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Heracles, not Hercules.

Well, that is, ummm… really something, all right. Yep.

Some tats are interesting, some are artistic (that one is both), but the vast majority of them are just flat out dumb. But heck, you like paying some guy to jab you repeatedly with an ink filled needle, go ahead.

I retired from a profession (well, two professions) where tats have a long history and tradition. Vaguely considered it from time to time, but these days they don’t really mean much anymore other than “My Dad’s, like, a total Nazi and the chick at the piercing booth in the mall is really cute.”

Neon Madman – no way, dude. Greeks are total fags. Romans are way cooler.

I’m not a fan of tats no matter how expensive they are. I’ll save my money.

“I don’t think Moses is the dude you want all over your naked body.”

Well, actually…

Chicken People. A film about chickens and chicken people. So, I thought about you, Stoaty. This is also an excellent movie site. Seriously, excellent:

http://fmovies.to/film/chicken-people.7j1n8/v56rml

Stoaty—I thought you and your readers might be interested in my Road Kill Report. When I make the long drive to the panhandle by myself, for amusement I keep a tally of the dead animals I see on the road or beside the road. I keep count by repeating it out-loud, but long about Wellington it had grown so long that I had to stop and write it down. This was a 500 mile strip, and a mostly rural route—not on interstate roads. It has been very dry, so the animals move out of their normal territory looking for water.

Road Kill Report — Dec. 2, 2016

16 white-tail deer—most of them fresh or less than 24hrs old
1 pronghorn antelope—way out of territory
4 porcupines
9 coyotes
8 skunks—I hit one that was hit by the car in front of me! Oh No! No chance to dodge it.
1 gray fox
1 armadillo
1 possum
5 raccoons
1 hawk—a Cooper’s I think, but definitely not a redtail
1 black turkey vulture—irony in the first degree
5 rabbits
1 pig—not feral but the FFA belted kind (FFA: Future Farmers of America—a high school agriculture club)

Deborah HH, only ONE armadillo? I thought that was standard decoration on Texas highways. Western Loozyana too. I’ve seen ’em trundling across highways, and more often halfway across the highway (Splat!), near Lafayette and Lake Charles.

Deborah HH, I have long since noted that the majority of road kill here in Western WA are raccoons. After that, by a long margin, are possum and deer in that order.

Raccoon are fearless to the point of stupidity. One night I braked seeing four pairs of eyes in my headlights. It was a family of them, paused in the road, all acting like Joe Pesci. Had I not braked the whole family would have bought it.

I am surprised that I did not see more dead raccoons and possums. Armadillo, too, but I don’t see them as much as I did when I was a kid. And I should have seen way more vultures than I did—they are almost a menace in south Texas.

E.Y. Harburg & Harold Arlen

(la la la la la la)
Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia the tattooed lady
She has eyes that men adore so
And a torso even more so.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia
Lydia, the queen of tattoo!
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo
Beside it the Wreck of the Hesperus, too
And proudly above waves the red, white and blue.
You can learn a lot from Lydia.
(la la la la la la)
When her robe is unfurled, she will show you the world
If you step up and tell her where
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paree
Or Washington crossing the Delaware.
(la la la la la la)
(la la la la la la)
Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia the tattooed lady
When her muscles start relaxin’
Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia
Lydia, the queen of tattoo
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz
With a view of Niagara that nobody has
And on a clear day, you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia!
(la la la la la la)
(la la la la la la)
Come along and see Buffalo Bill with his lasso,
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso.
Here’s Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon —
Here’s Godiva but with her pajamas on.
(la la la la la la)
(la la la la la la)
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia
Lydia, the queen of them all!
She once swept an admiral clean off his feet
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
And now the old boy’s in command of the fleet
For he went and married Lydia!
I said Lydia
He said Lydia
I said Lydia
He said Lydia
La la!

Sorry … I couldn’t resist. I love that song sooo much.

Yip Harburg! Lyricist for the Wizard of Oz.

In an old movie some little girl use to sing that song and the adults would try to stop her. Cant remember which one. The Philadelphia Story, maybe?

I don’t know that one, but it made me think of Meet Me in St Louis, where the little girl sings, “I was hmmm last night, dear Mother…”

I’ve never known if not allowing little girls to say “drunk” was supposed to be a Victorian thing, or what…

Movie = yes, “Philadelphia Story.” Sung by Virginia Weidler.

Yip Harburg = A Commie, but he sure could write lyrics. One of my favorites is the woefully underperformed “Down With Love.”

Down with eyes romantic and stupid,
Down with sighs, down with Cupid.
Brother, let’s stuff that dove —
Down with Love!

Of course, the classic “Lydia” is:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8

Groucho!

My favorite Yip song is: Brother Can You Spare a Dime. 🙂

Heard a radio program on Harry Warren:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Warren

Prolific and talented. Alas, they write such junk today.

p.s.: The Lydia song is in Breaking Bad. It’s the ringtone of the ginger nazi.

Love Harry Warren bigly. 😉 He was an irascible fellow, especially his famous World War Two remark about “They bombed the wrong Berlin.” Harry is underappreciated — he had a ton of great songs.

Here’s an interesting article on Warren from Ian Whitcomb:

http://www.picklehead.com/ian/ian_txt_harrywarren.html