A Poem & An Acronym

Subtitle: Good News/Bad News


I just received a letter from Karl Hobbes. It begins with a poem:

Running, walking, skipping rope
Exercise will give you hope

But you only flex
Muscles of delusion

When all your jumping
Leads only to conclusion

**********************

The letter included a "stock" photograph which lead me to expect
a cute or clever historical comment.
(Ha) (Ha) (Ha)

They are I-beaming the perimeter of the campus.

The Lewis Carroll School of Logic
has been bought out by a conglomerate
with a "Through The Looking Glass" acronym

USC = United Stakes of Chimerica

This is Chancellor Hobbes' second reference to that Looking Glass acronym.
I had assumed it was an omnipotent-but-friendly "affiliate" of LCSoL

I hope it doesn't mandate addressing Mr. Hobbes as "The Wiz."
But I do prefer the updated spelling of K-a-r-l

"Afghan Mother" In Background????

US photographer Steve McCurry poses next to his photos of the "Afghan Girl"
named Sharbat Gula at the opening of the "Overwhelmed by Life" exhibition
...at the Museum for Art and Trade in Hamburg on June 27, 2013.

The exhibition comprises some 120 photographs taken between 1980 and 2012
in countries such as Afghanistan, the United States, Pakistan, India, Tibet,
Kashmir, Cambodia, Indonesia, Burma and Kuwait.
AFP PHOTO / DPA / ULRICH PERREY


...from artdaily.org

©

..........The Godmother of Blogland.......... .........(Before She Huffed & Puffed).........

Her beauty can
Snuffle up to us

You'd think she was born
Arianna Wiggleuptous

But beware
Ladies & Gents

She has no lack
Of Intelligence

By birth, she was ARIANNA STASSINOUPOULOS
By legend, she is Arianna Huffington

But in 1983, Arianna wrote a book entitled The Gods of Greece

That was light years before she became the Godmother of Blogland

In 1983, she was merely an exquisite and exquisitely intelligent woman
who had an exquisite way with the written word.

That same year, Ms. Stassinopoulos appeared on the Merv Griffin Show
to promote the book.




This is how the future Godmother described an ancient Greek deity:

Artemis is freedom—wild, untrammelled, aloof from all entanglements.
She is a huntress, a dancer, the goddess of nature and wildness, a virgin
physically and, even more important, a virgin psychologically,
inviolable, belonging to no one, defined by no relationship,
confined by no bond

For more on Arianna, click here

Through The Spy Glass

Had the Man of Many Minorities
Lived many years ago

He would proudly have placed
The spyglass to his face

And proclaimed:
The Italians are coming



But his words fell not
On the colonial ear

He is only Paul...Oliverio
Who is not an uber Paul Revere

*****************************************
*****************************************

His ultimate minority
is a blissful 2-ority

He need not a Fiat
He need only his Fia

(And need only say
That is short for Fiancee)

The sovereign thing to do
Is live in their nation of two

Blogger's Note
Mr. Oliverio learned about The Nation of Two from Kurt Vonnegut.
It is otherwise known as das Reich der Zwei.

IRS & The Key Party... (CR #954)

Don Asmussen
BAD REPORTER

No Additional Text Necessary

Morning After The Max Game

Ideally, THE MAX GAME pages should be read in reverse order

Today is the morning after Max Ernst & Rene Magritte
began their surrealismo chess match.

By that time, the editorial staff of ART DAILY NEWS
had prepared Tuesday's edition.

"Pablo Picasso: Family Album" brings together portraits from collections of artist's heirs


As the retiring chess players were admiring the cover photograph,
an assistant editor said to them, sotto voce:

The brother and sister are named
Chimpito & Lucy

Transfixed by that information,
Professor Magritte replied:
"They are obviously the product of perfect parenting"

Max Ernst added:
"Somebody ought to market their parents' playbook"


The last words of THE MAX GAME had been spoken.

But another image of Max Ernst appears here.



artdaily.org ©

Miles Into The Max Game (Track #3)

Ideally, THE MAX GAME pages should be read in reverse order

Camera-shy Ignacio Villareal, founder of ART DAILY,
Inspired Magritte & Ernst to play, really.
To the post-humous participants of THE MAX GAME,
Their host said... "Ain't that a shame
...But here's some music of another name.
I'm homeward-bound."

Rene & Max bowed to him
But made not a sound.

