foureyedbat

Zoo Tuesday: Atlas Moth

A little something I saw early in the morning.

Children of the Narcissus

A trip home got me researching Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This is what it feels like to grow up with it.

One Sweet Bike

I have fond memories of tooling around in my small New Hampshire hometown on one of our family's old black Schwinns. Back in those days no one wore helmets, most of us rode barefoot, and about the fanciest anyone got was sparkly banana seats and ribbons hanging from the handlebars. Then I grew up and lived in cities, and bikes stopped being about lazy hot summer afternoons riding to Friendly's Ice Cream for a mint chocolate chip cone. Bikes were a Lifestyle Choice, with Special Clothes and Equipment required. It just didn't seem like fun, so I stayed away.

Now that I live in a very small city, and I've sort of re-learned how to ride again (it IS possible to forget how to ride a bicycle; the trick is not to get on one for 20 years) I've been thinking about getting a bike of my own. So yesterday I went to a bike store for the first time in...well, ever, and it was a depressing experience indeed. Giant angry wheels and 30 speeds and logos logos logos, everything over-engineered and ugly, like sneakers.

So I came home and I thought, well...I wonder what Schwinn is doing?

And then I came upon this thing of beauty. And my faith is restored.

Separated at Birth: Antique Taxidermy Monkey and Electric Six Video Lady

Oh, what? You don't see it?

The Golden Monkey

The taxidermy at the Harvard Museum of Natural History is fascinating stuff. It's old, it's lumpy, and it was made by people who obviously wanted to cheer things up a bit by adding odd grins and glass teddy bear eyes to the dead skin party. Most of the monkeys are screaming horrors (examples here and here). This one merely looks puzzled. He looks like he's thinking, well...how did I get here?

Happy Dead Seal

Reflective Eland

Nightmare Monkey Part 2

Spotty Cat

Nightmare Monkey Part 1