We may never pass this way again

 

 I don't think this is what Seals and Crofts meant when they released "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" back in 1973. I was a sophomore in high school when it came out. I didn't really think about passing that way again. Though my sophomore year was pretty good. I'll spare you the details because I'm finally catching on that people don't really give a shit about my life story. Well, maybe they will when I die and I've left behind thousands of t-shirt designs that will be discovered and declared the work of a genius...well, a genius who knows how to work with AI art programs anyway.

As you can see, I was kind of in a sophomoric mood coming up with designs today (nice unintended segue). You can't go wrong with puns and farts. Though I started out with cans.

Although a good pun, I don't imagine anyone who just got canned would stop and order a t-shirt. So I'm actually going after the market of people firing people. You fire them and then soften the blow by giving them a "I just got canned" t-shirt. There's a certain logic to that fantasy.

This pun came from a few days ago. I just Googled Bird of Pray and there are a few people who have tried using the pun before, but none as well as this. Honestly I think most of them just don't know "prey" is not spelled "pray." I'm thinking the religious right will be all over this t-shirt design. That's what I'm preying for, anyway.

Woke up laughing

 

Actually, I woke up like I usually do, with our Bengal cat poking me with her paw at about 5:30 a.m. because she wants me to get up and feed her. I don't find it particularly funny. But I did find the debate last night humorous. Trump is so predictable and full of shit. Harris played him like a piano. Yet, still the Trump monkeys can't accept it and continue to fling their feces on X along with Elon Muskrat. 

Laughing seemed to be the theme with my designs today.

I'm pretty sure I have the only laughing Cthulhu t-shirts on the web. H.P. Lovecraft would love it. Or he would hate it. Although familiar with his work, I can't say I ever read any of his stuff. I just clued into the Cthulhu from 6 dollar Shirts. ChatGPT filled me in on what it was and I figured it would be a good subject for a "....who laughs" design.

The same is true for this one.

I must admit I'd never heard of a Tardigrade. And apparently they are often called "water bears" or "moss piglets." The are tiny, microscopic organisms that seem to be more resilient than a cockroach. Apparently in times of trouble they squeeze out all of the water from their microscopic bodies and curl into a dried, dormant form. They can stay in that state for decades or even centuries and reanimate when you add water. They sound very much like my old friends the Sea Monkeys who are just brine shrimp (don't get me started).

This Tardigrade who laughs looks like a mutant Ewok. It's not something that would make me wake up laughing.

The great god Pan is dead

 

I neglected to acknowledge yesterday that James Earl Jones, well known for being the voice of Darth Vader, died. He was 93.  If I am doing my math correctly, he recorded Darth Vader's voice when he was 45. It was a relatively low budget film at the time ($11 million). But it grossed more than $775 million in its initial release and later re-releases. 

So James Earl Jones did well.

For some reason, Jones death made me think of something I'd read years ago about the death of Pan, the Greek god of the wild, nature and rustic music. Greek historian Plutarch wrote about a ship carrying a sailor named Thamus near the coast of Greece. A voice called out to Thamus and said, "Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes, take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead."  When the ship reached Palodes, Thamus made the announcement, and according to the story, a great lament arose from the surrounding land.

So I created this design that I am seriously certain will never make it on a t-shirt. But it expressed the way I felt about Jones passing. 

The Force was strong in that one.

Walk this way

 

I remember watching this film at the Vista Theater in Boise, Idaho back in 1968 or 1969 about Big Foot. It was a documentary by Roger Patterson that included some footage Patters and Bob Gimlin supposedly shot in Northern California in 1967 showing a grainy looking image of a Big Foot ambling alone without a care in the world. I think it was shot in Super 8. 

Why Big Foot would allow itself to be captured on Super 8 film in 1967and avoid being filmed since in a world where everyone's phone is a camera defies all logic. Big Foot should be appearing in more film than Brad Pitt if it exists. My 10-year old self wanted to believe in Big Foot when I saw that film. I wanted to believe in anything more interesting than the boring place I grew up in. I wanted to believe in ghosts, UFO's, and god. Now I'm pretty skeptical about them all.

