Archive for 3/4/2008 - 27 Adar I, 5768

Here’s a St. Louis Wiki I recently discovered. It’s only six months old. OK, I discovered it back in October, when it was extremely new, and then proceeded to forget about it. I recently rediscovered it.

There are a few major differences in the philosophy behind WikiLou and behind Wikipedia.

To quote from the WikiLou Vision:

The main purpose of WikiLou is to provide information. The information here can be about anything to do with the St. Louis area. Everyone knows something about the area, and if everyone puts what they know on WikiLou, we will have the most comprehensive collaborative database of knowledge about St. Louis that has ever been compiled. Don’t be afraid to make a page for the corner market, your street, even your own house. Nothing is too small to be recorded here…WikiLou is a place for everyone in St. Louis to get themselves out there.

So whereas articles will be deleted on Wikipedia if they are on something that isn’t sufficiently ‘notable‘, and contributors are cautioned against contributing to entries about themselves, this is actively encouraged at WikiLou.

Yes, Passover begins on Monday night, April 2nd.

Passover Blues

How to break matza cleanly (in Japanese):

Passover Noir (never done this ritual myself, but this makes it look fun)

Yiddish Passover Medley

Matzo Man

Who Let the Jews Out?

And from last year: They Tried to Kill Us, We Survived (let’s eat)

Is Marijuana Kosher for Passover?

There’s a movement to Reestablish the Sanhedrin, and renew animal sacrifice in Israel. (It’s important to note these are extreme fringe Rabbis, but it’s nice to see they aren’t talking about blowing up the Dome of the Rock, and are only interested in building The Temple next to it. Not that the Muslims are OK with that. And while generally accepted Jewish tradition states the Temple won’t be rebuilt until the Messiah comes, I’d say the moment Islam accepts the reconstruction of The Temple is a good sign of the Messiah. As long as these extremists are willing to wait before they start hammering, they can sacrifice as many animals as they want. Sure, I feel a little for the animals, but I’m not a vegetarian.)

A student has been suspended for dressing up like a pirate. However, the student complains he was practicing his religion - Pastafarianism. Pastafarianism began in Kansas as a parody argument against Intelligent Design — the creator arguing that his religion had to be taught alongside Intelligent Design. But it’s taken on a life of it’s own. Possibly like Discordianism, though no one is certain about the intent of the creators of Discordianism.

Previously I blogged about the relationship between Pirates and Global Warming without realizing the graph was part of Pastafarianism.

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my great-grandfather being born in a town ‘nearby’ Dublin - Warsaw, Poland. The entry provided a link to driving directioins between Warsaw and Dublin.

At the time, GoogleMaps replied: “We could not calculate driving directions between Warsaw, Poland and Dublin, Ireland.” I found that funny.

But in the past two weeks Google Maps has improved their services and now they have the directions It will only take you 1 day and 3 hours. I will admit I actually thought it would involve James Bond’s underwater vehicle, but I forgot about the tunnel underneath the Channel, and there’s a ferry between Holyhead and Dun Laoghaire. (I’m not sure whether it’s a ferry you can take cars on. I may have one or two readers who know, though.)

If you read BoingBoing, you may know that someone posted the driving directions between New York City and Dublin. Google Maps doesn’t flinch with this query either. However, step 23 is “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean - 3,462 mi” (Though one person did the math/s and calculated that’s 4.9 mph for 29 continuous miles, which is pretty fast for a human) If you reverse the directions and you start in Dublin you’ll learn that’s equivalent to 5,572 km. (I think it’s fair they use the units of measurement for the place of origin)

These cross-water instructions aren’t always very efficient, as the instructions for Portugal to Miami illustrates. It seems GoogleMaps is pretty insistent that you start your swim in either France or the UK, and end it in New York. And it’s completely blind to the Pacific Ocean. It gives it’s old “we could not calculate…” error message for even “Hawaii to San Francisco”

But it does show they are always working on ways to improve, so I’m sure given time…

Harry Potter Book Seven Cover art

UK Children’s (with inside flaps) [thumbnail] [Extremely high resolution - 9mb] There’s story description on the inside flaps so if you don’t wish to read it, you might want to view the thumbnail.

