Our 14th great-grandmother, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, has many distinctions, not the least of which is her likelihood of having written the Shakespeare plays and sonnets.  (For compelling evidence, see Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?)  In this photo, we embrace our literary heritage.  The purple shirt and magic wand are in honor of the Irish branch of the family, which traces back to mytho-historical High Kings and fairy folk.

"The joker-god Maui has the same attitude as Ludwig II—you can't have too much loud color and bright contrast, and to hell with critics who want the 'understated.'" —Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger II

Left, a detail of a canvas depicting Ludwig II as the king of castles, sporting an architectural beard.  Right, Maui of Oceanian mythology.

Gordon spotted our One-Minute Mystic at Quimby's Bookstore right between Séance 101 and Sex and Rockets!

For Geof Huth.

For Geof Huth.

The frontispiece to H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon.

Employing a concave mirror to turn a map into a globe, Prof. Oddfellow makes contact with his inverted homunculus.

Jonathan Caws-Elwitt quips: The homunculus appears inverted to us because it lives south of the equator.

In honor of Gordon Meyer's "Lost Windows" series, Prof. Oddfellow prepares to transit the back of beyond.

Gary Barwin suggests that death's favorite punctuation mark is the exclamation point: "the jot, a single moment, its long black robe fluttering behind."

We suggest that death's second favorite is the question mark.

"[William Blake's] vision of the infinite in everything is common to East and West; what is distinctly Western, out of the Jews, is the voice of honest indignation against every institution which would deny or demean the infinity within each human soul.  The release of our full human potential—to let the light of Prometheus shine everywhere—is the distinctly Western mystic tradition and does not appear in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, or any Eastern religion."
—Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising

A long exposure shot of the twilit Blue Bayou at Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean captured some glyphs created by the erratic movement of animatronic fireflies. (See lower right of photo.)



We made vector clipart of the (un)natural squiggles (click to download EPS):

William Keckler offers "Somewhat Belated Advice for Marie Antoinette."  We would add:

When plastering the walls with jewels, substitute cut glass for diamonds.  You'll get tons of sparkle as you help to ease the deterioration of the financial situation in France.

Here's Prof. Oddfellow's bright wish for a luminous new year.

"No two melted snowflakes are different." —Gerald Creede

(Thanks, Gary!)

Photo by Jenny Downing.

"Nice to know you went out in a blaze of glory, cookie."
—Christie Ridgway, How to Knit a Wild Bikini

Photo by Marcela Faé.

We're honored that poet William Keckler crowns us the "best blogger and net presence. Period."  Take in the extent of his full praise here.  We couldn't be more humbled by this defining moment!  Like Lyndon Johnson, we ask the social network for a mandate—not just to keep things going, but to begin.

I believe it was the Emperor Nero who said, "Eat it up, baby. Lick it up." Amour-propre is, as Martha will remind us, a good thing.  Kudos. I have compiled the largest library on conchology this side of Asia Minor, and has this Keckler creature deigned to acknowledge it? Hell nawl! Thalassic Ignoramus! Anyway, keep up the thaumaturgy and all that, Craig. You know how we philosophers like to be amused when we're not doing SERIOUS work. xo
Silesius

Thanks to The Kenyon Review for linking to our Semicolon's Dream Journal in a lovely piece on semicolon addiction.

Thanks to the Not Lower Case blog for mentioning our Semicolon's Dream Journal and calling it "quite amusing"!

And thanks to Blue Pencil Editing for calling us "perhaps the most creative blog ever"!

"Perhaps"?  What perhaps?

Thanks to Joe Monkman for spotlighting our interactive "Follow Your Bliss" compass.