Zentangles has sent a bill

ZENsters,

A small group of devoted natural doodlers met to kvetch about the nerve of them people trying to impose order on our Crom-given right (write?) to doodle in whatever way we see fit, then charge us a bunch o' money fer doing so. Speaking of which, mystically detecting our interest on their web site, the Zenccountants have sent a bill for $250 for unauthorized use of Zentangles without a license, or without buying an oafishull Zenkit. My Zenttorney is writing a Zenmo telling Zem where in their Zenatomy to jam their Zencils, if you get my Zeaning. If you catch my Zdrift. A few doodles were doodled, but I'm instructed to say they weren't Zentangles at all, but were a new style of creative expression I'm choosing to call SANEgrams (tm). SANEgrays (tm), if there's a picture of a Colt 45 or a horsie in it. From now on until, say, forever, whenever you draw non-writing stuff on a paper, napkin, notebook, etc., whilst on the phone or talking about leftover fingertips, you might owe SANE a royalty or licensing fee or tip. Word of SANEwarning.

Needles to say we spent a fair amount of thyme cooing and clucking over pictures of very, very young people with slight motor control and/or wearing strange duck clothing. Someone who shall remain faceless received a parking ticket for driving a car too darned big for the kerb, but we're planning to scare the ticket-writing authority with a few detached fingers and ghostonut coogies. Corporeal and putrefactant items, he blurted proudly, rounding out this month's vocabulary list. Extortion or bribe, depending upon their feeling about dismemberment or disembodiment. Typical Sumvul politics.

The next SANEmeeting (tm) is the traditional Winter pre-Solstice Dining Event, on Tuesday 8 Dec 2009, and chilluns, spouses and Otres Significanti are invitered. This year's host is Mary, who swears parking is easy-peasy in the evenings. Directions will be coming forth. She will crank up the oven for some major protein course (chicken & veg), but it's up to the rest of us to come up with other foodling items and brang 'um along. Some people hoseyed stuff (Bats will score some pie or two, Wretchid will brang salad), but we're relying upon the Goddess of Randomnity to ensure that we will have sufficient sustenance to survive the night. Just lemme know if you're coming and how many will be in your party coming to our party.

There will be a cheezy-gift grab, and probably a Yankee Swap. Some considerable time was spent trying to come up with a swap-like scheme which would be suitable for the group, and stir up rivalries and enmities, as previous attempts at Yankee Swappage were less contentious because we, as humans, were too polite and complacent. It was suggested that the Dutch Swap was too confusing and too random/formulay-ick. One suggestion proffered was for each group of two to bring two gifts, one of which is desirable, and the other which isn't, to spur the interest in trading away some crap you got for something neat pregotten by another. So spend $10 or less on an item for each attendee in your party, and if you believe in that theory, try to apportion goodness/badness of your giftitude appropriately. And don't let the upper limit of $10 limit you to >$9 items - there is plenty of crap to be had for a buck or two, believe you me, so don't pass up a gem just because it's less expensive than dirt.

Well, folks, time to send this off to SANEland (tm)

Fwd: SANE Nov 3 Zentangles, then?

From: Weasley

I'm up for a watertown dinner !

I did see an article on zentangles - see the website zentangle.com.

They sell a kit for $50, but the article I read gives the basics - draw 4 dots, connect them. Then draw pencil lines inside - like a piece of thread that falls all over. Within each one of these areas, draw a repeated pattern(circle, squiggle, line, dot, etc.etc). Continue doing this in each area.

There's probably a lot more to it than that, but it looks like you could definitely do it on a napkin.

From: Batsy
If you go to the zentangles website and look at their newsletters they give a detailed diagram in almost each letter. After looking at a bunch, it seems like someone has diagrammed doodling and is making money on it.

Sounds to me like a plurality for zentangles. I suspect we can finger this out without purchasing the $50 set - if someone wanted to figure out and pre-string a 9-tile "ensemble," we could do them separately and put them together to make a collaborative effort. If that ain't signif, we can each just try to do one or two. A newspaper article listed 'em as 3 1/2 " square, and I presume that's the paper, not the four dots. See "letters" or the gallery for more zenxamples. You might wanna bring snappy paper and archival ink, but I plan to bring pencil and eraser, a narrow sharpie and not-so-wonderful paper to start, but don't let my hallmark temerity preclude your starting out all effulgent and perdurable and evanescent without excrescence.

Phew, I got all my vocabulary words into one paragraph. Next month, "corporeal" and "putrefaction," among others.

This activity might be a bit intense for restaurant napkins, but Casa ArrBee in tony Somerville (I think Tony played the undercover beach ball in Beach Blanket Bunko) is available, and will still have Halloween decor around, no doubt. So unless there is a groundswell to go out to a restaurant one month before our Winter Solstice Fandango (slated to be at Marie Mack's on Tuesday 8 Dec - mock your calendars (nyah, nyah, you don't have enough weekdays!)), I'd propose y'all wend your merry ways here on:

Tuesday 3 Nov 2009 7ish

Arr Bee's Umble Habode, Sumvul

SANE Nov 3 Meeting - Where? What to do?

Blank (-minded) verse,

We picked a meeting time,
but that sociable gadabout Pam A cain't host
(or attend, alas).

We currently have
no place to meet at up with for.
Five six sevin, down with eight.

Nor do we have a thang to do
once we meet,
short of swapping election day stories
and mumbling darkly
about them good ol' Republicain't days.

"Oh no we cain't!"

Feels like another Sumvul meeting
We could free-for-all
or play pokah,
or dance with the devil in the pale moonlight,
unless it's raining
or the moon be new.

Be newbee doo be dooby noo
Walla Walla, Wash & Kalamazoo.

Alfredo, Lard Tennyson

P.S. You got something to do at the meeting? Lemme know, we'll run it
up the pyre and see who sets fire to it.

Grannie Mac

News on the baby front. And just in case it's not obvious, she's probably bringing pics of Frankie, not Open Studios, to the next meeting.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mary Mac

Date: October 19, 2009 3:51:16 PM EDT

Frankie Rae was born on Oct 10 at 5:15 am weight 7.2lbs, 19.25" long, full head of pin-straight black hair, but that may change drastically, no one can figure out what color her eyes are, they are very dark though. She's healthy, eats, poops, cries and most of the time she's asleep; generally speaking just perfect! The parents are doing fine, for entertainment they watch her sleep. Apologies for taking so long on the report, life was going a little to fast/busy in the past two weeks. Just had open Studios this weekend and yes, I didn't send out any announcements for that either. I'll bring pictures to the next SANE meeting.

best,

Murray ( I'll answer to anything)

SANE Story Jam - 29 September 2009

Procedure: Everybody wrote the first line (typically a sentence, sometimes more) of a story, all pages went face-down in the center of the table, then were redistributed. After adding a new line, the page was folded to hide all but the most recent line. After a few iterations, we determined as a group how many more lines until all stories were done, to give us a chance to “wrap up” the story line. One person read each completed story, and we tried as a group to come up with a title for each. During the exercise, authors were encouraged to write a name or description of characters at the bottom of the page, to help with continuity, but this was at each author’s discretion.

