When Norah Met Sally

On January 16, 2025, we were watching the CBS Evening News, as one does around our house.  Something about Norah O'Donnell's dress intrigued me.

It was the embroidery or stitching or what-you-call-it on her left shoulder.  It reminded me of another raven-haired beauty, this one from the movies.

Yup, it was Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I wonder if anybody else watched the news that night and wondered if Norah could likewise unravel her arm from her body?

See you on Monday for the beginning of a MAXI MUSICAL MONTH OF MAY!

  

Misspellings Again Again

Yup, dat ole debbil de English languish kin snake upon ewe!

In this case, we have some spelling or lettering goofs from the comics page.

This Family Circus is from the April 22, 2020 Oklahoman.  Note that the name of the dog Barfy is misspelled "Barly."

However, the Tulsa World's version gets Barfy's name right.

Above is Dilbert, from the July 10, 2019 Oklahoman.  Look in the center panel and notice that "THE" is spelled "T E," with the center letter missing.

That word is correct on Scott Adams's website ...

... and as printed in the Tulsa World.

That Oklahoma City paper has got some gremlins, huh?  See you Monday.

  

Misspellings Again

Here's a phenonomal typo!

It's from a column in the July 30, 2022 Tulsa World.  So let's blame the syndicating service!

This one is from our own dear Blogger!  A screengrab from February 4, 2021, gives a whole new way of spelling "referring."  Ain't it grand?

  

Bathroom Visions #1

Ever since I started working in this building, I noticed something intriguing about the paper towels.  One end has a black cap, presumably for use in the paper-towel dispensers in the bathrooms, while the other end of the cardboard tube is left uncovered and open.

After biding my time, waiting for empties, I made my own optical illusion.  Don't YOU think of the starship Enterprise?

See you Monday.

  

You, Sir, Are NOT Harry Crews' "Car"!

Back around 1973, I read Car, an interesting read by Harry Crews, thanks to the New Arrivals table at the good ole Bartlesville Public Library.

This was more than fifty years ago.  I remember the absurdity of the premise, that, for a stunt, a guy promised to eat (suitably reduced to pieces) an entire car.  I'm sure the book is full of insightful characters and sharp commentary on consumer society, but I remember none of that.

I was amused when trying to recall the book, to come across a wacky image produced by the semi-fallible Google.  You know when you enter a search term, off to the right you would see other supposedly helpful, supposedly related info?

Check out the illustrated "preview" of Harry Crews' Car.  Ummm, I don't think so!

See ya Thursday for more silliness!

  

A SUPER Place to Work!

I work security for the good ole State of Oklahoma, at night when it's supposed to be peaceful.

And it usually is, giving me time to walk the building, watch the cameras, and consider deep thoughts.  For example ....

Doesn't THIS particular parking-lot view yield a painted set of lines that's suspiciously familiar?

I think it looks like Superman's shield!  However, I am sad to inform you that during the daytime there isn't a Super Car parked there.

See you on Monday, fellow Super Seers!

  

Two Canines I Could Understand

But two A-9s?

On the fine day of February 15, 2025, the fine ole Tulsa World did a silly thing.

It printed the SAME PAGE twice, in two different sections!  The above photo is from the first section.

And THIS above photo is from the same page, printed in the SPORTS SECTION.

Who knows what SHOULD have been on page 9 of the Sports, but probably not this.  Zoom in on the first photo to see the grand, mistaken scheme of things.  OOPS!

  

Welcome to April Foolishness - 2026!

One of my zillions of books on the mysteries of life is Peter Costello's  In Search of Lake Monsters.  My copy is the 1974 Grenada printing, seen below.

One critter discussed is known as the Monster of Yakut Lake, or the Labynkyr Devil.

Here is the illustration of the beast in the book. 

Now, I don't know why, but this image has always reminded me of one of our kitchen spoons.

Do you see the resemblance, or am I just crazy?

See you Monday!

  

Bumper Sticker Smoking a Cigar

With all the talk about how great AI is in generating images on command, I decided to try it.  I tried to come up with something silly to challenge the magic of AI.  So I came up with, let's see, how about ... 

A BUMPER STICKER SMOKING A CIGAR

... and here are the AI results:

This is from "AIEase."  Cigar, yes.  Bumper sticker?  Nah ... I suppose the brown image is supposed to be a license plate, which is NOT a bumper sticker.  PS ... note the anti-vaping ad on the far right!  Was it prompted by my mention of a cigar and smoking???

