Size Matters

Rx-mas

Just spent 6 hours in the ER.

Told ya I was sick.

Glasses

They're really kinda ugly, but it's all my insurance would cover.

Brandon

Bedridden

Interesting word, 'bedridden'.

[Middle English bedreden, from Old English bedrida : bed, bed; see bed + rida, rider (from rdan, to ride. See ride).]

Hmm...nothing like THAT going on 'round here lately.
But alas, I digress...

In the past few days I have been quite thankful for all the crap lying around my room as it has given me something to look at while languishing in my fevered stupor.

FYI, I am actually feeling much better today.

The Annunciation

Prednisone Is Evil

Anybody know what'll to me happen if I just stop taking it?
Would I feel any sicker than I do already?
Cuz being on this shite is fucking awful.
God, I hate drugs.

Happy Thanksgiving

Give thanks for all that's good in your life.
And even for the stuff you don't think is so 'good'--
it's still often necessary for your evolution.

Enjoy the vittles.
No matter how good or bad (or naked) the cook is.

And remember this...an after-dinner nap is de rigueur.
Blame it on the tryptophan.

Be well, my friends.
Eat food. Food is good.
My love to you all.

Birthday Boy

Today, mah pappy turns 68. Happy Birthday Franciszek.

Stigmata

Camp Wannalobotomy

Voodoo Galaxy

Rash

I Have a Dream...

April 4, 1968 was my 4th birthday.

Spaghetti

Seeing this picture always makes me happy.

Opening Friday

*as always, click on image to enlarge

Innocence

Pigs

What DO men want?

(And why is it never me?)

Hospitality

I can now add yet another name to the list of area hospitals I have accompanied various members of my family to over the past several months. L'hospital du jour? Swedish Covenant, on Chicago's north side. My father was transported there by ambulance this morning from my brother's nearby home, where he and my mother had been house- and dog-sitting this weekend.

I visited them yesterday. When my father woke up this morning, he couldn't remember that me and Jasper had been there. He couldn't remember quite a number of things. So...we think he may have had a stroke--early tests have shown that he's had a number of ministrokes 'in the past'. How far 'past' that is, we haven't been told as of yet. Is that days? Weeks? Years??

Lorelei, if you've got the energy and/or inclination to explain those ministroke/lightning strike thingamajiggies, go for it. I haen't the energy (nor the edumakayshun) to do so tonight. (BTW, Mimi now keeps referring to you as 'Laura'--her other OTHER white daughter--even though I tell her it's just too confusing that way and to just keep calling you Lorelei.)

The old man seems to be doing fine, as of now.
I'm going to eat mashed potatoes now and then fall into a deep sleep, where hopefully I will dream of a coven of naked Swedish nurses prancing round my Papa and feeding him yummy little meatballs to make him feel better.

It's a fantasy I know he'd love to be having himself, but in case he isn't able to sleep tonight, what with all the ambulances speeding past his open windows, I'll do the dreaming for him.

Welcome to the Jungle

OK, so every once in a while I pull out things I own and spend hours trying to 'research' them, ostensibly for Ebay purposes. What happens, though, is that if I am successful in finding out a history to whatever it is I have, and if that history is even marginally interesting, I usually decide that I don't want to part with said object.

Anyhoo, so I've owned this photo for a little over a year.
Paid 2 bucks for it (including the cool reverse-painted glass art deco frame it came in). It is a glossy photo, autographed in dark blue ink.

This much I know: Mei-Mei was the second ever LIVE giant panda brought to the United States. Smuggled out by a wealthy fashion designer/socialite-cum-panda-smuggling-adventuress named Ruth Harkness.
(And if that is Mrs. Harkness in the car next to Mei-Mei, let's assume she wasn't as enamored of leopards. Living ones, anyway.)

So...the first panda, named Su-Lin, was sold to the Brookfield Zoo, where he choked to death on a stick (and now resides at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History).
Mei-Mei also came to the Brookfield Zoo in 1938 (and died there in 1942).
Interestingly both pandas were thought to be female, which was not the case.
(Hey, I made that mistake with a cat once.)

OK, so I know who Mei-Mei was. This also dates the pic to 1938-ish.

But who the fuck is Ted?? Besides looking way too much like Bobby DeNiro, I'm fairly stumped. The only 'Ted' who comes up with any frequency in searches about pandas is Teddy Roosevelt Jr., who actually liked to shoot them. (Although I did read that after he met a living one who wasn't at the end of his rifle he decided he liked 'em and thereafter swore off pandacide.)

So is this Teddy Jr. risking panda poop on his cashmere coat? Comparing pictures, I'm thinking not--but am not 100% on that. Ted Jr. was a pretty weird looking guy. The man in this photo is kinda sexy, in that 'Is that a panda on your lap or you just happy to see me?' kind of way.

I was hoping it WAS the Junior Roosevelt, for obvious historical (and monetarily-rewarding reasons). But alas, after this morning's comparison of handwriting samples, I am even less convinced of it.

Panda poo!!

So I am asking you, my antique-, history-, and research-saavy friends and blogviewers, for your help, advice, research tips, etc. in this matter.

Help me figure out who Ted is.
Or even Audrey.
Help me solve the mystery of the Giant Panda Stick-up.

Slut and a Harlot...Two Bits!!!

OK, Dave...that'll be two bits.

Madness

Caution: After just one of these you may subsequently
feel compelled to consume the rest of the haul.

p.s. Most of the family favorites (anything choco-peanutbuttery)
were already consumed by picture-taking time.

p.p.s. As I was posting this, my child just did an updated candy count:
251 pieces. And this after 24 hours of post-Trick-or-Treating familial candy bingeing.