Three Roman soldiers are in a drinking-place at eleven o’clock at night. There are barrels around the wall. Behind the wooden counter is a Hebrew wine-seller. The three Roman soldiers are a little cockeyed. *************** 1st Roman Soldier You tried the red? 2nd Soldier No, I ain’t tried it. 1st Soldier You better try it. 2nd Soldier All right, George, we’ll have a round of the red. Hebrew Wine-seller Here you are, gentlemen. You’ll like that. He sets down an earthenware pitcher that he has filled from one of the casks. That’s a nice little wine. 1st Soldier Have a drink of it yourself. He turns to the third Roman soldier who is leaning on a barrel. What’s the matter with you? 3rd Roman Soldier I got a gut-ache. 2nd Soldier You’ve been drinking water. 1st Soldier Try some of the red. 3rd Soldier I can’t drink the damn stuff. It makes my gut sour. 1st Soldier You been out here too long. 3rd Soldier Hell, don’t I know it? 1st Soldier Say, George, can’t you give this gent...

In 1987, recently divorced, I was with a survey team in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, or some such flat place.  That morning we went out to a guyed tower antenna, and as we got out of the trucks I saw something smoking fifty yards from the work site.  Ignoring my boss, who I would have laughed at as he drowned, I walked over to the combustion.  It was a large brown and black dog, probably a German Shepard, and someone had poured gasoline on it and set it aflame.  There were no signs of struggle or pain, the dog must have been dead when it was set alight.  In that area any car would have been seen in any direction, so it must have been torched at least a half an hour before we showed up.  It's face and chest were considerably charred, and I have no idea what had happened.  I got yelled at plenty when I walked back to the survey crew, I remember thinking it was better to have two corpses burning in one spot rather than fifty yards apart....

https://www.instagram.com/sdavis.howdy/

     This is from my friend Fluffy the Wonderwolf, the extremely good artist out of Washington State who also loves cats and is nice to me, oddly enough.  I met her on the late lamented Google+. Hope things are going tip top for you, Fluffy! https://www.deviantart.com/wonderwolph

  This weekend I redrew my art challenge from khasdannyanlord and I think this is the better picture.  Here is the lion I was using -      Khasdannyanlord His take on this fight.  This will be the first human my rabbit has ever seen, let alone fought.   But all's well that ends well!

   Edmond-François Calvo. The Beast is Dead.       Invasion.   This has a drift one can catch. I would really like to get this. From what little I can learn the cow is Dutch, the rabbit French, clearly a British bulldog, a tuxedoed  American Buffalo, and the white bear is probably a Russian.  The middle foreground figure might be a Zouave, a member of the North African French Union, although it looks like some kind of 'roo.  This art is out of hand.   Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels.  Not offensively subtle.    Using adorable animals to make a point really works.   Hess gets mentioned. It's not how the war goes at first, but who owns the country at the end of it. This is a tank from General Leclerc's 2cnd Armored Division, liberating Paris against orders August 24-25. Liberation!   Qu'as-tu fait pendant la guerre, Papa ? Edmond Francois Calvo, 26 August 1892 - ...

 Now the fun begins. The root dex means "right-handed," "on the right side," " skillful, " or "fortunate". It originated from the Latin dexter, implying proficiency and strength.

  Lieutenant General Baron Roman Fyodorvitch Von Ungern-Sternberg, the Mad Baron.     As a boy, Ungern-Sternberg was noted for being such a ferocious bully that even the other bullies feared him and several parents forbade their children from playing with him as he was a "terror". Ungern was well known for his love of torturing animals, and at the age of 12 he tried to strangle to death his cousin's pet owl for no particularly good reason other than his cruelty toward animals.  Ungern-Sternberg had extreme pride in his ancient, aristocratic family and later wrote that his family had over the centuries "never taken orders from the working classes" and it was outrageous that "dirty workers who've never had any servants of their own, but still think they can command" should have any say in the ruling of the vast Russian Empire.  A highly decorated soldier, the baron was extremely brave but regarded as unstable, whatever that meant in the ...

 If I never loved I never would have cried.

We were very tired, we were very merry— We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable— But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon; And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon. We were very tired, we were very merry— We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry; And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold. We were very tired, we were very merry, We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head, And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read; And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears, And we gave her all our money but our subway fares. Edna St. Vincent Millay, Recuerdo. 1931.

Billy had the wife of an old friend over when she announced that she was getting a divorce. Took him by surprise, like.

  Billy is watching the sun go down from the old wharves.  He doesn't know it but some friends have come by to see him again, the dead miss their old pals just as much as the living do.

Thor is unable to lift his host's cat while staying at Utgard.  He is derided as a wimp.  Earlier he failed to even finish his beer, and his companion god Loki lost an eating contest. Then Thor loses a wrestling match to an old woman. What a pair of weaklings these gods are!   https://www.thecollector.com/thor-adventures-jotunheim-norse-myth-utgard-loki/

  It's a wonderful day by the waterside, An orgasmic day for a homicide- Would you be..,? could you be...? my dinner.

 My sister's dog, Gracie.  

  General Flaminius to you.

  To that kitten I was unable to save, I am so sorry.  I know we would have been the best of friends.  I am now naming you Purr,do! in a labored bi-lingual pun.  I wish so much I could have found you.  

  Friday I was finishing loading the car with groceries when I heard a kitten crying.  The cry was coming from a private lot, heavily overgrown with palms and live oak.  Every time I got near the cat would go quiet.  I went to the owners and got permission to look for it, but I could never find the kitten.  I went all weekend several times a day but I have not heard from the cat anymore.  I was even there today.  It breaks my heart thinking of a helpless kitten at the mercy of nature, but I am assuming the cat was dead soon after I first heard from it.   Oh my God, this is sad.  Cats are made for loving. Today I read that in Arlington, Tx, someone is poisoning dozens of well cared for "feral" cats.  The community along Main St. has fed and made sure these cats were vaccinated and neutered.  These are collective pets.  This is a mass poisoning and I hope this person or whatever is caught.  This is t...

Space Billy is a DEI hire, 

  https://www.thebillmayer.com/galleries/  

Photo by Steve Davis. https://www.instagram.com/sdavis.howdy/ The clock and the Exit sign add that frisson of perfectly composed diagonal line. See what I mean?