The Long Day Closes

Open your eyes to another year
— Nick Drake 'Fruit Tree'

My Heart Shies

Long afloat on shipless oceans
I did all my best to smile
'til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang
Sail to me
Sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am
Here I am
Waiting to hold you

Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
Broken lovelorn on your rocks,
For you sing, 'touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow:
O my heart, o my heart shies from the sorrow'

I am puzzled as the newborn child
I am troubled at the tide:
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Should I lie with death my bride?
Hear me sing, 'swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you:
Here I am, here I am, waiting to hold you'

— Tim Buckley 'Song To The Siren'

Good Advice

Seek knowledge.
 — Muhammad

Meanwhile…

Star Sign Of Bethlehem

Brian's mother: What star sign is he?
Wise Man 2: Capricorn.
Brian's mother: Capricorn, eh? What are they like?
Wise Man 2: He is the son of God, our Messiah.
Wise Man 1: King of the Jews.
Brian's mother: And that's Capricorn, is it?
Wise Man 3: No, no, that's just him.
Brian's mother: Oh, I was going to say, otherwise there'd be a lot of them.

Darkness

Safe in the womb
Of an everlasting night
You find the darkness can
Give the brightest light …
— Nick Drake 'Fruit Tree'

The Feast Of Stephen

Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof
that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.
— Stephen Fry

Jungian Anagram

A Lifelong Song

I was born to use my eyes
Dream with the sun and the skies
To float away in a lifelong song
In the mist where melody flies.
— Nick Drake 'I Was Made To Love Magic'

The Lightness Of Being

So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
— Leonard Cohen 'Boogie Street'

Imagination

Let it go. Let it out.
Let it all unravel.
Let it free and it can be
A path on which to travel.
— Michæl Leunig

Military Intelligence …

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
— Groucho Marx

Last Chance To See

Sassanach Anagram

Keeping Things In Perspective

'I Think' Vs 'I Want'

Because science carries us toward an understanding of how the world is, rather than how we would wish it to be, its findings may not in all case be immediately comprehensible or satisfying.
— Carl Sagan 'The Demon-Haunted World'

Political Anagram

Unreasonable

The reasonable man adapts to the world.
The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to him.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
— Doug Anderson

Has Needs

Is a rich person one who has the most
or one that needs the least?
— Doug Anderson

On The March

The Celebration Of Ignorance

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the thirty second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

— Carl Sagan 'The Demon-Haunted World'

Stained Character

Surf's Up

Everywoman Knows …

Man is most nearly himself
when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
— Heraclitus

Pining For The Fjords

Between The Calm And The Storm

Your Turn

Know Your Limits

Electro-Convulsive Therapy

Humour is reason gone mad.
— Groucho Marx

Go up, you baldhead!

23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!”
24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

— 2 Kings 2:23-24

Electricity

Other Species

The question is not,
"Can they reason?" nor,
"Can they talk?" but rather,
"Can they suffer?"
— Jeremy Bentham

Gormenghast

In Vino Veritas

Always Want Again

Just take this longing from my tongue
all the lonely things my hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one your love.
— Leonard Cohen 'Take This Longing'

The Coasts Of Me

I, while the gods laugh, the world's vortex am;
Maelstrom of passions in that hidden sea
Whose waves of all-time lap the coasts of me;
And in small compass the dark waters cram.
— Mervyn Peake

How To Get There

The Stone Skyfield

The crumbling castle, looming among the mists, exhaled the season, and every cold stone breathed it out. The tortured trees by the dark lake burned and dripped, their leaves snatched by the wind were whirled in wild circles through the towers. The clouds mouldered as they lay coiled, or shifted themselves uneasily upon the stone skyfield, sending up wreathes that drifted through the turrets and swarmed up hidden walls.
— Mervyn Peake 'Titus Groan'

Word Of The Day

Metaphormosing: calling a caterpillar a butterfly

Not Just Another Drop In The Ocean

Republican Anagram

Craggy Island Anagram

Humpty–Dumptyism

'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they're the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

'Would you tell me please,' said Alice, 'what that means?'

'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'

'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.'

'Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.

Before The War On Drugstores

Purplex

Cold Virus & Flower

Word Of The Day

telepathetic: pitiful from a distance

Common Ancestor: 590 Million Years Ago

The Importance Of Punctuation

WHAT THE HAL9000 COMPUTER SAID IN 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid I can't do that. …
I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.


WHAT THE HAL9000 COMPUTER MEANT IN 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid.
I can't do that. …
I'm afraid.
That's something I cannot allow to happen.