The above is from Dezgo.  Another miss.

The above, from Artguru, seems to have two cigars.

Another license plate, from DeepAI.

All I know is, the AI at Perchance has a dirty mind and anime girls on the brain!  No bumper stickers or license plates in sight.

This amateurish illo is drawn ENTIRELY from shapes from Microsoft Publisher.  It's a line-drawing attempt at what I thought the magic of generative AI could provide.  IMO these attempts at image generation from text failed miserably.

See you on Thursday, May 1, for this year's MUSICAL MONTH OF MAY, with new music comps all month long --- starting with a special Walpurgisnacht concoction!  See ya then!

  

Soap Shapes Number Two

Ok, when I get a lot of soap scraps, I mash them all together and use the result as a new bar of soap, after soaking the mess for a day or two to make it squishy.

This means that Some funny shapes happen.

After a few days of this one compound, I set it down and looked twice.  I said, "Hmmm."

Suddenly I was hungry for barbecue!

Does this closeup make it plainer?

See you on Monday, my carnovorean compadres!

  

The Amazing Heroes Hoax Contest! – Part 2

Part 1 here.

To refresh your memory, here is the article from the April 1, 1985 Amazing Heroes.

Welcome back, fellow Super Sillies!

“The Man with Superman’s Heart” is an actual tale, the cover story for World’s Finest #189.  I covered it in a 2020 Super Blog post.

“The Secret of Silver Kryptonite” is the cover story for Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #70, cover-dated July 1963.

Almost certainly inspired by then-current Paul-is-dead rumors, “Dead … Till Proven Alive” led off Batman #222, cover-dated June 1970. 

“The Ransom of Superman” is another tale from Jimmy Olsen, issue 81, cover-dated December 1964.

The final story mentioned in this article, “Lois and Lana Join Forces,” is the SECOND fake story.  However, it’s modeled on an actual team-up in an issue of Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane from 1964.  Issue 52 narrated the two gals’ alliance against Illena, a temptress from the planet Kronal.  What’s really creepy is who Illena REALLY is.

And who would’ve thought that ANYBODY would keep Medusa’s head for thousands of years as a keepsake?

And, my friends, the April Foolery ain’t done yet!

The name of the magazine is not Monolithic Heroes!

Well, my friends, how did YOUR brain fare with this April Fool’s quiz on DC history?

See you on Thursday!

Sea Monster in the Clouds

On October 15, 2022, I was comin' up to the intersection of SW 44th and May in good ole OKC when I saw a suspicious cloud in the east.

And that cloud reminded me of a photo of a water monster I had seen somewhere.

It was this 1977 photo of Champ, the rumored critter of Lake Champlain, a body of water shared by Vermont, Quebec, and Vermont.

Here's a closer view of the cloud.

Just for fun, here's another similar image, from page 79 of the oh-so-fun 1957 book David and the Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd.  You can read an interview with author Ormondroyd here.

I encourage you to read that book!  It's so much fun.

See you Monday!

  

In Books Be Silliness!

Herewith are a few things which amused me in reading some of the three-thousand-plus books I have logged.

From page 176 of Philip José Farmer's The Fabulous Riverboat, we have a sentence towards the end of the big paragraph, "They had more gall than France."  This tickled me because I think Farmer was joshing about Gaul, the Roman province which included France.  You're familiar with the opening words of Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars?  "All Gaul is divided into three parts," or ""Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres," as we learned in Latin Class.

I don't know if a computer is to blame, but here in Jon Burlingame's great book Music for Prime Time, we have an odd hyphenation.  That is, an odd NON-hyphenation.  I mean ... aw, shucks!  Shouldn't that phrase be rendered the same way ALL THE TIME, especially in adjacent sentences?

In the 2020 spy thriller Black Flag by David Ricciardi, we are told that "a croc's jaws were the most powerful force in the mammalian world."  Somebody tell this guy that crocodiles ARE REPTILES, not mammals.  Sheesh!

Well, that's enough silliness for today.  See you on Thursday!

  

Bursting with ... Something!

Joyce uses this facial cleanser, see?

And it's called "Morning Burst," see?

Only one problem ... when I see those words, my crazy mind goes to ...

... a DIFFERENT place!

See you Monday.