But Big Foot makes one hell of a t-shirt design.

About the same time I was hoping Big Foot was real, I saw a film on television that Tony Curtis starred in about Harry Houdini. The movie was made in 1953 before I was born, but television at the time was like social media and was hungry for content. So much of what we saw on television was from 40s and 50s era cinema. After see the movie "Houdini" I became a bit obsessed about the 1920s escape artist and magician. Maybe it was because the movie made Houdini seem supernatural. The real Houdini was a momma's boy obsessed with communicating with his dead mother through spiritualists. He went on a crusade debunking mediums only because he was looking for a real one. He never did find one when he was alive, but the urban legend about him suggests he communicated with his wife after his death. Anyway, I was really into Houdini for awhile. Who knows, maybe I was Houdini in a past life.

But I do tend to escape from reality.

I know that I know nothing

 

I learned that I know nothing when I began to middle age. And I deliberately said "began to middle age" as opposed to "turned middle age." Since you don't really know how long you are going to live, pinpointing middle age for any one person is difficult. 

I was actually relieved to discover that I really know nothing. It takes a lot of pressure off of you to know what you are talking about. But there is a paradox in the statement that you know nothing. Because if you truly know nothing, you don't really know for certain you know nothing. But conversely, if you know everything, then you should know that you know nothing, so you don't really know everything.

When I took philosophy in college (a requirement at the Jesuit institution I attended) I became fixated with this concept that, "Those who know, know. But those who don't know, don't know. And those who know, know that those who don't know, don't know. And, of course, those who don't know, don't know that those who know know." See that dog chasing its tail?

I for some reason thought the concept described existentialism. But ChatGPT informs me that it is actually Socratic Philosophy with a dash of Zen Buddhism thrown in.  So I guess I am more Socratic than I ever realized.

It was pursuing the above pun that led me to Socrates' quote about knowing he knew nothing. Ironically, I started out looking for a pun that would support using an image of Napoleon. because I found this super cool little bronze bust of Napoleon at a French antique store yesterday.

The sad thing about the piece is that somehow lost part of its nose (so Napoleon may have cut off his nose to spite his face). The happy thing is that because the nose was clipped the bust sold for a reasonable price and I bought it. It appealed to me for some reason and it was relatively small so it doesn't take up too much space in my office.

But it inspired me (as I mentioned) to create a t-shirt design with a bust of Napoleon. I thought about creating one that read, "A psychic told me I was Napoleon in a past life. That's French to me." But then I realized the actually phrase is "That's Greek to me." So I asked ChatGPT for a list of Greek leaders. Socrates was one of them. That gave me one design, but I didn't want to give up on Napoleon. Finally it came to me.

I'm pretty proud of this one even though those who don't know won't get it. But screw them anyway. They are likely voting for Trump.

Ice Ice Baby

 

I had an idea for a design last night when I was falling asleep. It was a genius idea. I knew I should have grabbed my phone and typed a note to myself about it so I wouldn't forget, but it was so good, I figured I wouldn't forget it. So I went to sleep. 

I forgot it.

But I think it had something to do with an ice freezer. So I improvised and created several versions of Desperate Ice-olation.  I also played with Desolate Ice-olation.

They pretty much mean the same thing. 

When I was a kid and we used to go camping every summer for our vacation we'd always stop at this place early in the morning before we headed for the hills and buy a big block of ice. It's odd to think that places like that existed. It was a throwback to when people had actual ice boxes in their homes and had blocks of ice delivered regularly. This place was company that sold ice. But they had this vending machine set up at what I remembered was like a loading dock. You put your money in and a block of ice slid out. My dad would put it in our cooler and we were set for several days. We usually had to stop at a country store during our vacation to replenish the ice, too.

Funny how important ice was (is) in our lives.

The other design idea I had that popped into my head when I was trying to remember the one I forgot before I fell asleep was this riff on the "Karate Kid."

