallows its own tail and it encircles the world.

Knut began by taking cell phone photos of himself in the position in which he wanted Magnus. Then, using those as a reference, he drew the center image in pencil. After the pencil sketch was done, he went over it in ink and erased the pencil. Knut chose to draw him in a skinny goth teenager style and included the broken string guitar and Odin’s pet ravens. Interestingly, Magnus quite resembles him.

Then I scanned the drawing and added the text. The serpent that makes the “o” is itself is taken from an old Viking manuscript. We chose to have that be the only color and for Magnus to be in front of his own name and behind the band’s name. I added drop shadows to the text, and the little “Eli Martinez Productions” blurb at the bottom. That little bit is white on black because the whole image was printed on a black t-shirt and that little line of text needed to be subtle.

Pictures of the shirt itself are soon to come!

A Dazed Ramble About Clip Art

Wow, am I tired.

I need some chemical help. Ahhh, coffee. Teacher, mother, secret lover.

Actually I’m doing a decadent yet legal combination of Coffee, Coke, and Eli’s mom’s homemade tortillas. Breakfast of Boggle Champions! I may just live through the workday.

We had a serious fun overload this weekend. It combined our wedding anniversary, a visit from our engineeringly gifted friends Kjelli and Branwyn (darn! We should have built a rocket!), Eli the Magnificent’s 31^st birthday party, and Norwegian Independence Day. There was a lot of zoo visiting, dog swimming, and pancake eating in there too. Since my weary bones have yet to upload any photos and I’m clearly too tired to write anything clever, I’ll save the details until later this week.

I really do wonder about the people who make the clip art for Microsoft Office. I am a confirmed Mac User so I’ve only very recently experienced this. Look at these charming retro coffee guys. Aren’t they darling? Aren’t we privileged to be able to use these cuties in our emails and documents? All for a deliciously free price (although frankly, I think the fact that you have to buy Office even though you bought a new PC is appalling.)!

What is so interesting is that the artist is completely uncredited, at least anywhere I can find. I wonder how much the artist received. Frankly, a lot of the clip art is crummy 1980s style faceless people, but these are charming. I would totally wear a t-shirt with these guys. Neat-o!

If you’d like to add to your collection (Free! Virtual! Free!) check it out here. Oddly, you can’t really search by style. I think these are under “fantasy” but not all of them in the same series are under that heading. A little treasure hunt.

"Bloody Ham Fountain" is Too Awful a Pun

Grrr… I’m annoyed!! So annoyed I could turn this fountain to BLOOD!!

Okay, so I don’t have that kind of power.

Last night Knut and I took an impromptu drive downtown yesterday. Chicago is as beautiful as always.

There was a jam on Wabash and Washington. I was hoping it might be filming for Johnny Depp’s Dillinger movie, but alas it was just building construction, although it was pretty cool watching the giant cranes lift girders.

As we drove between the weaponless Indians, we saw the tableau before us. Buckingham Fountain (if you’re an out of towner but still feel you recognize it, it’s the fountain in the Married With Children intro) was lit up a brilliant red. We decided to take a little stroll around it.

It is a beautiful Art Nouveau fountain with big muscular seahorses that spit jets of water. The red lights were surprisingly ungory in person. They actually appeared jewel-like and really highlighted the strong lines of the decoration. Lovely!

We weren’t the only ones there. At some point, Knut and I argued about whether we were smelling skunk or Otto’s jacket, so recreation of some kind was clearly taking place. It’s a very romantic spot at night. It’s a shame I’m not trying to seduce anybody (besides Knut) because I know all the good spots now.

And to think we could have been home watching tv!

Urban Legends!

I woke up this morning and thought it was Friday. Then I thought it was Thursday. Now it turns out it’s Wednesday! Curse it!

Anyway, my evenings have been very busy doing some pretty cool stuff for someone of undisclosed gender who frequently reads this blog, so I can’t discuss that either.

I made a new set of bottle cap pies on Monday night (While I watched Bones! Yeah!) and I really intended them to be for my cousin Gretchen. However, less than an hour after I put them up on Etsy, they were sold to someone else. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Gretchen will get her own set personally delivered.

Now, time for Snopes! Snopes is a great website devoted to Urban Legends. I can’t imagine how hard the web keepers must work to keep it going because it’s always full of new legends and rumors. It’s a terrific resource when you get those constant forwarded emails filled with dubious information.

I love reading Jan Harald Brunvand’s urban legend books, but whereas he can really only deal with classic urban legends like the Spider Nest in the Beehive, Snopes stays up to the minute.

If there’s an article on Barrack Obama NOT being Muslim, I know a few people in the office who ought to read it.

One of their nicest features is the photo gallery.

How about a test? Which of these photos are real?

Click the link below to find out! Links go to the relevant Snopes.com page

True or False? Click to Find Out!

True or False? Click to Find Out!

True or False? Click to Find Out!

True or False? Click to Find out!

The Legend of the American Science Center

Snazzy hat, eh? I kind of wish I had bought it now.

