I am the grit in the gears, the missing bolt, I am the poker of sticks into spokes.
I like to know how things work, but sometimes when I take them apart and rebuild them, I have a few pieces left over.
I am a man, so I tend to leave reading the instructions until after it goes wrong.
And like all men I have a comprehensive mental map of the world and never need to ask directions.
I never get lost, only sometimes I'm late, or end up in the wrong place entirely.
It's what we do.
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Seen at Nag on the Lake , in Chicago, there's a new, huge, statue of Marilyn Monroe, in one of her most remembered scenes, with her skirt flying up as a subway train passes beneath the grating on which she stands. That white dress, not long ago, sold at auction for $5.6 million.
Of course, this pic has spawned innumerable copycats over the years. It was the iconic image of the poster for the film "Seven Year Itch" in 1955. It's said that Marilyn's then husband, Joe Di Maggio was somewhat angry about the scene, and it may have been the last straw, because they divorced shortly after.
The shots were used in the posters for the movie, but the video above was NOT seen. Oh no. The censors deemed it too shocking, so the scene was re-shot, and edited so audiences saw mostly above the waist shots, and nothing above mid-thigh. That was more than racy enough for 1955 though.
Marilyn's dress antics were the talk of the town, and are again, in Chicago, where the giant sculpture by Seward Johnson has not been universally appreciated. It seems some of the good folk of Chicago are embarrassed by Ms Monroe's bronze undercladding. It's caused something of a furore there. Not with everybody of course. Teenage boys are universally in favour of it, -and not just the boys.
Mind you, her nether regions are clad in Bridget Jones' granny panties. For which the residents of Chicago must be universally grateful, as opposed to the dental-floss netherwear of a modern equivalent.
Girls? Whatever are you all thinking?
Boys. Oh come on, that's so undignified!
Every woman needs a little man, -this guy's about nine inches tall, he does pedicures, touches up the toe-nails, and sleeps in your make-up bag, ready for emergency repairs and fine detail work.
And here's the guy who knows the truth. Yes, it seems as though not all of the wind's from the subway. He's wearing a mask... Marilyn? Go easy on the cabbage please?
Getting my mother's house ready to sell. And the polish, well, it's a beeswax/carnauba blend, with some sort of hallucinogenic solvent. it's a fairly big hardwood floor, hands and knees, wax on, polish off... and I was giggling. So I decided I'd better have some appropriate music accompaniment, as my brain crumbled.
Speaking here on behalf of The Knights of the Besmirched Countenance, I can confirm that similar discussions have taken place with the Sisterhood of the Pointy Heels.
So. I was thinking of making one of those things. Looks like an E-stop button mounted on the end of a six volt battery case. 4X half inch hex heads...
Illuminated e-stop button, might need an l.e.d. Or a strobe for even better effect...
How does it work? Oh don't be silly. if it looks right, it'll work. You just have to channel your inner eight-year-old.
Via Boing Boing, thanks to Cory Doctorow.
My name is Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie Boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth...
He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society...
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne,
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line,
The Mason-Dixon line.
Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty,
How can America be free?
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forest of the Iroquois...
Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here.
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line,
The Mason-Dixon line.
1763:There is a dispute over land ownership in the colonies of America. Back in 1632, King Charles I gave some land to one Cecilius Calvert. That land became known as Maryland. Some of its borders were easily defined, being delineated by coastline, and the Potomac river.
50 or so years later, King Charles II gives another piece of land to the Penn family. This becomes Pennsylvania.
Boundaries at first, in a sparsely populated land, are ill defined, but it seems there is a discrepancy, and both the Calverts and the Penns try to tax settlers in an area where the terms of the original grants appear to overlap. Acrimonious disputes arise, even a war.
To be fair, the boundaries were a bit complex...
Eventually, King George II got a bit tired of the whole thing, and ordered that the belligerents cease shooting at each other, and try to solve the problem rationally. "According to The History of Maryland by John Thomas Scharf, both William Penn II and Charles Calvert received a letter from the King of England in April 1681 requiring them “to make a true division and separation of the said provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania, according to the bounds and degrees of our said Letters Patent and fixing certain Land Marks where they shall appear to border upon each other for the preventing and avoiding all doubts and controversies that may otherwise happen concerning the same.” " http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/MasonDixon.html
This led to the two families appointing surveyor Jeremiah Dixon, and astronomer/navigator Charles Mason, both from England, to be responsible for mapping and marking out the border between the states.
It took them five years, but eventually the boundary was delineated by a line of marker stones, set at mile intervals. Every fifth mile there was a "crown Stone" with the crest of the Penn family on the Pennsylvania side, and the crest of Lord Baltimore (Calvert) on the Maryland side. Many of these markers still exist.
"The stones — huge blocks of limestone between 3.5 and 5 feet long and weighing between 300 and 600 pounds—were quarried in Southern Great Britain and shipped to America. Carried by wagon to their final resting place on the line, the stones were placed at one-mile intervals. Mile markers were decorated with vertical fluting and a P on the north face and M on the southern face; every fifth mile along the line the stones were engraved with the Penn coat of arms on the Pennsylvania side and the Calvert coat of arms on the other."
Go to the links: http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/MasonDixon.html http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu/resources/wroten/wroten_masondixon2.html
http://www.udel.edu/johnmack/mason_dixon/ (This was the most informative one for me, with a lot of detail on how the survey was undertaken)
to read more.
The shots were used in the posters for the movie, but the video above was NOT seen. Oh no. The censors deemed it too shocking, so the scene was re-shot, and edited so audiences saw mostly above the waist shots, and nothing above mid-thigh. That was more than racy enough for 1955 though.
