Althouse: At the Meadow Café...

May 15, 2009

At the Meadow Café...

... it's quiet. Too quiet.

43 comments:

ricpic said...: It is afternoon.
The morning's madness is done.
Time (you'd think) to lay back and swoon.
But that's not good enough. Girls gotta have fun!; 5/15/09, 1:55 PM
traditionalguy said...: Sometimes one needs to go thru a few days of withdrawals from the hustle and bustle and sounds of our urban areas. Think of it as a silent monastary, just add a Belltower.; 5/15/09, 1:59 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: "Imagine you are a dzeer. You are prancing alwong. You get twhisrty...; 5/15/09, 2:05 PM
ricpic said...: That clip was hysterical, Elcubanito.; 5/15/09, 2:10 PM
Anonymous said...: As that picture was loading, I thought you might have Windows XP running in emulation mode.

P.S.-VMware Fusion is slower, but a LOT more stable than Parallels, at least running Vista. But you're better off with XP in any event.

Can't wait for Windows 7.

Vista=World's Most Annoying Operating System.

The first two paragraphs are inside-Mac talk. The last two apply to us all.; 5/15/09, 2:11 PM
Palladian said...: In this picture there are 40 people. None of them can be seen...; 5/15/09, 2:13 PM
kjbe said...: Thanks, Palladian - great for a Friday!; 5/15/09, 2:18 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: Meadows make me think of deer, and deer of My Cousin Vinny...call me crazy...; 5/15/09, 2:18 PM
rhhardin said...: If you have a dog on the case you can be sure it's a real quiet when it's quiet.; 5/15/09, 2:18 PM
Palladian said...: Here we see Miss A. Althouse of Madison, Wisconsin. Miss Althouse, will you stand up please?; 5/15/09, 2:20 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: And right in those woods...and for something completely different!; 5/15/09, 2:22 PM
Bissage said...: That's a nice meadow. On a lark, I'm going to post a photo of a lemon. Link.; 5/15/09, 2:32 PM
JAL said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/15/09, 2:37 PM
JAL said...: @ Palladian: When is Chip going to show up and liven up the meadow?; 5/15/09, 2:38 PM
rhhardin said...: Dog alerts just now on subtle change on the savanna, the arrival of a ditch witch seeking water.; 5/15/09, 2:40 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: rhharding, that looks like Overland Park, KS.; 5/15/09, 2:43 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: That field is wasted! I want to see muscari or maybe some species daffodils growing in there. Something. I bet those bushes aren't even lilacs.; 5/15/09, 4:01 PM
Revenant said...: The larch.

The... larch.; 5/15/09, 4:12 PM
john said...: rhhardin @ 2:18 - In my town the electric company will put in buried cable to your house service box for free. All you need to do is dig the ditch to the right pole. You can finally get rid of those nasty lines and poles in your yard.

You got the digger, right across the street. You could probably borrow it for a few cold ones, this being Friday afternoon.; 5/15/09, 4:14 PM
KCFleming said...: What's a meadow for?; 5/15/09, 4:46 PM
Big Mike said...: @Palladian, she's in the right foreground, wearing a ghillie suit.; 5/15/09, 4:47 PM
traditionalguy said...: Pogo...Meadows are grassy areas without trees. They are made for the grazing animals that eat grass. No one knows how they were made. It must have been done by double secret special evolution, since there are no other answers.; 5/15/09, 4:54 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: You know, viewing those tattoo mug shots down there, vvv, simultaneously cracks me up and fills me with despair for humanity. But the thing that interests me most is the guy with the hieroglyphs inked all over his body. Whenever I see Egyptian glyphs I imagine the person only vaguely knows what they had permanently inked on themselves, much like the Chinese characters that really say, "I'm a twat" or "fermented fish and rice," and not "good fortune and longevity as the wearer was told." It a joke tattooists play.

