Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

07/31/2025 “RETRO CINEMA QUIZ”   2 comments

The heatwave continues making all of us suffer for another week with no end in sight. I’m recuperating from recent cataract surgery and I’m somewhat limited to certain activities. Fortunately, writing the blog and working on my paintings has been approved without consequences. I thought today we’d have a little trivia test on the early years of cinema. As always the answers will be listed below.

  • For what two films did Elizabeth Taylor win best actress Oscars?
  • What American actress once described herself as “pure as the driven slush”?
  • Who was Gene Kelly’s unusual dancing partner in the imaginative 1945 film, Anchors Away?
  • Whose lengthy Oscar acceptance speech prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to set a time limit for later award ceremonies?
  • In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, what song did HAL, the computer, learn to sing?

  • What was the movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn’s real name?
  • In what film did the star *proposed by saying, “Marry me and I’ll never look at another horse”?
  • What film star won a special Oscar as “the most outstanding personality of 1934”?
  • Or which Alfred Hitchcock film did artist Salvador Dali designed the graphics?
  • Who did Fred Astaire name as his favorite dance partner?

🎥🎥🎥

The Answers
Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Tallulah Bankhead, Jerry the animated mouse from the cartoon show, Greer Garson who spent 5 1/2 min. at the 1943 ceremonies for the film, were Mrs. Miniver, A Bicycle Built For Two, Samuel Goldfish, A Day at the Races with Groucho Marx, Shirley Temple, Spellbound in 1945, Gene Kelly.

07/29/2025 💥RETRO LIMERICK ALERT💥   Leave a comment

It’s another gray and rainy day here in Maine which always gives me a terrible case of the blahs. So, this is the perfect day for me to return to my easel and complete some art projects that I’ve had going on for some weeks now. I can just relax and get into “the zone” while working on these projects which helps me forget what a really crappy day it is. With that thought in mind, I dug into my archives of old limericks for a selection dated in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Maybe one or more of them will make you smile a bit, who knows? For the most part they are rated PG.

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A virgin emerged from her bath
In a state of righteous wrath,
For she had been deflowered
When she bent as she showered,
And the handle was right in the path.

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A born again Christian named Claire
Was having her first love affair.
As she climbed into bed
She reverently said,
“I wish to be opened with prayer.”

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A penny-less colleague named Cy,
Remark to a lass passing by,
“I’ve never adjusted
To being flat busted.”
Said she, with a sigh, “Nor have I.”

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There was a young fellow named Dice
Who remarked, ‘They say bigamy’s nice.
Even two is a bore
I prefer three or four,
For the plural of spouse, it is spice.”

One of my Fav’s.

An organic chemist soon found,

While pushing aminos around,

He’d no sense of smell,

And couldn’t quite tell

His acids from holes in the ground.

🤪🤪🤪

07/26/2025 “YUCKIE TRIVIA”   Leave a comment

I thought I’d try something a little different today. I usually have lists of trivia facts about all sorts of topics and at times they can be interesting, funny, and every so often downright weird. Today’s trivia is a little more on the darker side but still interesting. Here are ten bits of trivia that’ll make you think and possibly shudder a little.

  • Howard Hughes at times wore empty tissue boxes as shoes. He also blew his nose in his socks.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte was afraid of cats, but he wasn’t alone: other ailurophobe’s included Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Julius Caesar.
  • Actress Cybill Shepherd dated Elvis Presley in the early 1970s and once hinted on the Oprah Winfrey show that she had to teach the singer how to perform cunnilingus.
  • And here are two Osbourne family tidbits. Kelly Osbourne once expressed interest in posing nude for Playboy, but said that her breasts would need “some airbrushing.” Playboy founder Hugh Hefner later replied, “We don’t airbrush to that extent.”
  • Sharon Osbourne, wife of the late great Ozzy Osbourne, once admitted to sending her own excrement wrapped in Tiffany boxes to several people who criticized her family. When a journalist criticized her teenage children, Jack and Kelly, Ms. Osborne sent a box of excrement with a note that read, “I heard you got an eating disorder. Eat this.

  • After his death in 1955, Elbert Einstein’s brain was removed and kept in a jar by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who conducted Einstein’s autopsy. Harvey was later fired from his job at Princeton Hospital for refusing to relinquish the organ.
  • Once upon a time an Italian stripper suffocated to death after waiting an hour to jump out of a sealed cake at a bachelor party.
  • The Cannibal Killer, Dorangel Vargas, The Hannibal Lector of the Andes, told the press that he preferred the taste of men to women, and never ate hands, feet, or testicles. “I have standards, you know”, said Vargas.
  • The FBI estimates that more than half a million pedophiles are online every day.
  • Television remote controls are the worst carriers of bacteria in hospital rooms; they spread antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus, which contributes to the 90,000 annual deaths from infection acquired in hospitals.