Transcribed by Richard, sentences were grouped to look like paragraphs, some spellings were normalized (except where the misspellings seemed deliberate), and punctuation was adjusted to taste.

14 stories are included (the numbers in the title indicate 1st or 2nd round) - click on the "jam" label to see 'em all at once.

Next meeting, you ask? Tuesday 3 November (Election Day). Plans are afoot for the Winter Solstice Dinner at Mary Mack's on Tuesday 8 December - either a Pot Lucker or we'd Order In from somewhere good. Cheesy gifts will probably be the order of the day, distributed by some new method, no doubt. Like a helicopter or a llama. Possibly hirsute dwarves.

Story Jam 2.7 Chanel No. 2

He doffed his hat at the attractive alien, never realizing that in her culture that action tied him to her for life. He tried to get rid of her by expelling the loudest fart he could muster, but he only succeeded in soiling his pants and increasing her adoration. Little did he know that it was her favorite smell, and she was, unbeknownst to him, a “nose” from the elite parfumery of the house of Chanel.

His plan failed, he couldn’t throw her off his scent. What would his next plan of attack be?

Cock-a-doodle-doo! He had a plan: he would lose her now! He ran through the pack of dwarves (or were they dwarfs? -- he didn’t have time to ponder spelling!), and lost her in the crowd. The crowd were all dwarves -- they hid her from him. After all, she belonged to them and they didn’t want to lose her.

Story Jam 2.6 Cockapoo

The words meandered into spirals confusing all the readers except one -- he was already quite twisted already. Having read the book already, he knew what was to come, but how would he warn the others?! He realized he would have to write a book himself, and quickly. But why? Who would read it? Who would publish it? And what would it be about?

He just wanted to write about his beloved cockapoo (and you thought no one would use that!), but the publisher wanted more meat! So he wrote carefully, writing the next-to-last sentence of his pathetic, birdless life. His birdless, pathetic life was transformed by the care of this next-to-last sentence and he rose phoenix-like from its ashes.

Story Jam 2.5 Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina

In her later years she could not remember how she came to be demoralized by the poet. Could it have been the way she treated him during their tryst in the mountains of Argentina decades before?

No, no, no, it could not have been the hot, steamy sex in the beautiful mountain stream that left both of them exhausted, panting and covered with lichen fungal infection.

It must have been the frantic paddling when they saw the giant water strider emerge from the eddy beneath the foamy waterfall.
“I had better evolve into an underwater bug soon, if I want to keep living near deep water,” he noted.

Deep waters run deep, grasshopper.

And so David C., who really wanted to remain anonymous, was trussed and sorely hung on his own petard.

Story Jam 2.4 Hirsutomania

Oh no, 2:00 a.m. and I can’t sleep. I guess I’ll get up and start that project I’ve been avoiding. I am so excited that the world will be mesmerized by my embroidered tassels. Of course, the tassels were hanging from a part of my body that interested half the population.

“But which half was it?” I wondered, as I thought about the half that was dwarves, the half that was insane or the half that was sadomasochistic.

The bearded lady was an autoeroticist’s dream; a hermaphrodite to dwarf all hermaphrodites.

Gillette has the answer: “Shave, lady -- there goes the dream!”

The hirsutomaniac drowned his loss in a bottle of gin.

Story Jam 2.3 Stumple the Crutchless Bumbler

“Oh drat,” he muttered, “I’ll never get my crutches mended at this rate!” He thought: “What did Amahl [of Night Visitor fame] do when his crutches failed?”

Once again, he would pull of his artificial legs and stumple down the hill to avoid the coyotes that where sniffing his sweet.
“Christmas on crutches,” he bumbled, “If I can just milk it to the batten of the heel, all wheel be wall.”

Jeez, another nonsensical phrase that just popped into my head, and all because I stepped into the gooey mess that I (at first) thought was an unbaked cookie. Except that stepping into gooey messes should inspire a better line than that!

“It’s a long way to tip a raree,” he noted to himself, while he scraped off the sole of his shoe.

Story Jam 2.2 Doggerel for Dad

Dogs are known for being loyal and obedient partners. The man hated the dog because he was so much like the dog. It had all started when he was just a pup, his dad always told him -- and come to think of it, he didn’t much care for his dad, either. And his dad started when Hector was a pup, he thought, but not much.

In fact, thinking was a thought alien to him.

In fact, thinking was alien to him, and he hadn’t done much before, and wasn’t going to do any again.

And thus he went off into the sunset with a full heart and empty head.

-30-

Story Jam 2.1 Spalled Wall

The hill was not much to look at, but on closer inspection, there were large rocks with dug-out areas in the crevasses, which clearly indicated the presence of a large, clawed animal who left balls of long black hair.

“Hair balls, air balls,” she sang, “scary malls of spare dolls.”

Molly’s spalled walls crawled with polliwogs. Dogs, frogs, blogs and clogs. Smog, job, death in a minute.

Death was looking good in this run-amok rhyme scheme. He took a look at himself in the mirror, draped provocatively in this rhyme-scheme from hell, and thought: “I’ve got to see a doctor about that electrolysis!”

Story Jam 1.7 Marv Throneberry and the Magpie Eggs

In the warm morning sun, a magpie ate breakfast, a distraught grasshopper being pulled limb from limb while still alive. I ran to the closet and got my gun, shot the magpie and made some eggs. They were magpie eggs -- small and Mississippi River brown -- but I hadn’t eaten in a fortnight. But as I started to dig into the eggs I was reminded of my recent stomach issue and how the phrase might be revised to “Brown Egg Quick Step.”

I threw down the fork and headed for the bathroom yelling, “Here’s another fine mess I’ll be leavin’ near your throne.”

The fork was truly revolting, covered with tiramisu and small globs of moss from the carpet, though the throne remained bejeweled and radiant. The being that sat on the throne was also moss-covered and wore the carpet as a toupee.

And so ends another second grade play in Montana!

Story Jam 1.6 A Sniff in Time Saves Wrinkles

The dog took a quick sniff, then moved on.
“What the heck had Fluffy been eating?” he wondered, scratching his chin with his back leg. Since taking yoga classes, he’s been very flexible! Though his muscles have begun to sag and the skin hangs down from his arms.

The next time, he will skin his victim after he has died so the tissue can be draped more gracefully. That’s because skinning a moving object can lead to the most unseemly wrinkles. The wrinkles can be a wonderful texture to the composition of life.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, till death does us part.

Story Jam 1.5 Doorbell Doo-Doo

Bing bong! Farkling Weebler dropped his badger and scooted over to the front door, nudging the Jell-O out of the way with his good foot. “Good foot, my ass,” thought Farkling to himself. “There better be something good on the other side of the door to make me suffer like this.”

Holding his bad foot with his good hand, Farkling surged through the door to find nothing but bellowing cows. And Farkling impossibly held his good foot with his bad hand and long-jumped over the steaming pies. And finally he reached the door, opened it, and there it was -- the flaming brown bag of dog doo.

