True Stories – Page 53 – Tacky Raccoons

Saturday Matinee – Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve & Halloween: Bobby Pickett, Ted Cassidy & Tom Waits

The history of Samhain (aka All Hallow’s Eve, aka Halloween) is interesting, and despite what some claim (that it’s “The Devil’s Holiday”) it’s actually the opposite. Check this out.

But that’s not what we’re here for, and we’re not here to post Bobby Pickett‘s “Monster Mash” either even though Leon Russell played on that recording according to Wiki.

Nice try, Bobby, but that sucked donkeys. Ted Cassidy did it right.

So how do we wrap up this Halloween vid post? How ’bout some Tom Waits?

Yeah, when the kids were tads, we’d do up the front stoop right, with spiderwebs, pumpkins that made little kids cry and dogs bark, and blast Tom Waits and Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum cassettes on a boom box that could be heard for blocks. Fun times.

Have a safe Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve, and Halloween, folks. Be back tomorrow for El Día de los Muertos.

Autumn in Røros

Looks like about 3PM in Røros, Norway, time for the evening commute.

[Found here.]

Emilio Arechaederra 1936-2015

Emilio was born in Havana, Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution, Emilio fled to Spain and arrived in the U.S. in 1960. He succumbed to cancer this past week.

R.I.P. Emilio. You were one of the nicest guys I ever met.

Bicycles, Cars, Dogs & White People Not Allowed

Photo by Ernest Withers, Overpark Zoo, Memphis, Tennessee, 1950’s.

I don’t recall having seen that particular image, but once I tracked down the source, it blew me away. Withers was not only a prolific photographer of the 50’s and 60’s, he captured some of the most iconic images of of his time. Check it out.

[Cropped image received via email, original posted above.
Hat tip AlanU.]

Do Women & Children Keep Borrowing Your Pen Knife? Here’s A Solution.

With a cast iron frame designed to be screwed down to the desktop, this machine eliminated the need for whittling and sanding pencils, and saved businesses countless hours in lost productivity.

It’s called a “Planetary Pencil Sharpener” because it relies on planetary gears revolving around a sun gear, and all are held in place with a ring gear.

Spirograph worked on the same basic principal, but it sure as hell couldn’t sharpen a pencil.

[Top image found here, via here. Bottom image from here.]

Two-Faced Four-Eyed Hot Links

Bear. Stop it. Stop it, Bear. Why are you breaking my kayak? Bear doesn’t speak English. Someone needs to add an instrumental background soundtrack with a heavy walking bass line to this.

This is so wrong. Chuck Berry sings Death Metal.

Regis Philbin and Cathy Lee interview The Ramones [1988].

The Failure Players.

Charles Schulz disliked the name “Peanuts”.

Interesting graph.

Nice catch… using Barbie Gear.

Top image is not a photoshop. Check it out here [via].

Located near the Red Sea in El Gouna, Egypt, Desert Breath is an impossibly immense land art installation dug into the sands of the Sahara desert by the D.A.ST. Arteam back in 1997.

It reminded me of and predates Louis Sachar‘s 1998 novel “Holes” that I read as a parent at the insistence of my youngun’s. I liked it, and the movie wasn’t bad either.

[Images and story found here, via here.]