Althouse: The oak tree apparition.

July 9, 2015

The oak tree apparition.

Yesterday morning, in our backyard.

Interpretations?

64 comments:

tim maguire said...: Breast Cancer Awareness week? The Susan B. Koman Foundation will be contacting you shortly for their licensing fee.; 7/9/15, 10:41 AM
Deirdre Mundy said...: It's the eye of Sauron. Some hobbits will be along to save you in short order--better stock the pantry.; 7/9/15, 10:44 AM
Anonymous said...: The tree has begun its ignition sequence...; 7/9/15, 10:46 AM
Shawn Levasseur said...: Two people with magnifying glasses are trying to burn down your tree.; 7/9/15, 10:46 AM
My name goes here. said...: Someone found Harry Caray's glasses.; 7/9/15, 10:49 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/9/15, 10:53 AM
Anonymous said...: The sun is sending you a message: cut this tree.; 7/9/15, 10:56 AM
Clayton Hennesey said...: The spacecraft's gamma ray burster sight's a little off, I'd say.

I guess I missed the latest "aliens look ridiculous in shorts" post, right?; 7/9/15, 10:57 AM
Unknown said...: It is the sun, really. Usually in Wisconsin you see it in late May or early June. You had a really long winter this year.; 7/9/15, 11:04 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: Are you a Pisces, by chance?; 7/9/15, 11:05 AM
David Duffy said...: It's the way the Girl Scouts mark the ones who are an easy sell. You can't see the mark without the special Girl Scout glasses. You must have fitted the glasses to your camera. You will now be hunted down for publishing the secret mark.; 7/9/15, 11:09 AM
traditionalguy said...: That is either a sign of good tree Feng Shue, or a flaming sword reminder not to eat from the knowledge of good and evil fruit that Meade planted in the center of the Garden.; 7/9/15, 11:10 AM
Tank said...: It's the Olympic Flame in honor of the girls soccer team.

Who's going to the parade tomorrow?; 7/9/15, 11:19 AM
Beaver7216 said...: The first thing that popped in my brain was related to the line on top. It made me think of the back of the hand with a middle finger extended. God's way of saying "F-you"; 7/9/15, 11:22 AM
SteveR said...: You are Ready for Hillary!; 7/9/15, 11:25 AM
cassandra lite said...: A child of nature taking a piss in the backyard.; 7/9/15, 11:27 AM
Fernandinande said...: Jesus's car headlights have poorly shaped reflectors.; 7/9/15, 11:32 AM
Anonymous said...: It's the VIP upgrade from the "Burning Bush". Look for a stone tablet under the scrubs...; 7/9/15, 11:35 AM
steve uhr said...: Yeti; 7/9/15, 11:37 AM
pm317 said...: The fire inside a tree's belly.; 7/9/15, 12:02 PM
Tank said...: JPP"s finger?; 7/9/15, 12:09 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Mothman.; 7/9/15, 12:09 PM
Wilbur said...: I see the outline of a penguin.; 7/9/15, 12:40 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: It's obviously the source of the elusive penumbra.; 7/9/15, 12:47 PM
rhhardin said...: Cusped caustic from reflection from a curved surface.; 7/9/15, 12:52 PM
m11_9 said...: Morels are near that tree.; 7/9/15, 12:52 PM
Barry Dauphin said...: Donald Trump looking to find illegals making men's shorts in Wisconsin so he can give the pants to Jonah Goldberg after deporting the workers; 7/9/15, 12:57 PM
David said...: Same thing happened in my yard in Sturgeon Bay this morning, very similar pattern.