Like a weenie, Farkling stomped away until an enormous smoky shit stench permeated the foyer. What was the joke about ten pounds of something in a five-pound bag?

The bag explodes -- or five pounds oozes out the sides.

Story Jam 1.4 Ulysses S. Beegee

Panic set in as the motley group of travelers realized that their handsome guide was not going to show them fantastic works of art, but that he would lead them to the dark side of his personal “creative endeavors.” However, before he did, he warned them that some content was not for the squeamish, then they continued up the snowy mountain. Cold Mountain really was more like it, except that Nicole Kidman wasn’t waiting on the other side, and these broads could hardly be called sirens. Sirens! More like glorified clowns with big hair, lots of make-up and awful clothes.

“If I wanted to return to the ‘80s, I woulda taken better care of my BeeGees albums,” he said to nobody in particular. “Well, in that case,” said the nobody in particular that lived in his head, “you could have been a BeeGee and look where you’d be now, in that case!” Well, had you been Andy Beegee, you’d be dead, and frankly that might be quite instrumental in resolving at least this story. For it was Andy Beegee who, many years before, had begun the saga that today ended with the destruction of the mysterious mansion.

Story Jam 1.3 The Trembling Wembly

The sun came up over the foggy lake and I knew we had a crazy day ahead. On the south shore, we could see a hulk-like cloud of backlit mayflies.

“We don’t have much time -- hurry up with that marmot, won’t you?” she muttered petulantly.

The other diners waited impatiently for the next course to come out of the kitchen, making do with their water strider appetizers. Finally the creviche - or was it ceviche? -- arrived, but no one could remember what that word meant and the meaning could not be determined by sight, so they ate in silence and wondered.

“When was the last time I tasted silence?” he wondered, remembering it tasting less like ceviche and more like, well, armadillo. And with that thought, he went to the drawing room, had a brandy and got his gun. He took aim with his trembling Wembly, but when he pulled the trigger, it only clicked.

“Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.”

Story Jam 1.2 Epistle to Dippy

On the fourth day, when the bridge washed out, Ignatzio sat down to watch the papayas begin to rot. The bugs came first, eating away the flesh. Moisture set in, making the bodies soggy. As the decay progressed, her body blew up puffy like a balloon. She decided to ignore the bloat and thought back to her days, now long gone, as a prima ballerina in the seventh grade troupe. How she loved to be on stage dancing for the crowd. What happened to that seventh grade ballerina? Her weight has challenged her most of her adult life, damned if she was going to stop dancing just because she wasn’t a skinny nymph!

The End

No, not really, it’s just the beginning of what can only be described as a mindless exercise in futility and obligation.

Story Jam 1.1 The Gorillas of Montana

Muriel and Humphrey exited the apartment building, only to trip over the gorilla that was lying on the cold sidewalk. The gorilla was only “playing” dead, however. Others came to visit and had to step over the gorilla. Finally he grabbed a young woman who came through the door.

“You are the gorilla my dreams,” he thought (in gorilla), but she didn’t understand a word of it. They shared a cocktail and groped in the corner, while conversation was very limited. It was strange to see two gorillas having a cocktail, but in Montana, anything goes! Except the presence of his drinking companion, a wide-eyed bush baby, recently made illegal in the mountainous state.
He wondered what it was that was recently made illegal in the mountainous state, but realized, upon reflection, he didn’t really care.

Nanoseconds of screen time

Fans and Admirers (all right, Fans) (well, People Who Know Me),

After fighting through the crowds (for "Surrogates," "Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs" and "Jennifer's Body"), the dozen or so of us
who sat through "The Invention of Lying" enjoyed it enormously, and
will be back to see it several times.

Just to prep you, Mark (Ricky the G's character) loses his job and
doesn't have enough money for the rent, so goes to the bank to get
the little money he does have. When he walks into the bank, the
camera is where the tellers are, and we watch him pretty close-up as
he walks tenuously toward the tellers, I appear for at least a third
of a second (that's 24 tripled frames - 8 frames, each flashed on the
screen three times) over his left shoulder (that's up and to the
right of the screen), my white lack of hair and dark suit nearly
visible, tho hardly in focus. Given how much I was paid to be there
for 10 hours, and dividing that by 1/3 second, my hourly rate for
screen time is astronomical --- nearly, I'm sure, up to Jennifer
Garner's rate. All I need to do now is get more screen time, and I
can retire a rich feller.

Thanks to all who've feigned interest in, listened to or read through
my experiences in Bossywood.

R*ch*rd

Fwd: Who is Ricky Gervais, and why is he in Richard's shot ?

Cinema lovers,

Dy and I are attending the premiere tonight - well, our premiere, anyways. Dinner and Sox until 9ish, then on to the Cinema to be showered with confetti and champagne (well, to walk on popcorn and sticky soda residue) and sign autographs (read: credit card receipts). I will see if I am, in fact, in the damn movie a'tall - here's a recap of the scene: when Ricky the G is broke, in the bank and the computer breaks down, and he discovers he can lie (about his account balance), I am at a table behind him, to his left) filling in an interminable form. Black suit, short white (okay, thinning) (okay, balding) hair, brown briefcase (my own, its first film appearance, too), and Dyan's Uncle Dan's white raincoat draped over my arm. Just not sure I'm even in the film, tho, but that's surely a technicality. Later on I'm crossing the street in the far distance, anyone who can spot me there is not paying enough attention to the film.

I may have to wear dark glazzies to get by the hordes and throngs of as-yet-unknowing admirers...

Ricky the B

Begin forwarded message:

From: Leslie

Date: October 2, 2009 4:14:58 PM EDT

Subject: Who is Ricky Gervais, and why is he in Richard's shot ?

Hi everyone,

Richard - we have been seeing the commercials for your latest movie - congrats ! My kids want to go see it. I remember you are in the bank scene. Do you know approximately when it takes place in the movie ? Just want to make sure we see you. I don't know if we can make it this weekend, but Columbus Day is approaching....

Sorry to miss the last meeting ! Hope I can make it to the next one. Martha Stewart has some clip art templates for making vellum halloween lanterns, if you all want a Halloween idea.

Muffy Stewart

Talk to you soon,

Leslie

SANE Meeting Tues 29 Sept 2009 @ Molly's Studio

The Program Committee met and the minutes were read and the french fries consumed and a plan was proposed and seconded, to wit:

On Tuesday, 29 September 2009, on or around 7 o'clock PM, at Molly's Studio in beautiful uptown Somerville, SANE will gather for the first meeting of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Trumpets will play, and the SANE International Anthem will play, and cherubs will hold their hands and/or wings over their ears, don'cha know, hey! After any new business is entertained and conducted and passed (or failed) by a majority of non-dues-paying SANEsters, we will begin to commence upon the start of the project-du-French-for-Month thing. Attendance will be taken, notes will be passed, spitballs will be sput, and someone will no doubt have to take a time out in one of the several corners designated for just such a porpoise, and general merriment shall ensue. Then someone will act out, and someone else will cry, and we'll call it a night and we'll wend our weary ways homewarts, with "a skip in our step and a stone in our kidneys," as they say.