You have to have watched "Karate Kid" umpteen times to get this pun. It is a reference to the instruction bad boy Johnny Lawrence was given by the head of Cobra Kai dojo John Kreese when he was competing against Daniel LaRusso. It was an illegal strike that maimed Daniel momentarily until he recovered with an iconic crane kick despite his bum leg. "Sweep the leg," became kind of a random yet iconic thing to say to your friends.

Ironically "Karate Kid" was revived in a current TV series "Cobra Kai" which kind of leads you to think Johnny Lawrence was okay and Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) was kind of a dick. 

Regardless, I like my version of "Sweep the Leg." Everyone has broom for improvement.

Did I ever tell you you're my gyro?

 

I have always viewed gyro meat as Greek Spam. I mean, have you looked at that jumbo roll of mystery meat they carve slices from and throw it into a pita and call it a gyro. Most American's don't pronounce gyro correctly. They call it a "JAI-roh" like a gyroscope. It is supposed to be pronounced "YEE-roh." And when you pronounce it correctly my dad joke puns work much better. 

Though I suppose saying "My gyros have always been cowboys" is a stretch, especially if you've never heard of Willie Nelson and his song, "My Heroes have always been Cowboys."  And if you haven't heard of Willie Nelson, you make me very sad. 

Years ago I dressed up like Willie Nelson and and sang an original composition called, "Bill's Heroes have always been Engineers" sung to the tune of "My Heroes have always been Cowboys." It was to honor an engineer at our office who was retiring and really liked Willie Nelson.  I was real proud of the chorus:

CHORUS

                G                            D

Bill's heroes have always been engineers

E7                                  A7

Though some think they're freaks.

        G                               D                             G

Building ramps over highways so we can travel the byways

    D                A7                                 D

But as kids, they were paste-eating geeks.

I sang my version of the song at an all-agency staff meeting. I did my best to look like Willie Nelson. I had a fake beard and a wig with braids. I wouldn't need the fake beard now, though I'd still need the wig with braid. My long hair days are long gone. Anyway, I was pretty proud of that song.

I'm not sure whether or not Bill liked gyros though. 

Diana Goddess of the Titanic

 

A bronze statue of the Roman goddess Diana that once adorned the first-class lounge of the Titanic was found half-buried on the ocean floor by a research expedition that used submersibles to photograph the wreck. I'm not sure why that intrigued me so much. The statue was only about two feet high. It was a copy of a statue, Diana of Versailles that is in the Louvre. 

Everything about the Titanic captures people's attention. I told my daughter the other day that if the Titanic hadn't sank on her maiden voyage she would have been like any other ocean liner and sailed until she was scrapped for metal and sank. Instead she made one failed trip and is the most famous ship in history.

I equated it to being like Elvis. If he hadn't have died young at the age of 42 he would have aged in the public eye and likely disappeared into obscurity. Instead he died and became forever ageless and iconic. It makes me wonder which is preferable, to die young and become immortal in a sense in that people always remember you as your young self or age into oblivion. 

Of course this only applies to people who have achieve fame. 

So sometimes I think fame is less of a blessing and more of a curse. 

Plan 10

 

So maybe you are familiar with the 1959 film "Plan 9 from Outer Space." It was directed by Ed Wood and has the distinction of being considered one of the worst films ever made. And because it was so bad, it became a cult classic.  I have never seen the movie, but I was kind of aware of it. The movie's story involves extraterrestrials who implement "Plan 9," a scheme to resurrect the dead on Earth as part of an effort to stop humanity from creating a doomsday weapon that could destroy the universe.

The film features Bela Lugosi (the original film Dracula) in his final film appearance, although most of his scenes were shot before production began and were later integrated into the movie. After Lugosi's death, another actor stood in for him, awkwardly covering his face with a cape in scenes. The film is infamous for its visible production flaws, such as wobbly graveyard tombstones, poorly constructed flying saucer models, and inconsistent lighting and continuity errors.