ENJOY YOUR DAY

07/24/2025 “POP CULTURE”   Leave a comment

Today is a good day for a little innocent and harmless pop culture trivia. Whenever I find something odd or strange that catches my interest I make note of it and today is the day that I’m going to publish some of those notes. Some are interesting and some not so much. You decide.

  • Although Sean Connery played Harrison Ford’s father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Connery is just 12 years older than Ford.
  • Among the actors who auditioned for the Han Solo role in the original Star Wars were Kurt Russell, Robert Englund, and even Sylvester Stallone.
  • The state of Maine is really a popular state for fictional murders. It has been used as the setting for a surprising number of mysteries and thrillers by Stephen King.
  • According to legend, hard rocking band Alice Cooper chose their name after using a Ouija board to communicate with a spirit named Alice Cooper.
  • Yoda from Star Wars, the cookie monster from Sesame Street, and Miss Piggy from the Muppet Show were all voiced by the same person, Frank Oz.

  • Sir Paul McCartney once released an album under the name Thrills Thrillington.
  • Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings because he didn’t understand the script.
  • In the Wizard of Oz movie, the dog playing Toto was paid an actual salary of $125 a week. Ironically this was more money than many of the film actors were paid.
  • The first interracial kiss in television history happened on Star Trek.

And last but not least . . . .

  • Actor Nicolas Cage was named after the comic book hero Luke Cage. Oddly enough my youngest grandson was named Cage after Nicolas Cage.

POP GOES THE WEASEL

07/17/2025 💥💥LIMERICK ALERT💥💥   Leave a comment

As you can see by the title this post is a Limerick Alert. Sometimes that means bawdy and off-color, and other times lame and just plain entertaining. Something else that we all seem to love are our pets and animals, therefore all of today’s limericks will be “animal” related. Here are four examples that caught my eye and I hope you enjoy them. I’d rate these limericks as “G” so the kids can read them too.

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There once was a young lady named Maggie
Whose pet dog was terribly shaggy,
The front end of him
Look quite vicious and grim,
But the tail was always friendly and waggy.

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The thoughts of a rabbit and sex
Are seldom, if ever, complex.
For a rabbit in need
Is a rabbit indeed,
And does just as one might expect.

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A freshman from down in Laguna
Fell madly in love with a tuna.
The affair, although comic,
Was so economic,
He wished he’d have thought of it soona!

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A sightseer from far McAboo,
Observed a strange beast at the Zoo,
When she asked: “Is it old? “
She was smilingly told
It’s not an old beast, but a gnu!.

🤪🤪

And finally a clean favorite for my better-half the gardener:

TIME TO YUCK IT UP

07/15/2025 “CRITICS AND CRITICISM”   Leave a comment

I’ve always enjoyed spicing up my posts with quotes from a variety of people from politicians, writers, and even a few not-brain-dead celebrities. I’ve been quoted a number of times myself primarily by my fellow subordinate associates after reading my comments on their performance reviews. I was always a little too frank in my comments and I may have hurt a few feelings over the years but it was also those same people who quoted me the most. I’ve always enjoyed quotes that were made by people whose ass I wasn’t required to kiss and always found more truth in frank discussions than politically correct nonsense. Here’s a sampling of quotes that were made concerning CRITICS.

  • “Insects sting, not from malice but because they want to live. It is the same with critics – they desire our blood, not pain.” Friedrich Nietzsche
  • “Don’t pay attention to bad reviews. Today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s toilet paper.” Jack Warner
  • “He always praises the first production of each season, being reluctant to stone the first cast. Walter Winchell
  • “The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.” Washington Irving
  • “Critics are like eunuchs at a gang-bang.” George Burns

  • “A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.” Dustin Hoffman
  • “Critics? – I love every bone in their heads.” Eugene O’Neill
  • “Time is the only critic without ambition.” John Steinbeck
  • “In judging others, folks will work overtime for no pay.” Charles Carruthers

AND last but not least:

  • “Critics are a dissembling, dishonest, contemptible race of men. Asking a working writer what he feels about critics is like asking a lamppost what he feels about dogs.” John Osbourne

YOU SUCK! AND YOUR FIRED!

07/03/2025 💥💥RETRO LIMERICKS💥💥   1 comment

Limericks are the best. I’ve been reading them for years and writing a great many of my own. My limerick archives go all the way back to 1879. I did discover that posting some of those really old ones requires a bit of a rewrite. Some of the profanities back then were just gratuitous and actually detracted from the overall entertainment value. I may have softened the language a little but they’re still a fun read. Todays selections are related specifically to younger women. Don’t complain to me about the content, the people who wrote these have been dead a very long time.

