I’m going back
to Texas tomorrow, y’all. For a week, anyways.
Big party on Dutton Drive. The last waltz. The final hurrah.
“Hey, my mom’s not at home. You wanna come over?”
SMITH & WESSON ALLIED FORCES PISTOL DISASTER READY KIT
* S&W Allied Forces Pistol
* First aid kit
* Emergency food for 4 people (for 3 days)
* Water purification tablets
* 44 Mag Multi-Tool
* 4 space blankets
(thanks, Aaron)
Baby
February 24, 2010. Dutton Drive. Dallas, Texas.
Sometimes you find things exactly when and where you expect to find them. When I entered my late mother’s house, I expected to find this old baby doll of hers in a drawer in a closet in what used to be my bedroom. And there it lay.
Redemption
Sorry I’ve been quiet of late. I have much to share that may or may not be of interest to ‘flockers, but this glimpse into the mind of my late Uncle Ray (through a letter to his friend Jim) may provoke:
The once “Bro. Jim”,
After prayer and meditation the Lord, in His wisdom and compassion, has led me to extend the hand of civility and forgiveness to you who have fallen so far from the fold. But I do not want to place undue emphasis on how far you have fallen or the depths of your depravity but rather on the Hope that shines eternal through His grace and redemptive power. It is truly grace because you, of all people, have through your sins, blasphemies and contemptuous behavior, earned an eternity in hell. If you escape your destiny only grace can account for it. It warms my heart to extend a gracious welcome back to the fraternity of the true believers, the promise keepers if you will. All you need to do is open your heart. It matters not that you reek of fish, gin, campsmoke and possibly loose women (could not tell from the fish odor) so long as you are sincere in your confession of sin.
Come as you are as we softly sing “Just As I Am”.
You cannot imagine how my heart swells to see a sinner return to the Truth as I see it. You should be aware that the Lord’s forgiveness is complete and total but mine is more exacting. Lacking the supernatural powers to see into your heart, I must judge by outward behavior. You would serve your rehabilitation well by inviting Joyce and me up to a Cardinal game before the season is over. That would be a splendid sign of an intent to climb out of the cesspool of degradation and self-elevation that you have inhabited.
You were once a good boy. I’ve been told that. By you, but it was convincing at the time. Open your heart. Accept this lifeline. Put on the raiments of salvation and join me when we celebrate for an eternity. Just put your hand on the computer and say “Bro. Ray intercede for me because I am lost and unworthy but I want to be found and redeemed.”
Jesus and I patiently wait,
Bro. Ray
Spiritual Warrior
These letters keep my dear Uncle alive for me. I hope you enjoy them too.
Tuesday, February 16 | To Do
*Bank: 1) Deposit (cashier’s checks?); 2) Wire transfer approval; 3) Safe deposit box (ID, death certificate)
*Shark tunnel
At the Front Door
All Things Must Pass
It’s an I Ching thing.
The death of Jermyn Street
I had just settled in my easy chair when a key turned in the lock and a nattily-dressed man in his 60s let himself in. He held a bottle of Teachers’ scotch under his arm. He walked to the sideboard, took a glass, poured a shot, and while filling it with soda from the siphon, asked me, “Fancy a spot?”
“I’m afraid I don’t drink,” I said.
“Oh, my.”
This man sat on my sofa, lit a cigarette, and said, “I’m Henry.”
“Am I…in your room?”
“Oh, no, no, old boy! I’m only the owner. I dropped in to say hello.”
This was Henry Togna Sr. He appears in a Dickens novel I haven’t yet read. I’m sure of it. He appeared in my room almost every afternoon when I stayed at the Eyrie Mansion.
—Roger Ebert, “I met a character from Dickens,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 5, 2010
(Via @davidmoldawer)
Dear clusterflock
What will be your epitaph?
Taxidermy Friday
For those with such needs.
the first legal male prostitute
I think for a male, if you want to be successful in this type of venture, you’re not a prostitute. You’re a surrogate lover. You encompass everything that’s required of you—not only emotionally, physically—but psychologically. Because women are wired differently. They’re much more sensitive creatures. You actually have to enjoy what you do. You can’t necessarily say, “Oh, it’s just a job.” You actually have to say it’s a passion. I think it’s the same situation as with anything that happens when you break apart a social institution. There has to be some kind of change in terminology to describe persons like myself. And it’s more of a civil rights thing now. Basically this is the first time in the economy of the United States that a male has actually stood up and said, “I want to do this for a living.” And be protected under law to do it. It’s just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back. She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I’m doing the same. I’m actually standing up now, and hopefully I can be supported by the male community and be understood as a person. This actually isn’t about selling my body. This is about changing social norms.
Congratulations.
(via marginal revolution)
Good Thing it Wasn’t Bobby Goldsboro
A man has been ticketed for rocking out to John Denver.
What Cindy Just Said
Well fuck my rubber anus under the fold.
Holiday Jewelry Commercials in Need of New Copy
Diamond Dick opens the little box; she shows the weakness he likes and reaches for him, leading with the puppies he bought for her last year–and the recession is over.
Captions?
In the belly of the headless donkey piñata (Otra vista)
La venganza.
Looking for sweetmeats, are you, little greedy-guts?
Have a load of violence and scandal and grimy fingers for your pains.
That’ll learn ya.
Texas Woman Fakes Cancer to get Implants
Authorities say a Texas woman lied about having breast cancer and spent $10,000 raised at a benefit to have her breasts enlarged. McLennan County sheriff’s investigator James Pack says in court records that 24-year-old Trista Joy Lathern shaved her head to look like a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy.
Pack says Lathern wanted breast implants to try to save her seven-month marriage.
Why I Love Texas, No. 782
There were two guys in the closet. They appeared to be sleeping, one was snoring and the other was deceased,” said Assistant Chief Deputy Mark Herman. “It appeared that they were doing some sort of narcotics, at least the one that they woke up.
The beauty of taxidermy!
For Cindy.
I Simply Must Stop Laughing At This
An 80-year-old Ohio man is recovering from a week in which he was beaten during a home invasion and then shot while trying to learn about guns.
It’s not funny. I know it’s not funny. So why can’t I stop laughing? I mean, I have tears rolling down my cheeks.
Help me.
Tail
of the headless donkey piñata who rides in the car with me.
For Cindy
Once, when Nadeau was still living in south St. Louis, a neighbor found out he did taxidermy. “She’d had a Persian cat in her freezer for twenty years,” he remembers. “She wanted me to mount it like a beanbag so she could put it in different poses. The cat was all crystallized; it had crystals all over its face. I told her that once it’s mounted, you can’t put it in different poses. It kind of freaked me out a bit.”
—Mount My Squirrel! Local taxidermist Rick Nadeau has a lot of fun with his “little buddies,” Aimee Levitt, Riverfront Times, August 10, 2009
I brought a copy of this newspaper home from St. Louis (this was the week’s cover story; consider that for a moment) so that I could mail it to you, but then I realized that the article was probably online. Now everybody gets to share it.
Ferret with mouse papoose
(thanks, Autumn)
Rick’s Custom Squirrels
No. It’s not our Rick, but I still endorse the concept of custom squirrels.
For Cindy
Baby Bangs!
Our patent pending HAIR+band accessory combination allows baby girl’s (with little or no hair at all) the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic HAIR style in a SNAP!! It’s quick, easy and baby barely knows it’s there.
-thanks Alicia