The founder then said
"When late hours creep into my head,
I get kind of blue
and home is where I'm overdue."



There are no lyrics to reprint here
But many midnight hours lapsed before
Max Ernst's last move,
Prefaced by a mumble
While the Miles Davis Quintet
Filled the air

"Dis track oughta be da answer to da question

Honey, didja know
Our new neighbors are gay?

"The ideal answer is...So What



The Max Master wins another game
In response, The LCSoL Professor
shouted SO WHAT

LCSoL = Lewis Carroll School of Logic

Professor Magritte was so uplifted
by the end of this chess game,
He subtitled one of his own paintings


The Empire of Light
or
EARLY MORNING JOGGER'S PERSPECTIVE


...MAX GAME continues here...

The Max Game Music (Track #2)

Ideally, THE MAX GAME pages should be read in reverse order

Rene & Max played chess
While the music did not rest
They were in Mexico City
Surrounded by a little ditty
about Jack & Diane
who did the best they can

2 American kids growin' up in the heartland
Jacky's gonna be a football star
Diane debutante backseat of Jacky's car
...
Jacky sits back reflects his thoughts for the moment
Scratches his head and does his best James Dean

Well you know Diane, we oughtta run of the city

Diane says

Baby, you ain't missin' nothin'

Oh yeah life goes on
Long after the thrill
of livin' is gone

Let it rock Let it roll
Let the Bible belt come down And save my soul
Hold on to 16 as long as you can
Changes come around real soon

After hearing that verse,
Max Ernst mumbled, inaudibly:
"I subtitle this song
When I'm one-fourth of Sixty-four"
Rene Magritte said
"I couldn't hear you, Max
What did you say?"
Max said, quite audibly:
"Checkmate"

Oh yeah life goes on
Long after the thrill
of livin' is gone
-John Mellencamp ©

The Professor loses another game
but life goes on


...MAX GAME continues here...

The Max Game Music (Track #1)

While Max & Rene played chess
They listened to a song about Hank & Fred

Max Ernst said:

Mr. Fred sure knew
his neighborhood

Rene Magritte replied:

I'd eat a bowl of jumbalaya
Hank made it taste so good

On my way Thursday from the Y
I heard it in the car
Bob Edwards broke the news tonight
yes he of NPR

Driving through Montgomery
I hung my head and cried
Then visited Hank Williams grave
the day Fred Rodgers died

Zelda Sayre, F. Scott Fitzgerald
lived somewhere in this old town
Nat King Cole was born here
Rosa Parks stayed sitting down

Black & white death booze music
genius courage kindness pride
I felt them all around me there
the day Fred Rodgers died
- Loudon Wainwright ©


...MAX GAME continues here...

The Ernst Best Photos Of The Day

This is not The Match Game. It is The Max Game.

On this day, at the Art Daily headquarters in Mexico City,
Max Ernst played chess with Rene Magritte.

Max Ernst is a Godfather of Surrealist Art and Professor Magritte
is the Posthumous Chairmen of the LCSoL Art Department.

Between moves, the professor shouted subtitles
of his opponent's copyrighted paintings.



The Fireside Angel (The Triumph of Surrealism)
or
IF DISNEY WAS DALI




Woman, Old Man, and Flower
or
THE REINCARNATION OF TONY SOPRANO
or
REST IN PEACE, JAMES GANDOLFINI




Max Ernst, The Blessed Virgin Chastising the Infant Jesus
before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard and the Artist
or
AFTER BABY JESUS TURNED CHOCOLATE INTO CHALK




At the First Limpid Word
or
THE FINGER DANCER




Max Ernst with rocking horse, Paris, 1938
or
MAX ROCKS THE HOUSE, SIDESADDLE


Unfortunately, Rene Magritte's
subtitling-shouting tactic did not work:
The artists played five games of chess
and Max Ernst won all of them.


THE MAX GAME continues on the next page



© artdaily.org

Historic MUTTS & Cicada-lics (CR #948)

.......Jazz was born.......
When the first bird sang

....The Original Tweet....

⬆⬆ Exit Strategy ⬆⬆


⬇⬇ Sleeper Cells ⬇⬇

.............MUTTS.............
......Patrick McDonell......

Blogger's Note
The italic quote below the title was inspired by Louis Armstrong
in the film A Song Is Born

The Goodest BAD REPORTER ..................(CR #947)...................

