Salesmanship -- And Humor -- Mean A Lot

We often see boxes of religious books; but we've never seen 'em set-up & offered like this:



So we like the people in Yard Sale Bloodbath's neighborhood a lot.

Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?

Photos from a walk around our neighborhood:


Moving? No other signs of it; but who can tell?

Coolio spray-painted trash can.

This Is How You Get Yer Bike On

Via La Meow.

Bunny Babbits

via

Of Legends, Santa, & His Rein --Bear?

At first I thought this might be some sort of vintage Coke stunt -- you know, first they had Santa present Coke to the brown bears so that they might tell the polar bears of the joys of Coke... And then they wouldn't have needed to create those animated polar bears.

I dunno, the legend of Santa is magical and powerful and I'm a Believer. Anything is possible with legends. And marketing. Santa included.


Which reminds me of a cute story of my son two summers ago...

We were having a yard sale and, as we had lots of old books available, lots of the local book dealers were showing up. One of the local book dealers was stopping by every day of our sale to check out the 'new' old books we continued to bring out as books sold. This gentleman happens to be a bigger man with the snowy white hair and beard. .

Because my then 6 year old was on a mission to A) deny the existence of Santa & B) convince me that there was no Santa (something he'll never ever get me to believe), I had no idea that my son would think this was Santa. On our front lawn. In July.

But he did.

When the book dealer asked my husband a question, my son grabbed my arm tightly and, speaking in that half-whisper of awe, he breathed, "Santa talks."

So, near as I can fathom, his previous notion was that of a mute Santa. That Santa did not exist. But this talking guy on our lawn? He was Santa.

I naturally corrected my son that this man was not Santa, that he was 'just a local book buying guy'. You'd think that would have cemented Santa's death, right? But no; apparently the idea of a speaking Santa put into motion an official Belief of the legend & its magic. Now my son Believes. (At least when he's with me.)

Anyway, the power of Santa's legend is strong.

So are our local legends.

For example, these photos are not of Santa (no matter how those eyes twinkle!). Rather, as we discover via UpNorth Memories - Don Harrison (at Flickr), this man is John "Spikehorn" Meyers, a local legend in Meyers Clare County, Michigan.

Harrison’s most colorful character was John “Spikehorn” Meyers, known to thousands of Michigan residents simply as Spikehorn. He was a showman, naturalist, politician, coal miner, tile manufacturer, furniture builder, inventor, realtor, bear hunter, lumberjack, and above all, individualist. The old gentleman had a fertile imagination under his white thatch of hair and full white beard.

According to neighbors, Spikehorn’s interest in the woods and buckskins developed around 1930, when he opened his Bear and Deer Park established on his property at the corner of US-27 and M-61. Rumor has it the park even contained an occasional buffalo.

Spikehorn and his friend, Red Eagle, dressed in buckskins for tourists and treated them to tales of their adventures in the woods. He enjoyed feeding his pets sweets, popcorn, and pop and loved posing with his deer and bears for cameras.

His enemies were the Conservation Officers, as indicated by the sign in front of his business: “Feed Conservation Officers to the Bear.”

It looks as if those bears love the taste of conservation officers.


Seeing these old photos reminds me that we all have our local legends.

Some are so colorful they cannot be contained in black and white photos, so large they cannot be limited to the mere 3.5 x 5.5 inches of a postcard they are presented upon. But not all of them are.

Some neighborhood legends are much smaller. They don't have to be anything more than the local shut-in, as we October Road fans were reminded this week (in the We Lived Like Giants episode) when Sam was afraid of Physical Phil because neighborhood kids, who do not understand Phil's fear driven behavior, believe Phil drinks the blood of cats and wears a suit made of human flesh.

It sounds silly, but every neighborhood has The One To Watch Out For, the one kids spread stories about... I'm pretty sure that Spikehorn was the goof of his time and neighborhood.

He at least had to have outshone the crazy cat lady.

Which just makes me wonder if hubby and I, as "that crazy collecting couple", should be promoting & preserving ourselves on postcards so that we might live on as legends... You know, past the neighborhood rumors and into Forever...

Nah, we've got this blog.

Big Boy Eventually Lost To An Even Bigger Steak

Chickens will devour McDonald's. Film at 11.

Via Flickr.

High-Five Fridays #4

1) High-fives to Neatorama for posting our refrigerated rabbit -- and to Rian for submitting it to them.

2) Row of potatoes, which amused me greatly when we found it -- still does after hubby posted it. *wink*

3) History Is Elementary is a blog by -- what else? -- an elementary history teacher. It's not kitschy, but it is is super cool. Grab a beverage and sit down to dig in at the site. (No fork needed for this tasty buffet.) It's so great that I'm adding it to the sidebar too.

4) A gleeful high-five to C. Monks at Utter Wonder as he worries about the effects of nerds at his blog. (As noted in the comments, he says 'nerds' while they say 'geeks' -- tomato/tomatoe as far as Monks' concerns go.) So why am I high-fiving him? Well, he writes a pretty clever post -- and the first part of dealing with his problem is to admit he has a problem. But of course the real reason I'm high-fiving the Monks is (drum roll) because I want to send more geeks and nerds his way. Fly my little minions, fly!

5) Flyfish Magazine brings you awesome images of Brian Gillis' teardrop camper with a fishing motif.



Find out how to give your High-Five Fridays here!

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you've admired during the week. I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 5 high-fives on Friday. Trackbacks, pings, linky widgets, comment links accepted!

Visiting fellow High-Fivers is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your High-Fives in others comments (please note if NWS).

Find more High-Five Friday folks here!

Hey, She's Frieda Krank!

When I spotted this slide, I just about died because the slide gives her name, "Frieda Krank" (and hubby, Edward).



All I could do was laugh, yelp, "She's Frieda Krank! She's actually Frieda Krank!" with tears streaming down my face.

Part of the vintage High Society Pfister Hotel set.

Saks Fifth Avenue Windows, Holiday 2007

Via Blather From Brooklyn -- also more at their Flickr set.

No Bull

In a world without men we may be free of the bull shit -- but who will lead the cows?

Photo by Corey Arnold.

I Love The... Crusty Artist

My new favorite crusty artist is Timothy Ray. I met Timothy at the NMVA's Art Burn on Saturday and yet it wasn't until I read more about him that I discovered his inner-true-crusty-artist self.

Timothy Ray on the Herd About The Prairie buffalo event:

On the one hand, this project has been repeated so often with so little variation, that one cannot be blamed for saying “Oh, no. Not again” On the other hand, these projects are enormously popular, easily out-drawing even the most important museum exhibitions. So even though it is corny, trite, and represents a feeble effort to raise cliché to the level of kitsch, one must participate. Otherwise, if one simply opts out, he doesn’t get to make these statements.

Which I find really amusing -- mainly because I didn't dare utter such a thing when our daughter, Allie, had a part in painting a buffalo. Mommy-work collides with my true aesthetic response. It's not that I don't find her work or the other artistic bison messages interesting, or even non-art; I support the arts (nearly) as much as I support my kids. But damn if Ray doesn't speak the truth of such events & 'opportunities.'


From his Studio Crawl note we glean more about Ray's views on art:

If you're looking for ducks, cute children or fall landscapes, try someplace else. There is lots of that out there.

Oh, he's so damn wise. He describes the reason why I avoid many art shows. I've got cute kids at home. I collect ducks. Fall happens for many months -- every year. With art, I want something new. Something... else.

It can't be wrong to covet an artist's work for his personal crusty-factor; it's like the living artist's statement.

Where Disney Goes, Smileys Always Follow

Together, forever.