2013 Week 17

The Things This Week

Passing the Postern of Fate:

Pass not beneath! Men say there blows in stony deserts still a rose
But with no scarlet to her leaf--and from whose heart no perfume flows.

Wilt thou bloom red where she buds pale, thy sister rose? Wilt thou not fail
When noonday flashes like a flail? Leave nightingale the caravan!

--James Elroy Flecker

Desert Rose

Are you being served?

Adenium

Desert rose is the colloquial name given to rosette formations of the minerals gypsum and barite. The rosette crystal habit tends to occur when the crystals form in arid sandy conditions, such as the evaporation of a shallow salt basin.

--TrekEarth.com

The Desert Rose Taxidermy, at Etsy.com, where among other things they have many cougar parts for appreciation and possible purchase.

This Red Rock

Bonus Item:
• Favicon:
  
  
  Also available at favicon.cc under a Creative Commons No Attribution License.

Time Signatures

7/4, anyone? An example can be found at the end of Stravinsky's Firebird.

Setting The Mountain On Fire

It doesn't even involve moxibustion.

Reading

• Milton's Samson Agonistes

  Grateful for the footnotes in this version.

• Maxims of Equity

Accent Marks in Spanish Words Used As Names

Yes, way, José.

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PERFECT TOMMY

Real name unknown, believed to have met Buckaroo at Phillips Exeter, but may be only self-taught with a grade-school education acquired in the South. Young, handsome, of good family. Vain, pleasure-loving, heartless, sordid, callous and sentimental, he can be brave to excess or cringingly cowardly. An enigma. A chameleon. Changes his mind as fast as he changes his hair color. A product of broken dreams. Told Buckaroo upon his induction to the Hong Kong Cavaliers, "I'm Perfect Tommy. Find Me." Nicknamed by Buckaroo "Knight of the Lesser Boulevards." Accepted to a special program at MIT where he could have coordinated material testing in cryogenic propellants to determine compatibility of various chemical gasses and fluids associated with rocket propulsion and laser systems, but a woman and a scandal forced him to leave Cambridge for a time. Went to Egypt and there taught himself the rhythm guitar; was involved in an opium bust for which he received a prison term; escaped and (posing as a Belgian) joined the Foreign Legion. Served in Africa and survived, a better man for it. Has postulated the existence of a new layer of atmosphere between the troposphere and the stratosphere, calling it the flatusphere, an accumulation of methane gas derived from the world's constant farting and politicians' bullshit. It was his design for the Jet Car's suspension that convinced Buckaroo that the promise of the OSCILLATION OVERTHRUSTER might at last be realized. 

Quotes for Perfect Tommy (Character)
from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

The Horse, of course.

Proof that America Has Morons

(We Needed More of That, Said No One, Ever)

It's not just that some of them might believe him, it's that most people are, it's perfectly obvious, not even listening to what he actually says.