African Snow

Kitty Viljoen captured elephants enjoying the snow in the Sneeuberg – which translates to Snow Mountain – on the Western Cape of South Africa, where snow set in late last week. She also photographed giraffes in snow in the Karoo semi-desert region. […] Snowfalls are not infrequent across parts of South Africa during the winter, though this cold snap comes late in the season. In July, parts of the country were blanketed after several days of heavy snowfall.
The Guardian, 10 September 2018

[Found here.]

Slum Flat, Oldham 1962


“Mr Sutton Pownall, a gravedigger, lives at Number Two Court, Dickenson Street, Oldham, with his wife Joyce and their five children in a 150 year old house. The family share one bedroom, one kitchen and one living room. They share a key for communal toilets, near to where the dustbins are stacked. His children are Susan, 6, Steve, 5, Sandra, 4, Mark, 3 and Baby Gary, aged 8 months. 1st June 1962.”

The contraption in the brick nook is a coin operated gas meter similar to the one below. Drop in some change and you can heat the flat and cook for a few hours until the timer ran out and you had to feed it again.

“The meter controlled the gas supply to the dwelling’s appliances. In a typical UK flat of the era that had gas, this commonly included both cooking and some form of space heating (plus often hot water), all paid for by feeding coins into the same or similar meters. These systems largely gave way to credit meters, then modern prepayment/smart meters as North Sea gas, central heating, and different payment methods spread.” [via GROK].

Top (colorized) image found here via Google search of this image; caption from here. The original photo and more can be found in a photo essay titled Smog, Slums and Stars in the Making – 25 Pictures of a Lost Era in Oldham, Manchester Evening News, 04 March 2022.

Vintage 1949 coin operated gas meter found here, via here.]

Acyrological Hot Links

“Shake” sculpture by Annie Glass (2021)

Love Theme from The Flight of the Phoenix, The Brass Ring (1966)
The Brass Ring, a group of NYC studio musicians led by saxophonist and arranger Phil Bodner, turned a classic Italian song into The Now Sound (cigarette commercial music) popular in the 1960s. Senza fine (the original version) was written by Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli and first recorded in 1961 by Ornella Vanoni. The film version was recorded by Connie Francis, and retitled The Phoenix Love Theme.

Time.

Numbers.

Far right™.

Crane pups.

Mercury waves.

Brick tiled floor.

Gas station battle.

Homemade pencils.

Carnivorous couch.

Cerveza del Pacifico.

Nagasaki bus shelters.

Remembering Ol’ Remus.

The Red Baron (no not that one).

Eigendrum [via Memo Of The Air].

Where the rubber meet the roost.

Pennsylvania’s burning ghost town.

Homemade birds [via Everlasting Blört].

Cab Calloway’s Hepster Dictionary (1939).

The Moist Towelette Museum [via Neatorama].

Vintage Czech record sleeves [via sloth unleashed].

Batman & Robin vs. Dangerous Dr. Daka [via Thompson, blog].

[Top image: Shake by Annie Glass (2021). Story and more at  My OBT.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Saturday Matinee – Sean “Mack” McDonald w/ Roberto Vally & Kenny Cash; The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra w/ Willy Jordan, Omar Coleman & The Prado Brothers Band, and The Allman Brothers w/ Dickey Betts

Sean “Mack” McDonald, with Roberto Vally on bass) and Kenny Cash on snare.  McDonald is a winner of the 2025 B.B. King King of the Blues Award
and the 2026 BMA Best Emerging Artist Album.

“Based out of San Francisco, California, The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra was founded in 2007 by guitarist/songwriter Anthony Paule. Inspired by authentic Soul and Blues recordings of the ‘60s and ‘70s, this dramatic horn driven extravagant act took shape. Known for having great, authentic singers, APSO invites newest member, the incomparable vocalist Willy Jordan into the organization.”

Omar Coleman & The Prado Brothers Band:
Igor Prado / Guitar
Yuri Prado / Drums
Theo Anzelotti / Bass
Felipe Magon / Keyboard
Brazilian brothers Igor and Yuri Prado blend influences from American blues and soul with elements of Brazilian music, and have collaborated and performed with renowned artists Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza,  J.J. Jackson, Willie Walker, and Curtis Salgado.

Remastered footage of The Allman Brothers Band featuring Dickey Betts, recorded at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1981. One of the greatest renditions of Elmore James’ One Way Out ever. Betts, one of the founding members of the band, passed away in 2024 at the age of 80.

News of the Week: More WH Ballroom drama, Fauci is being a Fauci, Saudis, Turks & Pakis formed a fight club. The Strait of Hormuz is opening, closing, opening, closing, etc. People are upset about Trump’s hair, and our adopted stray cat figured out a way to get his face covered in tree sap.

When: Tomorrow.
Where: Porch.
Why: Because it’s time.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 967 – Keep Your Eyes Open, Stay Off The Shoulder, No Drinking & No Tailgating

[Found here, here,  here and here.]

Housewalk

Allegedly from Facebook Marketplace.
[Found here. Related post here.]

