Dreams are often no better than reality; but do offer variety.

The role of the internet has changed. It used to promise diversity: people with unusual or specialized interests could find one another. Now it quantifies popularity.

The proof was in the pudding, but the dog ate it.

Did you really feed that troll a
Slice of bread and gorgonzola?

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Once you’re dead
No more you

forgive-me-not

What a lovely thing is salad!
Let us praise it, in a ballad.

rong

Our culture is based on conformity and competition, and people are not at their best when they conform and compete.

Here’s a project by a pundit:
I won’t be the one to fund it.

Pease porridge hot, cottage cheese cold.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

What could be jollier than a rousing round of “Bible Action,” a 1994 game from the All Church Technical Service, in Fayetteville, AR?  There were two decks, one per Testament; as the booklet says, you can also combine them “to form a much larger and somewhat more difficult game that includes all Bible books.”

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

Uh oh, look at Thomas Edison:
He forgot to take his medicine.

hellfire / heavenwater

One nice thing about chocolate is that the roach parts and rodent droppings blend so well with the color.

claptrap with a clicktrack

Don’t bolt your curry:
We’re in no hurry.

Books are usually considered more valuable when signed by the writer than by the reader.

Perhaps we should have based our infrastructure on fuel that was not poisonous.

Forget that film on Davy Crockett:
It just got shredded by the sprocket.

On one occasion, my parents were entertaining guests. My father was drunk, as usual; he was slathering chocolate cookies with butter and cramming them into his mouth. One guest, startled, said, “Hey, take it easy, Frank.” My father glared at him, and growled, mouth full, “You only live once.”

the autobiography of an autodidact

Let us tie a red balloon
To that gentleman’s bassoon.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

It’s another version of “Authors,” this time an undated deck from Whitman.  This one not only has dignified portraits of the selected writers, but a thumbnail sketch illustrating the book in question.  A charming extra touch, I think.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

…that you can write things in a notebook?  Many stores offer packets of paper, held together with glue, thread, or wire spiral; and a selection of pens and pencils that you can use to make marks on the paper.  Simply open the notebook the way you would a laptop, and “make believe” that the bottom page is the keyboard, and the top page the screen.  Then, draw or write on the top page the message you would normally see on the screen.  This may seem strange to you at first; but notebooks use less electricity, still work if you spill drinks on them — and often cost less than even the cheapest laptop!

…that the ukulele is a valid musical instrument?  Some grumpy nay-sayers reject it as “culturally obsolete” or “guitar for dummies.”  But the “uke” has long been popular in Hawaii, Samoa, Japan, and many other places; and our South American neighbors play “cuatros” and “cavaquinhos” that are very similar.  Just because these people dress differently than you, or have skin that is darker than yours, doesn’t mean that their music is no good!

…that anti-intellectualism can make you stupider?  If you learn about a subject, or think things through before you act, you can actually make smarter choices and more effective decisions.  You may think that only a “brainiac” learns about his tools before using them; but screws hold better if you screw them in with a screwdriver, rather than pounding them with your shoe.  And reading street signs helps you from getting lost on the way to the store!

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

This evocative image was taken in Shaver’s home in Wisconsin sometime in 1961 or 1962.  From left to right, it shows Richard Shaver, his mother Grace, Dorothy Shaver, and a friend, Richard Horton.  Dorothy is holding Horton’s daughter, and the photo was taken by Horton’s wife (sorry, I don’t know their names!).  As Horton says, “I don’t know if Dick ever commented on all the white stuff, but I can imagine to what he would ascribe it .”

I’m sure we’ll return to Shaver again; but that’s it for now.  And by the way, I neither ridicule nor romanticize him for his schizophrenia.  It’s a disease; like everyone, he did what he could with what life gave him.

(Posted by Doug Skinner; thanks to Richard Horton for the photo.)

In addition to his stories and his paintings, Shaver also regularly wrote poetry.  It was often published in a wonderfully unpredictable little magazine called Ray Palmer’s Forum, published by Shaver’s long-time editor, friend, and occasional adversary.

I believe this one, though, was unpublished.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Here’s another item from the Shaver household: a pretty little ashtray by Dot Shaver.  She signed it on the base, and identified it as “slab work” — a piece worked up from a slab of clay, rather than shaped on a wheel.

(Posted by Doug Skinner; thanks to Angela Alverson for the photo.)

Despite his mental problems, Richard Shaver seems to have had a relatively happy marriage with his wife Dorothy, or Dot. And he always praised her cooking in his letters.

Among my Shaver mementos is Dot’s hand-written cookbook. I’m intrigued by these recipes for fig wine and rhubarb wine. They sound like intriguing down-home concoctions. I haven’t tried them; if anyone wants to test them, let me know how they turn out.

For a drawing (probably by Shaver) from this notebook, see the post of 5/27/08. For more Shaver material, do visit Richard Toronto’s website, over here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

This rock came from Richard Shaver’s studio, down in rural Arkansas.  It’s not one of the large rounded stones that he usually identified as rock books; it’s a small flat one.  I’m sure he gazed at it anyway; I invite you to do the same.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)