This fab chapeau is only one item available at American Science and Surplus! I guess they have a website, but I’ve only ever gone to the store. This last week I had a shopping list of 1mm glass balls, water syringes, empty jars, and a few other things. Last Halloween, Knut bought me a gorgeous little bat skeleton there. At the moment, it’s in a little mini mall and geared towards the trendy geek. Ahh… but when I was a lass it was different…

It used to be called The American Science Center and before that it was something like Genco? Anyway, it occupied a strange building in an industrial area with only a small sign to lead you into the Ali Baba cave of nerdy wonders within.

It was a big square room with a row of glass cases marking the staff area at the front and aisles of goodies. These were roughly divided into silly stuff and evil robot building supplies by a display of telescopes. The serious stuff was mostly things like alligator clips, mercury switches, motors, cables, etc. The silly side had pretty much everything else: old glove molds, laminated animals for dissection, tiny rubber pigs, the top half of Jabba the Hutt dolls, jars, rabbit pelts, plastic organizers, magnets, and spools of mylar. Each item was in its own bin with an amusing card stating the name, price, and usually a bad pun. In the glass cases were optical illusion kits, real anatomical specimens, vintage gas masks, and sea monkeys. This was an excellent place to buy both wall-y-walkers and replacement rotary phone cords (turquoise only). Various doodads hung from the ceiling or were pinned to the walls.

I was pretty much the only child in there at the time and now it’s more geared towards science projects, but they seem to be doing well. It’s pretty darned neat.

Yesterland!

Gosh! I never suspected I would create a miniature pie frenzy! I’d better get to work on those.

But, I’d like to introduce you to a site that I just love: Yesterland.

Yesterland is a virtual theme park that contains all of the now demolished or refurbished Disney attractions. Werner Weiss does a wonderful job collecting photos and writing amusing commentary on each attraction.

Check out this awesome menu from the long gone Tahitian Terrace:

Or you missed your chance to visit the orignal Submarine Voyage?


Or my most favorite of all, Dressing for Disneyland in the 1950s!

Can you even imagine what it was like to go to a theme park and see ladies in dresses and men in tailored trousers? I actually can’t and I have a darned good imagination!

It's Idnight and the Oon is Full...

I’m having a (not unusually) crummy day at work today and the weather’s dreary so I’m a little glum.

But I hate to blog about that kind of stuff because it’s usually intensely boring to read.

So, why not talk about something I really like? Like “M!”

M is a great Norwegian comic strip by Mads Eriksen This strip features himself and his girlfriend (know only as Madamen. “The Madam” is a vaguely old fashioned way to refer to your wife) and various friends, toys, rubber chickens, random Goths, Vorlon ambassadors, etc. Nearly everything is pop culture based. Star Wars is particularly heavily referenced

Unfortunately, most of the language is Norwegian, but I’ve found a few current strips that are wordless. It’s a bit of a shame because his text is every bit as funny as his drawings. What makes it extra annoying is that Norway is practically bilingual, but alas they will insist on using their native language. I’ve ended up translating M, Nemi, and Pondus strips for English speaking friends.

One great thing about M is how accomplished an artist he really is. The covers of his collect newspaper strips usually have movie poster parody themes destined to make you giggle. For instance, look at this one imitating the classic “Tales of the Crypt” comic books.

Knut and I have noticed some striking similarities between M and Madamen and Knut and me. Interestingly, once we went to one of Eriksen’s book signing in Stavanger. When we got to the store, we were told that it had been rearranged and took place the day before. So I’ve still never seen Mads and Knut in the same room together. Hmmm…

But please do enjoy these! He’s such a great cartoonist that it seems such a shame that he’s really only available to such a small percentage of readers. Also please do go to the website to look at his work. I've reproduced his strips here so it would be more accessible to non-Norwegian speakers.

Henry Dalton's MicroMosiacs

Every once in a while I am just overcome with longing for a certain object. I’m not a fancy car or mega-mansion kind of person at all—that type of status doesn’t really interest me. Unfortunately, most of the things I really adore are not available for sale!

These exceptionally beautiful pictures are collages made from the scales of butterfly wings.

They were made by Henry Dalton and reside at The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.

The museum itself is an astonishing place! The theme of the museum is about as opaque as the name. There are exhibits of sculptures mounted on the heads of pins, illustrations of common superstitions, a collection of dice, and other peculiar objects.

Please go if you’re in Los Angeles! It’s free and a wonderfully unsettling experience. More like being a Victorian curiosity cupboard than a museum.

After you’ve absorbed a strange film and examined some models of erosion and fetuses, you find yourself in a dim room containing a large table mounted with many microscopes. There’s relatively little explanation, but as your curiosity grows you peek into one of them. Gorgeous iridescent chickens greet your eye.

They are mosaics. Dalton used many species of butterflies and stripped the scales off the wings with a needle. He then positioned the scales under a microscope, positioning each one with a puff of air through a tiny tube. When it was settled to his satisfaction, he would crush a small segment of the scale, using the natural oils to adhere it to the slide.

The slides themselves are tiny, about the size of a nickel. There’s a small case, perhaps as big as a deck of cards, where they all can be stored.

I love the idea of tremendously beautiful objects that can only be appreciated under a microscope, like if you’ve ever examined a spider with a magnifying glass and seen a cute and fuzzy multi-eyed face.