4.6.11

Welcome to the blog of Fred Schiller, Writer@Large. Come on in, grab a cocktail and have a look around!

This is a drawing by Barry Gott called 'Into the fray' and it makes me very happy to look at.

All the latest on the Shark News Network


Unless you're
Superman,
you need to
click twice on
the image
to make it
large enough
to read.

Turn a tragic fire into a lots of points on your wrestling score card!

Was this how the last episode of the TV series Lost ended? I never understood that show.

Was there a Twilight Zone where the earth was in rubble and the only remaining album a music lover could find was this one?

If I had a cool art deco ashtray like this I would fill it with bubblegum cigarettes and liquorish jellybeans.

Lisa Simpson learns the truth about signs.

George! The Henderson boys are at it again. You'd better turn the hose on them before someone gets hurt!

It turns out that the Easter Island moai are both growers and showers. Right on, moai!






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I can't survive all these rules. What, is this some sort of a cult?

It's the windy city. The city of big shoulders. The slaughterhouse of the midwest. The second city. Sweet home Chicago.

Click for a big glorious version of this photo.

3.6.11

A chewy piece of Iron Man artwork by the sublime Rick Arthur.
















If I owned this painting I would stare at it for hours and hours each day.




You owe
it to your-
self to
click on
this image
to make it
larger.

Did you know you could learn combat training through the mail? I'm up to chapter 47 already.

The trend of combative balloon racing was one of the shortest trends in sporting history.



Please
click for
a larger
version
of this
silly
image.

Angry chair doesn't want you to sit on him, but happy microwave will be pleased to heat something up for you.


31.5.11

Each direction I turn these days, more lists.

The following is a list from the folks at Dictionary.com of some of the most neglected words in the english language. They are working with the Wayne State University Word Warriors in an effort to bring neglected words back to life and back into daily usage. They encourage word lovers to submit their own favorite neglected words.

Concupiscence
Draconian
Evanescent

Hornswoggle
Ossify

Paroxysm
Penurious
Schadenfreude

Sibilance
Skullduggery

Wolverine vs. T-Rex Parts 1 & 2 by nJoo

Click each painting twice to see them super jumbo sized.

Maybe he said them, maybe he didn't, but there's some good ones here..

50 Quotes of Albert Einstein

  1. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
  2. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
  3. “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
  4. “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
  5. “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
  6. “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
  7. “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
  8. “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
  9. “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
  10. “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
  11. “Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
  12. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
  13. “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
  14. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
  15. “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
  16. “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”
  17. “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
  18. “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
  19. “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”
  20. “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
  21. “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
  22. “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
  23. “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
  24. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
  25. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
  26. “Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
  27. “Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.”
  28. “If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
  29. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”
  30. “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
  31. “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”
  32. “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
  33. “In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
  34. “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
  35. “Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.”
  36. “Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!”
  37. “No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”
  38. “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
  39. “Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.”
  40. “The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
  41. “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”
  42. “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
  43. “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
  44. “You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”
  45. “One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”
  46. “…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”
  47. “He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
  48. “A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
  49. “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

29.5.11

Supposedly the top 100 most beautiful words in the English language. You be your own judge, but there are some pretty words here.

Ailurophile A cat-lover.

Assemblage A gathering.

Becoming Attractive.

Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.

Brood To think alone.

Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.

Bungalow A small, cozy cottage.

Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.

Comely Attractive.

Conflate To blend together.

Cynosure A focal point of admiration.

Dalliance A brief love affair.

Demesne Dominion, territory.

Demure Shy and reserved.

Denouement The resolution of a mystery.

Desuetude Disuse.

Desultory Slow, sluggish.

Diaphanous Filmy.

Dissemble Deceive.

Dulcet Sweet, sugary.

Ebullience Bubbling enthusiasm.

Effervescent Bubbly.

Efflorescence Flowering, blooming.

Elision Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.

Elixir A good potion.

Eloquence Beauty and persuasion in speech.

Embrocation Rubbing on a lotion.

Emollient A softener.

Ephemeral Short-lived.

Epiphany A sudden revelation.

Erstwhile At one time, for a time.

Ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.

Evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.

Evocative Suggestive.

Fetching Pretty.

Felicity Pleasantness.

Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.

Fugacious Fleeting.

Furtive Shifty, sneaky.

Gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.

Glamour Beauty.

Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.

Halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.

Harbinger Messenger with news of the future.

Imbrication Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.

Imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.

Imbue To infuse, instill.

Incipient Beginning, in an early stage.

Ineffable Unutterable, inexpressible.

Ingénue A naïve young woman.

Inglenook A cozy nook by the hearth.

Insouciance Blithe nonchalance.

Inure To become jaded.

Labyrinthine Twisting and turning.

Lagniappe A special kind of gift.

Lagoon A small gulf or inlet.

Languor Listlessness, inactivity.

Lassitude Weariness, listlessness.

Leisure Free time.

Lilt To move musically or lively.

Lissome Slender and graceful.

Lithe Slender and flexible.

Love Deep affection.

Mellifluous Sweet sounding.

Moiety One of two equal parts.

Mondegreen A slip of the ear.

Murmurous Murmuring.

Nemesis An unconquerable archenemy.

Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.

Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like its meaning.

Opulent Lush, luxuriant.

Palimpsest A manuscript written over earlier ones.

Panacea A solution for all problems

Panoply A complete set.

Pastiche An art work combining materials from various sources.

Penumbra A half-shadow.

Petrichor The smell of earth after rain.

Plethora A large quantity.

Propinquity Proximity; Nearness

Pyrrhic Successful with heavy losses.

Quintessential Most essential.

Ratatouille A spicy French stew.

Ravel To knit or unknit.

Redolent Fragrant.

Riparian By the bank of a stream.

Ripple A very small wave.

Scintilla A spark or very small thing.

Sempiternal Eternal.

Seraglio Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.

Serendipity Finding something nice while looking for something else.

Summery Light, delicate or warm and sunny.

Sumptuous Lush, luxurious.

Surreptitious Secretive, sneaky.

Susquehanna A river in Pennsylvania.

Susurrous Whispering, hissing.

Talisman A good luck charm.

Tintinnabulation Tinkling.

Umbrella Protection from sun or rain.

Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.

Vestigial In trace amounts.

Wafture Waving.

Wherewithal The means.

Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.


Here's a 'No Parking' sign that makes me want to park in front of it.



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image
so you
can
read
the fine
print.

Long before Batman and Superman were around, the Hatmen of New York defeated evil doers.




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for
larger
image.

Oh, heavens, Diane! You're overreacting. I had some bean salad at lunch and you know it sometimes upsets my tummy. A little flatulence is normal.

Come on down for a rest, guys. We're all friends here. I don't even like the taste of plump juicy goose.

A cold weather buddy is the best kind of buddy.

I can't see a thing in this helmet, guys. I did WHAT? I shot WHO in the eye? Let's say we planned it that way, okay?

I've always loved the idea of bookmobiles. I think it's especially neat that a publisher had their own.




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