A Box with Air Holes

Color-enhanced version of image.

[source/credit]

I like having a P.O. Box.  It makes me think of travel and pen friends and the occasional mystery.  

Every now and then something truly remarkable shows up. 

This large box was delivered this past week.  

It was pretty beat up - not a good sign given that it was marked Fragile on each side.

A closer look revealed something not often seen: air holes!

And the return address was decidedly fantastical.  

Clearly other, fictional universes were involved.  Entering immediately into the play of the thing, I imagined I heard wee snorkley sounds coming from inside! And did I see movement when I opened the box?

I carefully placed the basket on the table and opened it very gently.

And what to my wondering eyes did appear?

A wee NANO RHINO wearing its own wee onsie!

Accompanying this whimsical arrival was an impressive letter.  The stationery boasted gold embossing and an elaborate typewritten script.  Pinned to the letter was a dramatically posed portrait.  

[Transcript below or click on the letter to read the enlarged version.]

TRANSCRIPTION

To: The Esteemed Judith Jablonski, PhD

From: Dr. Humphrey D. Winslow III, Esq.

On The Occasion Of Finalization of Adoptive Care Order WR739 1/2

Dear Ms. Jablonski,

It is my pleasure to inform you that the Society for the Right and Proper Selection of Appropriate Individuals for the Care of Orphaned Diceros bicornis minor has rendered a decision in your case, #WR&#/7931/2.  In accordance with our Bylaws (Chapter 2, Section 34.3, Paragraph 9), the Subcommittee for Review of Applications, Censures, Fitness, Standards and Mores met at the Society headquarters in closed, executive session on September 3, 2012.  After three days of deliberation and multiple ballot rounds, I am pleased to inform you that they signalled [sic] their affirmative decision by order of the traditional pot of Earl Grey.

On behalf of the Executive Committee for Substantiation and Documentation of Transfers of Titles and Signatories, I am pleased to bestow upon you the title of "Member in Waiting" and bequeath you with the Deed of Subservient Services of Diceros bicornis minor.  Said Deed shall be sepeable [?] and revocable on evidence that you have not rendered adequate care and schooling to this juvenile.

Madame, I wish you and your new baby rhino the best in this life and the next!

With Utmost Sincerity,

Dr. Humphrey D. WInslow III, Esq.

Founder, Chair, President, and CEO

P.S.  Kind madame, please forgive the many errors in this missive.  My assistant and compatriot Lord Jim Higgenbottom met a fate most horrible on the business end of a Rhinoceros unicornis on his last journey to that dark subcontinent of India.  I have never trusted those beasts, and never will.

 

Doctor Humphrey D. Winslow, III, Esq.

Uncertain as to how Dr. Winslow III shall ascertain the welfare of the wee bicornis minor, I have posted this image below to reassure him and the Society.  The as yet unnamed beastie has been put in the tender care of one Moberg, House Mascot and Socialization Chief.  Said Moberg has mentored numerous individuals of the class Crepundia Telae and immediately adopted the wee rhino and made it 'to home.'

I also wish to send my thanks (and barely submerged chuckles) to the Society.  It is very good to know that the recent drought and excessively hot weather of the past summer has in no way dimmed the imaginative faculties of the denizens of the State of Kansas!

 

VIDEOS: Shakespeare is Funneth

Image from Open Source Shakespeare

Listen to enough Shakespeare and you start talking all forsoothy and forthwithy! It's wonderful, I do declare and command it be so.

Enjoyeth!

 

More Funnies, I Think

 Image from The Hutchinson's Travel Site

I have a sense of humor that leans in the direction of the absurd, the whimsical, the odd, and the verbally clever.  Strange imagery of the discombobulated nature also works for me.  But what appeals to me may not appeal to others.  Here is work by a  few more off the wall types.

Hyperbole and a Half

Allie Brosh is the lovely, sweetly, fiercely makerly mind behind the cartoony-storytelling blog Hyperbole and a Half.  Her drawings are whacked out and spot on; her stories so fey; and her writing a kind of akimbo window into a universe so delightfully strange.

S. Harris

I've been enjoying Mr. Harris' work for years.  His love for science combined with an intense sense of whimsy makes me fall in love with science all over again every time.

Also cool is the website Cotton Expressions, Ltd (purveyors of the "world's most extraordinary science t-shirts").  Here's some text from their About Us page:

"We're scientists, astronomers, artists, craftsman, and naturalists—and occasionally, we're comedians. But most importantly, we're a close-knit team of people committed to creating superior-quality imprinted apparel with stunning designs you won't find anywhere else on the planet.

Launched in 1981 by Matthew B. Alschuler (President), Cotton Expressions has successfully served world-renowned museums, planetariums, scientific and astronomical societies, and a variety of retail outlets for 29 years.

Whether it's science humor, endangered wildlife, the periodic table of the elements, or something completely different (a glow-in-the-dark star chart, perhaps?), Cotton Expressions has the cutting-edge t-shirt and sweatshirt designs you're looking for. Remarkable, new designs are leaping off our presses all the time!"

Dresden Codak - Aaron Diaz

I am still getting my mind around the web comics of Aaron Diaz - always the fate of a latecomer to an artist's work.  But the t-shirts he has for sale at TopatoCo never fail to crack me up.

 

Making Rules

David Malki, creator of Wondermark, one of my favoritest cartoons and websites on the InterTubes, has given permission for this image to be embedded here.  Thanks for the permission and the inspiration.  (Click here to see it on Malki's website in full size.)

