Plant corner

Monkey puzzle trees are quite interesting both because of their unusual crisscross branches and because they're conifers native to the Southern hemisphere. They're not the only conifers from the Southern Hemisphere, but conditions in the southern temperate zones have almost certainly shaped them into what they are now. In any case, as they're endangered, may they soon be unendangered.

It's theorized that they're spiky branches evolved as a defense against dinosaurs. Crazy to think about how aspects of such a long-ago world are still with us today.

We got a jumper

 

I love this song. It's got an aggressively angular sound you wouldn't necessarily associate with Simon & Garfunkel, but they wear it well. It's also a really good example of storytelling in song. A real "you are there" feel, and an ending that raises some question. 

This blog post about it is very good too. (Remember blogs?) "Another Paul" has always been able to draw a lot out of the Simon songs he writes about. Marilyn Manson is an interesting addition to the mix.

Cat's entertainment

Well, the known animal kingdom just got a little bigger, and it's always cool when you can find out about that. The tilcayo tiger cat was just discovered in Bolivia. Its Latin binomial is leopardus tilcayo, which sounds not unlike a Chicano rapper with an Ancient Roman theme.

One of the researchers who discovered the tilcayo notes that it's "smaller than a housecat." But how can that be when it's of the genus "leopardus"? Well, actual leopards, which mostly live in Africa, have the genus "panthera." The "leopardus" genus describes South American native cats, most of the species being quite small. 

Anyway, here's hoping the tilcayo tiger cat's habitat remains sufficiently intact for them to thrive.

Melancholy Danes

Take a look at the picture of the Helsingor train station. It was built in a time of great artistry and craftsmanship, definitely. But there's something more about it.

"Helsingor" has an English cognate in "Elsinore", i.e. where Hamlet takes place. And Helsingor knows this, which is why right outside the station stand statues of Hamlet and Ophelia. The linked blogger describes them as "bearing grotesque expressions." His face looks a little wimpy, although the same can't be said of his muscular legs. She has a thousand yard stare and a jaw that looks ready to fall off.

The nineteenth century is when Shakespeare's reputation went from "a great playwright" to "the Great Playwright." By the latter part of the century, Denmark knew how big he'd gotten and about their connection to what was widely considered his greatest play. They picked a classy way to cash in.

Happy accidents

You might remember a man named Bob Ross, a Floridian Air Force veteran with a white guy afro who attained what might be called a viral fame in the last ten years or so of his shortish life. He wasn't PBS's first happy-go-lucky painting instructor―that was Bill Alexander―but he defined that role for the public and is a rich subject for parody.

A friend today told me about Bob Ross Painting Parties, which I hadn't heard of before. It seems to have started in the late 2010s and is still going on. People get together, project Bob Ross videos on the wall, and have a go at painting.

If you're an actual artist this probably sounds more like dressing up as Brad and Janet for Rocky Horror screenings than what you do, and you're not wrong. But the crucial phrase here is "people get together." Social traditions have been disappearing and shrinking much faster in the 21st century than new ones can be created. So if a new one springs up, why carp about the sillier aspects? May the painting parties spread like wildfire from YMCA to church basement to parks in the summertime. Let a million Bobs bloom.

Into the hard stuff

Some might think it treasonous to spend the night of September 11 watching a movie about New York City junkie life in the early 70s. But it's always been a warts and all kind of city. 

Born to Win (and you can see the young Roger Ebert's take here) was filmed before the Twin Towers were even completed, so it's no surprise they don't figure in it. George Segal was always a very funny and charming actor, and his character in this repeatedly calls himself a charmer. His faded tattoo (from which the movie gets its name) suggests he might have been in the military. He was definitely married to Paula Prentiss before that somehow went bad, and he sometimes still sees her in scenes where it's ambiguous whether she's actually there. For now he's with Karen Black, who seems to have no idea what she's letting herself in for.

It's a diverting movie. Things are funny and exciting, and obviously in a few minutes they won't be. J's dealer finds him amusing and sometimes useful but knows he'll eventually put him down like a dog. One of the cops is played by a then unknown Robert DeNiro, and they're their own kind of trouble.

Curiouser and curiouser

I remember when I first read Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, I liked the scene where the Gnat tells Alice about the insects found in Looking-Glass Land. There was the Bread-and-butter-fly, the Rocking-horse-fly, and something very festive called the Snap-dragon-fly.

The thing is, I was familiar with food, so I knew what bread and butter were. And I knew what a rocking horse was. But a snapdragon? Those were flowers, weren't they? What did that have to do with this thing with a raisin head?

There is, of course, a story behind that. The game of snapdragon had a long and august history even in Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's time, and was still in vogue. Again, it would be years―nay, decades―before I learned of any of this. But the other thing is, my lack of knowledge about the game didn't stop me from liking the reference to it in the book. It was something just a little different from the everyday, otherworldly and yet of the world.