So I saw a t-shirt on the 6 dollar t-shirt site that had the movie poster for "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and it inspired the idea of  "Plan 10 from Office Space" and addresses the dead being resurrected and returning to the office after working remotely (literally and figuratively) for years.  I asked Gemini to help me with this idea and it wouldn't have anything to do with it so I went to Ideogram because god knows how many more days I'll be able to eek free designs out of it. And it gave me six or seven great designs. If you look closely at the one above you'll see me as a zombie on the far right. The reason for including me in the design is twofold. First I've decided to go Alfred Hitchcock on my designs and appear in as many as possible the way Hitchcock used to appear in all of his films. Second, my workplace is considering forcing employees to return to work at the office, at least a few times a week.

Needless to say, this idea has not been well received. And although I didn't really enjoy working remotely when the pandemic first struck, I've grown fond of my home office and having the luxury of rolling out of bed and shuffling into work without what amounts to an hour and a half commute by train to and from work each day. I also like just wearing jeans and t-shirts and not showering a great deal.

I'm hoping more and more people can relate to this dilemma and I can be on the cutting edge supplying them with t-shirts.

I think there is a remote chance this could happen. 

Félicette, Le Chat de l'Espace

 

On October 18, 1963, France sent the first and only cat into space. Her name was Félicette. She was a stray cat from Paris. They planted electrodes in her brain to monitor neurological activity during the flight. She survived the mission and was recovered after her capsule parachuted back to Earth. About a month later they euthanized her and dissected her brain.

Talk about a shitty thing to do. People talk a lot about how great science is, but I think it lacks compassion. I remember in my senior year of college writing a column about discovering they kept monkeys in the basement of the science building. I wrote a humor column in the college newspaper and the story about the monkeys was kind of a spoof expose of them doing experiments on animals. One of the groundskeepers told me they had found turtles in the dumpster outside that same building with portions of their breastplates cut open. And they were still alive. Write after the column ran, the editor of my school paper got a call from the dean of sciences asking that I not write any more stories about the science lab there. They were afraid of people getting upset. 

I tell you who was upset, it was the monkeys and turtles they were experimenting with. I know they say that the work they do experimenting with animals saves lives. My response is always, "Well not the animal's lives and why is a human life more important than an animal's life?

It opens up a whole can of worms when you voice stuff like that because let's face it, most people think they are superior to animals and killing animals is fine. And I realize I am a hypocrite because I eat meat. I just don't eat meat because I think I am more important than the animal I'm eating. Even the indigenous hunters used to thank the spirits of the animals they hunted and killed. Though I still think the gesture was wasted on the dead animal.

Aren't you glad I took a break form National Day Days?

I did see a headline keep popping up in my news feed about thousands of crabs disappearing in the Bering Sea near Alaska. By disappearing they mean dying out because of global warming but disappearing sounds more romantic. It gave me this design idea, though:

I think it tells a better story than the crabs dying off because the water temperature is changing. I'd like to think aliens are abducting cows so they can make butter to go with all of the crabs they are abducting and eating.

It's an alien concept, I know.

A real (as opposed to a fake) humdinger

 

Although most of the country is taking the day off as Labor Day as a celebration of workers' achievements (and a promo for labor unions) it is also National Hummingbird Day and Blueberry Popsicle Day. I decided to kill too national days with on bird and make it National Hummingbird and Blueberry Popsicle Day. Because, after all, who really gives a shit?

I am starting to burn out on National Day Days. It has been fodder for some t-shirt designs, but seriously, I'm not sure anyone wants a t-shirt that honors a hummingbird eating a blueberry popsicle. And now that I have achieved 50 sales on teepublic.com I need to be a bit more discerning about what I promote in my t-shirt store. I posted the the Blueberry Popsicle eating Hummingbird on Instagram and hash tagged National Hummingbird Day and National Blueberry Popsicle Day and I noticed that they have less than a thousand posts. So I don't think this whole PR thing to promote Hummingbirds or Blueberry Popsicles are panning out. I can only imagine the number of posts Diatomaceous Earth Day got. 

Besides, I worry the National Day Day trend is too trite to sustain as my new role of t-shirt design czar. I am afraid people are going to get bored with the designs and reading about them in my wildly popular blog.  I'm famous right now for selling 50 things on teepublic.com (although honestly probably 10 of those things I bought myself). So I can't let my new found fame go to my head. I have to think about my readers and followers. I owe them something more than rehashing what the latest National Day Day is. I have to look for some new obsession to focus on for my designs.

