In April, 1958, a kid's book was published that caused some trouble in the State of Alabama.  The book was 'The Rabbit's Wedding', by the noted illustrator and one of the best artists ever Garth Williams.  (Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, The Rescuers). The alert reader will notice the black rabbit is black and the white one white.  Well, the state of Alabama noticed this also. The White Citizen's Council, led by State Senator E. O. Eddins, declared that the book encouraged miscegenation and wanted it removed from the shelves and burned. Picking on a kid's book sure was reaching. "This book and many others should be taken off the shelves and burned". Senator Eddins of Demopolis, Alabama.  Demopolis translates as village-citystate.  Eddins was a racist who had fought in France with the Marines in the Great War, so he was no coward.  I'm sure he was beloved by his constituency.  If anyone thinks that I am singli...

Saturday morning I watched this dolphin swim about in the bay in front of the house.  He's alone, they usually are seen pairs.  A Great Blue is in the foreground, wildly unconcerned.  

  It was in the year 1976 that the trouble between the world and China reachd its culmination. It was because of this that the celebration of the Second Centennial of American Liberty was deferred. Many other plans of the nations of the earth were twisted and tangled and postponed for the same reason. The world awoke rather abruptly to its danger; but for over seventy years, unperceived, affairs had been shaping toward this very end. The year 1904 logically marks the beginning of the development that, seventy years later, was to bring consternation to the whole world. The Japanese-Russian War took place in 1904, and the historians of the time gravely noted it down that that event marked the entrance of Japan into the comity of nations. What it really did mark was the awakening of China. This awakening, long expected, had finally been given up. The Western nations had tried to arouse China, and they had failed. Out of their native optimism and race-egotism they had therefore conclu...

I left work Friday and drove over to Heifers N' Bulls for a drink.  I parked my old Toyota out back, that way the cops don't take note of me leaving and when.  It had been a tough day sacking groceries, and I just couldn't deal with the missus and the kids.  I got my hat off the back seat and went into the bar, Junior Brown was on the jukebox and Larry behind the bar had a beer and a shot waiting for me.  I was in hock up to my ears at the money store and the car needed a new transmission, but that could wait.  It was payday and I needed a little R & R.  I was wearing tennis shoes 'cause my feet hurt and I can't dance nohow.  I talked with the guys I know and a few women I didn't, they were all snooty bitches and just walked away.  Back in high school they would have loved to make it with the second string winning quarterback but now I guess they can smell broke a mile away.  About midnight I called home but whoever answered hung up on me...

When I got up this morning my rabbit Billy was nowhere to be seen.  This bothered me, every time he goes out he gets into trouble or I do.  I could see my car was still in the driveway so that was good, he doesn't have a license but he can drive and he does.  After I checked the hammock out back and his room I made coffee and watched the sun come up over the water.  I would rather watch it go down over the water but this is Texas and most of the Gulf Coast faces east.  I saw a figure with large ears walking the street towards me, and lit another cigarette.  I could hardly wait to hear his story this time.  Billy got to the house and went inside, then came out with coffee and sat in a chair next to me.  'I bet you're mad at me', he said.  'Again'. 'Why?  Should I be'?  I was mad at him but nothing special. 'You never let me go anywhere or have any fun at all'.  He sipped his coffee and scalded his mouth.  'I do...

 A lovely 'roo, unmarked.  Probably 1940 - 60.    Ucagco China, Occupied Japan.   https://francinesfigurines.com/ucagco      Royal Doulton, Top of the Hill figurine.  Post 1936. https://doultoncollectorsclub.com/2015/02/12/a-look-back-at-royal-doultons-iconic-top-o-the-hill/    Unmarked.  I bought this magnificent piece for two bucks in some thrift store.  Keep on smiling!

 Another tremendous piece from Maxwell Ceramics.    Llamazing!

v  This beautiful piece is from my neighbor, Virginia.  The buck has lost his back feet, but this is so well done I'm going to replace those with wax.    While these are made from commercial molds, the painting is extraordinary.  She and her husband sold their ceramics all over the United States.

 The paper got all wet and wrinkled! I could just kill somebody...

      The weekly black powder club meeting.         https://youtu.be/WO23WBji_Z0?list=RDWO23WBji_Z0  

  ’Twas on a lofty vase’s side, Where China’s gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow; Demurest of the tabby kind, The pensive Selima, reclined, Gazed on the lake below. Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She saw; and purred applause. Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide Two angel forms were seen to glide, The genii of the stream; Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue Through richest purple to the view Betrayed a golden gleam. The hapless nymph with wonder saw; A whisker first and then a claw, With many an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize. What female heart can gold despise? What cat’s averse to fish? Presumptuous maid! with looks intent Again she stretch’d, again she bent, Nor knew the gulf between. (Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled) The slippery verge her feet beguiled, She tumbled headlong in...

  Bielsko-Biała, Poland.  1903.  The sculptor is unknown, the architect was either   Albert Pèpe or Emanuel Rost Jr.  Art Nouveau at it's best.     https://misterscribbles.blogspot.com/2020/04/vampire-bunny-of-newcastle-on-tyne.html     We could use some of this here. 

  “I see nobody on the road,” said Alice. “I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!” All this was lost on Alice, who was still looking intently along the road, shading her eyes with one hand. “I see somebody now!” she exclaimed at last. “But he’s coming very slowly—and what curious attitudes he goes into!” (For the messenger kept skipping up and down, and wriggling like an eel, as he came along, with his great hands spread out like fans on each side.) “Not at all,” said the King. “He’s an Anglo-Saxon Messenger—and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he’s happy. His name is Haigha.” (He pronounced it so as to rhyme with “mayor.”) “I love my love with an H,” Alice couldn’t help beginning, “because he is Happy. I hate him with an H, because he is Hideous. I fed him with—with—with Ham-sandwiches and Hay. H...

 Sinbad and The Old Man of the Sea.   One of my favorite books ever, I was given this when I was a child.  I still have it, and it started a lifelong love for the artist, Gustav Tenggren.    Tenggren worked for Disney at one point in his life, notably Bambi and Pinocchio.  Is this awesome or what?    Aladdin.    Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.    Sinbad in the Valley of the Snakes.    Scheherazade.    The Serpent Queen.    The Serpent Queen.    Sinbad.    Morgan about to save her master.  Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.    I've never been the same after reading this. Tales From The Arabian Nights Margaret Soifer and Irwin Shapiro, Illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Golden Press, 1957.    His illustrations for the Poky Littel Puppy made it the number one best seller of a kid's book of all time. https://ia902800.us.archive.org/6/items/PokyLittlePuppy/Poky%20l...