On our drive home,
your voice was song. Your lips
pursed to form the perfect overture.
(c) 2016 Eric Robert Nolan
Photo credit: By Jonnyboyca at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Rschen7754 using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17916742
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
— Albert Einstein
IDW Publishing. “Menton3” is a pseudonym for Menton J. Matthews III.
Here’s another bizarre relic of Boys’ Life magazine in the 1980’s — an ad for what was apparently a $4.95 do-it-yourself hovercraft. (Kids needed to read that entire ad to understand that what this company was selling you was not the “AIR CAR” itself, or even its parts, but only “plans and photos.”)
A pal of mine in the Cub Scouts had his heart set on this, but I wisely cautioned him that you couldn’t always trust advertisers. (I’d learned my own lesson a couple of years prior from the duplicitous marketers of “Sea Monkeys.”) You’ve gotta read the whole thing through, I told him. Pretend that you’re dealing with the least trustworthy kid on the school bus. It was one of those truly rare moments in my life when I counseled circumspection to others instead of vice versa.
He was pretty zealous in his desire for this thing. For some reason, he really wanted to take it out over the Long Island Sound (to … Connecticut, presumably?) I’m still not sure why he didn’t want a jet ski. We indeed had those in the 80’s. Oh, well. As dreams go, it wasn’t the worst that a kid could have.
He never wound up sending away for it. I’m not sure if that’s because I talked him out of it or not.
But here’s the stunning O’Henry-style postscript — I’ve read a few Reddit and Twitter posts from men in their 40’s who also remember this Boys Life ad, and who actually sent away for the plans. A couple of them claim that they successfully built this device, and that the damned thing actually worked. (Cue the theme music for Christopher Nolan’s 2006 “The Prestige.”) It certainly couldn’t hold 100 pounds, they qualified, but it technically still worked.
I guess if I ever run into my old friend from the Cub Scouts after 40 years, I owe him a hovercraft.
Experimenter Publishing.
The time I’ve lost in wooing,
In watching and pursuing
The light, that lies
In woman’s eyes,
Has been my heart’s undoing.
Though Wisdom oft has sought me,
I scorn’d the lore she brought me,
My only books
Were woman’s looks,
And folly’s all they’ve taught me.
Her smile when Beauty granted,
I hung with gaze enchanted,
Like him the Sprite,
Whom maids by night
Oft meet in glen that’s haunted.
Like him, too, Beauty won me,
But while her eyes were on me,
If once their ray
Was turn’d away,
Oh! winds could not outrun me.
And are those follies going?
And is my proud heart growing
Too cold or wise
For brilliant eyes
Again to set it glowing?
No, vain, alas! th’ endeavour
From bonds so sweet to sever;
Poor Wisdom’s chance
Against a glance
Is now as weak as ever.
American News Company.
I really want to try that new viral trend in which people throw cheese onto babies’ heads.
But I don’t have any kids, so I’m headed to the mall with a package of Velveeta and looking for families there.
Marvel Comics.
Didn’t see that one coming. (Waitaminute. Why are actors “on” shows, but “in” movies?) The name of the actress is Samantha Morton.
She’s bald in both roles, and both roles depict her in dystopias.
And her characters are repeatedly referred to by others as “the strongest” member of their group.
AND both the show and the film place her in a key plot arc in which girls are taken from their mothers. Damn.
