Poetry Sunday

Today is Sunday, October 31st ... Halloween! It's the day when the dead walk, the vampires feast, the mummies stalk their unsuspecting victims, and the werewolves howl in the night. It's also the day the witches brew up their potions, as they did in this classic scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth ...

The Song of the Witches

(Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I)

by William Shakespeare

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Not a recipe you'd expect from Gordon Ramsay or The Barefoot Contessa, but suitable for the right dinner guests. Have a good day, treat the trick-or-treaters generously, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

Halloween is just around the corner ... the one day per year when we'll be able to see something more frightening than a conservative Supreme Court majority and the daily news ...

The judge presiding over the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of shooting and murdering two people during protests in Wisconsin last year, says the two dead persons may not be called "victims" by prosecutors in court, but that the defense may refer to them as "arsonists," "rioters," or "looters;" in an attempt to distract attention from its failure not only to control hate speech on its platform but to increase it as a way to increase revenue, Facebook, Inc. has changed its name to Meta Platforms, Inc.; in Houston, Texas, the mother of three children who were found abandoned in an apartment with the body of their brother - who was believed to have died "around Thanksgiving" - said she checked on her children "every two weeks;" Ohio recalled 35,000 new license plates after realizing that a "Birthplace of Aviation" banner depicted on the plate was shown attached to the wrong end of the historic Wright Flyer; and two men in Jefferson County, Washington, were arrested after they used a chainsaw to cut chunks of wood from cedar logs supporting a local bridge to sell as material for shingles ... a county official told reporters, "Can't believe we have to say this, but don't take chainsaws to our bridges."

For the final Cartoon Saturday of our Halloween extravaganza, we dig up a collection of cartoons about the hideous, shambling mob of mindless, brain-dead characters ... no, not Republicans, zombies ...

We start with a clever mash-up of clown car and zombie cartoons ...

When zombies go into business ...

You work with what you have ...

This is the sort of zombie I'd be ...

Who knows? It might help ...

When the zombie plague finally meets the robot population ...

In life, they belonged to the plumbers' union ...

I love this one, even if it's too evil for words ...

There's really no good excuse for not wearing a mask unless ...

I usually forget something when shopping, too ...

So, there we are ... the last collection of Halloween-themed cartoons for 2021. I hope I've helped you cope with the real world in my own small way.

Have a good day and a great weekend, and don't forget that Tuesday is Election Day - do your civic duty and vote!

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo 

Great Moments in Editing and Signage

We're down to the last collection of editorial and signage bloopers for October ... let's get on with it, shall we? ...

It would be nice if it worked that way here, too ...

Well, I've always seen it that way ...

When you can't find the correct sign, you use what you have ...

Well, that's embarrassing ...

So, what do you use to put out a burning fire extinguisher? ...

I'm not a big sports fan, but even I think these are not quite "football-shaped" ...

I've known dogs like this ...

"A day late and a dollar short," as my dad used to say ...

I'm strongly considering moving to Belmullet ...

I'm not surprised ... it would certainly keep down the cost of carpet cleaning ...

There you are - proof positive that there's always something that will raise your eyebrows.

Have a good day and come back tomorrow for the last installment of our Halloween Cartoon Saturdays - this week, featuring mindless beings lurching along in search of brains ... no, not Republicans ... zombies.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Musical Sunday

With Halloween just a week away, let's round out our October scare-fest with a true classic Halloween thriller ... for real ...

Bwa, ha, HAAAAAAAA!!!!

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

And you thought Halloween was scary ...

Two Amish parents were killed and all eight of their children injured when their buggy was rear-ended by an SUV; Der Furor has announced the launch of his own social media site - "Trump Media & Technology Group" and an app called “Truth [sic] Social”; an amateur diver exploring shallow waters off northern Israel found a 900-year-old sword that may have belonged to a knight during the Crusades; the owner of three zebras which escaped from his property in Maryland has been charged with animal cruelty after one of the zebras was found dead in a snare trap; and a Christian boarding school in Missouri that has fought government oversight for 20 years is suing the state's Department of Social Services to keep it from implementing new regulations on unlicensed facilities ... what could possibly go wrong?

This week, with Halloween only a week away, we continue our October scary laugh fest with a collection of cartoons featuring fearsome bloodsuckers. No, not hedge fund managers, vampires ...

Even vampires sometimes need dietary advice ...  

Uh, oh ...

Some people can hold a grudge for all eternity ...

Too bad we have Obamacare and not Vladcare ...

Social media can be tough when you not only don't photograph well, but don't photograph at all ...

As I was saying ...

Vampire dating ...

Yep, that's pretty irreconcilable ...

I guess it doesn't bother everybody ...

Clever pun, eh? ...

And that's it for our vampire edition of Cartoon Saturday for Halloween season, 2021 ... I hope you enjoyed it. 

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts tomorrow, when Musical Sunday eases us into the last week of our spooky October.