Though I do feel sad I am not going to promote National Welsh Rarebit Day tomorrow even though Welsh Rarebit is basically toast with cheddar cheese on it. So it is an open faced toasted cheese sandwich.

Sounds like a cheesy excuse for a National Day Day to me.

No Rhyme (Nor Reason)

 

There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason for "National No Rhyme (Nor Reason) Day." It is a day dedicated to words that don't rhyme with any other words in the English language.  I had to ask ChatGPT for some words that don't rhyme with any other words in the English language.  It suggested orange, silver, month, purple and hymn. I could accept the first four, but I'm sorry, hymn rhymes with slim, dim and limb. 

BTW

I'm not bragging but it should be "I Just Made My 50th Sale on Teepublic Day."

It is also National Burnt Ends Day.  As one might imagine I couldn't let that one slide.

I did have to ask Ideogram to generate the image because Gemini is a prude and won't generate images of butts on fire (which would be a great band name). Ideogram didn't seem to have any problem with cranking out butts on fire.

Unfortunately the image is now burnt into my brain (which is better than where it burnt in on this guy).

I ignored the fact that today is also National Pastor's Spouses Day and National Acne Positivity Day. The Pastor's Spouse one is even more stupid than yesterday's diatomaceous Earth Day. I was tempted to create one for National Acne Positivity Day that read, "National Acne PoZITivity Day." 

It just popped into my head.

Mix and match

 

Today was National Trail Mix Day, which inspired me to envision trail mix mixing it up at a mixer. And as you can see, the pistachios do most of the talking.  I think it is nuts to have a National Trail Mix Day.

And speaking of striking up a conversation, today is also National Matchmaker Day. 

I posted this on X and posed the question, "Have you picked your match? They could light up your life." Three people actually reposted it. So I think I'm trending.

And, today is also National diatomaceous Earth Day which is just about the stupidest thing so far I've seen have a day. I'll let you Google diatomaceous earth because I'm not going to waste any effort promoting them.  As I've said before, I have standards. 

Thrift Store Archeologist

 

As you may have gathered, I spend a lot of time going to thrift stores and antique malls. I've done this for years. But I used to go to look for cool things for myself. And when I say cool things, I mean unusual things...unique things...curiosities. I have always been a collector, even since I was a kid. Problem is, there is a fine line between being a collector and being a hoarder. 

When I lived alone, it wasn't so much a problem. Granted I accumulated a ton of stuff that started to overwhelm my house. But then I got married. And most of my accumulated stuff went to Goodwill and Value Village or into plastic bins. For years after I got married, the bins were stacked in the garage untouched and more or less forgotten.  Then the pandemic hit and we were all home and there was a period where we thought we were going to sell and move. So I decided to go through the stored bins and get rid of things. That's when I really started selling on eBay. 

I pretty much emptied the bins. I was on a mission. And in retrospect I regret I didn't hold on to some of the stuff that I still think was pretty cool. But then we decided not to sell but remodel and most of our stuff went into storage. But in the remodel I got a new office that I put a lot of thought into decorating. Today it houses my guitar collection, what's left of my Elvis collection, my Tiki mug collection and my Buddha and Eastern Religion collection. There's also some sub collections of New Orleans, Reno and Las Vegas memorabilia. 

But now the office has pretty much reached its limit of what I can collect so I turned to eBay once again to allow me to cull the herd and accumulate new old stuff without overwhelming my environment. What I have discovered is that I really enjoy sifting through things at thrift stores and antique malls. I equate it to an archeology dig that helps me uncover treasures. I feel as though I've become pretty adept at recognizing things that are collectible and sellable versus just junk. This requires a great deal of research. 

The research aspect of collecting began when I emptied my bins of stuff during the pandemic. Because before you can sell something you have to know what it is, what it is for and what makes it collectible and potentially valuable. In the process I have learned a great deal about pottery, glassware, Starbuck's coffee cups, vintage souvenirs, ashtrays, shot glasses, nesting dolls, a of course Tiki.

