The Puzzle of Remission

I have been remiss. Excuse me. There has been some sadness here. Perhaps this jolly photo of my birthday morning will fix that.

My crown is made of tissue paper from a party-popper. Daughter sent it from Chicago to crown me king of my day. This may stem from my cautions when she was a little girl. I told her if she ever got crowned queen of anything, make certain of the crown's composition: Even gold is a metal that can scratch the hell out of you so be sure the pointy side is always UP. 

Tissue crowns, no problem.

I ought also to update the progress of our Rat Patrol.

It is a photo of a feral feline Norma named "Tux". It reminds me of a movie I saw in the late 1960s called "Reflections In A Golden Eye" --a film I attended because it was co-authored by Carson McCullers, a very good writer. It was also memorable for a brief scene, in artistically poor lighting, of Elizabeth Taylor climbing a stairway nude --which, to certain teenaged observers, comprised a religious experience. I've been a devout movie-goer ever since. Speaking of movies, here is a Normaphoto of Tux reenacting an iconic scene in "Titanic" in which Dicaprio and Winslet share a kiss on the bow of a big ocean-going wheelbarrow.

Of course, we had to resort to contractual perks and special effects:

2020 arrives in about 20 minutes, so I'll wish all a happy NEW YEAR. Please remember the world is more than politics and movies; it's us and some cats.


  

It Needs Answers!

I've undergone some distractions these past few months which are gradually withdrawing. So I'm reposting a post from early in this tumultuous decade to which only 2 lovely people responded. I hope to get some more comments now. After all, how much can a societal climate change in a mere decade? Please enjoy:

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Pumpkin Pants, Evolution Or Creation?

This weekend, from a woman whose opinion I have always treasured, I've been learning some excellent lessons about pumpkin pants. She is a theatrical costume designer of substantial experience. The subject was trunk hose, about which I had read the following: Trunk hose and slops can be paned or pansied, with panels of fabric over an inner lining. Pansied slop is a bulbous hose with a layer of fabric strips from waistband to leg. These are called "pumpkin" pants.

She replied that pumpkin breeches are not always slops: "Slops are similar in that they are also big, balloon-y shorts that can have slashes and panes in them, but slops predate pumpkin breeches and are both less structured and usually hit lower on the thigh. Pumpkin breeches hit quite high on the leg and are much more structured. Slops were more drapey."

I wanted to try on a pair, but was wary of going to a clothing store and asking for pumpkin pants with pansied slop. Who knows what that'd get me in this day and age? So I did the next best thing. I got out my sketchbook and headed back to the 16th century. I even made myself a little younger and better-looking for the trip. As you can see by the middle figure in the doodle above, I also got a doublet and wacky hat thrown in.

Not only did I feel as silly as I looked, the outfit inspired me to greater curiosity. So I cast my thoughts a hundred years ahead, to the late 17th century. There I met two handsome fellows. One on the left is a French peasant. On the right is a mounted gendarme. Fashionwise, both appeared to have been thrown together at random --frills, sashes, hangy-down things all over them-- which argues in favor of evolution. But I had my suspicions.

Both wore frock coats of considerable length, with distracting amounts of buttons. Gendarme had high, broad boots and peasant had a skirt on. These boys were hiding something! What? I decided I did not want to know, but suspected they had pumpkin pants somewhere. This would argue pumpkin pants were part of their creation. Concealment suggests creation and evolution equally.

I brought these findings forward to my authority, who pronounced my trunk hose slopless. She said:"I have a less precise visual shorthand for differentiating between the two: slops=Pirate pants; pumpkin breeches=Shakespeare." This meant I would have to backtrack, prior to 1564 --Shakespeare's birth year-- to get any idea of proper slops. I decided to go lie down instead.

However, this question is by no means settled: Pumpkin pants, created or evolved? There is much to do and more data to collect. Data is important! Except for my gendarme using a (at the time, uninvented) snaffle bit to control his dinosaur, my account is historically correct. But did slops disappear or evolve into disguise? Until I am rested enough to deal with pirates, I must be content to live with the mystery.

The Old Rusted Question Mark

When I was very small, 1954 or so, there were many visitors to my grandparents' riverside property --relatives (on Sundays), my cousins, Neighbors who wanted to fish in peace on the banks of our river frontage, and Grampa's surviving friends from the Old West.

I objected only to Rex Clark, an Old West Remnant who had a scary MOUSTACHE and would chase me --probably for hug but never caught me-- which brings us to a larger view of the old rusted question mark:

It is part of a counterweighted balance Grampa used in the general store --the back door of which communicated with his saloon at 4th and L street-- until 1914, when he retired from dusty streets and fusty rustics in town and went to Riverside Road to open a gasoline station-- and then, The Old West was pretty much over.
I did this with it:

I doodled only a dot. The whole scale is in the  barn I built in the '80s. I masked out whatever wasn't an interrogative --easy work. If the title of this post reminds you of a song ("Old Rugged Cross"), by Geo. Benning from 1913 --now part of the Open Hymnal Project-- you are correct. 

I consider the Logos --the initial Word of God-- to be an interrogative. Too many have sacrificed themselves in doubt. In the ninth hour even Jesus said,
"Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?"*---an interrogative.

What it means is, we've still got a long ways to go before we achieve balance.  Good luck everybody!
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*While sabachthani is also valid Mishnaic Hebrew, the fact that Jesus is quoting the Aramaic Targum rather than the canonical Hebrew version probably indicates that he was speaking Aramaic. In Mark, the word that Jesus uses for God is actually ελωι (Eloi) rather the ηλι (Eli) used in Matthew.
Hence, the origin of H.G. Wells's term in "Time Machine".