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A bather whose clothing was strewed

By winds that left her quite nude,

Saw a man come along,

And unless we are wrong

You expected this line to be lewd. (1944)

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A lady athletic and handsome

Got wedged in her sleeping room transom.

When she offered much gold

For release, she was told

That the view was worth more than the ransom. (1944)

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There was a young maid from Madras

Who had a magnificent ass;

Not rounded and pink,

As you’d probably think,

It was gray, had long ears, and ate grass. (1940)

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I’m tempted to post a few of my own limericks but unfortunately they’re very rude and sexual explicit. I may rewrite them someday but not today. Instead I offer up a rather lame poem of mine written about my first sexual experience, to show all of you what a freaking romantic I’m not. LOL

💖PUPPY LOVE💖

First love is a thrill you never forget,

It sends a warmth through your heart.

Sixty years later the memory remains,

but the feelings have fallen apart.

How to recall those wonderful days,

when the freshness of things made you wish,

For the love a girl with beautiful hair,

in a field, all alone…

Do you smell fish?

😍😍😍

EAT YOUR HEART OUT WALT WHITEMAN

06/26/2025 “ODD FACTS”   2 comments

Here is a list of trivial items you’ve always wished you knew.

  • You could swim through the veins of a blue whale.
  • The white-throated snapping turtle of Australia breathes through it butt.
  • In order for Earth to become a black hole, its entire mass would have to be compressed into a space less than 1 inch in diameter.
  • In 1929, the famous television dog Rin-Tin-Tin received the most votes for the Academy Award for best actor but didn’t win.
  • The leading role in the movie Forest Gump, was originally offered to John Travolta.
Deviant Artistry

  • John Wayne was offered the lead role in Blazing Saddles by Mel Brooks but turned it down.
  • The famous Dr. children’s book Green Eggs and Ham contained just 50 different words.
  • At various points in history the Olympics included competitions in categories such as painting, engraving, architecture, literature, and town planning.
  • During World War II, so many NFL players were fighting in the war that the rival Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers temporarily teamed up to form a team called the “Steagles“.
  • Until recently, Russia did not consider beer an alcoholic drink. Anything containing less than 10% alcohol is considered a soft drink in Russia until 2011.

ONE OF MY FAVS

More people are killed by vending machines each year than sharks.

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HOPE YOU’RE ENJOYING THE HEAT

06/19/2025 💥💥BAWDY LIMERICK ALERT💥💥   Leave a comment

I feel like celebrating today due primarily to four consecutive days with no rain and being able to sleep at night without an electric blanket. It’s mid-June and winter keeps trying to hang on and I’m sick of it. Here are four moderately suggestive limericks I would rate at PG-13. Keep the kids away while you read them. Let’s get started.

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There once was a horny old witch
With a motorized dildo which
She would use with delight
All day and into the night
Twenty bucks at Abercrombie and Fitch.

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Nymphomaniacal Alice
Used a dynamite stick for a phallus.
They found her vagina
In North Carolina,
And her ass-hole in Buckingham Palace

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There was a young woman of Croft
Who played with herself in a loft,
Having reasoned that candles
Would never cause scandals,
Besides which it never went soft.

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An agreeable young girl named Miss Doves
Likes to masturbate the men that she loves.
She’ll use her bare fist
If the fellows insist
But she really prefers to wear gloves.

🤪🤪🤪

C’MON SUMMER

06/17/2025 “FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES”   Leave a comment

I’d like once again to share some lovely poetry by the worlds children. These poems are sweet and heartfelt which isn’t unusual when written by the pure of heart. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. The topic for today is PEOPLE.

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By Peter Shelton, Age 10, Australia

The children are singing,

their mouths open like sleepy fish.

Our teacher conducting the class

waves her arms

like a rhyme in water.

The girls sing high:

our ears ring for the sweetness.

Listeners stand in dazzling amazement.

✍🏻✍🏻✍🏻

By Stephie Silon, Age 10, United States

An empty bed

No arguments

No one to come home to

And all is dark

In day and night

I am all alone.

✍🏻✍🏻✍🏻

By David Amey, Age 10, England

My Uncle Jack collects door knobs;

Door knobs here, door knobs there

Door knobs simply everywhere;

Six on the window, twelve on the door

There’s hardly room for any more;

Door knobs on the light switch and the wall,

My Uncle Jack has got them all;

Blue ones, green ones, yellow one and red

And a row of gray ones on the bottom of his bed.

✍🏻✍🏻✍🏻

SPECIAL THANKS TO RICHARD LEWIS