Fun on Bikes

Bicyclists from the 2011 Tweed Run in London
Image source

I've previously noted the deeply delightful and often poignant local travel blog, Spitalfields Life. The Gentle Author has done it again, with an entertaining piece on a bicycling event known as the Tweed Run.  A few lines from the post will, I do hope, intrigue you (and the photos of the event are a great deal of fun as well).

"Just in its third year, no wonder the magnificent Tweed Run is already a global sensation. Beginning with one hundred and sixty cyclists arrayed in tweed for a turn around London in January 2009, it has now inspired copycat events in sixteen other cities across the world including New York, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo. Elegant in its simplicity, the notion of enthusiasts for traditional cycling attire banding together for a beano, enjoying a high old time, lifting the spirits of a city and raising money for bikes for Africa, the Tweed Run is one of the things we can be proud of giving to the world."

Two Dapper Gentlemen

Image source

Repeat Funny

Randall Munroe, author of the xkcd webcomic just cracked me up again this morning as I was clicking through stuff via the Random button.  In the event you do the same, please note this very true and helpful disclaimer: "Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

Mr. Whimsy, or Why I Heart James Gurney

Photos by me

Ok, I don't even know the guy, but James Gurney's Dinotopia books have been a mainstay on my bookshelf for years, ever since they were first published. I have a large print of his "Dinosaur Boulevard" painting from the first book and a puzzle version the same which I pull out and assemble every few years.  And, glory of glories, I even have a Dinotopia-inspired pitcher and two matching cups that I made a decade ago at one of those paint your own pottery places.
  

Images from Mr. Gurney's Dinotopia site.

More recently, I've been enjoying (and learning a great deal from) Mr. Gurney's two books, Imaginative Realism and Color and Light.

Images from Mr. Gurney's site.

His blog is a wonderful variety of show-n-tell, solid and entertaining art instruction, informative exposition, and on occasion, just plain silliness.  Like the series of videos he did sometime back promoting Imaginative Realism, one of which starred his budgie, Mr. Kooks as the Parakeet Artist.  His deadpan delivery and the smooth and spot on documentary-commercial production make this piece just delightful.

This week Mr. Gurney posted a video that all of us in the frozen Midwest can appreciate.  Talk about catharsis!  Take THAT winter!!  Thanks, Mr. G!  I have to shovel the sidewalk now (again!), but will do so this time with a song in my heart and a chuckle.

Links to Mr. Gurney's various sites:

His artist website
His blog
The Dinotopia website

Funny, to me at least

I won't presume that the comics I like are liked by others.  Here are a few that I find regularly amusing. (p.s.  Please note: These are not necessarily "for kids." )

xckd

"A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language."

[Link]

Wondermark

by David Malki

[Link]

[from the Wondermark website] "Wondermark is created from 19th-Century woodcuts and engravings, scanned from my personal collection of old books and also from volumes in the Los Angeles Central Library. Most of the books are bound volumes of general-interest magazines such as Harper’s, Frank Leslie’s and Punch, but my collection also includes special-interest magazines such as Scientific American, Sears-Roebuck catalogs, storybooks, and primers."

Dinosaur Comics

by Ryan North

[LINK]

Incidental Comics

by Grant Snider

[Link]

VIDEO: Stop Action Fun

Image source

 
The OK Go guys - so digging their creative fun!

Me Arty!!

Earlier this year I commented on the "Next Blog" feature of Blogger, noting that it seemed to take me to blogs the Blogger search algorithm deemed similar to mine.  But jumping from blog to blog to blog made things weirder and weirder.  This morning I tried jumping again, and it would seem I have become an Art Blogger. 

Cool! Here's where I went this time.*

A photographer's blog: Jest 18:17. 

Text from the site: " "To keep things going for a long time, you just have to carry on taking photographs. By taking photographs you make discoveries about yourself and come to realize various things. If you're constantly reminded of things, this gives you the impulse to carry on. You learn things through taking photographs; photography is your teacher. The main thing is to keep on taking photographs for ever and ever."  -- Nobuyoshi Araki"

 

 

A European traveller/photographer's site: Diário de Lisboa

 
 
 

 

The site of a sketcher who posts his/her drawings regularly: El Mar de Eco.

 

 

 

A site containing self-portrait after self portrait: Querámoslo o no,

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ *~ *~ * ~ * ~~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ *~ *~ * ~ * ~~ * ~ * ~ * ~

* After a few runs, though, the same circle of blogs kept popping up.  Guess the Interwebz sees me as only a wee bit arty! ;-)

Silly Food Flavor

Tropicana Japan has recently introduced a cheese-flavored drink! 

Check out the details at InventorSpot.

Entertaining the world, subtly

Carilin of The Swanky Lifestyle did a fun thing the other day.

She and her husband created wee entertainment for passersby by placing handpainted stones in miscellaneous locations.  Read about it here.

VIDEO: Jane Eyre written by a T-Rex?

Image source

How more perfect could this be?  My love of 19th-century British literature combined with dinosaur toys (with a social message to boot!). Awesomeness cubed.

YouTube description: "By Phil Lord and Chris MillerThis was a fake commercial we made in 1998 for a series of educational shorts about action figures based on historical figures. Its educational value was somewhat suspect. It was never aired."

A Funny: Judi Dench Does the 3 Little Pigs

I always thought that Judi Dench could read

a telephone book and still capture my adoring attention.