UK Adult (with inside flaps) [thumbnail] [Extremely high resolution - 8mb] This has the same story description, but different illustrations. (Direct links to images)

US cover art (All art, no text, and the link takes you to a page where you can move a magnifying glass over an image of the cover, without letting you download it.)

If I were choosing the copy I purchased by cover art, I would choose the UK children’s version. There is no question in my mind.

Hecklerspray’s humorous coverage of the covers.

A statue of Mark McGwire is hidden in an undisclosed location.
(Commissioned in 2002 when his Hall of Fame status seemed a slam dunk, it now gathers dust as this requirement for putting the statue outside Busch stadium hasn’t been met. And may never be met due to the question of steroid use.)

In addition to the humorous images on Jim’s blog, six months ago, which Christy mentioned in the comments to the previous entry, I found the actual post I remembered.

I didn’t post it here, I just saw it on Nobody’s blog. It was July of 2005, which explains my lapse of memory. Unfortunately, the link is to a dead site, and while it’s on Archive.org, the images naturally aren’t archived. And that of course makes the archive of this particular page pretty worthless. With a little search I found it duplicated here

Since I have absolutely no faith in that remaining there…

One of these I’ve seen before, along with some additional creative test answers. I’m not sure if I posted it here, or saw it elsewhere.and maybe linked to it…or perhaps I never posted it here, but saw it on another local blog. If someone out there remembers, and can find that post, I’d appreciate it as I’d like to send the other creative test answers to my co-worker who sent me these.

Yep. Over. In less than a month.

The venerable publication has a storied history that also reflects the changing economics of print over the years — the big, glossy magazine came out weekly from 1936 to 1972, then was reincarnated as an occasional special issue, then as a monthly, and finally as a skinny newspaper supplement. In retrospect, that last move doesn’t look particularly smart. “We hitched our star to an industry that’s not growing,” said managing editor Robert Shapiro.

The unhitching will happen with the last print supplement on April 20, but the LIFE brand will live on the Web in the form of a free archive of the magazine’s renowned photos.

The below image was drawn by Hugo when he was 14, and suggests at that age he was already thinking about ‘future generations’ reading his works.

The above were copied from Victor Hugo and his Time.

It should be noted one of my favorite poems by Hugo appeared in those ‘exercise books’.

I wrote the following 2 years ago:

Press Release:

Get in shape! Read Poetry!

“According to psychologists at Scotland’s Dundee and St Andrew’s universities, poetry exercises the mind more than a novel.”

Yes, that’s right…

If you want your mind, slim and fit
you don’t want to read classic lit
instead it’s with meter and rhyme
you want to spend your leisure time!

And if picking up a book of poetry frightens you…don’t worry!

“Preliminary studies using brain-imaging technology also showed greater levels of cerebral activity when people listened to poems being read aloud.”

You actually don’t have to read a book of poetry. All you have to do is attend a local open mic!

April is National Poetry Month. So this makes it the perfect month to start a new exercise routine.

more info

The Chelonia are back, and in #1. Of course. (One factor the article dosn’t mention is that the movie does contain the voices of Patrick Stewart and Kevin Smith — which is an added incentive to aging geeks who otherwise might decide they’re too old for the Chordata Vertebrata Reptilia Chelonia.

Since the old picture of me on the left was over five years old, I thought I’d update it with the cellphone pic I took of myself. Maybe I’ll find a recent pic I like better, that’s a little clearer and of my entire face, but this reminds me of the pictures that used to grace the Newspoetry pages. I miss Newspoetry.

It’s time to pour the wine. I can post pictures from both my cell phone and my regular email account. (If you’re offended at all by the picture, you should know that it is by Peter Paul Rubens, from the early 1600s. That makes it art. Not a poster from an upcoming NC17 movie starring John Goodman. (There is an uncanny resemblance, though, isn’t there?)