Interpretation: Alien Witches.; 7/9/15, 1:21 PM
garage mahal said...: Jail any business owner who employs illegal immigrants. But, that would put Trump in jail. All this talk about illegal immigration raping yer womin is for the rubes. Big business and the people who run the Republican party cares not one whit about it.; 7/9/15, 1:23 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Meade is Moses?; 7/9/15, 1:44 PM
virgil xenophon said...: @BarrySanders20/

Looks more like "the elusive Wapiti" to me..; 7/9/15, 1:52 PM
rhhardin said...: I find I'm turning off the sound on Rush Limbaugh a lot these days.; 7/9/15, 1:58 PM
Brill said...: You're going to be a Grandmother!; 7/9/15, 2:13 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Enh, garage, but jailing anyone ("business owner" or not) that employs illegal immigrants is pretty much the only way to deal with the situation, nyet? Granted, our prisons would become a lot more overcrowded than they already are, but at least random women would be less likely to be shot by five-time deportees who nonetheless have no trouble making their way back a couple thousand miles to their favorite "sanctuary city."

And a propos of nothing, what is this statistic that 80% of female migrants from Central America are raped on their way through Mexico? I see many problems here:

(1) If women are running from Central American countries because of persecution there, what's wrong with stopping at Mexico?

(2) There's a lot of Mexico, South to North, and Mexican border enforcement is, if anything, a lot stricter than our own. So how are all these people getting through? Please don't tell me that they just hop onto the roofs of trains. If I know that, so do the Federales. Who, therefore, know of this massive traffic, and ignore it.

(3) Doesn't the statistic supply some credence (NB "some") to Il Trump's assertion about Mexican illegal immigrants? Or is the argument that the people who come here are all non-violent (the one who shot the unfortunate lady in SF apart), while it's the ones still in Mexico who are the rape fiends?; 7/9/15, 2:27 PM
Anthony said...: It's an image of an illuminated man walking, so it's clearly telling you to vote for Walker because of his superior wisdom.; 7/9/15, 2:39 PM
Unknown said...: A bear; 7/9/15, 3:01 PM
Original Mike said...: Get out of the house now!; 7/9/15, 3:17 PM
Temujin said...: Prairie Fire's a-comin.; 7/9/15, 3:38 PM
Fritz said...: rhhardin said...
Cusped caustic from reflection from a curved surface.

Most likely a double pane window which has lost some of it's inert filler gas and become concave from the vacuum. Once in a great while they set something on fire.; 7/9/15, 3:38 PM
Hagar said...: "Loretta Lynch: Same-sex couples
to get federal marriage benefits."

Whatever you think of the idea, it seems odd that this edict be issued by the Attorney General.; 7/9/15, 3:41 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Thanks, Fritz.

Meade went outside and traced the source of the reflection to an upstairs window.; 7/9/15, 3:42 PM
Foobarista said...: Sun reflecting off the pickup in your driveway.; 7/9/15, 4:04 PM
richard mcenroe said...: You must build a shrine to H. Rap Brown. Burn, baby, burn! It's a sign!; 7/9/15, 4:08 PM
Real American said...: probably just Greg Brady screwing with you; 7/9/15, 4:13 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Satan.; 7/9/15, 4:43 PM
Rusty said...: Ann Althouse said...
Thanks, Fritz.

Meade went outside and traced the source of the reflection to an upstairs window.

Of course it was. You didn't think it was some other phenomenon did you?; 7/9/15, 5:02 PM
Bill said...: Our Lady of Madison.; 7/9/15, 5:06 PM
Tom said...: A Holy Troll. (If you're old enough to remember the old troll dolls.); 7/9/15, 5:15 PM
Gahrie said...: Looks like Bob Dylan to me.; 7/9/15, 5:22 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: It's a salamander -- not the amphibian, the fiery, ethereal nether-beast the earthly salamander was named for. You are god damn lucky the tree didn't burst into flames hotter than the sun.; 7/9/15, 5:37 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Meade finally found the location of the Ark of the Covenant.; 7/9/15, 6:10 PM
CWJ said...: It's just a "lava oak." Probably bought at Spencer's and planted back in the sixties. It's just coming into maturity now.; 7/9/15, 6:23 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/r/returnofthegrievousangel.shtml

RETURN OF THE GRIEVOUS ANGEL
(Thomas S. Brown / Gram Parsons)

