Author Archive
involuntary marching
– photo by Mitch Waxman
from “the Terrible Old Man” by H.P. Lovecraft
The inhabitants of Kingsport say and think many things about the Terrible Old Man which generally keep him safe from the attention of gentlemen like Mr. Ricci and his colleagues, despite the almost certain fact that he hides a fortune of indefinite magnitude somewhere about his musty and venerable abode. He is, in truth, a very strange person, believed to have been a captain of East India clipper ships in his day; so old that no one can remember when he was young, and so taciturn that few know his real name. Among the gnarled trees in the front yard of his aged and neglected place he maintains a strange collection of large stones, oddly grouped and painted so that they resemble the idols in some obscure Eastern temple. This collection frightens away most of the small boys who love to taunt the Terrible Old Man about his long white hair and beard, or to break the small-paned windows of his dwelling with wicked missiles; but there are other things which frighten the older and more curious folk who sometimes steal up to the house to peer in through the dusty panes. These folk say that on a table in a bare room on the ground floor are many peculiar bottles, in each a small piece of lead suspended pendulum-wise from a string. And they say that the Terrible Old Man talks to these bottles, addressing them by such names as Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis, and that whenever he speaks to a bottle the little lead pendulum within makes certain definite vibrations as if in answer.
weird perfumes
– photo by Mitch Waxman
from the “Shadow over Innsmouth” by H.P. Lovecraft
As for the Innsmouth people – the youth hardly knew what to make of them. They were as furtive and seldom seen as animals that live in burrows, and one could hardly imagine how they passed the time apart from their desultory fishing. Perhaps – judging from the quantities of bootleg liquor they consumed – they lay for most of the daylight hours in an alcoholic stupor. They seemed sullenly banded together in some sort of fellowship and understanding – despising the world as if they had access to other and preferable spheres of entity. Their appearance – especially those staring, unwinking eyes which one never saw shut – was certainly shocking enough; and their voices were disgusting. It was awful to hear them chanting in their churches at night, and especially during their main festivals or revivals, which fell twice a year on April 30th and October 31st.
They were very fond of the water, and swam a great deal in both river and harbour. Swimming races out to Devil Reef were very common, and everyone in sight seemed well able to share in this arduous sport. When one came to think of it, it was generally only rather young people who were seen about in public, and of these the oldest were apt to be the most tainted-looking. When exceptions did occur, they were mostly persons with no trace of aberrancy, like the old clerk at the hotel. One wondered what became of the bulk of the older folk, and whether the “Innsmouth look” were not a strange and insidious disease-phenomenon which increased its hold as years advanced.
Nuts
at the Central Park Zoo – photo by Mitch Waxman
There really is nothing to say on this one.
many, and varied
at the Central Park Zoo – photo by Mitch Waxman
Curious variation and variegation typifies the avian specie. Its ability to specialize and concurrently speciate around those adaptations is surely one of the great wonders of the world. Would that it were possible to see the great birds of earlier times similarly on display in modern times, like the Titanis Walleri.
from wikipedia
It was 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) tall and weighed approximately 150 kilograms (330 lb), but with large variance (perhaps indicating strong sexual dimorphism). Though its head has not been found, it certainly would have been large, with a huge, axe-like beak, as in its relatives.
The wings were small and could not have been used for flight. The wing bones articulated in an unusual joint-like structure, suggesting the digits could flex to some degree. It also had a relatively rigid wrist, which would not have allowed the hand to fold back against the arm to the same degree as other birds. This led one scientist, R.M. Chandler, to suggest that the wings may have supported some type of clawed, mobile hand similar to the hands of non-avian theropod dinosaurs. However, it was later pointed out that this wing joint is not in fact unique, and is present in seriamas (modern members of the same bird group to which Titanis belonged), which do not have any specialized grasping hands.
presiding dryads
at the Central Park Zoo – photo by Mitch Waxman
As you are reading this, a feverish effort by your humble narrator to tuck the household into neat little boxes is under way. Glorious secretions of treasure and exertions of profound manual labor are under way. The scene around here resembles the anticlimax of “how the Grinch Stole Christmas” wherein the protagonist straps his little dog to an overladen sleigh, although I believe that my little dog Zuzu is merely humoring me and plans to just let me pull the thing up the hill.