Scratching away the background around hieroglyphs drawn on a sheet of plaster using a dental tool is tedious. Focusing on the tip of the tool for a long period of time causes the greater portion of one's mind to wander or to free-form associate. A project like this early piece depicting Harsaphes, which I never sold and still own, will take several sittings. I'll leave the project open and return to it throughout the day. One day, on another piece, I sat down and resumed scratching immediately following a shower. I hadn't dressed yet but wrapped myself in a white towel. There I was, alone, scratching away in the afternoon. Scritchy scratch scratch scritchy scratch scratch, for hours. During that period I was briefly transported. I'm in a cave, a subterranian grotto, scratching away tediously. The lighting is poor. My eyes strain. My mind is on the precision of my tool and the angles of my chips. I'm a scribe. I'm a thousand years away from myself and I'm a scribe in a cave. I'm a scribbling scratching satisfied scribe. My work is not for myself. *snap* I'm back. There I am in my present day room shirtless in a towel!

This man pictured with the tattoo has drawn on himself a large ankh which he most likely knows conotes "life." He also has a wedjat, or eye of Horus, but I doubt he knows it's meaning, and that it's intended to depict an eye of a falcon with its teardrop marking -- the all-seeing eye of Ra, the sun god. Over the centuries and throughout various locations along the Nile the wedjat assumed various meanings and was associated with various gods. It's usually intened to protect a king through the afterlife but it's also seen a lot on jewelry and everyday royal objects.

Ankh by itself strikes me as a feminine symbol. After all, it is nearly identical to the Greek symbol for female. But you almost never see the Ankh by itself in Egyptian art, and almost never by itself in Egyptian funerary art. It's usually associated with the djed. An ankh inked on a man's body without a djed is just plain incomplete, in my view as a scribe. For the longest time noone could quite make out what a djed was attempting to depict. Eventually it became understood to be a combination of a pillar and a backbone, thus it symbolizes strength. So there you have it, life and strength together. The symbols need not be next to each other like typed letters, they can be combined or stacked. An ankh, a djed, and a crook almost always go together on jewelery and objects designed for royalty. The snail conotes sure-footedness, and the semi-circle depicts bread, which can be also depicted otherwise, a tall triangular peak for exammple, but here specifically a bread bun. So you have the concepts of steadiness, control, life, strength, and food all bunched together for royalty. Here's an example of of ankh and djed and a crook compressed as one symbol. You'll notice the handle of the crook is stylized into the head of an animal, which is also a common practice, what looks like a feather is an animal's ear.

This is why, if I were a tattooist, and a gent came in with ideas of hieroglypic scribbling, I'd talk him into allowing me to elaborate a little bit so that he wouldn't seem like such a pathetic douchebag.; 5/15/09, 4:57 PM
KCFleming said...: Nope!

To keep cows in!!

Sorry; old grade school joke.
(what's a metaphor?)I'll go now.; 5/15/09, 5:02 PM
Bissage said...: [Our scene is a back patio in USDA zone 6b. The time is 10 minutes ago. Bissage is watering the potted Japanese maple (‘Inaba shidare’) while Mrs. Bissage deadheads the pansies (Mulberry Shades Hybrid).]

BISSAGE: Hmm . . . that’s funny. Is there any reason why you didn’t Osmocote® this one rose?

MRS. BISSAGE: Maybe because I didn’t want to! Is there some reason why you have to complain about the one rose I didn’t?

BISSAGE: I’m just saying.

MRS. BISSAGE: Harrumph!

BISSAGE: Are you mad now?

MRS. BISSAGE: Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick.

BISSAGE: Hey, if you don’t want to fertilize that one that’s fine with me. It’s your call.

MRS. BISSAGE: Harrumph!

BISSAGE: You’re still making me dinner, right?

MRS. BISSAGE: Go away!

BISSAGE: [starts up the back steps] And don’t forget to iron my shirt!

MRS. BISSAGE: Funny. Are you going to put this on that blog thing?