ChatGPT and Google are essential in this thrift store archeologist realm. Google has this great function where you can take a photo of something and search for similar things on the web. It is like taking off the initial layer of dirt at an archeology dig. Then you look for marks, logos, signatures, dates and other things that narrow down where the item came from.  Pretty soon you can sift through a knickknack and curio shelf at Goodwill and find things that you begin to recognize as collectible.

Perfect example, yesterday I found this small glass angel with hand painted flowers on it. It was this odd fluorescent green color. It had a label on the bottom the maker's name and it was signed by the artist. I took a chance that it was collectible. After research I discovered it was something called a Fenton Yellow Vaseline Angel. It gets its color by adding small amounts of uranium dioxide during the manufacturing process. It glows under ultraviolet light because of the uranium. I listed the angel and it sold in just a few hours for much more than I paid for it at Good Will. 

That was a truly successful dig.

Chop Suey in car 258

 

Yes, today is National Chop Suey Day. I think most people know that Chop Suey is not really a traditional Chinese dish. ChatGPT has several origin stories including that it being developed by cooks for the Chinese crews on the transcontinental railroad. They basically threw together whatever they had to create what is known as Chop Suey. It loosely translates to "mixed bits" or "assorted pieces" in Cantonese. Which makes sense when I tell you that in the railroad operating world, an announcement of "Chop Suey in car 258" (or whatever car needed attention) meant someone had puked in that rail car and it needed to be cleaned up. And Chop Suey and puke do look a great deal alike. Thus my design above. 

I posted that Chop Suey design on X and actually got some likes and reposts. Of course I made the statement that it was National Chop Suey Day and it goes down easy and comes up easy. I imagine the people who promoted National Chop Suey Day didn't appreciate that sentiment. Nor would they like the fact that in railroad speak, Chop Suey is vomit.

I also created this softer, gentler version intended for the more squeamish in the Chop Suey world.

Today is also National Lemon Juice Day (which sucks).

Again, I don't think I am representing lemon juice in a fashion that the creators of the day hoped to inspire. I totally ignored "According to Hoyle Day" because it is a blatant marketing ploy by Hoyle, the maker of a large percentage of playing cards in the country. If they play their cards right, maybe next year I will acknowledge them.

Tomorrow is National Beach Day, National Grief Awareness Day, National Toasted Marshmallow Day and National College Colors Day. It seems the National Day Calendar has a pattern of making sure they have at least one very stupid National Day day each day. Because who gives a rat's behind about National College Colors Day. What does that even mean?

I'm not going to give the national Grief Awareness Day people any grief about that being a day. I will see if I can come up with S'more ideas for Toasted Marshmallow Day. Perhaps I'll do that while I'm at the beach.

Wombat Boy

 

No, Wombat Boy isn't one of my superhero ideas. Actually, I think a wombat with a bat would be pretty formable. I think Piñata Man would be a little nervous if he met Wombat Boy, especially this one who really looks like can and will use the bat and not to hit a few fly balls and grounders. 

I have never met or actually seen a real wombat. I do like the name. Wombat just rolls off the tongue. Apparently the name "wombat" comes from the language of the Darug people, one of the Indigenous groups from the Sydney area in Australia. 

I tried having Gemini generate (a word Gemini really likes) an image for "The Wombat Who Laughs." But none of them looked like the wombat was laughing. Perhaps Gemini was being sensitive to the fact that wombats have those marsupial gnawing teeth and don't look particularly happy with their mouth open. Being AI, I was hoping Gemini could loosen up and give the laughing wombat an exaggerated fake smile. But Gemini is kind of a Polly Anna when comes to such things.

So I switched gears and had Gemini give me some wombats in baseball uniforms. I would love to seem actually working at a MLB game. I bet they would be pretty great Wombat Bat Boys (when they weren't gnawing on the bats). For tomorrow, I'm working on some "Wombats out of Hell" images. They are pretty hot (in a literal sense and not in a sexual sense).

Quickly changing the subject, today is National Red Wine Day. 