The Project will be Round Robin Stories, where we will each lure, trap, de-feather, disembowel, cook and eat a fat robin, then tell a story about it.

Wait a minute, my earpiece is giving me a different story, hold on for just a second.
Just another second, please be patient.
Okay, thanks for waiting. Let's try again, shall we?

The Project will be Round Robin Stories, where everyone will take a blank, empty, mindless, dumbstruck piece of paper and write the first line of a story. It shall be interesting and vital and pithy and mysterious and thought-provoking (or not), and when everyone is done,

[return here]

we will all pass our papers to the next person sequence-wise, who will look at the only line visible and write a subsequent line. Then that person will fold over the paper so that only the most recently written line is visible and...

[repeat starting at "[return here]" until each story has reached a reasonable and preferably finite conclusion].

When all the stories are done we will, one at a time, read them to the amassed multitudes in hopes of great merriment and sense of accomplishment for all, whereupon we might select a title for them (or not) and discuss which publishers would be appropriate for printing them and thus making our fortunes. I dunno, this last part is still a little fuzzy.

Then somebody will cry, etc., from above, and we will all tumble down the fiery scape to an undeserved and premature serious yet nonfatal wounding, to much wailing and flashing of EMT lights. No, wait, my earpiece suggests we take the interior stairwell, and that nobody will be hurt, and frankly, even though it is a tad less dramatic, I kinda prefer it as an ending to this chapter of SANE, the Round Robin Stories.

And for your general amusement, I stole some pictures from them interwebs and made this pitchur.

Thanks to Molly for bringing the quote to my attention. The entire mind-numbing speech can be found at:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090727/palins-farewell-speech-transcript.htm

See youse Tuesday. Bring a first line in your head, and maybe a pen or pencil. Or crayon.

SANE meeting 29 Sept 2009 (Monty Python)

SANEsters,

Let's assume for the sake of argument...

(WHADDA YOU WANT?)

that we're meeting on...

(Well, well, I was told outside that...)

Tuesday 29 September 2009.

(DON'T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!)

What would we do?

(What?)

Paint ourselves blue and attack the Romans?

(SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT!  YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS STUFFY-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!!!)

Carve stamps?

(Yes, but I came here for an argument!!)

Paint our stamps blue and carve the Romans?

(OH! OH! I'M SORRY, THIS IS ABUSE!)

Dip some thermoplastic beads in warm water and make custom plastic whoosises?

(Oh! Oh I see!)

... and then paint them blue?

(AHA! NO, YOU WANT ROOM 12A, NEXT DOOR.)

... so the Romans can attack them?

(Oh...Sorry...)

Let me know if you have ideas.

(NOT AT ALL... STUPID GIT!)

keep your eyes peeled, more detail will doubtless emerge.

Stupid Git/Geat

Lancer, 13th Legion

Another GlocksterLobsterClamsterFester sales into the sun's hat

Well, a good time was had by all and sundry (even tho the event was on a satday), and all hearty thanks, laud and honor be heaped upon the heads and other exposed body parts of Lady Betsey and Lord Mike of Glockport. An 11th successful LobsterEtc. is on the books, and notes have been taken to be roundly ignored in the event of a 12th. I hope all who had Lobs or Clamsters remembered to stuff Betsey's coffers, so to speak, to repay her in part for her cash outlay, which is always more than she's willing to say. Thanks so very much from all of SANE (and their domestic subsidiaries) to B&M for their largesse and nicenesse. Thanks too to all who brought the many things which made Satyrday so full-filling and pleasant. We appear to be, by and large, a very nice and pleasant group. Who knew?

Betsey reports that the lost & found bin at the Glockster Manse is fuller by a few items:

One pair of blue flipped flops, pepper spray in the form of paprika, a very sharp knife that means harm, one black scrunchie and a barrett, probably belonging to Fip or [Richard], maybe Phil. Mike denies the whole thing. I will trade any of the above items for my salad days.

The poor thing has apparently lost her "salad days," so if anyone finds them, please to let her know. I'd check first to see if they were with her misspent youth, or perhaps mixed up with her marbles. She might settle for a cherry tomato afternoon, an arugula hour or even a mesclun minute, so keep your grapes peeled. Which reminds me, if someone is actually taking minutes, why do meetings seem to last forever? Ba doom boom.

Yet again I digress.

Shall SANE ever meet again? Not in the many-eyed month of Argust, I'd reckon, but perhaps once Subtemper sails over the gendarme 'twill be a world anew, adrip with promise and adew with a don't.

If YOU would like another SANE meeting, and have a date to propose, send it along to me and I'll tot up the taters and report. Tuesdays in Sethtender are:

The Oneth

The Eighthth (aka Laborious Day Plus One)

The Fifteenth

The Twenty-tooth

The Twenty-ninth

That's it, only five. There are no other Tues in Sefftimbre this year. Me, I'm thinking the Fiftarnth, since the Oneth is practically Argust, and the Eighthth has way too many aitches, and is too close to a national day of obiesance, not to mention school. Whoops, I mentioned school. And again, just then. Sorry. And the rest of the Tuesles seem late. But that's my thinking, such as it is. You wanna play host with most? Lemme know that too also.

SANEster Glockster Lobster Clamster Fester #11

Well, the 11th Annual SANE Globslamfest is almost close enough to nip
us on the "back pocket" with its pincers, by gum! Weather people have predicted hot/humid with chance of wet & drippy every day for the next two weeks, so that's likely to be the weather we'll have if we're stuck in town, so thank goo'ness for the cool ocean breezes of Glockster. And except for that one hurricane, we've done pretty well weather-wise. Pray for dry.

Here is a schedule from 2008 (amended slightly to suit 2009):

Noon - people are invited to arrive anytime from noon on. Early birds get not only the option for first worms, but also a chance to swim in the quarry before lunch and first dibs on the available appetizers. Really, noon is okay. Remember how much traffic there is of a Satday morning, what with vacationers and beach-goers and crazy people and all, and take advantage of this Bets-given opportunity.
2:00 pm - Luncheon is served. [that's the official posted time, Add salt.], the goal this time is to have tables all set up by 2:00, clamps shortly thereafter, and Lobs-and-all-the-rest by 2:30.
After lunch - an after-lunch swim in quarry/ocean, or birdwatch, or lie back and hope the pressure in your stomach decreases
After after-lunch - dessertage.
After dessertage: Lounging and commingling [not as naughty as it sounds!], along with some socialization and fat-chewing.

Since we're typically resistant to change, we're slated to bring what we brought every other year, with the following caveat:

Caveat: Ms. Betsey suggests that an overall reduction in volume would be a good thing. Fewer desserts, half-sized salads, 8-10 ears of corn, for example. Let's do our parts to reduce the amounts of leave-overs.

Any who need a map should ask me via e-mail before Friday, and I'll send map/directions.