The Bourgeois Sea

Oh baby, what a place to be
In the service of the bourgeoisie
— Iggy Pop 'Endless Sea'

Biological Anagram

Today Is 9/11 …

… unless you are backward.

Common Ancestor: 800 Million Years Ago

Common Ancestor: 700 Million Years Ago

Common Ancestor: 590 Million Years Ago

Physicality

Before middle age: energy > mass
After middle age: mass > energy

Do It Yourself

On the armchair, a book: “How to relax.”
Beside the bed, a book: “How to get to sleep.”
Next to the window, a book: “How to see what’s in front of you.”
Next to the man seated at the table, a book: “How to be a man.”
On the desk, a book: “How to succeed in life.”
In hell, a book: “How you ended up in hell.”
— Michæl Leunig

Psyclones

Individuals of the same mind.

Homo Geneous

Brian: You're all individuals.
Crowd: YES! WE'RE ALL INDIVIDUALS!
Brian: You're all different.
Crowd: YES. WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT.
Lone Voice: I'm not.
— Monty Python 'The Life Of Brian'

Motion In Poetry

The bottom line?
I sit on mine!

Visual Literacy

Visual Obliviocy

Visual Idiocy

Cowabunga!

Dalek Domestication: Teething Problems

Caption: THE ORDINARY WORKING CLASS HOME OF A MIXED PAKISTANI-CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE. IT IS FRIDAY. WIFE IS LAYING THE TABLE. SHE'S ABOUT 40-ISH. MIXED ALONG THE HOUSE ARE TOUCHES OF ISLAMIC INFLUENCES. A BRASS GOD ON THE MANTELPIECE. A PARROT IN CAGE ON STAND. A STUFFED DOG BY FIREPLACE. A GRANNY IS DOZING BY THE FIRE. THE WIFE HUMS A TUNE. THE DOOR TO THE ROOM EXPLODES, AND THROUGH IT COMES A DALEK WITH TURBAN ON AND A FOLDED UMBRELLA HANGING FROM HIS SIDE. WOMAN DOESN'T TURN ROUND.

Dalek (Pakistani accent): Hel-loh, Dar-ling, I-am-back.
Woman: You are late tonight.
Dalek: The tubes were full of comm-u-ters.
Woman: How did you get on then?
Dalek: I ex-ter-mi-na-ted them.
Woman: Oh, no wonder you're tired.
Dalek: Yes, ex-ter-mi-na-ting is hard work.
Woman: Never mind, I've got a nice cup of curried tea for you. How's Mr Banerjee?
Dalek: I ex-ter-mi-na-ted him too.

DOG IN THE GRATE BARKS 'WOOF, WOOF, WOOF'. DALEK POINTS EXTERMINATOR AT HIM. SHOOTS. DOG EXPLODES.

Dalek: Put him in the cur-ry.

SECOND DOOR TO ROOM EXPLODES. A TWO-THIRD SIZE DALEK WITH SCHOOL CAP ON COMES IN. IT AIMS AT A VASE ON MANTELPIECE. IT EXPLODES.

Woman: Johnny, have you finished your homework?
Boy Dalek: Yes. I de-stroyed it.

HE POINTS EXTERMINATOR AT SLEEPING GRANNY.

Woman: You've exterminated granny!
Dalek: Put her in the cur-ry.
Parrot: Hello, sailor...Hello...

SHOOTS PARROT IN CAGE.

Dalek: Put him in the cur-ry.
Woman (to camera): Now you know what's wrong with this country.

ANOTHER EXPLOSION AS TV SET OR SOME OBJECT BEHIND HER EXPLODES. AS WE FADE OUT THE TWO DALEKS DESTROY VARIOUS OBJECTS: CLOCK ON MANTELPIECE, VASES, LAMPSTAND.

— Spike Milligan 'Pakistani Daleks'

Jeunesse Doree

It’s a beautiful world we live in
A sweet romantic place
Beautiful people everywhere
The way they show they care
Makes me want to say
It’s a beautiful world
For you

It’s a wonderful time to be here
It’s nice to be alive
Wonderful people everywhere
The way they comb their hair
Makes me want to say
It’s a wonderful place
For you

…

Trip Tysch Pshaw

Roomates

Timing

I don’t want to die now,
I’ve still got a headache.
I don’t want to go to heaven with a headache,
I’ll be all cross and wouldn’t enjoy it.
— Arthur Dent

In Two Minds

There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.
— William Shakespeare 'MacBeth'

Self-Defeating Anagram

Flowers In Dewdrops

Gender

In those days, spirits were brave; the stakes were high;
men were real men, women were real women,
and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real
small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

Cha Cha Cha

Tea for a ménage à trois.