The taste of love

I am afraid of the cookies in the lunch room.

It's a sad statement, but true.  The cookies are just plain weird-looking...not all the cookies, mind you, but the dark chocolate ones with the pink candy buttons.  That cotton-candy pink color.  It makes the cookies look like they escaped from a poodle-skirt wearing June Cleaver Wannabe woman who got sick of making corn flake winkies some time in 1954.

But that's just me.

One of my colleagues, who seemed somewhat nicer to me before he made this statement, told me that the cookies tasted like "love."  Which is also scary, given the tastes I associate with love:

• tuna
  
• asparagus
• beef and tortillas with cheese and grilled onions
• eggs with vegetables in them
• dark russet potato chips
• gingerbread 
• m&m's
• goldfish crackers
• slightly burned fish
• thin-crust pizza with sausage
• fried ravioli
• sweet tarts
• pixy stix
• american cheese sandwiches
• Italian wedding soup
• artichokes
• olive oil

These are not good cookie flavors, by the way. 

Valentine's Day Love...and stuff

Where did Valentine's Day come from? Well, the world will never know, because these events are shrouded in the deepest recesses of history. However, there is some substantiation for a few things:

• there was a Roman Saint named Valentine


• he possibly sent some letters to a lover


• Chaucer wrote: "For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
  Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate."
  in Parliament of Foules

• the British Museum owns the oldest Valentine (from the middle ages)


• Valentine's day became popular in England hundreds of years ago


• people today feel a lot of pressure to deliver a good Valentine's Day experience to new romantic partners

Just as a side note, because MightyIsis is fond of digressions, the top 10 British treasures seem to contain a lot of hoards.

Judging from the last point, there is a lot of room for bad things to happen on Valentine's Day. A lot of room.

However, MightyIsis had the very best Valentine's Day ever. Fancy breakfast, fancy dinner, flowers, candy, and mint chip ice cream...yum!

Images are in the public domain because they are not copyrighted.

Mission Impossisquirrel?

I found this gem on a friend's web site. It shows the lengths to which squirrels will go to get acorns or candy bars.


(right) Picture of a squirrel by Diliff. Used under terms of gnu license.

I find myself asking, however, if this means that all candy machines can get squirrels in them?



(left) Candy buttons by Gila Brand, with, unaccountably, a jelly bean in the middle. Used under gnu license.

Who's got the point?

When MightyIsis was a child, her father would sing, "button, button, who's got the button?" whenever something got lost. Being an earnest child, she did not find this behavior very amusing, especially when she was trying to look for something. However, nostalgia being what it is, she now thinks of the button song with fondness.

(left) A button. Public domain image taken by NickGorton. (below, right) More buttons. Photo by Richard Wheeler (Zephyris) 2007, used under gnu license.


Ah, the healing power of time, even when there are no wounds.


In any event...MightyIsis finds herself asking "point, point, who's got the point?" in response to her "stealth thumb" post.

Stealth thumb is supposed to be ridiculous, which is what makes it such an effective strategy. But certain commenters seem to have missed this...shall we say "point" in a discussion of rules and regulations, which....

[pause]

[other pause]

...is obviously a trick!

HA ha!

Killer Putti

In an earlier post (see "fairy flower children," below), MightyIsis extolled the virtues of the putti...or at least comments that they were pretty darn cute, and cuter even than cherubs.


Putti in a 1750 paiting by François Boucher, "Birth of Venus." (Venus is the big one--the little ones are the putti.) Image is in the public domain.

...well, not all putti, apparently. In Magnetic Rose, a couple of evil, or at least highly violent and poorly socialized, putti try to kill the protagonists...or at least one of them. (It's about a minute and a half into the youtube clip.)

And MightyIsis asks..."is this fair to putti?" Could Magnetic Rose be a misrepresentation of all putti? And, given that putti are, in fact, imaginitive works, closely related to cupids
and angels, doesn't this mean that they can't defend themselves?

Poor putti.



Tree O' putti (not the name Dore would have used). Detail from an illustration of Orlando Furioso by Gustav Dore. Image is in the public domain.

Whodathunkit?

Briareos has pointed out that the preceding post might advocate activities that are, in fact, illegal in tournament or competition thumb wrestling.

So, although MightyIsis is a bit flummoxed at the idea that there was such a thing as international tournament thumb wrestling in the first place, subsequent research has shown the following.

• There is a lovely program, hosted by thumbs, that depicts thumb wrestling. It seems very WWF-inspired. http://www.thumbwrestlingfederation.com
• There are also some less official-looking pages. http://www.gameskidsplay.net/GAMES/other_games/thumb_wrestling.htm
• Wikipedia's article cites no sources. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_wrestling Ok...I know, Hermione Granger would not approve of this as a source...

Suitably chastened, Isis concedes, and clarifies: "stealth thumb is for home use only." However, stealth thumb is not technically "cheating" according to these sites, because it only involves use of the thumb.

Stealth thumb

In the film version of Tank Girl, Tank Girl(Lori Petty) and Jet Girl (some dark-haired woman...OMG! It's Naomi Watts!) are trapped by a group of superkangaroo killer/soldiers and imprisoned in a very uncomfortable-looking room full of bowling balls.

Public domain image by S Chua.

Most people might whine about this treatment, but not Tank Girl. She settles down into a nice thumb wrestling match... fun.

Did you ever thumb wrestle? Probably. I mean, who hasn't? Anyone with a thumb can do it...if they understand the rules.


Enos the space chimp, who, like most primates, had four thumbs. Probably he was too busy doing astronaut things to thumb wrestle. Public domain in the United States (US) because was made by the US Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

Of course, the question then becomes, "how do I win against a larger and stronger opponent?

The answer:

"Stealth thumb"

Stealth thumb works by "cloaking" the thumb, rather like a Romulan "warbird" or the Klingon "bird of prey."

[mandatory digressio] Hmmm...perhaps this whole "bird" thing explains why the Federation ships are not cloakable...they're all like "DC class cruiser" and not named after an animal at all.

Getting back to "stealth thumb;" however, you simply cloak the thumb, by "sneaking" it down and around the other thumb. This causes your opponent to laugh at your ridiculousness because cloaking isn't real. Then, when his/his guard is down, you strike... ha HA!

Yes, you have to say "ha HA!"

This is a procedure, after all.