I for one am very excited to get a nice pickinicky afternoon with friendlies. Huzzah!

Glockster Lobster Clamster Fester 2009 Fandango

This message may look familiar... in fact, except for the date change, it's identical to my 3 June rant, and I'm sending it out again because only one person responded with answers to these queries (see #1-4 below) -- thank you Mary!

The rest of you slackers, we need to know how many Lobs and Clamps to invite over for a sauna, if you get my drift.

Yah, I know, there's time. But there's also "no time like the present." Write right now-ish!

The Lobstah Czah

The Lobstah Czah who?

The Lobstahs ah coming to Glockster, that's who!!!

------------------

SANEsters,

Yes, the date has been set, and that date is Saturday, 1 August 2009 (this is the revised date, and is correct), and the SANEsters will once again gather at Betsey & Mike's summertime seaside manse.

This makes the eleventh year in the row - the first being 1999 -- that we've ascended (or if your Southocentric, descended) upon Glockster for this event, so be sure to bring lots and lots and scads and bunches of lobsterania - apparel items, inflatables, statues of lobsters carved out of monkey-pod wood, truckloads of authentic reproduction lobster traps, etc. Oh, wait, wait, there's a late news bulletin: A quick note from Betsey, and it's "DON'T BRING ANY MORE DANG LOBSTER CRAP" -- so forget all that, never mind.

Please advise:

 1) how many are coming in your party

 2) how many lobsters your party would like to consume

 3) how many in your party would like to knock back a few clams

 4) whether it was appropriate for Cheney to waterboard Rumsfeld the day after Rummy left office.

As far as what else to bring, since we always all bring the same dang thing anyway every year, why mess wif' success? Bring it on! Power to the people (right on!).

There is some concern that we bring too much. So bring whatcha brought last time (and for the last umpty years), only don't bring too much.

I hope that's clear.

We'll probably want to arrive anytime after noon, for clamsters at 2ish, lobsters after that-ish, and swimmage and strollage options throughout the day.

Maps and applications for security clearances will be forthcoming. Chances are most SANE members would be approved without much delay.

Reynaldo

It's Offishal

Lord, I am beginning to sound like arr bee!

Sane's very own LOBSTERFEST is going to be on August 1, 2009. The lobsters have assured us that they will also be there. They couldn't speak for the clams but no doubt they shell be there, too.

Thank you all for your flexibility.

Your hostess

Glockster Lobster Clamster Fester 2009 Fandango

SANEsters,

Yes, the date has been set, and that date is Saturday, [NEW DATE: 1 Aug] 2009, and the SANEsters will once again gather at Betsey & Mike's summertime seaside manse.

This makes the eleventh year in the row - the first being 1999 -- that we've ascended (or if your Southocentric, descended) upon Glockster for this event, so be sure to bring lots and lots and scads and bunches of lobsterania - apparel items, inflatables, statues of lobsters carved out of monkey-pod wood, truckloads of authentic
reproduction lobster traps, etc. Oh, wait, wait, there's a late news bulletin: A quick note from Betsey, and it's "DON'T BRING ANY MORE DANG LOBSTER CRAP" -- so forget all that, never mind.

Please advise:

1) how many are coming in your party
2) how many lobsters your party would like to consume
3) how many in your party would like to knock back a few clams
4) whether it was appropriate for Cheney to waterboard Rumsfeld the day after Rummy left office.

As far as what else to bring, since we always all bring the same dang thing anyway every year, why mess wif' success? Bring it on! Power to the people (right on!).

There is some concern that we bring too much. So bring whatcha brought last time (and for the last umpty years), only don't bring too much.

I hope that's clear.

We'll probably want to arrive anytime after noon, for clamsters at 2ish, lobsters after that-ish, and swimmage and strollage options throughout the day.

Maps and applications for security clearances will be forthcoming. Chances are most SANE members would be approved without much delay.

SANE Meeting 2 June 2009 UPDATE

It would appear that the underwhelming choice for a 2 June project is a "Do-It-Yerselfer" - bring the project of your choice and (either exchange it with someone or) do it yourself! Keep it non-toxic, relatively clean, something you can do while you gossip/kibitz/eat/drink. Let thoughts percolate through your brainpans about what we might do for future meetings, and when that next meeting might be... with the Summer Fandango (aka GlobsterFesterClam) coming up soonly, this may be the last meeting before the summer vacation!? Where does that time go?<

Also bring an opinion when to hold the GlobsterFesterClam - current options were Sat 25 July or Sat 1 Aug of this very year. Who'd have thunk it?

I always try to do things in threes. This time it's declarative sentences, followed by a dumb question. Why should this paragraph be any different?

Okay, see y'all Tuesday. Shirkers will be Shirked. Isn't this number four?

Project suggestions for 2 June Meeting

Weigh these in your hearts and send me a quick note indicating the
heaviest, heart-wise.

Project suggestions include:

A do-it-yourself project free-for-all
Felting (needs a champion/leader) [was this "dirty" like frottage?]
Sun prints - "but it will be dark" - (sun day my prints will come)
Leaf printing (same as sun prints?)
Tin can hanging doodies [note: suggestor said 'doodies'! hunh!]
Very cool feathery designs using "shredding scissors"
Paper clay
Small paste papers
Friendly plastic (but don't quite know what to do, will investigate)

Non-project suggestions:

Poker
Mah Jongg (Betsey's set is on loan, would have to pick up)
Jackhammery
A butter-eating contest (how many sticks can you swallow in 12
minutes?)

SANE Meeting Tues 2 June 2009 @ Pam A's

SANEsters,

Okay we got a place to go - Pam A's - but nothing to do once we get there, other than open fire on excreta, if you know what I mean. (A week from now I will read this and not know what I mean. Know what I mean?)

Suggested options are:

A rude remark comparing "felting" to "frottage," and another saying felting sounds like fun. You draw your own conclusions. I know I have!

That's it for the suggestions. As always, thanks for playing, and the winner gets a copy of the home game and a year's supply of Rice-O'Rooney, the County Cork treat.

Not that I'm coming up with slam-bang ideas (which will no doubt join the frottage bandwagon) either, I'm just trying to stir up creative juices, stretch the bounds of your imaginations, prod a brain cell or three... is it me, or can I just not get my mind back out of the gutter? I'm gonna just sit back and take a minute...

Ahh, much better, clear mind and all. I'd suggest you all sit back and take a minute, and try, try not to fall asleep. There, you see, wasn't that great?

Now, before your sense of other responsibilities can grab hold of your attention, quickly fire back a response to this e-mail with the first project idea that snaps into your head. Ow! Don't snap quite so hard.

Once I get them all (and I mean you, Themal!) I'll either pick one (unlikely) or offer 'em up for a vote - or refer 'em to a subcommittee. Just because you suggest it doesn't mean you have to get all organized and "lead" it, you know. We're all adults here. Well, most of us. Okay, a few of us are oldish.

All right then, sorry to bother you right after lunch like this. But it was for your own good, and the good of the country.

