Monday, December 24, 2007

Holiday Ponderables


The holidays are eating me alive, but I leave you with these things to wonder about until after the rush:

- North Dakota is becoming one big, beautiful and sad Wunderkammer (to read about it, click on the link at the right). Here is a beautiful book on same, from photographer Steve Fitch.

- The largest diamond ever found was over 3,000 carats. So if you're thinking of buying someone diamonds for Christmas, think on that before you blow your pocketbook (more on this topic after the holidays).

- Give the gift of weirdness: shopdropping at Christmastime.


- Chickens prefer to lay eggs in nests that already have eggs. Thus the age-old use of porcelain/clay/stone eggs, leading to more decorative specimens.

On a less savory note (caution: if squeamish or lacking weird humor, stop here):

- Quotes from a 5-year-old:
"The god of the creek has shorts and a see-through suitcase with swim stuff inside it, just in case the water gets too deep."
"I think your butt-hole is secretly elastic." (This from the author of the Butt Trilogy)

- If you have not heard of the Benny Lava phenomenon, here's your chance, complete with lexicon analysis, plus MySpace page and so on - but it's not funny. No, really.

Okay, that's all the weirdness in my brain at the moment. The rest is steeped in holiday etceteras. I hope you all have an excellent period of excess and twinkling lights.

5 comments:

HibiscuitsGirl said...

Those photos of North Dakota remind me of Terry Gilliam's "Tideland" which, if you haven't seen it, you should.

Barry Pike said...

Benny Lava was hilarious...and I had not seen it.

Truly, this is a Cabinet of Wonders.

Merry Christmas!

Wood said...

I hope those shopdropper don't get arrested on suspicions of terrorism... I wouldn't be surprised.

D said...

The photos...beautiful. Thank you for the link.

bioephemera said...

Thank you for the National Geographic link - it's eerily similar to the country where I grew up. It is truly hard to explain what growing up in such a place is like, to people who have never seen a way of life disappearing in realtime.