Huck Finn rates among my best-loved books ever. Way, way at the top, up there with Saroyan’s “Human Comedy” and Tolkien’s works. Recently found these scans of original manuscript pages in Twain’s handwriting.
“You can’t pray a lie — I found that out.”
Found at My Imaginary Brooklyn
Back in 2009 I hit a coyote at 80 MPH around Carlin, NV. Did some damage to the front end of my Prius, but nothing severe – mostly plastic fairing knocked off under the left wheel well, and took out one of my fog lights.
But this would be different.
You notice this is a race car, the driver is wearing a helmet, and he manages to maintain control. But that was one heck of an impact, and I’ve heard of accidents where the carcass goes straight through the vehicle, taking out the driver.
Be careful out there.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Occasionally I will get this sort of thing in my mailbox. I have to say I remember my mother typing chain letters with carbon paper and sending them to myriads of people in the 50’s… but now with electronic communication, it’s possible to annoy millions without effort or cost.
The President of Argentina received this picture and called it “junk mail”: 8 days later his son died. A man received this picture and immediately sent out copies: His surprise was winning the lottery. Alberto Martinez received this picture and gave it to his secretary to make copies but she forgot to distribute it – She lost her job and he lost his family. This picture is miraculous and sacred.”
You were chosen to receive this novena (prayer).
The moment you receive it, say :
[Insert the Lord’s Prayer here]
GOD WANTED ME TO TELL YOU, It shall be well with you this coming year.
No matter how much your enemies try this year, they will not succeed.
You have been destined to make it and you shall surely achieve all your goals this year.
For all of 2013, all your agonies will be diverted and victory and prosperity will be incoming in abundance.
Today God has confirmed the end of your sufferings, sorrows and pain because HE that sits on the throne has remembered you.
He has taken away the hardships and given you JOY. He will never let you down.
I knocked at heaven’s door this morning.
God asked me, “My child! What can I do for you?”
And I said, “Father, please protect and bless the person reading this message.”
This is a Novena from Mother Theresa that started in 1952.
It has never been broken. Within 48 hours send 20 copies (Or as many as you can – God does know if you don’t have 20 people to send it to – it’s the effort and intent that counts) to family and friends.
Do not send it back to the person who sent it to you.
This is a powerful Novena. Can only help. All prayer is powerful.
Please do not break it.
Now: I have nothing against sending out good energy, or prayer. I appreciate people who exercise their faith on my behalf. But I have serious issues with this kind of email because they’re – to be charitable – a crock of 
.
I’m supposed to believe that
People! In the name of anything you hold sacred or worthy of respect, if you want to send good energy to your friends, great. Pray for them privately (see Matthew 6:6 if you’ve forgotten the admonition), but please don’t forward hqiz like this. Above and beyond all the things I mentioned above, some of the folks in your address book will invariably be humanists or atheists, and you don’t want to send them to the hospital with intense pain caused by prolonged and forceful eye-rolling.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Not bad for my first year. I was most interested to see where in the world my readers were coming from. Thanks to everyone who read and/or commented – I hope to make 2013 even more interesting!
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 35,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 8 Film Festivals
Hopefully people have recovered from their hangovers by now, and are ready to face the new year with aplomb and panache. For better or for worse, the necktie is still a part of the formal and business scene, and how that tie looks can say a lot. There are over 100 ways to tie a necktie, although three knots are the most commonly used. Here are the old standards, and some attention-grabbing newcomers:
The four-in-hand – the simplest knot to tie.
The Half-windsor. Always seems a bit lopsided to me.
The full Windsor. Balanced, symmetrical, and classic.
Ediety Knot (wide blade in front)
Ediety knot (Merovingian knot) with narrow blade in front. To get the two-toned look, two ties need to be sewn together.
The Ediety knot (for Matrix fans, also called the Merovingian knot.) This is a doubled Atlantic knot; it can be knotted with the thin end over the wide end (top), as with the Atlantic knot, or with the wide end over the thin end to mimic the look seen in the film, with the narrow blade in front (bottom). There’s a lot of controversy on how to tie this knot – many claim that it’s a simple Atlantic, but that’s not the case. Google around, there are a number of tutorials out there – and choose the one that gives you the look you like.
The Trinity Knot. Very sharp looking.
The Eldredge Knot. Unique and eye-catching.
A comprehensive list of knots is found here, although the instructions (in shorthand notation) can be confusing and look more like a solution to the Rubik’s Cube. However, if you find a knot you like, there are usually video or other tutorials available that will give you a better idea of how to proceed.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Everything I can find out about this photo indicates that it’s a Tibetan landscape. No idea who took the photo, or exactly where it is. If you find a definitive attribution, let me know in a comment and I’ll update the info. Whate’er the case, it’s breathtaking.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Back on May 13, I posted this article about KFC’s “buttery spread” and “honey sauce,” which are neither butter nor honey. At that time I listed the ingredients on KFC’s honey substitute as:
High fructose corn syrup, sugar, honey, corn syrup, natural flavors, caramel color
However, the only thing that is constant is change, as we well know – at KFC, that change is not for the better. A packet of “honey sauce” that I brought home the other day contains:
High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, honey, fructose, contains less than 2% of: caramel color, molasses, water, citric acid, natural and artificial flavor, malic acid.
So they’ve upped the percentage of corn syrup, decreased the percentage of honey (of which there is bound to be precious little in the first place) and added a bunch of other garbage to drive down the cost and make it taste (supposedly) more like the real thing. Given the effort of manufacturing the zombie sweetener, it makes me wonder if it would really be all that more expensive to go back to using the real thing?
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Japanese internees celebrate New Year’s Eve. Topaz, Utah, 1944. Photo by Charles Mace.
May this New Year bring us all an abundance of peace and security. May we count the blessings we have been given, and look upon the follies of the past with abhorrence. May we all seek reason, equity, balance, humanity and common sense.
The Old Wolf has Spoken.
Zito’s Bakery, Bleecker Street – Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991)
Old bakery, 7th District, Vienna – 2007, Friedrich Walzer
Boulangerie / Patisserie, Cessenon, France
Old bakery in Orta S.Giulio, Italy – Daniela Minardi
Bakery in Saranda, Albania, 1991. The shelves were devoid of bread.
Modern bakery, Albania. Plenty of bread available, and many other things. Photo by Angela Gjoligu.
The Old Wolf is now hungry for bread.
Earlier this year I posted this essay about telephone operators; today I happened across this picture which brought back the same kinds of memories.
In an age of smartphones and global cellular service, this is an aspect of life that neither my children nor my grandchildren will never know. I used to think it odd that my own grandparents grew up in an era without airplanes or television, and now I am experiencing what that double-perspective must have been like for them.
The Old Wolf has Spoken.
Playing in the World Game 