Currently Reading

Excellent. More info here.

R.I.P., Lonesome George

Lonesome George, the last of the giant Pinta Island Tortoises (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni) has died at age 100 (approx) in Galapagos National Park, Equador. George was found in his corral by his keeper of forty years. So long George, we'll miss you. More here, and here.

Photo via Dirección del Parque Nacional Galápagos

Heh

I need one of these. This is too funny to be true:

The German bank Sparkasse Chemnitz recently launched a Karl Marx credit card. The bank let people vote online for 10 different images, and Marx was the "very clear winner," beating out a palace, a castle and a racetrack, among others.

My favorite suggested taglines?

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. For everything else, there's #marxcard

and

Che Guevara t-shirt: $15. Annotated copy of the Communist Manifesto: $10. Being able to demonstrate your ideological confusion every time you make a purchase: Priceless.

Summertime

Surf's up! From even*cleveland, gorgeous-- look at the color of the water.



and this, from Surfer:



Finally, a little classic surf medley, via Dick Dale:

The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else

Well, it's been an interesting week, with ups and downs.

First off, the Good. I'd like to introduce the newest addition to the Obscure household:

He's a retired racing greyhound, pure sweetness, all legs and nose (you can't tell about the legs from this picture, but he's built like a small deer).

I tried to get a picture of him running and jumping with his new favorite squeak toy (a pink rubber ball with legs and a very loud squeak), but this is what I got:

He's quick! Like a greyhound! I have to keep working on my camera skills. Anyway, we are all charmed by him, and he's only been with us a few days. (Although I think the tortoises are still a bit skeptical.)

Now the Bad. Just found out I did not get a job I tried very hard for.  Those are the breaks, but it means more belt-tightening, which will be done.

And Everything else? Random stuff and pretties that shall remain unpurchased:

photo from kathryn bentley

Pink tourmaline ring from Kathryn Bentley Jewelry-- so pretty!

I want this skirt, in the most unreasonable way.

Source: pip-squeakchapeau.com via LB on Pinterest

Blackbird posted a link to these shoes. Instant love.

❧

Then there's this from McSweeney's:

YouTube Comment or e.e. cummings?

BY François Vincent

1. loog a his lirow nose

2. there is some shit I will not eat

3. LISN bud LISN

4. this i bad sorry to saY

5. leave her alone

she’s not your gal

6. She is Lucifierian !

7. THuNdeRB

loSSo!M iN

8. aThe):l

9. stunned. i. am. stunned. every question speaks to us

10. What is nothing?

YouTube comment: 1, 4, 6, 9, 10
e. e. cummings: 2, 3, 5, 7, 8

❧

Tonight's dessert. Something to look forward to:

Source: smittenkitchen.com via LB on Pinterest

Currently reading

I'm actually re-reading this, for about the 7th time. It's been about 15 years since I last read it, though. I love Jackson's dry humor and how unsentimental she is about family life, while still conveying some of the sweetness. This contains one of my favorite short stories, "Charles".  It still makes me laugh. More about Shirley Jackson here.

Also just started:

link here.

Some things never change.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of The Caprices (Los Caprichos), 1799
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)
Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin 

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Goya is another of my favorite artists, and Los Caprichos (a series of etchings satirizing the corruption of Spanish society) is amazing.

And for some reason, this excellent, angry rant by Charles Simic in the New York Review of Books seems appropriate for today.

Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. It’s no use pretending otherwise and telling us, as Thomas Friedman did in the Times a few days ago, that educated people are the nation’s most valuable resources. Sure, they are, but do we still want them? It doesn’t look to me as if we do. The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit.

and

What we have in this country is the rebellion of dull minds against the intellect. That’s why they love politicians who rail against teachers indoctrinating children against their parents’ values and resent the ones who show ability to think seriously and independently.