We Opened

We opened in NYC. I sat in the back, the better to gauge the audience's attention. They were quiet when they weren't laughing. Quiet is good! It means they want to know what happens next. 

So much for our opening show. 

Only four to go. 

High Comedy

When a giraffe

Begins to laugh

Does it start in his head

Or his belly instead?

After 2 Nights in New York

Glad to be in my own bed,

My pillow under my head. 

At Midday

Tech rehearsal at Fringe NYC,

Which looked good to me:

Change of Plan

I've decided to change my flight. 

Due to a flash flood warning,

I'm flying into New York tonight

instead of tomorrow morning. 

AKA Bishop's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace, also known as Wild Carrot.
Took a pic and thought I'd share it.

Theater side note: when my play, Wild Flowers, started, we used some fake yellow flowers as the wildflowers that make an appearance in the show. But by the end of the run, the actors had switched to picking some of these fresh for each performance.

Pigs Cleaning Apples

By careful experiment it has been seen,
that boars prefer their apples clean!

Well, they claim to have observed this in some wild European boars:

"Here, all adult pigs and some juveniles of a newly formed group carried apple halves soiled with sand to the edge of a creek running through their enclosure where they put the fruits in the water and pushed them to and fro with their snouts before eating. Clean apple halves were never washed."

Why would you bother to clean
something already pristine?

Fire Sprinklers

When they first came out they were all ugly. Nowadays, they cleverly don't come out until they're needed - when there's a fire - when you are guaranteed to not care about their looks:



See? You order one like this, and you set it up in a dropped office ceiling, and from below it looks like this:



Such a lovely shiny cover
for a spray-and-soak device.
It doubles as a mirror -
with no increase in price!

Splat

In the city by the bay,
urine may ruin your day:

​"Concerns about San Francisco's decaying light poles were ignited Monday night after one corroded by urine toppled onto a car, narrowly missing the driver."

Your driving experience may be less than placid,
when your light poles are soaked in uric acid.

So Called Targeted

I'm amused. Sites I visit are presenting me with ads for FringeNYC. No doubt this is occurring because I have done some searches on the festival or have visited the festival website.

But, you know, I've got a show at the festival! I don't need to be advertised to! As a matter of fact, I've paid to advertise my show a bit.

So, if you want to advertise something, be aware that "targeting" isn't always as targeted as you'd like.

Probably you've had the experience of buying something on the net - and then continuing to get ads for it. For rarely purchased items, this doesn't make much sense. Presumably the advertisers don't know your demand has already been supplied.

So, seriously, Fringe NYC,
don't advertise to me.

Life with Labradors

"If you hold your food low, your food will soon go."

Book Club - The Ride Home

After discussing Paradise Lost,

We drove down a street where the wind had tossed

Tree trunks and limbs along our path,

And it looked very much like signs of wrath. 

Reality Show

Some people think Trump should be disregarded as a reality show performer. But I am haunted by the lines from a Sting song: 

"You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians

They all seemed like game show hosts to me. "

A lot of our press is devoted to treating the presidency as a reality show. It's often remarked on that journalists like to treat political campaigns as if they were horse races, personality contests, searching the footage for moments of drama to feature for the camera.

And so I don't think that the fact he's a fast talking camera hog is really the reason to dump

The Trump. 

Mane Rule

It's perfectly fine to go about armed
as long as no lions are harmed!

2 Weeks & 2 Days Away, But Who's Counting?

Ordered audience programs for our New York show.
I made my reservations and I'm ready to go.

If Exercise Were A Pill

There's a saying you hear, "If exercise were a pill, then everyone would take it."

The idea is it's so good for you...
if only it weren't such a pain to do.

Well, someone claims to be getting closer:

'Ali Tavassoli, a professor of chemical biology, and Felino Cagampang, an associate professor in integrative physiology, reported that they had synthesized a molecule that acts as an "exercise mimic" by tricking cells into thinking they have run out of energy.'

But what if the pill's too costly,
and leaves you feeling exhaustly?

After Playing

Improv games, whether cautious or bold,

Never really seem to get old. 

Lion in Milwaukee?

About a hundred miles north of here, up in Milwaukee, there have been a series of sightings of a "lion-like creature". Some blurry film has surfaced too.

Is it an escaped circus lion? A mountain lion? Is somebody lyin'?

I don't know. We had a mountain lion / cougar that made it into Chicago back in 2008. The cops killed it.

I like killer cats when they're in a cage.
I would not like to face their rage.

Game Stats

Words with Friends tells me that I have played 100% of 2 letter words, but only 90% of 3 letter words. 

The game doesn't let you play 1 letter words - not even on the first move. 

I think we only have 3. 

A, I, and O. No U or E. 

Update: on reflection, each letter is its own name, and is a word in that way. But A, I, and O all have a separate word. 

Calling Z a word because it's the name of a letta,

Seems kind of meta. 

Unclean Windows

So, there's a PC running Windows 7 that can boot into safe mode, but not into "clean boot" mode.

I'm banging my head against that wall.
Not sure I've made any headway at all.