Read the rest of this entry »

This message was sent using PIX-FLIX Messaging service… (snip)

A few more bugs to work out so I don’t get the stupid header every time but I’m close!

I wrote the below back in January. It never got posted.

Sometimes I wish there were some application I could load onto my
computer which would allow me to take a dead fish and whack someone
with it across the internet.

I think I know what it feels like to be a librarian, though
fortunately, I only have to deal with these inane queries once in
awhile, and not every day. I could ignore them, but if it doesn’t
take me too long to look up the answer, I like feeling helpful.

This is the email I noticed in my email box this morning:

—————
I have recently came across what i believe is an original publication
of the book ‘Ninety Three’ by Victor Hugo. It was published by
Nelson’s Library and no date is listed for publication in the book.
Any information about this book would be greatly appreciated.
__(name deleted)___
—————

My gut instinct was that Nelson’s Library was the British equivialent
to Harvard Classics. Lord Nelson was a pretty famous guy across the
pond. But even if not, the word ‘library’ in the name of the
publisher almost certainly put it in the same categorgy as Signet or
Penguin Classics. Within a 5 minute Google search I had tracked it
down to Thomas Nelson publishing house, and found a copy of the book
in William Faulkner’s Library dated 1927 (the original publication
being 1874). I emailed the guy back with the bad news. I should have
also told him that a copy of the original edition was selling on a
collectible site for a whopping $35. I didn’t because I was
contemplating the information myself. It’s not in great condition,
but what do you expect after 133 years? I know that was what was on
the guy’s mind. He thought he had something actually worth at least 3
figures. Ten years ago, maybe. But Ebay has driven down the price of
many collectibles. Especially books.

Out of all the queries in the logs of my website, the #1 has to be the search for:

secretion smile red hot

Not only due to the obviously perverted nature of the searcher’s mind, but that the search led him (or her) to a translation of Victor Hugo’s The Mind and the Masses, which

1) mentions the quote from Ezekiel referenced in the subject line
2) contains the line: “Literature is the secretion of civilisation, poetry of the ideal.”
3) contains the line: “To live, is to smile at the present, to look toward posterity over the wall.”

It’s nice that the twisted minds that arrive on my site aren’t all looking for pictures of Drew Barrymore.

Yes, the Ides of March were on Thursday of last week. A full week ago.

But, like Caesar, I was attacked.

Most likely it wasn’t by a previously loyal friend, so I don’t get to proclaim: Et Tu, Brute!
But maybe it was by a brute, in which case, while it’s pronounced differently, it’s spelled the same!

For those worried — it wasn’t a physical attack. For which I am thankful.
It was a financial attack.
Someone stole my “CheckCard” number and started a shopping spree on Thursday.
I caught it on Friday. And terminated my card instantly. My bank’s covering it, so no worries.

In the process of changing my number on various websites, I discovered that I was due a free cell phone. So I’ve upgraded. And now can take pictures with my cell phone, and send it via email. It also has some other nice features that will be fun experimenting with.

I’m supposed to be able to post to this blog via email too, but I tried setting it up just like the Wordpress help menus explained, and while the email went from my cellphone to the email box I created, it didn’t post. So I have to figure out what I did wrong. I have a suspicion I could set up a pictureblog at bloghorn very easily. Or at splashblog, but Bloghorn is local.

Anyway, here’s the first picture I took with my new cellphone camera. The subject header for the email was going to be: Dragons Read Poetry

intentionally left blank.

fun doormat.

The Air Car is here. Not the one that will fly us around like the Jetsons. (sigh)

The car that runs on air.

120-180 miles per tank of compressed air, at a cost of under $3 per tank.
Maximum speeds of 68 mph.
Will need to have its oil changed (vegetable oil) once every 30,000 miles.

Contrary to some reports, I am piliferous. Some parts of my body aren’t as piliferous as they once were, but other parts have filled the void. And some may, perhaps rightfully, ask for me not to fill in the details.