Of course, it is also National Thoughtful Day, National Power Rangers Day, National Bow Tie Day, Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day and National Cherry Turnover Day. None of these inspired me much to create a t-shirt design. I had to ask ChatGPT what Rainbow Bridge was. Apparently it is the idea that your beloved pets cross a Rainbow Bridge after they die and end up in a peaceful meadow where their health is restored and they wait for you until you die and then both of you cross the Rainbow Bridge together and go to heaven...or a farm...I'm not sure which. Regardless, it is way too much for a t-shirt. 

So instead of messing around with bow ties on cherry turnovers, I asked Gemini to riff on Dizgraceland Record designs because I'd only got Artie over at Ideaograms take on my blog name. And Gemini actually produced some pretty cool stuff.

Now doesn't that look like some cool old shop you'd want to go into and hang out for awhile discovering things like Wombat Boys and Piñata Man superheroes? And Gemini also spit out this nifty image of a a Shure 55 Fatboy microphone.

I just added the headline. I think Gemini does great work when you get it to pull its head out of its AI ass and have fun.

Wait, I think I here the Fatboy singing.

A whale of a disappointment

 

So I read today a report from an interview that Robert Kennedy Jr.'s daughter gave several years ago that when she was a little girl Bobby Jr. cut the head off from a dead beached whale with a chainsaw, strapped it to the family van and drove five hours to from Hyannis Port, Massachusetts to his home in Westchester, New York. This is the same man who found a dead bear cub and dumped it in Central Park and staged it to look like it had been hit by a bicycle. 

I could forgive those sick incidences but I can't forgive the fact that he just dropped out of the presidential campaign as an Independent and endorsed Trump. That truly is bat shit crazy. He is a disgrace to his great father. The worms he claims that doctors found in his brain.

Sad thing is that the moron admits to all of this and still thinks he is qualified to be president of the United States. Though at least he is honest about being stupid.  That's more than we can say for Trump.

A big hit

 

I came up with this idea yesterday, but I wasn't have much luck getting Gemini to generate an image of a Piñata being hit with a stick and candy pouring out. So I gave up. But I came back to it today and decided to piece together bits and pieces from the images Gemini did provide. I was pretty pleased with the result.  Then I moved on and messed with it being National Dog Day.

I do worry that the dog with its brain exposed will make people think of dogs in labs being experimented with. But I do tend to overthink things from my day job. Bottomline, if someone is offended by it, they don't need to buy it. And after all...

Turns out there are pages of  "You can't fix stupid" designs on teepublic.com.  But mine appear to be the only ones with a stupid person's exposed brain and tools sticking out of it. 

I messed around with several other concepts. And then something made me return to the Piñatas.  I had this idea of a super hero with a Piñata head and how ludicrous it would be. Gemini kept spitting out images of Superman with a Piñata head, but finally I got what I wanted when I suggested the super hero be dressed like a Mariachi.

I have to say this is one of my favorite designs so far. 

I really like the concept that this character just begs you to hit it in the head with a stick. I may just have to buy these for myself.

I stopped waffling...well started waffling

 

You asked and I delivered! Okay, no one asked, but I mentioned how it would be kind of cool to create a design with a Mothman who laughs with waffles.  It is the kind of random thing that cracks me up but makes most people shake their heads and frown. But how can you frown at a laughing Mothman with waffles.

Today is National Secondhand Wardrobe Day. 

I posted this on X but apparently whoever is doing PR for National Secondhand Wardrobe Day assumed people would hear about it secondhand and didn't create a #nationalseconhandwardrobeday. I find this annoying. Because if you go to all of the trouble to apply for a National Day from the National Day Calendar, you should promote the frigging thing. I bet the people at National Park Service Founders Day, National Banana Split Day, National Whiskey Sour Day and National Kiss and Make Up Day went all out today. I just am not going to waste a good laughing Cryptid on them. I have standards and so do the Cryptids.

As you can see, Chupacabras apparently don't have standards when it comes to fashion choices. I imagine a Chupacabra wears whatever it picks up by the side of the road or whatever the person it eats was wearing. So I can cut them some slack.

Well, most of them.