Don Asmussen
BAD REPORTER

Blogger's Note
The Onion News Organization (ONO) approves this page.
So does the United Systems of Chimerica (USC).

Both are affiliates of the Lewis Carroll School of Logic.

There Is An Alternative...

...To hanging politicians in effigy

David LaChapelle
Still Life: Anonymous Politicians,
2009-2012

There is an alternative to hanging...

But there is always...

artdaily.org

Mickey D, Barry O. & The Berlin Wail Wall

Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing of the Berlin Wall and now a tourist attraction...
protestors hold a banner reading "Yes, We Scan" and posters reading "Stasi 2.0" depicting
US President Barack Obama wearing headphones...German Chancellor Angela Merkel said...
she was surprised by revelations of mass US online surveillance...Germans wanted to know
if their online data was being sniffed out by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE


On this day, do you think the McDonald's in the background had extra security guards
on duty?...extra burgeristas?...extra beer steins?


What you see--above the italic triple question--
is just another Best Photo of the Day


© artdaily.org

A Chinese Botero Garden in Sydney

If the English translation of Diego & Frida is Scott & Zelda
then the Chinese translation of Fernando Botero is Xu Hongfei

The proof is in the Outback.



Sculptures by Chinese sculptor Xu Hongfei are displayed
during an exhibition near the Opera House (L) in Sydney
on June 18, 2013. Xu displayed ten out of eighteen
larger than life works from the Chubby Women collection
at a solo exhibition which runs from June 18 to 26.
AFP PHOTO / Saeed KHAN





© artdaily.org

re: The Fourth H

Three H words appear on a recent page and another H-word
appears in a recent comment but, more importantly,
the fourth one was inspired by Eric Sevareid


Next to power without honor,
the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor



Sevareid was also quoted on a 9/13/12 blog:

The biggest big business in America is...
the manufacture, refinement and distribution of anxiety


It is no wonder that Walter Cronkite regarded his CBS colleague
as a master of the extemporaneous essay

A Poem From "The Wizard"

HALF-WIT
some mornings
i count up to ten

before inventing
a reason to get
out of bed

but all the fractions
between one and two...
defy invention

Karl Hobbes

The Chancellor's revised title is
Wizard of the Lewis Carroll School of Logic

HALF-WIT is the copyrighted property of LCSoL.

Happy Birthday Saint Paul Sir Paul

Today is Sir Paul McCartney's 71st birthday.
And the GodFather of Math is finally jay-pegging the fun folks from The Simpsons
This London cathedral on Chimerica Road





This is not organized religion's first
kowtowing to the four lads from Liverpool.

In 1978, the Catholic Church paid symbolic tribute
to the Beatles by naming a Pope John Paul II.

The Roman numeral represented the Pontiff's
two other names: George & Ringo

So it has been said



Blogger's Warning
The two GodFather of Math links lead you to pure-text pages.

.....Daddy Rollin' Stone.....

The composer's name is separated from the song title because they are two distinct links.

Otis Blackwell

.....Daddy Rollin' Stone.....

I need to say a prayer before quoting his Wikipedia page:

Otis Blackwell...was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist,
whose work significantly influenced rock and roll.

......

Oh Happy Day.........Oh Lucky me
My prayer was answered
satisfactorily:

I was not reduced to salt for committing
......the crime of understatement......

......

Don't be Cruel...All Shook Up...Return to Sender...Paralyzed
were all recorded by Elvis Presley

Don't be Cruel...All Shook Up...Return to Sender...Paralyzed
were all composed by Otis Blackwell

Great Balls of Fire...Breathless
were recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis

Great Balls of Fire...Breathless
were both composed by Otis Blackwell

Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, The Who, Madonna,
Billy Joel, James Taylor, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty,
The Judds, Carl Perkins, Little Willie John and Peggy Lee...
have all covered songs written by Mr. Blackwell
(a/k/a John Davenport)

The good folks at Plan 9 Music concept will only permit
two highlighted songs within that stellar cast of singers & song titles
(plus a link to the Otis Blackwell image page)

......

The text of this page will close with gratitude for a David Letterman youTube clip
that begs the question:

What do you call an Elvis impersonator who wrote the song
Mr. Presley made famous?

The answer is obvious:

You call him .....Daddy Rollin' Stone.....