It’s possible you haven’t seen the “Word of the Day” blurb on my left-hand sidebar. It changes daily - at least five times a week. (That’s why they call it Word “of the Day”) I get a daily email containing the word and its definition. Every week also has a theme. For example, this week the theme involves words that pertain to that which I have more of today than I did twenty years ago, but some people incorrectly assume I have less of, due to incomplete data sets.

I do try to add as many of these words as possible into my vocabulary. For example, back in August of last year I learned the word titivate, and let all of you know that I titivate almost daily. I also wrote the word, ‘titivate’ into a short poem, which someday I hope to publish. And I have used the word several times in conversation since then. Often receiving raised eyebrows.

Despite the questionable authenticity of my Great-Grandfather’s Irishness, I’d be able to make an oath on a stack of Torah scrolls (if Torah scrolls stacked well) that I have Irish relatives. Related to me by blood.

They’re a generation younger than me, and infinitely cuter, but that’s irrelevant, right?

Have a meeting to attend late this afternoon. Boss was telling me it’s near Grand and Gravois. Coworker was saying how convenient that was for him as he lived nearby. I said not so convenient for me, but it was OK. I was thinking to myself I might head down Grand and grab a bite from Hartford Cafe, even though I plan on stopping there for lunch anyway. I can always order different things.

Looked up the address on Google Maps and discovered my boss was in the general neighborhood, give or take 2 miles. (Which is a lot on city streets) But it is two blocks from the corner of Pestalozzi and Lemp.

And for those who need to be told the significance of that intersection, that’s where The Venice Cafe is.

So, it’s not convenient for me to get home quick…but I’m not sure I’m going to want to get home quick…

I have a friend hosting a Pre-St Patrick’s Day party, but I might stop by The Venice beforehand and see if there’s anyone I know there.

Anyone want a Joost invite?

My email address is the to the left. First two requests get them.

In a couple days I’ll be in Dogtown, wearing the green, to honor my great-grandfather, who was born on March 17th. (The below is from a 1925 Who’s Who in North St. Louis)

My great-grandfather fibbed a bit, and he wasn’t exactly from Dublin. He was from a nearby town. Here’s how Google responds when I ask for driving directions from my great-grandfather’s hometown to Dublin.

Geographically, the rest of the bio is true. Though the scholastic parts of this curricula vitae are also exaggerated. Fortunately for my grandfather, he lived in a day where it wasn’t very easy to look these things up, so one could get away with a few embellishments.

The Lady’s Song in Leap Year
(a nursery rhyme from Gammer Gurton’s Garland, 1783 — a collection of English nursery rhymes)

Roses are red
Lavender’s blue
If you will have me
I will have you.

Lillies are white
Rosemary’s green
When you are King
I will be Queen

Call up your men
Set them to work
Some to the plough
Some to the cart

Some to make hay
Some to cut corn
Whilst you and I
Keep the bed warm.

(so it appears that my theory that Victor Hugo’s use of the phrase in a song from Les Miserables may have been the bridge between Spenser and the modern cliche seems a bit optimistic.)

On the other hand, I believe I have found for Wikipedia sufficient citations for the popular suggestion that the Confederate soldiers referred to themselves as “Lee’s Miserables”. (Four sources, one dating back to 1869).

I still have no idea who wrote this, except I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Hugo.

3/14 1:59 pm and 26 seconds

The opening line of a novel is important. The author wants to interest the reader as quickly as possible.

Science Fiction author, John Scalzi has posted the first chapter to his recent novel, The Adroid’s Dream.

If it’s not the funniest opening line I have ever read, it ranks. (pun intended)

Dylan Hears A Who! Dr. Seuss as performed by Bob Dylan. (Actually, if you read the small type, it just sounds like Dylan, but it’s an awfully good imitation. It’s by a group called Eye Berried Pall…which if you sound out, and are the right age you’ll get the joke. I’m not the right age, but I get the joke anyway.)

