Go Out in a Blaze of Glory

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

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":

Don't dress or coif onself
too much like a turkey
amidst millions
of starving French peasants,
as one might just
get treated like one.

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.

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

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

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.

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

"Come on!  One must go out and meet the inevitable, bravely."  —Robert Walser, Jakob von Gunten

People often view eclipses through protective lenses.  But did you know that the sun views eclipses similarly?

William Burroughs on fear:

"Never fight fear head-on. ... Let it in and look at it.   What shape is it?  What color?  Let it wash through you.  Move back and hang on.  Pretend it isn't there.  Get trivial.  ... There are many ways to distance yourself from fear.  Keep silence and let fear talk.  You will see it by what it does.  Death doesn't like to be seen that close.  Death must always elicit surprised recognition: 'You!'  The last person you expected to see, and at the same time, who else?  When de Gaulle, after an unsuccessful machine-gun attack on his car, brushed splintered glass off his shoulder and said, 'Encore!,' Death couldn't touch him."
—The Western Lands

In honor of the biggest full moon of the year, here's a lovely page from the Serif of Nottingblog's Mollusks of Jealousy:

"You cannot impose upon a shower of meteors the luminous sequence of the wheeling constellations without its forthwith ceasing to be the thing it is." —John Livingston Lowes, The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination, 1927