-- Ramblin' Man

SANE Meets Tuesday 2 June

We're slated to have a meeting on Tuesday, 2 June 2009, at a place to be determined. As fortune would have it, we have a project to be determined. I believe we've done this project before!

I'm always willing to play poker, or I could sit and put my moccasins together from a cheesy AC Moore kit in a free-for-all bring-your-own-project meeting. Or we could do a round-robin stamp jam, or make jam, or fill robins until they are round (we'd need a passel of worms). Betsey had proposed felting, which involves multiple pieces of felt and long dissecting needles, which reminds me of early SNL sketches featuring Michael O'Donaghue. We could rent a barn and put on a show! We could tattoo the person to our right, unless you're left-handed - bring rusty needles. Or sock puppets - bring rusty socks!

We get better attendance when we have an actual project, except for that one project where we recycled biomedical waste, so if you have a good idea, lemme know, I'll run it up the duodenum and see who secretes.

Once & Future Meetkings

A good time was had by those souls brave enough to venture to frosty Brookline on a steamy day... them what didn't crack from the temperature extremes were greatly entertained with intermittent highlights of the Sox/Indians debacle (notably the drop zones around 2nd and 1st), in between the funky fresh animations from MassAhts, all on mind-numbingly brilliant 142-inch (diagonal) movie screen. My eyenozzles are still adjusting back to normal reality.

So if you missed it, tough noogies. Nyah nyah de nyah nyah. And in answer to your question: No, that is not my sammich. It is Piderman's.

The May SANE meetering will be - not in May, as many might suspect, but -- in June! Take that, May! On Tuesday, the Twoth of June, to be precisionable. What will we do, and where will we do it, you might ask? Well, this will serve as (even more) proof that I don't know everything! Please submit your answers (proposals, suggestions, opinions, smorgasborgies), in words or pictures (smoke signals no longer allowed, thanks to silly city ordinances), and the mo' soonah the mo' bettah. Something we've done already before? Or something brand-spanking-new? All suggestions will be gladly entertained. The cute ones might be wined&dined.

Rumor of a summer fandango is once again surfacing... The fabled Gloucester Lobster/Clamster/Cornster could be Saturday Aug 1, or it could be Saturday July 25. Or neither, if they're problematical. Let's put it to a votish thing. I will get out my votive candles, and you'all can write and float me votes about your preferences, as well as your absolute cannot-possiblies, and then I will cast the mystical dice and select a date. I tingle in anticipation. Or tinkle. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Weechard

P.S. Sumvul Open Studios are this very weekend, Sat-Sun May 2-3, 12-6pm, for interested souls in search of weary soles (could be a lotta walkin').

Animation Fest 28 April

Come see what Flip has been doing at MassArt for the last 127 years! Marvel at 32 animated films from the last 6 years of MassArt Animation's annual screening, "Squealing Pegs." The name derives from traditional animation peg-bars, a local pub, and (I think) the movie Deliverance. They are are wonderfully well done and creative and goofy and serious and bubbly and slightly wobbly (every one of them is all these things) and a good time should be had by all, as we stare in rapturous splendor at the 14-foot video screen! Hmm. Perhaps I should have let Flip write his own introduction. Tough beanz! They are all good, and beggar my pitiful attempts at description!

We'll be gathering at Flip's humble igloo at 7pm on Tuesday 28 April 2009. Map & directions were sent with e-mail.

Warm weather is predicted for Tuesday, but as Brookline is north of the Arctic Circle, you may wish to bring spare warm clothing items, anyway.

See youse there/then!

Next meeting 28 April

Young Mary M. from S.B. writes to ask:

When is our next meeting?

A very good question, and one that all SANEsters will want to know the answer to. As always, thanks for writing.

As reported in the meeting report from 11 March:

The next meeting is slated for after school vacation, on Tuesday April 28, where we will hie to the wilds of Brookline and watch a DVD of the quite impressive Animation show recently shown at the MFA. Admission is free, but the charge for popcorn, Goobers and Chuckles will be, as usual, exorbitant. Perhaps we can sneak in snacks under our coats. More details as they become available.

I'm so happy to see this again, as it reminds me to re-Scotch-Gard the pockets of my overcoat, as chocolate and popcorn "buttah" are hell to get out of beaver fur. Although the old joke of the "beaver" coat "pooping" out Goobers will always amuse me, by golly.

Reminder to Web-snurflers that the largely official SANE blog (http://sanester.blogspot.com/) is always available on the InterNets, and contains a goodly percentage of the missives and epistles sent out to SANEsters lo these few years since it went online. Keep it on your list of Faves/Bookmarks, and turn to it for fond reminders of events past, even leave comments (if you've crafted some sort of nom-de-Web in the Google community - a nom-de-Goog? a name-with-a-hundred-zeroes?) that I might delete or relentlessly savage with my powers as Editor (nyah ha hah!). Why plug in a book if you have world-class entertainment like the SANE blog at your keyboardtip?

Bucky Goober

SANEsters in the news...

International Herald Tribune

THE GLOBAL EDITION OF The New York Times

12:05 PM ET 1 APRIL 2009

Mother & Son Escape Serious Harm in Prank Gone Wrong

By HELENE KOOPER

GRENOUILLE — A mother and her son are spending the night in the l'Hôpital du Sacré-Nez after a scary morning in their hotel, when a supposed April Fool's joke took a dangerous turn, but both are expected to make a complete recovery.

Tim Nard, a New York City leather-worker and his mother, Elisabeth Webler, part of a Sit&Knit tour of the Alps, were staying overnight at the famed Auberge Grenouille when the electrical adapter on Webler's hair dryer overheated, filling the third floor with acrid smoke. The antiquated fire-detection equipment had been disabled, and precious minutes ticked by before anyone took action.

"I thought it was a joke," remarked Nard. "She's a real kidder." He had been the target of his mother's jokes for the last 15 years, and he was fully expecting some sort of prank on this trip as April 1st neared. He had smelled the smoke, but was "waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Webler, bandages covering her head and torso, was still smoldering. "He's such an idiot," she remarked, her voice straining from the smoke damage. "This was a fire. Smoke. Flames. What was he thinking?"

Nard recounted a list of pranks, including a suggestive doll in his college locker room, a letter of induction from his local draft board, "forbidden" chocolates laced with laxatives, and a romantic rendezvous proffered by a mysterious online model.

"The 'romantic rendezvous' thing had nothing to do with me," Webner barked. Nard nervously picked at the dressing around his leg, noting, "I was lucky to escape with my wallet that night."

"His picture is right next to 'gullible' in the dictionary," Webler said. "Frankly, I am concerned about him living alone."

"They were very lucky," said Dr. Pantalon of the hospital's surprisingly large Burn Ward. "The danger of the American hair dryer is well-document[ed], and all tourist should [be] aware." Many nearby patients mumbled assent.

The two will rejoin their tour in 4-6 days, once the bandages come off. Dr. Pantalon expects the skin damage to be minimal, and predicts that 90-95 percent of their hair will grow back.

Nobody Showed Up???

