Trivia that matter
The Maximum Leader, by way of Robbo:
I was recently challenged….to post the covers of 7 books I love. These photos are to be without reviews, explanation, or other comments. Like [my challenger], I will post my covers in one go. Also, like [my challenger], I will break the rules in a number of ways. I am going to post 8 covers rather than 7.
I’ll play, too. Here are seven, plus one more, of my favorites. Make of them what you will.
Is it the attacker who needs defense?
This was on the front page of The American “Conservative” website today. It isn’t April 1, is it? What exactly does political conservatism have to do with waistline measurements?
If you’re in the St. Louis area and are in the mood for some gypsy jazz, check out the Triplets of Grubville.
If you’re in the mood for a superior animated movie, watch The Triplets of Belleville.
I’ve been sampling the new offerings on Crunchroll. As usual, most don’t pass the five-minute test.1 The few that I didn’t immediately abandon are mostly comedies of various sorts.
The best new offering is Cells at Work, which deserves a post of its own. Until I get around to that, see Wonderduck. There are more screencaps below the fold.
Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues is the mock-heroic tale of an upper-level executive in an organized crime syndicate. Through the first three episodes we see Tonegawa conduct grueling meetings, deal with his deranged, perhaps demonic boss, and broil Kobe beef for his underlings at a picnic. It’s laboriously funny, but enough of it works that I will probably continue watching. I’d probably get more out of it if I had seen Kaiji and Akagi.
Planet With, a tale of absurd planetary menace, reminds me a little of Zvezda, but it makes even less sense. As of the second episode it’s still not clear whether the forces the hero has allied himself with are good guys or bad guys. I’ll probably never know, since I don’t plan to watch more.
Late Night! The Genius Bakabon is a silly gag show. If you liked Osomatsu-san, you might like this, but two episodes were enough for me.
I almost quit Asobi Asobase – workshop of fun – in five minutes, but I stuck it out and watched the entire first episode. I should have trusted my initial reaction. There are three unappealing high-school girls, some mild gross-out humor but nothing really funny, and an opening featuring lots of lilies. No thank you.
Then there was Wolfe’s first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities. One of its chapters, “The Masque of the Red Death,” takes its title from Edgar Allan Poe and with mordant humor dissects the vacuity of Manhattanites consumed (and in some cases destroyed) by their grotesque, over-the-top consumerism. I recently re-read that stunning set-piece and the thought occurred, as it had before, that here was a far more effective polemic against materialism than anything ever issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
I took a lot of pictures this weekend, which you can view at the following links:
One advantage to taking pictures at Botanica on a wretchedly hot and humid July afternoon: you have the place pretty much to yourself, without swarms of pesky kids running all over.
At the Kansas Orchid Society meeting at Botanica. The lighting in the hall was miserable, so I needed to use the camera’s built-in flash. As usual, click to embiggen and see with better color.
At the Kansas Orchid Society meeting at Botanica. The lighting in the hall was miserable, so I needed to use the camera’s built-in flash. As usual, click to embiggen and see with better color.
Botanica, July 14, 2018.
Back in May I picked up five orchids at an auction. Three are in good shape and doing well, as far as I can judge. However, one turned out to be infested with mealy bug, and another promptly lost most of its roots; i.e., 40% of my purchases had problems. That is not satisfactory. (I think I managed to salvage the ailing pair, but it will probably be a year or more before they’re presentable again.)
Perhaps I might have better luck buying plants online. I recently ordered a few from Orchids by Hausermann. The box arrived this past weekend. Let’s open it up.
Belamcanda chinensis. Or is it Iris domestica? Or Pardanthus chinensis? Or Morea chinensis? Or Ixia chinensis, Gemmingia chinensis, Vanilla domestica or Epidendrum domesticum? Taxonomists have too much time on their hands.
There are more pictures from Saturday’s trip to the botanical garden here.
As usual, click to embiggen and see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at full size (recommended for the vertical panoramas).
As usual, click to embiggen and see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at full size (recommended for the vertical panoramas).
… just Mammillaria scheideana at one year, much enlarged. Actual size is about an inch in diameter.
Some recent pictures.
Time does weird things there. Note the dates on this item from the Pittsburg, Kansas Morning After.
The big 360° panorama I did yesterday didn’t turn out properly, and I’m not publishing it. I did salvage a piece of it, above. It’s the altar of St. Anthony Church in Wichita, east of the central business district.2
St. Boniface parish was erected in 1886 to serve German-speaking Catholics in the Wichita area, and a wooden church was built the next year. Franciscans took up residence around 1890. When a more permanent church was built during the first decade of the 20th century, it was named for the Franciscan St. Anthony of Padua. Nowadays the best place in the area to find German Catholics is western Sedgwick county, and St. Anthony has become a center of Vietnamese Catholic activity.
Update: Here’s the quick and dirty version of the panorama, using five images taken with a fisheye lens rather than 37 at the wide end of a cheap but sharp zoom. It’s much smaller and less detailed than the large one, but it gives you an idea of what the interior of the church looks like. I hope to return soon to the church, preferably on an overcast day, and make a full-size panorama that meets my standards.
Most websites give you cookies whether you’re hungry or not, but how many serve coffee cake? Come back next week; there might be brownies.
Update: And here are some brownies with crispy edges, in stereo.
… but not the least bit cuddly. I paid another visit to the botanical garden this morning. There are more pictures here.
As always, click to embiggen and see in better color.