Unnamed friend told me yesterday, “Supreme Court had a ruling on the 2nd amendment yesterday.” My eyebrows raised. Hadn’t heard about it yet. Didn’t get home until late last night. Looked it up this morning. A Federal Appeals Court had a ruling. A small, but important difference, since it can be appealed. It was the DC Federal Appeals Court, which could have spawned the confusion.

The question in my mind is whether I want it appealed. I know the question is selfish, but I’m not confident of the results. And once the Supremes (Stop in the name of Law, before you kill us all! Turn it over. Turn it over) do make a decision (and they haven’t addressed the 2nd amendment since 1939), it applies to Missouri as well as DC.

From the NYT

The decision was the first from a federal appeals court to hold a gun control law unconstitutional on the ground that the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals, as opposed to the collective rights of state militias. Nine other federal appeals courts around the nation have rejected that interpretation.

There are 12 appeals courts. The 5th district (which includes Texas) has already declared an individual right, and the 2nd district has made no opinion. (Source)

I like the argument that was given by DC that since the amendment clarifies the right as for the purposes of a “well-regulated State militia”, and since DC isn’t a state….

Some have argued this logic would disqualify all the amendments for DC, but none of the other amendments mention the word ’state.’ I think the argument was only levied by secret supporters of the DC-state campaign. Because if they rule the day, DC’s statehood would quickly follow.

From Dork Tower

Should I mention that Spider-Man is currently wearing black because Aunt May was shot in an issue of Amazing Spider-Man a couple weeks ago? (Complete summary of Amazing Spider-Man #538) Should we assume that since the press didn’t mention this, Aunt May will live? Or perhaps Marvel just didn’t bother telling them about it.

I’ve been told, as the above comic suggests, that she’s died before. And so has Captain America.

As a sidenote: …what would the general reaction be, do you think, if on the day Harry Potter Book 7 is released, newspapers across the country had the headline: “Harry Potter Dies.” Or even “Harry Potter Lives”

Yesterday newspapers across the country reported the death of a superhero.

This death occurred in the issue with the title: Superhero #25 (Where of course Superhero is replaced by the name of said Superhero) It’s very easy to figure out the title of this comic. Just do a news search on Marvel Death Captain America.

(I apologize if I spoiled it for you, but since every newspaper in the country beat me to it by over 24 hours, you are really out of it.) Don’t run to your nearest comic bookstore. They’re sold out.

Another issue hit the stands yesterday with the rather strange title: Old Event: New Event.

Let me explain. Marvel and DC Comics both like publishing huge Events which cover huge numbers of issues so the comic book fan will have to buy a lot of comics to get the whole story. (That is unless they know what DCP is.)

For example, right now, DC Comics is on issue 42 or 43 of a title called 52. One issue a week. For 52 weeks. (They really need more creativity with their titles) Guess what they plan on doing next? They have a new title coming out — in about 10 weeks — called Countdown. It’s also going to be 52 weekly issues. And they’re counting down to something. Who knows what that will be, but I bet you’ll need to buy alot of comics to find out.

Marvel is ending now an event they called “Civil War” and beginning one called “The Initiative”. In Civil War all the superheros were fighting. The war ended with the apparent surrender of the individual who has been declared dead by every newspaper in the country.

But wait! Those newspapers may be more valuable in the future than those comics! In this issue of Civil War: The Initiative Superheroine A tells Superheroine B (it really doesn’t matter, does it?) that the news of Captain America’s death is greatly exaggerated.

Surprise!

If Superheroine A knows what she’s talking about, and isn’t lying, those who got their purchases up on Ebay quickly are going to be happy. Those stuck paying $200 for these issues will be angry. Neither one is me.

I did win another $3 in Powerball on Wednesday though.
You may have noticed the Powerball number was 36.
When that happens, you know if I played, I won at least $3.

March 16-24, Carrie Fisher, known to many as Princess Leia, will be spending a relaxing week in Bermuda, as one of the judges at the Bermuda International Film Festival. Others lucky enough to be selected for this hardship are actor Richard Dreyfus (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), producer Stanley Nelson (Murder of Emmett Till), Director Lucinda Spurling (Rare Bird), Tamara Tarasova, and actor Ben Newmark (West Bank Story).