I just couldn't figure out why none of the SANE membership showed up for tonight's "Dinner With U2," (Dy's family is kind-of related to Adam Clayton's Aunt Peg), and then I looked back in my bag from yesterday's meeting and found all the invitations still there - I forgot to hand them out! Well, they only had a few hours between the sound check and the performance, but we had a nice light dinner and a good chat before the limo whisked them to the Somerville Theater. We opted not to attend tonight's "event," and are prepping to join them for the Chicago show and want to keep it fresh.

Anyway, so apologies to all who didn't get the invite in time - silly me!

The 5th U2

Redesigned the Tarot, now bring on the entertainment

A good time was had by them what came to Pam's, and we got a surprising number of cards completed - for them what didn't come and want to be included, make one/two cards (9 copies each) and hand 'em over and you'll get the rest of the set. The "rules" are, apparently, that if you don't contribute, you don't get enny of the others, and "go fortune yourself." (Don't complain to me, I don't make the rules, talk to the BG.) You could ask Richard for card stock, or since many cards were made on different stock, why bother? Just make 'em 3" wide by 5.5" tall, include a number and name for the card, and illustrate it. That's all. BTW, there was significant straying from the original "rules," and only a few SANE folk sat down and created cards from scratch (or in one case, whilst scratching) - the rest were dirty cheaters and should feel real, real bad.

These are the numbers & names (& ahtists as far as I recall) of the cards finished at the meeting. (If you're making more cards, don't repeat numbers or names. Check with Richard to avoid dupage):

0. Unfortunate Fool (BW)
2. Bitch Goddess (BW)
III. [Athena] (MvN)
4. Dream (PA)
5. Magic (PA)
7. Knife (FvJ)
9. Boxer (LB)
10. Wheel of Fortune (MM)
17. The Nerd (RB)
18. Nose Tackle (RB)
21. World (MM)

They look wicked cool and neat and stuff, and one fortune was read. Some SANE member, who shall remain nameless, is destined to knife an owl-like Athena, then tackle an unfortunate fool, then awaken as if from a dream to go on the Wheel of Fortune and defeat a magical boxer, to be crowned the supreme bitch goddess of the world. Boy, isn't that just like every other generic fortune you ever read? To be conducive to good fortune telling, I think we need a few more cards. Maybe a task for next year, and every March meeting for another, say, 10 years.

The next meeting is slated for after school vacation, on Tuesday April 28, where we will hie to the wilds of Brookline and watch a DVD of the quite impressive Animation show recently shown at the MFA. Admission is free, but the charge for popcorn, Goobers and Chuckles will be, as usual, exorbitant. Perhaps we can sneak in snacks under our coats. More details as they become available.

As I've always said, you can pick your Nerd, and you can pick your Nose Tackle, but a Nerd can't go fishing in his Nose without a Tackle Box.

Joe Btfsplk

Tarot subjects

There seems to be some confusion about 1) my math, and 2) the nature of the subject matter for the project. It's late on Monday night, but hey, I've got nothing else to do, so here goes:

1) If 9 people attend the meeting (that's all of us, currently), and each makes 9 copies of one card, we'll all have 9 copies by the end of the evening. We could pass them around, exchange one of mine for one of your'n, etc., and we'd still walk out the door with 9 cards, but they will be all different. If everybody made 9 copies of 2 cards, and we all gave one to everybody else, we'd all walk out with 18 different cards apiece.If you have no interest in this project and don't want to have a copy of these masterworks, let me know and the number of cards we all need to make will be fewer. Just sayin'.

2) Nature of the task:

• Subjects - the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck consists of 21 archetypal people/symbols (the list was given previously, but it seemed out of date). I was proposing that we pick archetypes that resonate more strongly with the times: TV Announcer, NFL Coach, President, CEO, Grifter, etc.. But if the old archetypes resonate with you, by all means create a new expression of one of the old ideas.
  
• Task: we're not trying to create a suite of 9 related cards (like 1-9 of a particular suit). That wasn't my original intent - I just wanted to update the Tarot deck to be more relevant to the times, and fixing the Major Arcana seemed a lot more doable for 9 of us in one evening, than trying to rejigger the four suits as well. I mean, if you wanna, have at you (gesundheit), but my thought was that we'd redesign one or two cards apiece, and rather than go to mechanical/Xeroxical means of reproducing them, designing the task so that we all knew to make 9 exact (or exact-ish) copies of the same design, just for the purpose of giving everyone else in SANE a copy, so we'd all have the same (or same-ish) cards.
  
• Types of artwork: since the task is repetitive, perhaps placing any restrictions on us is unnecessary. So all bets are off. If you want to use the card stock we have pre-cut, you're welcome to them. They're thin enough that they don't handle water or watercolor well, and markers bleed through the back. I wouldn't worry about the backs for now, and if the material doesn't suit the manner in which you feel comfortable creating, pick a medium/paper combo that works for you.

Okay, a few restrictions. Can we agree on a size for the final cards? 5.5" tall by 3" wide. And the card should include a number (to be assigned at the meeting?) and name for the card, somewhere in the illustration. THERE WILL BE NO prescribed margins, gutters, bleeds, fonts, goobers or zots -- the rest is all up to you.

3) There is no 3.

4) Four he's a jolly good fellow.

5) Five is the loneliest number you could ever do, except perhaps for Four. Well, maybe Three. While you're at it, Two is fairly lonely. Okay, One would be lonely, I suppose. Three Dog Night - Lonely or not? I dunno

That's all, see you at Pam's.

The Fool on the Hill

Meeting at Pam A's

See you at 7 on Tuesday the 10th at Pam A.'s!

For the 172nd time in the last 48 months, Pam A. has volunteered to host a SANE meeting. Clearly, she is in SANE.

Things to bring: ideas about new concepts/names for tarot cards, and the artistic wherewithal to mass-produce same (where "mass-produce" in this instance means to create 9 copies of each, so that everyone ends up with their own set of 'em all). Pick your poison: pen & ink, carved rubber, colored pencils, crayons, markers, chalk and fixatif, burnt matches and orange marmalade, etc., as long as you can be productive. If all 9 of us attend, and we each create 2 sets of nine cards each, then we'll be very, very tired and probably cranky. Oh, and we'll have 18 cards apiece, too!

So, clearly, they can't all be masterpieces. Simplicity and elegance should guide your hand/paw/tentacle, and swiftly fly the pen/crayon/fingerpaint what dangles therefrom.

See you at 7 on Tuesday the 10th at Pam A.'s! Wow, Deja Vu all over again!

Tarot, or Not Tarot, That is the Question

Next meeting: Tuesday 10 March 2009 7:00 pm place TBD

Looks like the project is gonna be the New Tarot.

Betsey and Richard wandered out and got some mildly cardlike card stock and 200 cards cut to 5.5" tall by 3" wide, and the deal will be to come up with a new person/concept for a tarot card and illustrate that (9 times - one per member, so everybody ends up with a set). No template, no format, just a few rules:

1) fit your artwork to the space provided
2) include a number (to be assigned at the meeting) and a name, anywhere on the card, to give a title to your illustration(s),
3) a vertical/portrait orientation is strongly recommended.

