HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

EVENTS OF THE DAY JUST PASSED

Yikes! I'm caught short with nothing to post and it's almost bed time! Mmmmmm...how 'bout a post with nothing but the random thoughts I had during the day? It's not much but it's the best I can do.

Well...I was in a restaurant this morning and I remember being uneasy because the guy behind me was staring at the back of my head. I had the oddest feeling that he was telepathically commanding me to do something outrageous like mash my face in my potatoes. I even had a slight compulsion to do it. Geez, you set out to get some bacon and eggs and you meet Svengali!

Later in the morning I was thinking about snoods (above). Do you know what a snood is? It's a sort of bag that holds a girl's hair in the back.

Most snoods are decorated nets. Some women (above) prefer larva on their snoods.

I guess this gear made sense in the days when girls' hair grew down to their waists, but why does anyone wear them now? Short hair dangling in a snood looks like...well, something obscene. What an odd thing to put in back of your head!



I spent the afternoon housecleaning and cleaning out my car, then later I went over to John's to see a film that included John Barrymore's famous rendition of a scene from Richard III. Lots of people prefer this reading to any other.



I like Barrymore's reading, which is pieced together from different parts of the play, but I I still prefer Olivier's version (above).

So that was my uneventful day. After a week of raging flu a quiet, uneventful day was just what I needed.

CURES FOR STOMACH FLU

Here's (above) a get well postcard of the type that was all over the place when I was a kid. Now they're rare, even on Google. We need to bring these back...they made being sick look like fun...well, sort of.

Anyway, I've been sick for a whole week with a stomach flu. Every time I get something like this I learn something and this time was no exception. I thought I'd share what I learned here. After all, everybody here is going to have this problem, maybe even this Winter.

The main thing I learned was that throwing up isn't a bad thing. The sooner you do it, the sooner you'll recover. I just wasn't able. Maybe I waited too long. The next time I'll try harder and sooner.

The second thing I learned was that relapses are easy with this disease. I was almost well when I got cocky and ate a ham sandwich, and it started all over again. Eat only bland food for a longer period than you think is necessary.

The third thing I learned was that salt is a good thing under these circumstances. If you eat chicken broth or bland white crackers get the salty kind. Applesauce is great, but not apple juice, it's too sweet. I read a convincing argument for why this is so, but I forget the details now. Anyway, I know I felt better after drinking plain old water or tea.

The last thing I discovered was how important sleep is when you have this flu. When I finally got a good night's sleep I felt a lot better. Take half a sleeping pill every night til you start to improve.

When I went on the net to look up stomach flu I was amazed to find that so little was written about the mechanics of it. If the water we drink when sick is mostly channeled out of the body at the bottom, then why isn't the excess acid? I guess there's some natural mechanism that prevents stomach acid from leaking into the intestine, but why can't we just drink a lot of water, eat a lot of bread, and dilute the acid? I guess it's so strong that even when diluted it won't pass the barrier. It's a fascinating subject. What an interesting job doctors have!

What I want to know now is, if throwing up early really helps...and my experience over the years tells me that it does... then why doesn't anyone recommend it? And what about antacid pills like Tums? Wouldn't they help?

There doesn't seem to be a lot of original thought on the subject of stomach flu. I wonder what would happen if Christopher Kimball, the editor of Cooks Illustrated tackled the subject. Kimball caught my eye a long time ago when he posed the question, "Why doesn't somebody try all the most popular cooking methods for a given dish and see which one actually tastes the best?" He built a whole career on that question. Maybe we need to do that for stomach flu.

Why doesn't some magazine try all the hippie teas and herbs, all the fabled remedies by remote tribesmen and cannibals, all the grandmother cures, and orthodox over-the-counter drugs, and simply compare the results? I'm not looking for a scientific study here...just a trial on a couple of dozen reliable, articulate, sick adults.