Little Brass Bunny

A 30-foot tall bronze statue of South African president Nelson Mandela was unveiled on the Union Grounds of Pretoria, South Africa, ten days after Mandela’s death in December 2013. The artists, Ruhan Janse van Vuuren and Andre Prinsloo, were not allowed to engrave their names on their work.

After the unveiling, government officials spotted a little brass rabbit inside Mandela’s right ear – the sculptors’ trademark. The Afrikaans word for rabbit is haas, and represents the speed at which their work was completed.

The government officials were not amused.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate because
Nelson Mandela never had a rabbit in his ear.”
–Government spokesman Mogomotsi Mogodiri.

The sculptors were made to apologize and removed the offensive bunny.

[Image found here via here. Background story here.]

OSU Class of 1923

Although the Ohio State University sports teams didn’t officially adopt their moniker until 1950, they were known unofficially as The Buckeyes since at least 1919. People referred to Ohioans as “buckeyes” years before that, as the name’s relationship with locals goes all the way back to 1788, years before Ohio even became a state.

[OSU yearbook page found here; trivia source here. Related image here.]

IT’S OUR BLOGOVERSARY! 19 YEARS OF STUFF!

On Friday, 3 August 2007, the date of our first posted post that was posted, the world twitched imperceptibly, a global nanoflinch, an earthquake with the power of a morning fart, or less.

3 August 2007 – Whelped
3 August 2008 – 1st year Blogoversary
3 August 2026 – 19th year Blogoversary!

As of this date, there are exactly 7,318 posts in our archives, +12K comments and +3.35M referral links that comprise

Steal, lift, purloin, burgle and abscond with anything you find here, just link back and give us credit for finding the stuff before you did.

We’ve featured the Top 11 Posts every year since 3 August 2008 and this year is no different.

—>Last Year’s Top 11 Hits linked here<—

The numbers adjacent to the titles indicate ranking for the previous 12 months, followed by the previous year’s ranking, and the third number is for all-time popularity. Unfortunately WordPress modified its statistics tracker and only includes the top 400 or so.

“NR” denotes Not Ranked. “NA” is Not Available (due to stats limitations or posts less than a year old).

Click on any link below and it’ll take you to the original post.


No. 11 / 25 / 36 – The Kluck Klams

No. 10 / NR /  4 – Giant Woolly Bear Caterpillar

No. 9 / NA / NA – Bastard Chairs

No. 8 / NA / NA – Cakes of Wonder

No. 7 / NA / 284 – Nothing Much Happened Today #101

No. 6 / NA / 280 – Third Ave & Bowery, NYC

No. 5 / NA / 273 – Noah’s Camper

No. 4 / NA / 249 – The Days of Our Hives

No. 3 / NA / 247- Childhood Nightmare

No. 2 / NA / 204 – Living on the Edge

And the No. 1 Post of the Year:

The .Gif Friday Post No. 919 – A Bucketful of Reflex, Zombie Defense & Surfing the Crowd

Posted on 29 August 2025, with a rank of 1 / NA / 202, this trio of .gifs got a surprising amount of attention.

Top 5 Audio posts for the past year:

Some people somewhere seemed to like these A LOT.

[I do not own copyrights to these recordings and they are posted for entertainment purposes only.]

Thanks for all your visits, comments, favorites and linkies, and I wish you all the best.

Bunk

P.S. Follow @bunkstrutts on X/Twitter for automatic updates and ephemeral inanities; ditto for you folks on Facebook. Both accounts are spam-free. Muchísimas grassyass to those of you who contributed to the PayPal Donation Account. I’m not in this for profit and don’t beg, but that doesn’t rule out blogwhoring. In any case, I appreciate it.

Koniological Hot Links

This granite sculpture titled “Cranberry Eater” (Dzērveņu ēdājs) was created by artist Kārlis Īle in 2006 for the International Stone Sculpture Symposium. The artwork features a distinctive coiled form and is located in Dzirnavu Square (Mill Square) in Ventspils, Latvia.

Chicken Payback, The Bees (2004)Known in the US as A Band of Bees, the British indie / psychedelic / garage rock / country / reggae / jazz group from the Isle of Wight has been performing and recording since 2001. Recorded at Abbey Roads Studios, Chicken Payback was featured in a television advertisement for Sure Deodorant.

Fleabot.

Diceman.

FLOCK off.

Inspections.

AC/DC Lane.

Sepia people.

Just imagine.

Motobalineras.

Buy this house.

Cloud crossing.

Mary Lou in ’52.

Olbers’ paradox.

Auto suspension.

“You got it, docker.”

Karelian Bear Dogs.

A bunch of campers.

Sumpm’s goin’ down.

Flaming corrugations.

Bless the vile apostates.

Earworm / ringtone / video.

“Shhh” whispered the trees.

Sea battle [via Thompson, blog].

Animatus [via Everlasting Blört].

GWB touching bald men’s heads.

1936 Cadillac Series 60 Convertible Coupe.

Mid century motel rooms [via Memo Of The Air].

The History of Slavery You Probably Weren’t Taught in School.

[Top image “Cranberry Eater” found here.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.