There Ya Gogh!

Thought for the day:   It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs, because they always take things literally. 

gullible me, second grade

I've always been gullible, but I'm in recovery stage. Used to be, I believed anything anyone cared to tell me. I mean, why would anyone lie to me, right? One fella we know turned out to be a pathological liar, and he used to tell me some reeeeeal whoppers about his so-called adventures. Smarticus knew he was full of it, and so did most of our friends, but this guy loved to corner me at parties so he could bend my ear with his outrageous tales, because I always swallowed his stories hook, line, and sinker. Periodically, he'd turn to his wife and say, "Ain't that right, babe?" to which she dutifully provided his desired, "Yes, dear" response. (If I'd paid closer attention, I might have noticed her eyes rolling...)

I eventually caught on to the improbability of the things this guy was telling me and learned to steer clear of him, but as a child, I was definitely fair game for the things various family members told me in jest, especially my mother and Aunt Myrtle.

Two jokes they got me with involved names on  mailboxes. The last name? Bean. As we drove past said Bean mailbox, which sat beside the road next to a farmer's field, my mother said, "I wonder how our old friend Lima is doing?" My aunt said, " I heard he and Pinto had a baby. Named her Navy." Me, wide-eyed in the back seat, said something like, " I didn't know you knew them..." Which, of course, spurred them to come up with more names.

The second name that inspired them to yank my chain was Road. Same thing, only this time we were walking in the Pocono Mountains area while on vacation. As I recall, they mentioned names like Tobacco and Dusty. To my credit, I caught on a little faster this time, and even added a couple names of my own.

Which may explain why they didn't pull that joke on me a third time.

Anyhow, I was reminded of those two memories by an email Smarticus sent me recently. It's a rather clever family tree list of names that I'm sure my mother and Aunt Myrt would have appreciated. I hope you do, too.

The fun family?

'Tis the hypothetical family tree of the great Vincent Van Gogh, pictured at right in his 1887 self-portrait.

By the way, you know why he was an artist?

(shhhh) I hear he needed the monet...

Talking about artists, (Weren't we?) what do you think Salvadore Dali's favorite breakfast was? A nice bowl of surreal, of course.

And what's a modern artist's favorite footwear? Sketchers!

Okay, I'll stop. Let's take a look at that whimsical family tree, shall we?

• First, there's his annoying brother... Please Gogh.
• His dizzy aunt... Verti Gogh.
• His prune-eating brother... Gotta Gogh
• His cousin who worked in a convenience store... Stop'n Gogh
• His Yugloslavian grandfather... U Gogh
• The distant cousin who bleached all of his clothes white... Hue Gogh
• The other cousin from Illinois... Chica Gogh
• His uncle, the magician... Wherediddy Gogh
• His Mexican cousin... Amee Gogh
• His Mexican cousin's American half-brother... Grin Gogh
• His nephew who drove a stagecoach... Wessfar Gogh
• His poor ol' constipated uncle... Cant Gogh (He should work something out with Gotta...)
• His ballroom-dancing aunt... Tan Gogh
• His bird-loving uncle... Flamin Gogh
• His psychoanalyst uncle... E Gogh
• The fruit-loving cousin... Man Gogh
• His postive-thinking aunt... Wayto Gogh
• His bouncy nephew... Po Gogh
• His disco-dancing sister... Go Gogh
• His niece who travels in an RV... Winnie Bay Gogh

                                       Can you think of any others to add?

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

A Praiseworthy Personality

Thought for the day:  Cities are not people. But like people, cities have their own personalities... [Neil Gaimon]

Do you think that's true? Does your town... or another town you know... have a distinct personality? Has it remained fairly constant over the years?

The smallish town where we live in Georgia re-branded itself a few years ago, so now its motto is a place to imagine. Kinda nice, even if I don't know exactly what the heck it's supposed to mean. Nonetheless, we've been here since 1971, and it's always been a great place to live, whether I imagined it or not.

        Our town has a bunch of beautiful old homes with sprawling wrap-around porches...

Gorgeous, aren't they? Not that we live in one of them. Then again, we don't have to pay to keep one of those high-ceiling beauties warm in the winter or cool in the middle of summer's sizzle, either. Our modest ranch house suits us just fine.

Downtown has a mixture of quaint shops, old businesses, and restaurants. The shop with the dark green awning is Taste of Britain, a veritable treasure trove of British teas, foods, and collectibles. The owners also host an annual British Fayre car show, accompanied by some great music. Even a wandering bagpiper! Across the street is the old historic train depot, which was transformed into a popular restaurant about a decade ago. Considering how small the downtown area is, there are quite a few restaurants, including an outstanding pub, two Italian eateries, and a Cuban American restaurant boasting the best mojitas in all of greater Atlanta.

Our little town has lots of things going for it, like lots of street festivals, a couple other car shows, a community theater, home tours, carriage rides, and some pretty interesting community art projects. Like earlier this year...  many of the trees throughout the city were painted ... blue.

And in another project, the town was yarn bombed. Colorful crocheted and knitted pieces decorated trees, fences, signs, and light posts. These pictures of yarn-bombed trees are especially for you, Elephant's Child. I hope you like them...

                                     Oh, wait! Wait! I have to show you our frogs, too!

