quoth the scarecrow:

July 3, 2021
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2021 0703 quoth the scarecrow

This page began in May, and I dinked with it and dabbed at it till today, when a little voice said, “You haven’t published anything on your blog in July, and it’s July 3rd. Now or never, dude.”

It’s mostly an idea: Write a bit of narrative and embed in it the opening lines from “If I Only Had a Brain,” in the film version of The Wizard of Oz. I’ll describe one motivation for doing so before we are done here. Meanwhile, here is the bit of narrative:

A quorum gathers for thematic scarification. We’ve a farce to throw: Throw on some ribeye styeaks/Pour Julep mix that slakes/No knowing what is true/Or what we might could do while the metaphorical cat’s away and we analogous mice savor the unsupervised hours

Iconic discoveries caressing us with their mmind-tickling delights

As the ideas flow some of the others convened in insulated waiting rooms, with plenty of fodder for the Truth-thirsty brain…

The embedment:

quoth the scarecrow:

i could while away the hours
conversing with the flowers
consulting with the rain…

Why did I do this? Several reasons. I wanted layering–several related things going on at once and overlapping, because that is sometimes a closer approximation to Reality than a static, one-thing-going-on illustration. I also wanted to pay tribute to the amazing lyricist, Yip Harburg, the amazing composer, Harold Arlen, and the amazing Ray Bolger, who brought Harburg and Arlen’s song to life. And I wanted to challenge myself with a word-puzzle with a high degree of difficulty.

But the BIG thing I wanted to do is a takedown on a book called The Bible Code. Published in 1997, The Bible Code is a piece of flimflam that purports to reveal hidden prophecies the the Old Testament, using equal-spaced gridding of certain texts. It was a New York Times bestseller and so was its sequel. People believed that the author was sincere, and brilliant.

But he wasn’t. He was a puzzle-creator, just as I am. He dinked with and dabbed at certain Scripture until he got certain patterns to emerge, which is exactly what I do with my acrostic poetry. And then he sold it as Cosmic Truth.

Shame on him. And shame on the people who believe not the Truth but what they want to believe. (Shame on me too. I do that. I am All Too Human to that extent.)

In the Wikipedia entry on The Bible Code, this delightful passage appears, under the heading “Criticism:” “The general construction of alleged “Bible Codes” and Drosnin’s methodology in particular have been criticised by mathematicians and others.” Bless the Mathematicians, and bless the Others, for knowing Hooey when they see it!  

ICAD 2021: threefer

June 24, 2021
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2021 0622 icad2021 threefer

For those not in the know, “threefer” is American slang for “three for one.” It is also Gary slang for “triptych.” 🙂

The leftmost card features four similar-sounding words, with an attempt to visually make metaphors of the words. So “deifying” has a celestial tang; “defying” emphasizes the “fy” in the middle, which could well stand for “fuck you;” “DEAFENING” has a huge first syllable, which diminishes the “sound” of the last two syllables; and “defining” has the look of an entry in a dictionary, wherein one may find definitions. Not only does doing this feed my Poetry Beast, it is also a tip of the hat to one of my grade-school art teachers, Mrs. Johnson, who once had us think of a word we could demonstrate, e.g. make the letters of the word TALL tall, grow some hair on the word FUZZY, and so forth.

The middle card has a mesmerized mathematician at upper right, a pole dancer up the pole at center stage, and a festoonment of math symbology and equation fragments throughout. “What the Mathematician Saw at the Strip Club.” This is loosely inspired by Nobel-Prizewinning physicist Richard Feynman’s recollections of his strip-joint experiences, as published in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character. But my drawn mathematician does not bear any resemblance to Dr. Feynman, because his character is quite different, being enamored of the dancer and imagining what the possibilities of Booty were as She [dancer] approaches Me [mathematician]. A bit of combinatorial meandering, mixing playfulness and pathos.

The rightmost card is a drawing of an earthmover that illustrates my double-acrostic poem “Earth Mover.” I do so love the look and dynamics of these mechanized beasts, and do so hate the effect they have on animal habitats. My special Jiminy Cricket in these matters is American/British actress Beth Porter, whom many of you may have seen in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. Beth once gave me a stern lecture of the effect of the palm-oil industry on the habitat of orangutans. And she was absolutely right to do so. “Earth Mover” is dedicated to Beth, with gratitude for making me more mindful.

Earth Mover

Engaging Soil to build a dream
Entrepreneurs may break a seam

Anticipating GO/NO-GO
Are machinations to & fro

Reverse & forward brake & rev
Reraise relower D r o p & Lev

The ground resists is indiscrete
Then Horsepower makes a dig complete

Here rises dwelling-place provider
Here falls the Habitat abider

ICAD 2021 card nineteen

June 20, 2021
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2021 0619 icad19

I drew a face trying to think of no one in particular. To me he looked like the illegitimate son of Salvador Dali and Adam Driver. And he seemed to be looking intently at something right in front of his face. So a waspish creature came to be, singing a lyriuc corrupted from “Summertime.” So my surreal actor corrupterd the word “Awesome.”

ICAD 2017 card seventeen

June 17, 2021
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2021 0617 icad17

I had lightning on my card, but nothing else. drew a house to give it context. More townstuff wanted to get in there. And then like a bolt from the blue came the realization that Mother Nature was playing a part.

Personifying Her was a challenge. She needed to be no particular race, and yet all races. I gave Her angel-like garb and a slight suggestion of dreadlocks. Her breasts swelled with the milk of human kindness, yet she wore a stern expression with a touch of sorrow, knowing Her lightning was necessary for life, yet caused death.

Lightning IS necessary for life. I went into detail on the Nitrogen Cycle that lightning makes possible, on a blog post long, long ago–early 2013 if my memory serves. But a lightning bolt can destroy a tree, start a fire, electromagnetic-pulse a man. My friend Doug was unalterably changed after lightning struck him, but thank Goodness his champion’s spirit and gentle good humor survived the strike.

She Looses Fit, Full Lightning

When Mother Nature comes to call
Ball Lightning in Her hand
The En-Two’s fixed and then is all
So f e r t i l e in the land.

ICAD 2021 twofer

June 15, 2021
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20210615_183531

Friends, my eyesight is worsening. After doing these Iresolved to get my eyes checked and get a new prescription. If surgery is indicated I will probably get it. –So I’m afraid “Feast your eyes” is not the right thing to say right now. Perhaps it would be better to take a tip from the bald man’s face and “read between the lines.”