Note: information for this blurb came from Variety, and IMDB. The only Tamara Tarasova I can find online is a figure skating coach.

Captain America
By: Jimmy Buffett — 1970

Can you tell me where I might find my friend and companion
Now he looks a little different from anything you’ve seen
He likes to beat the bass drum for justice and salvation
He’s got the brains of Einstein and the brawn of Mister Clean

He’s a lightnin’ flash who’ll make the dash from one coast to the other
To stop a crime or lend a dime or help his aging mother
Captain America we love you, Captain America you’re grand
Oh Spiro Agnew eat your heart out Captain America’s our man

Now he wears a mask his clothes are weird and some folks call him hokie
But he is hip he just can’t dig the Okie from Muskogie

Captain will help anyone a friend or a stranger
Now number one without a gun he’s bypassed the Lone Ranger
He’s a do do good who loves apple pie and kisses little babies
He’ll guard you against everything from atom bombs to rabies

Captain America we love you, Captain America you’re grand
Oh Spiro Agnew eat your heart out Captain America’s our man

Can you tell me where I might find my friend and companion
He looks a little different from anything you’ve seen
He likes to beat the bass drum for justice and salvation
He’s got the brains of Einstein and the bod of Mister Clean

He’s a lightnin’ flash who’ll make the dash from one coast to the other
To stop a crime or lend a dime or help his aging mother
Captain America we love you, Captain America you’re grand
Oh Spiro Agnew eat your heart out Captain America’s our man
Captain America’s our man

A month ago, I mentioned submitting two poems to The New Yorker. They warned they might take three months to respond, but apparently it only took them one month. Alas, the answer was ‘no’ to both of them.

I can’t say I’m shocked, or hurt by this rejection. I’ll just have to choose another target.

A good post from The Huffington Post on the Jesus ossuaries.

I could add a few more points, but this about covers it. I admit I didn’t see the special, and have been following this as I do most news stories, through online commentary. (newsblogs and online newspapers). But when the only DNA evidence was from residue on the Mariamne and Jesus tombs, and it only shows they’re not matrilineally related, that’s pretty flimsy.

OK…A few additional points: Assuming Mariamne e Mara is Mary Magdalene as the ‘documentary’ does seems to be a ‘leap of faith’. Here are some (equally if not more likely in my opinion) Mariamnes

Clarifying an earlier point. The original statistician said 1 in 600 families should have that pattern by chance. That’s all he said. IF there are 1200 families in that time period, I **think** the odds are 1-to-1, or 100% odds, that there will be two families. I am not an expert in statistics, and I could be wrong. Anyway, he never gave odds on how likely it was that the tombs were Jesus’ family. Only how common that pattern of names would be. The odds that it’s Jesus has a few more factors he didn’t include in his figuring. (Such as the population of Jerusalem in that era, and the number of possible generations we are dealing wtih.)

Note: According to this at the ‘Seige of Jerusalem’ (70 CE) - Josephus says the population was 3,000,000; but Tacitus says it was 600,000. So let’s use the lower figure and estimate 50,000 families as a low mark. (That’s assuming 12-member families.) Using the statistician’s figures of 1 family in 600 with this pattern, we should expect 42 families with this pattern at the time of the Siege. 42!

(OK. 41.666667)

Scientific American article on the statistics.

The statistician makes it clear he did not say that there were 600-1 odds that it was Jesus and his family. He said that 1 in 600 families of that era would have that combination of names. Therefore…if there were 1200 families in that era (or more), one would expect to see two families (or more) with that combination of names.

The Scientific American article also discusses some of the assumptions that went into figuring out the statistics, some of which may be questionable.

Finally…all we will ever have are the statistics. I am unable to foresee any technology that can shed any more light on this since we lack any DNA evidence of the ‘real’ Jesus. All we can prove is the relationships of those in the ossuary, which proves nothing beyond how they were related to each other.