BISSAGE: Maybe.; 5/15/09, 5:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: Thanks Pogo... LOL.; 5/15/09, 5:20 PM
traditionalguy said...: Chip Ahoy... The Egyptian glyphs are from a very powerful super natural tradition. Many are used in Free Masons' ceremonies these days. Adolph the self proclaimed new Ceasar called upon these same Egyptian sources to seduce Germany only 80 years ago. So who will set this tatood prisoner free? The Hebrews under Moses had to use a more powerful supernatural tradition to set their People free from Egyptian power, so much more powerful that it created a fear of Moses' and his People that persists in Egypt to this day. Charlton Heston played the role well.; 5/15/09, 5:44 PM
An Edjamikated Redneck said...: Wait...

A quiet Meadow....

And no appearance by Trooper York?!?!?!

Somebody call Columbo- quick!!!; 5/15/09, 5:56 PM
rhhardin said...: Sorry; old grade school joke.
(what's a metaphor?)I'll go now.

A world traveller reports that in Greece metaphor means luggage carousel.

I had thought it meant moving van.; 5/15/09, 6:00 PM
ricpic said...: "What's a meadow for?

To keep cows in!!

What's a metaphor?"

I swear I sat here for two minutes before the nickel dropped. I blame it all on the Chipster, whose impossibly esoteric - as per usual - comment momentarily had me discombobulated.; 5/15/09, 6:46 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/15/09, 6:52 PM
Anonymous said...: So, these two peanuts were walking down a dark alley one night, and one was assaulted

peanut; 5/15/09, 6:53 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: A rope walks into a bar. The bartender says "Hey, You...rope.. get out of here we don't serve your type."

The angry rope goes outside and ties himself into a double clove hitch. Throws himself on the ground and rolls around and around until he is a frazzled mess.

The rope goes back into the bar and the bartender yells at him. "Hey...I told you we don't serve ropes."

The rope says "Its OK you can serve me"

The bartender belligerently says "You're a rope and we don't serve ropes"

Rope says "No. You're wrong...I'm a frayed knot"

Lesson to Wanda Sykes...This is what a funny joke is like.; 5/15/09, 7:08 PM
David said...: Too quiet?

Turn on the tv.

Whoops! No tv?

So turn Meade on.; 5/15/09, 7:11 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Dang...I messed up the punchline.

The Bartenders says: "Hey..I told you to get out of here. Aren't you that rope I just kicked out"

Rope says: "No, I'm a frayed knot"

Keeping my day job.; 5/15/09, 7:29 PM
traditionalguy said...: DBQ... That was funny and punny. I will try it out at my daughter-in-laws birthday tomorrow, and report back. My son's generation already thinks my humor is quaint, while they watch Family Guy videos and roll on the floor.; 5/15/09, 8:27 PM
MadisonMan said...: Blue Skies, smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see.

Blue birds, singing a song
Nothing but blue skies all day long; 5/15/09, 8:54 PM
Trooper York said...: "What's a meadow for?"

To spend Tony's money and bitch at Carmela.; 5/15/09, 9:03 PM
Trooper York said...: Oh yeah and this season to give Turtle head.; 5/15/09, 9:04 PM
TMink said...: The wife and eldest daughter and I just spent the last hour listening to the Doors box set in surround sound. Outstanding!

We were playing the digital version of drop the needle, pause the laser I guess. We started with LA Woman, People Are Strange, When the Music's Over, You're Lost Little Girl, and ended up with Horse Latitudes, Moonlight Drive, and Riders On The Storm.

The surround is killer on these.

Horse Latitudes weirded our 14 year old out so much that she was worried she would get bad dreams! The story goes that Brian Wilson came into the studio while Jim Morrison was doing the vocal track. I bet it gave Brian bad dreams for a year!

The surround of Riders On the Storm chased the cat out of the room!

Most highly recommended, but you may want to put the cat up before you start it.

Trey; 5/15/09, 11:40 PM
Anonymous said...: "Oh, why can't we break away from all this, just you and I, and lodge with my fleas in the hills? I mean flee to my lodge in the hills."; 5/16/09, 3:30 AM
Unknown said...: Sometimes one needs to go thru a few days of withdrawals from the hustle and bustle and sounds of our urban areas.
Web Hosting; 5/16/09, 6:28 AM
rhhardin said...: New in the lawn.

Yellow wood sorrel.; 5/16/09, 1:06 PM