Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Me + Camera = Madness


PSA (Pigeon Sex Announcement)
Originally uploaded by Snurri.
"At 3:38 P.M. on Tuesday, October 5th, 1982, an estimated 110,000 children were tuned into the 'Scary the Clown Show,' an after-school ratings hit for station WTSC. Scary's sidekick, Cautious Coatimundi, threw to a cartoon titled 'Perfectly Proper Penelope Pigeon.' Unfortunately, no one at the station had reviewed the cartoon before airing it, and what the producers had believed to be a wacky cartoon about a debutante pigeon turned out to be a pornographic short about an orgy on top of a park statue. It was one minute and forty-seven seconds before Penelope was yanked off the air, but it was too late for an entire generation of city children on the cusp of puberty. It was apparently Penelope's voice (provided by adult film star Maximum Maggie) as she cooed which stimulated certain nerve endings in the ear, thus creating an erotic association . . . [w]ithin months the first reports of juvenile pigeon molestation were received. The first reports of avian-related venereal diseases soon followed . .. [b]y 1995 the indigenous pigeon population had largely fled the city, but migratory birds continue to enter the city, little suspecting what awaits them . . ." (p.145-6)

Monday, September 25, 2006

Mark Twain Fried Chicken


Mark Twain Fried Chicken
Originally uploaded by Snurri.
Chicago's been kind of a lonely place lately, so I decided to turn 36 in Hannibal, Missouri. I didn't meet any ghosts, but I saw a lot of statues and several young fellows who may or may not aspire to become Huck and/or Tom. (Apparently, there is a tradition in Hannibal where a boy and a girl of the appropriate age are chosen to be Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher for the year. Hm.) I did not spend $70 on a set of Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn volumes illustrated by Norman Rockwell. I did go to the Mark Twain cave. I did not ride on a riverboat. I did eat a steak at a restaurant that was once a whorehouse. Also, I did take pictures, so my Flickr account actually has something on it now.

Also, ouch.