So to promote this as the “Real Jesus” and the implications that Christianity is built on falsehoods has only one purpose, and I will not participate in such purposes. As once I do, I no longer can object to those who promote attacks on my religion that aren’t based on fact — such as the holocaust deniers, those who support the European Blood Libel, the spreaders of the Protocols, etc.

Once actual facts, as opposed to statistical odds, are uncovered, then ask me again.

Do I need to quote Mark Twain?

I was at a house concert last night.
The house was nearby Bevo Mill.
The performer was S.J. Tucker, aka Skinny White Chick.

As SWC is popular in the local pagan-community, and I have a few friends from that community, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her play in some unique locales. Pagan Boy with a Mini had his own house concert two summers ago. She also joined our troupe for a winetasting jaunt in Ste Genevieve, and brought her guitar alolng. The acoustics were good in the cave at Cave Vineyard.

I’m really lousy at describing music. I can tell you I like the songs Mummy Medusa and Mama Dragon from her debut album, Haphazard. Or The Wendy Saga from her recent, Sirens. However, that tells you nothing. (Except that she is interested in Greek mythology, fantasy, and Peter Pan.) However, since some of her CDs are available at CDBaby, such as Haphazard, Tangles, and the live album Tales from the Road — You can listen to her music there. The only place online to buy Sirens, I think, is her website, and, alas, it doesn’t have a listening feature. I do think it’s her best album yet, more on which below. Finally, Haphazard and Tangles are on Itunes, so you can find individual tracks there.

Owning some of her music, and knowing the others were available online, I entered the house concert sure I’d be able to resist the merchandise table. But, to help curb any ‘crimes of passion’, I intentionally came with only enough money to put in the tip jar. Of course, I looked anyway, just to see what was available, and if there were any new items for me to look up online later — away from the siren call of her music. And I saw chapbooks. Chapbooks!

They turned out to be the lyrics and liner notes to her songs — one for each album. And the covers had some really nice cover art as well. It’s a creative marketing scheme. I was told they weren’t available online. But the blue and yellow stripes were visibly displayed on the table. And I’d not left my blue and yellow stripes at home:

Worse “crimes of passion” have been committed. Three chapbooks have been added to my library.

Let me share with you some of the lyrics from Sirens. Particularly, the Wendy Saga. This covers three tracks, and has 44 stanzas, so this is but a small taste. Which I think Sooj would appreciate.

Now, Wendy never was a girl to go against her friends
But recall when Hook had kidnapped her and promised no good end
Surrounded then by pirates and asked to join the crew,
the story goes she told them no, but not all tales are true!

Wouldn’t she rather climb the rigging and wield a cutlass bright,
Wouldn’t she rather have her own sweet say o’er wrong and right?
“Your decision, girl,” says Hook. “You think you’ll pass the test?”
The scurvy crew are sniggering, but Wendy answers “Yes!
You set me any task, old man, and watch me see it through.
You’ve never known the likes of piracy a girl can do!”

I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but the following comes from Part III (most probably could predict this was coming…the tale lies in the getting there):

Wendy’s ship it prospers, and the girls are eating well
A roving band of sisters, singing songs and raising hell.

Another track from the album, Sirens, which she performed last night as well, was Go Away God Boy. She makes it clear in the book, and when performing the song that it is not a church-bashing song, but a psycho-online-stalkers-who-think-they’re-Jesus-bashing song. And, alas, she isn’t using any of the words metaphorically.

The song contains these wonderful lines:

Who wants to go to heaven when your stalker meets you there?

and

Don’t try to wrap your head around my heartful of free will
I’ll shake you up, I’ll tear you down, do my worst and give you chills

The full lyrics can be read at The Bardic Circle. There’s also a song that should please kids, of all ages, entitled, Alligator in the House.

This lacks the flourish I’d expect from an ego the size he had.

I don’t have a paraph. They’re easy to come by, but I’ve never felt the need. Do any of you?