POSTSCRIPT: I'm better now and am eating real food just like real humans do. No more Saltines...I had bacon and eggs this morning and they were indescribably delicious. Now I crave really high-end food. I want a five course dinner with salmon mousse served with silver spoons from a swan centerpiece. I want servants with gloves and wigs. I want a pig with an apple in its mouth. I want to eat til I burst like Terry Jones in "Life of Brian."

DON MARTIN LOVERS

I'm sick as a dog and I really shouldn't be posting at all, but Valentine's Day is almost here and I couldn't resist putting up these pictures of young lovers by Don Martin. Yep, that's what young love looks like, alright! I've been there, haven't you? 

Haw! There's the girl's dad in the background!

If I wasn't so sick I'd scan all of Martin's strip but, as it is, I'll have to settle for this (above). That's a photo of the original artwork!

Here's a picture that was described as passionate on the net, but seems tepid compared to the Don Martin. Cartooning really can express some emotions better than any other medium!

VALENTINE CARD SUGGESTIONS

I like Valentines Day and if you do too then you might find something useful among these pictures.  

Of course some of the people reading this will will be suffering the torture of unrequited love (above) . If this applies to you then you have my heartfelt sympathy.

Here's (above) a pretty good ecard for a girl to send to a guy.

Not a bad card (above) for an artist to send.

What a great picture of girl! Too bad you can't send it. 

Maybe this (above) will do the trick.

Wow! A really torrid card (above)!

Above, a nice card to send a dog lover.

Above, a card for people who really like their pets.

THE LATEST ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOS

Above, star formation. Vast areas of gas are being compacted by the solar wind blown from different directions by nearby stars.

Here's Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the Martian moon, Phobos. The crater is half the size of the Phobos and appears to have been made fairly recently.

Above, the night side of Saturn, taken this past October. The sun is entirely hidden behind the planet. 

Recently the Curiosity rover on Mars crossed this area (above), thought to be the site of an ancient lake.

Above, an expanding shock wave in the rim of our satellite galaxy, The Small Magellanic Cloud.

Here's (above) a far away, spooky, radio galaxy called Hercules A. The plasma jets are enormous, maybe a hundred million light years from end to end. Nobody knows why the jets take the shape they do.




Here's a solar flare that erupted on New Years' Eve, 2012. The film condenses 4 hours of activity into 17 seconds. Be sure to watch it on full screen mode.

RALPH BAKSHI DOES CONEY ISLAND

Ralph's started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a short animated film/pilot about one of my favorite subjects: Coney Island. Ralph wasn't born when Coney was at its spectacular height, but he witnessed its later years, when magic of a strange sort could still be seen in the dying embers. I can't wait to see what he's going to do with this!

If we're lucky, Ralph'll do some of the backgrounds himself. Here's (above) one he did for the Kickstarter pitch.

Why am I interested in Coney Island? Because the amusement parks there were collectively the best America ever produced, barring Disneyland and World Fairs. There were three adjacent parks: Luna Park, Dreamland and Steeplechase. That's the entrance to Dreamland above, circa 1905.

I ache when I see old pictures of Dreamland (above) because they contain hints of what a modern city might look like (in a modern style, of course) if only we chose to build that way. And the sculptures...who doesn't like stuff like that? We should take a tip from Dreamland and fill our cities with them. With new materials and computer guidance we could sculpt amazing figures that would be quick to make and fairly durable...fairly. They don't have to last forever.

 That's (above) Dreamland's exit.

Here's a high res picture of Luna Park. Geez, I shouldn't put up pictures like this...they don't load onto phones very well.

Here's (above) the Dreamland ballroom. I'm guessing that the electric lights overhead would have provoked awe from the earliest dancers. Imagine seeing something like this only a few years after Edison wired the island for electricity.

This (above) looks like the parachute ride from one of the later incarnations of Steeplechace Park, maybe from the late 50s or early 60s. No doubt Ralph saw scenes similar to the one we're seeing here.

So here's one of the best cartoonists around, doing a film about one of my favorite subjects. 'Sounds good to me! See the whole pitch at:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ralphbakshi/last-days-of-coney-island-0

BTW: I don't know who painted the title card. The caricature of Ralph is based on an original sketch by John K.