Bilbo

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2021

Yes, Dear Readers, it's that time again - time to recognize those whose ass clownery rises above the prevailing level of stupidity far enough to merit special recognition.

With a disgusted shake of the head and the heave of a deep sigh, I present the award for

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2021

to

Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV)

Senator Manchin shared this award in June of this year with fellow Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ) for many of the same reasons he gets his own award today. Citing the elusive chimeras* of "bipartisanship" and "fiscal responsibility," Senator Manchin continues to block the administration's attempts to revive the economy, uphold voting rights, and level the economic playing field for the most vulnerable Americans. He continues resolutely to insist - in the face of blatantly obvious reality - that he can find enough Republican support to pass watered-down versions of legislation that is popular in its particulars with a vast majority of Americans ... and which would clearly benefit the people of West Virginia, which is one of the poorest (ranking 42nd out of 50 US states in terms of GDP) and least educated (ranked 50th out of 50) states of the union.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, Senator Joe Manchin, one of the least Democratic of the Democratic senators**, is our Left-Cheek Ass Clown for October, 2021. He also rates a score of 150,000 on the Gohmert Stupidity Scale ... in the words of the description for that value,

Doubles down on stupid actions and beliefs when confronted with evidence.

I'm not sure that Senator Manchin is actually evil, as are many ignorant, hard-core Republicans, but he's definitely showing himself to be Gohmert-level stupid, particularly in his willingness to believe he can reach any useful accommodation with or support from a party clearly and proudly interested only in obstruction.

There's not much more to say.

Have a good day and come back tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday continues its Halloween extravaganza with a look at evil bloodsuckers ... no, not loan sharks - vampires. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* Defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as "something that exists only in the imagination and is not possible in reality."

** Kyrsten Sinema is a pretty strong contender for that "honor."

Poetry Sunday

We continue our march toward Halloween with an appropriate poem for the season from Cynthia Huntington ...

Ghost

By Cynthia Huntington

At first you didn’t know me.

I was a shape moving rapidly, nervous

 

at the edge of your vision. A flat, high voice,

dark slash of hair across my cheekbone.

 

I made myself present, though never distinct.

Things I said that he repeated, a tone

 

you could hear, but never trace, in his voice.

Silence—followed by talk of other things.

 

When you would sit at your desk, I would creep

near you like a question. A thought would scurry

 

across the front of your mind. I’d be there,

ducking out of sight. You must have felt me

 

watching you, my small eyes fixed on your face,

the smile you wondered at, on the lips only.

 

The voice on the phone, quick and full of business.

All that you saw and heard and could not find

 

the center of, those days growing into years,

growing inside of you, out of reach, now with you

 

forever, in your house, in your garden, in corridors

of dream where I finally tell you my name.

Have a good day, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and watch out for those spooky things that lurk at the very edge of your vision. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

And we stumble into the second half of the month ...

Former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized in California for complications of a urinary tract infection, but is recovering; the House committee investigating the January 6th Capitol insurrection will recommend criminal contempt charges against Steve Bannon, Der Furor's former advisor, after he refused to respond to a Congressional subpoena; in Kongsberg, Norway, five people were murdered and three others including an off-duty police officer, were injured by a man wielding a bow and arrows; the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court released its first report this week, rejecting an enlargement of the court as unlikely to achieve judicial and political balance, and instead recommending a system of rotating justices between the Supreme Court and lower federal courts; and preacher Rob Skiba, an influential figure in anti-vaccination and flat earth circles, has died of Covid-19.

It's the third week of October, and we continue with our tradition of Halloween-related Cartoon Saturdays with this week's salute to witches and warlocks ...

You've gotta hate delivery errors ...   

The Escher witch ...

Inspection report ...

Surely you've wondered what witches do when it's not Halloween season ...

Even witches want to keep up with the latest technology ...

This is brilliant, but you may need to think it through ...

You do what it takes to attract children in the 21st century ...

I've often wished I could do this ...

No, it's not ...

Crew for witches ...

And there you go - the third set of Halloween-inspired cartoons for the spooky month of October. I hope you enjoyed them!

Have a good day and a great weekend, and come back tomorrow for an October Poetry Sunday. More thoughts then,

Bilbo

Great Moments in Editing and Signage

We have reached the halfway point of the month and it's time for another round of Great Moments in Editing and Signage. Certainly more useful and entertaining than anything coming out of Mar-a-Lago ...

That's quite a sale ...

You just know that some bored sports editor had fun with this ...

Must have fallen out through a hole in the truck ... 

I wonder how many people applied for the job ...

Appropriate sentence ...

Was his problem lack of navigation skill or of memory? ...

These were definitely not normal cows ...

Uh, oh ... the animals are beginning to plot against us ...

This was clearly no peaceful, easy feeling ...

This is a true classic ...

And that's it for this edition of Great Moments ... I hope it helped you get over some of the yuckiness of the news. Have a good day and be sure to come back tomorrow, when the Cartoon Saturday Halloween Extravaganza looks at the world of witches and warlocks. More thoughts then.

Bilbo