Original A-Day In NYC & The Third H

Crowds burned K in effigy

A dummy of K was washed down
Wall Street with a firehose

Men carried a coffin made of soap-boxes
up and down Fifth Avenue, shouting that
K was within it, "resting in pieces"

On Broadway, a boy drew pieces of K
over and over again on the sidewalk,
to give the crowds the delight
of trampling on them.

...The new era of peace began

≈Frederick Lewis Allen
Only Yesterday

The K refers to Kaiser Wilhelm

The date was November 11, 1918
The A-day in the title stands for Armistice Day

What had been known as The Great War was officially ended on this day.
Over sixteen million people had died in a war involving more than twenty sovereign states.

Twenty years later, there was another global conflagrartion resulting in The Great War
being renamed WORLD WAR 1

The next World War began with H and ended with another H
Otherwise known as Hitler and Hiroshima.

In World War 1, the United States suffered 117,465 fatalities and 205,640 wounded.

According to Mr. Allen's description of how American citizens
reacted to the official end of that war:

The mood was not that of pious thanksgiving, but of triumphant hate.

Hate is otherwise known as The Third H



Blogger's Note
To read what Frederick Lewis Allen wrote about the decision of the United States
to enter The Great War, click here

Margaret Bourke-White

Despite the magnificent accomplishhments of Margaret Bourke-White,
the italicized Art Daily text surrounding the image is the most
under-stated description of an A.D. photograph I have ever seen.

Why?
The words below the image duplicate the first paragraph of Margaret's Wikipedia page

No text is necessary to interpret the words within this profound 1937 photograph
vis-a-vis the people standing in line and the family in the car.

On a day like today,
American photographer and journalist Margaret Bourke-White was born



Margaret Bourke-White (June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971)
was an American documentary photographer.

She was the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures
of Soviet industry...and the first woman permitted to work in combat zones.

She was the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine,
where her photograph appeared on the first cover

In this image: Kentucky Flood by Margaret Bourke-White.

Link-free Update From Chancellor Hobbes

Dear Paul

As now and always
both have known
minute by minute
vocabulary has grown

Acronyms can be
acrimonious
and have been since
the days of Polonius


Synonyms can be sinful
or understood by
only a pinful

Songs will always be sung
but acrobatic is the tongue

Largesse measures lingo
Mr. Oliveringo

Soon to be Mr. & Mrs.
we all send our kisses
infinite be
the definition of We

And what's more
the next verse
is no non sequitir

Many have said
I'd rather be fishin'
yours truly will settle
for a re-definition

Of an acronym
known as USC
which you and me
know most differently

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Universal System of Chimerica is to the University of Southern California
as the rock is to the pebble
As the Oxford English Dictionary is to the dollar store dictionary
As God & Godette are to the Angels & Devils

The uber-USC we both know and respect has re-issued
my CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORITY
What a new "spell" they have cast

They addressed me as "Chancellor" but re-titled me as
The Wizard of The Lewis Carroll School of Logic.
More importantly, the name on the certificate is...
Karl Hobbes

A De-fanged But Cute Septuagenarian

GERMAN WWII BOMBER RAISED
FROM WATERY ENGLISH GRAVE
BY ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM

Hope To See You There

A detail of the top-billed photograph =

North Of Eighty...Follow That Woman

She recently celebrated her 80th birthday.
May we all be so lucky.
If John Lennon loved her...So should all of us!

Rock on, Yoko

Yoko Ono meeting the press at the press conference
for YOKO ONO - HALF-A-Wind SHOW
at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark.

Photo: Bjarke Ørsted

Aerial View Of A 260,000 Ton Poem

The George Washington Bridge stands high above
The Hudson River, its eastern end resting on
The shores of Manhattan, its western end embedded
In the wooded bluffs of New Jersey's Palisades

Twice as long as any previous suspension bridge
It was the marvel of its time...

Spanning the Hudson River challenged engineers
For over 100 years before Othmar Ammann
Proposed a bridge design in 1923 and
Construction began in October of 1927

"The George" has a 3,500-foot center span
Suspended between two 570-foot steel towers

It is the most traveled bridge in the world

But Where Is His U.S. Stamp?

Switzerland honors its artists. US Postal Service: please take note.
If the creations of bridge designer Othmar Ammann do not qualify
as "architectural poetry" then throw that term out the damn window!

Robert F. Kennedy Bridge



Verrazano Bridge



Bayonne Bridge



Throgs Neck Bridge



Whitestone Bridge