Pretty neat, huh? Whimsical. Yeah, whimsical. I guess that's why I like them so much. So, yeah, I'd have to say our town definitely has a personality. It's ever-changing, but it's never-boring. And in spite of its diversity, if it were represented by a flavor, it wouldn't be mojitas. Nope, not at all. It'd be sweet tea.

On Friday, we're gonna take a look at my old home town... Baltimore. Trust me, it has personality... and spice... out the wazoo. Happy Fourth of July, y'all! I hope you have a bang up time.

[Ooops, didja know a pre-scheduled post will only go live at the proper time if ya remember to set the darned time right? 12:34]

                                  Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

If our town had a scent, it would be magnolias.

Serendipity Shines

Thought for the day:  It's a bizarre but wonderful feeling to arrive dead center of a target you  didn't even know you were aiming for.  [Lois McMaster Bujold]

The stones found in our first scoop of pay dirt.

Ms. Bujold is absolutely right, and what she's describing is what I'd call serendipity, which Lawrence Block defines as Look for something, find something else, and realize what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for. 

Have you ever experienced something like that? Happens to me all the time.

As mentioned in a couple previous posts, for our forty-fourth anniversary, Smarticus and I decided to celebrate our golden years by going to the north Georgia mountains for a few days to try our hands at gold and gem panning.

 I promised to tell you today what kind of gem I picked to have cut, polished and mounted for a necklace. Although tempted to go with the large emerald, I decided on a garnet. Surprised? So was Smarticus. Before I show you the finished product, and tell you why it turned out to be such a serendipitous choice, how about some fun facts about gems?

• Sapphires come in all colors of the rainbow, not just blue. How 'bout that? And get this: know what red sapphires are? Rubies! Who knew?
• Amethyst (violet) and citrine (yellow) are made of the same mineral... beryl. Excessive heat can change a stone's color from one to the other. (Hmmm, that'd make for an interesting necklace choice for a woman experiencing hot flashes, eh?)
• Aquamarine and emerald also come from the same mineral.
• Violet-blue iolite has the same polarizing capability as a pair of sunglasss. Allegedly, Vikings used to look through a piece of iolite to help them locate the sun on a cloudy day.
• Ancient Greeks named amber from their word for electron, because if rubbed, it gives off static electricity. (I'll give ya some static if you rub me the wrong way, too.)
• Fossilized tree sap must be at least 30 million years old to be considered amber. (Prior to that, I guess it's just stale sap.)
• If you sand malachite, it can give off a poisonous dust.
• When exposed to radiation, diamonds turn green. (Hmm, I wonder if there's an industrial application to take advantage of this quality?)
• Marlene Dietrich was renown for her massive jewelry collection, especially her emeralds, which she wore in most of her movies. However, when hosting a dinner party one evening, she couldn't find her mega-carat emerald ring anywhere. (The report I read said 37.41 carats, but I find that hard to believe.) Anyhow, the ring turned up, safe and sound. Inside a guest's slice of cake. (I'm guessing there was no finders-keepers rule invoked.)
• The word amethyst comes from the Greek methustos, which means not intoxicated. The ancient Greeks often made their drinking vessels from amethyst, in the belief that using them would prevent imbibers from getting drunk. (But offither, you muthn't arreth me... I'm methustos.)

                                             Okay, ready to see my garnet necklace?

Beautiful, isn't it? It has a deep reddish purple color, and no, I didn't pick it because the color reminded me of a nice glass of merlot. Okay, so maybe I did. So sue me. It's a pretty color. But in spite of my shallow choice based on a pretty color, choosing a garnet for the occasion actually turned out to be ... how shall I put this?... a brilliant choice.

Are you familiar with the Greek myth about Persephone? She was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. When Persephone accidentally fell into the Underworld, Hades wanted her to stay and be his wife, but Demeter was so distraught, she said she wouldn't let anything grow on Earth until Persephone was returned to her. Before allowing her to leave him, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate, the sweet fruit of the dead, in the belief that if she tasted it, she would come back to him. She ate six of its seeds, and as a result, she thereafter spent six months of the year with her mother, and the other six with Hades.

So what does that have to do with a garnet, you ask? The garnet got its name from the Latin punica garanatum, which means pomegranate... partly because the coloring of some garnets is similar to the color of pomegranate seeds, and partly because the ancient Greeks considered the garnet to be a symbol for lasting love, and would give them to their lovers to ensure their return.

See? A perfect anniversary present, right? Talk about serendipity! Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked. [Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures]

                                           Oh, and that's not ALL...

Here's a picture of three of our grandchildren taken a couple years ago. The cutie sitting on the toy car? Believe it or not, her name is...  Persephone.

Yep, serendipity out the wazoo.



Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer's daughter. [Julius Comroe, Jr.]

Serendipity is putting a quarter in the gumball machine and having three pieces come rattling out instead of one — all red. [Peter H. Reynolds]

Serendipity is having the good sense to fall in love with your best friend.  [me]

Oh, that necklace isn't the only perfect memento we brought home with us. We also found these smooching salt and pepper shakers in an antique shop. What can I say? I love whimsy.

                                    Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

When love feels like magic, you call it destiny. When destiny has a sense of humor, you call it serendipity.