Won't you scratch my itch sweet Annie Rich
And welcome me back to town
Come out on your porch or I'll step into your parlor
And I'll show you how it all went down

Out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels
And a good saloon in every single town

Oh, and I remember something you once told me
And I'll be damned if it did not come true
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you

`Cause I headed West to grow up with the country
Across those prairies with the waves of grain
And I saw my devil,
and I saw my deep blue sea
And I thought about a calico bonnet from
Cheyenne to Tennessee

We flew straight across that river bridge,
last night a half past two
The switchman wave his lantern goodbye
and so long as we went rolling through
Billboards and truckstops pass by the grievous angel
And now I know just what I have to do

And the man on the radio won't leave me alone
He wants to take my money for something
that I've never been shown

And I saw my devil,
and I saw my deep blue sea
And I thought about a calico bonnet from
Cheyenne to Tennessee

The news I could bring I met up with the king
On his head an amphetamine crown
He talked about unbuckling that old bible belt
And lighted out for some desert town

Out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels
And a good saloon in every single town

Oh, but I remembered something you once told me
And I'll be damned if it did not come true
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you

Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you; 7/9/15, 7:28 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: If liking Gram Parsons is a crime, well, c'mon, you know, it's not really a crime.

Hah.

Were it not for my respect for the graciousness of the hosting here I would link "Still Feeling Blue" and "This Must Be The Place" by the Talking Heads.

Alas, you've all grown, rightfully, weary of me.

Fair enough.

But Max Ehrmann's Desiriata or somesuch might conclude otherwise given.

I'm not trying to speak for him, but if pressed... yeah I'd speak 'bout the guy.

Good guy. Had some poetry wisdom quintessentially decent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata; 7/9/15, 7:53 PM
Fritz said...: Rusty said...
Ann Althouse said...
Thanks, Fritz.

Meade went outside and traced the source of the reflection to an upstairs window.

Of course it was. You didn't think it was some other phenomenon did you?

She's a lawyer, not a physicist.; 7/9/15, 8:56 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Of course it was. You didn't think it was some other phenomenon did you?"

I thought it was a reflection, but I didn't know exactly what it was bouncing off. It was a very interesting pattern, though, so I found that intriguing. I didn't actually think it was a message from beyond, but you never know!; 7/9/15, 9:16 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "It's just a "lava oak." Probably bought at Spencer's and planted back in the sixties. It's just coming into maturity now."

That tree is about 200 years old.; 7/9/15, 9:17 PM
pm317 said...: we have light mysteries like this inside our house. One time a corner of our family room was lit and tracking it, I found that it was the light from our guest bedroom window upstairs. We are not all home at all times to catch these mysteries.; 7/9/15, 9:30 PM
Mark said...: Elvis has returned!; 7/9/15, 10:29 PM
Clyde said...: Tony Orlando, call your office.; 7/10/15, 3:11 AM
Rusty said...: but you never know!

Yeah. You kinda do. Science and all that.

Hang a mirror on that tree and reflect that light back into the house.; 7/10/15, 6:07 AM
Cynicus said...: Looks like a Christian fish sign swimming up. You may have stumbled on the local Christian secret society now that Christians need to go underground to practice their religion without persecution.; 7/10/15, 7:18 AM
dbp said...: It looks like a reflection. I would have gone to the tree and looked to see the source of the light. Probably a window from another house not far away.; 7/10/15, 9:15 AM
Anonymous said...: My mother used to take me as a boy
To watch the men construct the booths that closed
The pilgrim year. With citron palms, they’d pray
To stay in God’s shadow, virtually fused
To it, much as the tented rafters stood
With olive branches. A week would pass.
After lashing leafy thongs to myrtle wood,
They’d break them down again without a trace.
Though youth’s older days beheld such events
I see this almond-shaped booth of light
As bright as morning’s templed peak – and what
Will mark the moment? Quickly fashioned tents?
We think of time and space. It does not cross
Our minds that something greater takes its place.; 7/10/15, 10:56 AM