Most forms of illustration would be fine - pencil, pen, colored pencil, rubber stampage, stencil, wood-block - hey, litho if you can find a stone and press -- but glued artwork will probably make it hard to shuffle your card without significant damage. There are no plans to laminate cards.

We got enough paper for 20-odd cards x 9 copies of each card, tho it seems unlikely we'd use 'em all up in one night. If we're using novel concepts, the chance that any two of us would come up with the same idea seems remote, but if you want to glom one of the ones on my list of newbies, below, just let me know so I can head off any duplicious efforts.

No plans for the cards' backsides, but we may want to be concerned about bleed-through.

Here are some links to a few different interpretations of the Tarot Major Arcana:

http://www.arielspeaks.com/Tarot_Major_Arcana.html traditional Rider/Waite deck
http://margotmystic.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/major-arcana.jpg more modern artsy interp.
http://eroomnala.livejournal.com/31329.html - like generic/modern signage - think Men's Room / Women's Room signs

but rather than illustrate the old stuff, let's come up with our own concepts to illustrate.

Hey, They'se a Meetin' a'Comin' Up, and I'm a'Runnin' Outa a'Postrophies

Next meeting is on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 - and that's right around the coroner. Quincy, I think.

We don't know where yit, or what we gonna do, but we have the date and time. 7ish.

Hey, here's a thought... It dawned upon me that we could always come up with new cards for a Tarot deck, the old ones bein' all old and all. And unnecessarily cryptic. I mean, what the heck is a Heirophant, for crissakes? We could probably ignore the suits (1-10 cards in each of 4 suits with "suitable" (ah, Tarot jokes) pictures that evoke some particular feeling/state), that have devolved into our current 52-card bridge deck. But there's the "Major Arcana" of higher-profile concepts, such as:

0 The Fool
1 The Magician
2 The High Priestess
3 The Empress
4 The Emperor
5 The Hierophant
6 The Lovers
7 The Chariot
8 Strength
9 The Hermit
10 The Wheel of Fortune
11 Justice
12 The Hanged Man
13 Death
14 Temperance
15 The Devil
16 The Tower
17 The Star
18 The Moon
19 The Sun
20 Judgment
21 The World

The Superhero, The Newspaper Vendor, The Nerd/Geek, The Convenience Store Clerk, Boredom, The Office Manager, Ponzi Schemes, Sitcom Dad, etc. Everybody could make up two or three, and we could... we could make 1000 sets, sell them each for $100, and that's like five million bucks, give or take. Economic tailspin out the window, and we're sitting pretty.

Okay, I was just spitballin' right then. Otherwise, I got nothin'. You got somethin'? Or just wanna play Poker? Shoot hoops on an ice rink, with one hand tied to an ankle? Admit it, that Tarot thing is looking good right now, isn't it?

Talk to me (via e-mail). Or call, I got nothin' to do anyway. Just remember, 3/10 is comin' up fast.

The Fool

Re: Meetin' Place, ACTUAL Project

Hooray to Dianne for a good idea! (See below, if you weren't on her original distribution.) Bring your Fimo/Sculpey, Pam A has one li'l dedicated toaster oven and I think I have one (have to make sure it still works), Dianne will bring some styrofoam molds (if you have a biggish styrofoam ball you wouldn't mind being cooked and shrunk) and we'll form & cut some canes and make us some bowls. Or other polymer clay object d'arts&crafts.

Pam is still on board to be the Hoaster with the Toaster. Hostess with the Toastess? Host with the Toast.

Got that? Bring polymer clay and tools to mess wif it. 7pm Tomorrow (Tuesday). Be there or be square (instead of, say, semiglobular).

Hi all,

Haven't seen you all in a while but I'm still alive and interested in what we are doing! Remind me never to fly reward class...

I don't know if polymer clay is something we avoid since I've never seen us use it. However, I found this site for making "celestial" polymer clay bowls using the shrinking styrofoam method. Sounds positively carcinogenic doesn't it? Anyhow, here is the link. If it is of any interest, I know Pam A has a dedicated polymer clay toaster oven as do I. We could work up some of these lovely things in a jiffy and serve food in them to people we don't like. If it sounds like a go, I have loads of styrofoam balls (smallish so the bowls won't be big) and plenty of clay. We could all make different canes, slice and trade to combine if we'd like. Anyhow, that's my idea. Let me know what all of you think.

http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/polymer_celestial.htm

Dianne

Meetin' Place, Possible Project

Pam A would be honored to hostess the meetin' (kinda makes me want to wear mah formal duds), so we'll see y'all there at 7ish. Otay?

As so what we gonna do, Leslie had a thought or two (she went from 0 to several in a few sentences):

I have no ideas at the moment.  Maybe Valentines because I can't think of anything else...

For a future meeting, maybe we can do some type of moving cards.  I got a book, which I later realized is nothing more than a regular pop-up type book which shows you how to do moving eyes, spinning wheelie things.  I'll bring it in to see if anyone is interested.

 

What about making envelopes ?  That is a pretty quick thing and will easily fit into the inSANE drawer w/ all the other stuff we do. I have lots of envelope templates and one of those do-hickeys for tearing a page into an envelope.  But, only one of us could do that at a time.   I'll keep thinking.

I have one or so of them envelope templates, and I reckon a few more of us do, too.  So that's a possibility. I also have a lovely Sock Puppet kit, thanks to the grab. Not to mention some nice soap (mysteriously slipped into Dy's purse), should anyone have a hot dog they'd like to tidy up, but that's neither hear nor they're. But if you have a sewing jones, we can make an arrangement, I'm sure. In fact, I do have a moccasin kit I could assemble, if this were to turn into a generic bring-in-your-own-craft night.

I did spend a lot of time at a CraftStylish site ogling Jeff Ruddell's projects, so if you want some inspiration, that would take up some time. Nothing struck me as fodder for this meeting (well, maybe the grommeted paper trash bucket).

And since I spent a few minutes altering somebody else's work, why not share? You can tell that the left-most class is added on, I didn't want to spend too much time on this:

Keep thinking of projects...

Meeting Tues 10 Feb 2009 y'all

Hey, we're meeting (where to be decidered) on Tuesday 10 Feb 2009.

Apparently the "what" am to be decidered, too, also.

So... What we gwine to do? It's possible we already decided and I done 4got. Not like it ain't heppend afore. If'n it's so, plz lemme know.

It's gwine be ValDay soon, too late for KingDay and PresDay, a tad to early for PatDay, so we could hartz & flowrz, but could do many nother thangs, too, the likes of which escape me. Matching Forks, mayhaps? Beads? Instant gruel mix? Melting down old soaps from previous years, to make perfumed suet? Mani- and pedi-cures? Norwegian waxes (clear off all that nasty elbow skin chaff)? Writing SEO articles for fun and profit?

Got something you wanna do, that needs nearly no preparation a'tall?

Fire me a kneemail, by crikey, and I'll run it up the fogpole.