Excerpt from L.K. Smith’s short story:
In the early years of this country’s formation, Thanksgiving was celebrated intermittently as a time of a bountiful harvest, an insurance policy against winter starvation, and thanks were given to God. It wasn’t until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Have a great Holiday, and I hope that the children and grandchildren still fight over the wishbone. –Bunk
SuperMoon is scheduled to peak at 8:52AM EST Monday (and no, I’m not gonna set my alarm). This full moon will be not only the closest and brightest supermoon of 2016 but also the largest since 1948, and the full moon won’t come this close to Earth again until Nov. 25, 2034.
The moon rabbit in folklore is a rabbit that lives on the Moon, based on pareidolia that identifies the markings of the Moon as a rabbit. The story exists in many cultures, prominently in East Asian folklore and Aztec mythology. In East Asia, it is seen pounding in a mortar and pestle, but the contents of the mortar differ among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean folklore. In Chinese folklore, it is often portrayed as a companion of the Moon goddess Chang’e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her; but in Japanese and Korean versions, it is pounding the ingredients for rice cake [Wiki].
[Top image from here; Apollo 11 quotes documented here and here, recording from here ; PBF strip here.]
A suspension of hostilities was agreed to in 1918, yet it was not the end of The Great War. Appeasement without enforcement of sanctions led to unimaginable atrocities a few short years later.
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London. St. Pancras is the Patron Saint of Teenagers:
We have no reliable historical information about this martyr. Legend tells us he was born at the end of the third century and brought up by an uncle in Rome after the death of his parents. Both he and his uncle became Christians. Pancras was beheaded in 304 during Diocletian’s persecution. He was only 14 years old [via].
[Photo by Dan Hamilton, image found here.]
Veterans of WWII re-acclimating to civilian life.
[Found here. The irreverent reference to Reverend Jim Ignatowski is a joke.]
The feat was both amazing and dangerous, especially given the limited technology of the time. The world was much larger than anyone had previously imagined, and relatively little had been recorded by seagoing cartographers. Much of what they compiled was inaccurate, but they were not completely in the dark.
They had the Martellus Map of 1489 [pictured above].
Cristoforo Colombo changed all that, and for that he should be remembered. He had big cojones, as did every sailor who joined him on his voyages into the unknown. I doubt that his financial supporters (including Queen Isabella of Spain) expected him to ever return from the first exploration, but he did, and he made several round-trip voyages after that, relying on seasonal trade winds.
Here’s to one of the greatest explorers in history.
Van’s Shoes made them for Squeeky The Clown and others. Here’s a Short history of Clown Shoes.
This would have scared the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks out of me at that age. I’m guessing Squeeky was a friend of the family.
Clown Shoes Beer. Barista Breakfast Brown Ale is now on my bucket list.
“Dude, your car is total clown shoes.”
Example of usage of the slang pejorative “Clown Shoes” via Urban Dictionary.
The Eight Commandments of Clowning.
Joseph “Joey” Grimaldi was possibly the most influential clown you never heard of.
Krinkles The Clown is just a tad bizarre [via].
Puddles Pity Party is awesome.
Then there’s Wavy Gravy. There’s a movie about him, too.
[Top image of McFootwear found here.]
Say, “Ahoy, matey, dis be der ninetain off Septembarrrrgh,” or “Bring oat jer booty an’ I’ll let yer play wit me byrd,” and get a free donut. Do it while wearing an eyepatch, black tricorn hat or head scarf, striped shirt with tattered pants, a cutlass or dragoon, and a parrot on your shoulder and you’ll get a dozen. TRUE.
Riding electric scooters around the desert with space babes.
It sits on top of a refrigerator – somewhere – and it’s disturbing.
Serious Papercuts.
Ray Charles won three consecutive games of chess against Willie Nelson according to Willie Nelson. Sure he did, Willie [via].
Girls in wood bathing suits 1929.
Auf den leiben einer Wanderzelle IV. According to Google, that translates to “On the legs of a walking cell IV,” the caption here says “the perspective is an anatomical landscape from the inside of the nostril looking out.” There’s even a cute little booger.
This is a Kinesin Motor Protein. More about them here.
The US Naval Institute released the results of their informal poll “Who Was The Greatest Woman In Military History?”
The results are both surprising and unsurprising. I voted for Boadicea. She gave the military a spine to fight the Romans.
We posted a photo of Stanley The Great in April 2014 without really knowing who he was. Check out the update.
Bravo Land is now on my bucket list, if only to re-install erased history removed by evil people on The Slab o’ Time:
Inside the chain of stores, we immediately spotted the Bravo Land Slab o’ Time, an impressively massive tree cross-section propped against a wall. It’s from a Giant Sequoia blasted down in the 1950s, over 2,000 years old. It features a scattering of little metal labels nailed to it. A plaque explained: “The tags on the log denote growth rings that grew in the same year as various significant world events.”
“214 BC – Great Wall of China”…”197 BC – Roman Empire Begins.” There’s a 1,284 year gap, though, and the sign noted the “conspicuous absence of tagged growth rings from the 5th to the 15th centuries…. That period of time produced few significant events in world history.”
We’re not totally buying that. Closer inspection revealed missing tags radiating out from the slab center, two small holes indicating where each notable achievement used to be. We asked about it, and were told that “some political people” had come in and pointed out which milestone labels should be removed (you know, to fix world history).
We’ve seen timelines ravaged by tourism slab deniers before — but always on public land, at national and state parks. Complainers raise a stink, form a committee, and voila, adjusted! Bravo Land is a private enterprise. But once a slab is called out for being on the wrong side of history, there’s little choice but to get out the pliers and pry off the “Magna Carta,” and Columbus and Ponce de Leon “discovers” tags (we’re just guessing about the discards, since they’re gone).
Petey was a seal, but his real name was Shag. TRUE.
Stupid joke from a long time ago:
Okay, so a penguin is driving through the Mojave to Las Vegas when his A/C breaks down. He pulls into a repair garage in Pahrump and tells the mechanic that he needs air conditioning to survive the heat. Mechanic says, “There’s an ice cream shop a block away, cool down and be back in an hour.”
The penguin hits the ice cream shop, hangs out in the freezer eating ice cream, but since he only has flippers to hold the cones he makes a mess. An hour later he pays for the ice cream, cleans up the mess and returns to the mechanic and asks, “So what did you find?”
Mechanic says, “Looks like you blew a seal.”
Penguin wipes his beak and says, “Nah. It’s just ice cream.”
Trouble at Taminmin Humpty Doo.
Yeah, I said Humpty Doo.
[Top image is a tourist attraction at Humpty Doo and it cost $137,000 in 1983 bucks.]
Tacky Raccoons 