Halloween – Fake
Seen at the newsstand
It’s Halloween. Everyone dresses up in a fake costume. Horrifying. Who knew? It was this time last year that I jeered at the costumed caricature of our fake president at a Halloween parade in Rehoboth. Surreal! The horrifying nightmare continues. DT’s supporters remain unswayed by his antics. To be sure you have no doubt how I feel about our fake leader. Let the Russians loose and hopefully the story is not over yet. One cannot afford to be timid lest the Taliban, al qaeda, and the Nazis prevail. You cannot afford to be silent while a madman runs loose. Did anyone else read the Emperor’s New Clothes?
Underbite
Yup, you need some serious corrective dental work. It won’t happen. He’s a big boy. So, I assume it did not keep him from getting enough to eat. He could use some of that anti-yellowing stuff too.
Graphic
Someone decided to collect wheels. And then they restored them. There’s fresh paint and no rust. I got to be the end user. I got to take the picture. I like the graphic. To be sure these are old wheels.
10 Cents
Pay phones! My whole young life the pay phone was a dime. Ten cents. I didn’t use them much. The NYC subway was 20 cents fare when I first remember riding it in 1966. And gas was 28 cents a gallon. Now they sell pay phones for hundreds of dollars. Ha ha! Most of the phones don’t have the price of a call on its label. I would have to say that I remember dial phones that had no letters on the dial. There were no exchanges and my phone number was four number digits that the operator connected. Yes, I spoke to a real live operator. Exchanges followed. And then area codes. And finally, it became a requirement to dial ‘1’ first. Progress.
Rite of Youth
You grew up and you saw your first Playboy. Now, there is no Playboy. Or so they tell me. Back when I was in the second grade, a kid on my block asked me if I wanted to see ‘bear’ women. No! No thanks. I didn’t get it until he said and I understood – ‘bare’ women. The big joke was that the magazine was only showing the backside. No frontal. Oh brother?!! And then there was the time my friend wandered across the street from the YMCA and returned breathless to report they had a magazine called “Pregnant!’ No, it was Pageant. I guess he could not spell (too well). But the first Playboy? It was at a party at my dentist’s house (his daughter’s party). Another girl put a Playboy in the bathroom hamper for Elmer and I to peruse. Then we’d leave and she’d leave another. Marilyn made an impression upon us all. She died when I was just a kid. But she left an indelible memory. If you are not familiar, this was her Playboy nude. How it ended up on a calendar is interesting but not unexpected.
Golden Rod
It’s a weed. It grows all over the side of the road and in the fields in the fall. I was told it gives you hay fever. My mother swore it did. My father suffered from it every year. We moved to WV because he convinced her there was no hay fever there. Wrong! He got it the worst. Wrong! It’s not golden rod. It is rag weed that is the culprit. Nonetheless, it’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Meanwhile as we drove in peak season golden rod bloom, I was keeping an eye out for a ‘shot.’ I waited long. I passed up other shots. And then… sometimes good things come to those who wait.
Home Fries
Okay! When we ordered home fries I envisioned the kind you get in the diner. Mushy with a bit of crust, oily, and with bits of partially cooked onions. Nope! If you could only taste and savor the crisp hot potatoes brought to our table. Amazing! Yeah, there were some frou-frou dipping sauces. But the potatoes stood out just by themselves. This was so totally unexpected. There was no warning on the menu. There were no recommendations from elsewhere. This was a serendipitous find. Not me…Colleen likes home fries. Pedestrian, no more!
Froggy
All summer long I have almost run over frogs with my lawnmower. Luckily, I have not. I have also been unsuccessful in photographing one. …until now. He was on the deck, on the planter, hanging out. How’d he climb up? Steps? Why? There is greenery to be sure. But there’s no body of water. And there do not seem to be any potential mates. How long do frogs live? Answer: 4-15 years. Really!? …because Colleen says it (this very same one) was on the deck last year and trying to climb into the house. Hmmmm?
Antique Store
Passing through Oakland, Maryland… as we entered the store… there on the window, trapped inside behind the glass was this butterfly. The back lighting made me gun up the flash. I really got some pleasing color and great bokeh. Don’t you just love it when they make a word/definition like this. I chased around to understand it to mean that the background is out of focus. Why not just say it in plain English? I wonder how they say it in other languages.
(Bokeh – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
In photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as “the way …)
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs
Read the book; it’s hilarious. My kids loved it. It rained recently. It seemed like it had been raining for days. We had been on an extended road trip. Don’t ask. (I’m not telling anyway.) I am sorry to say but not ashamed to admit that I shoot as I drive. Point and shoot. Really. I don’t do much more than point and press the shutter. I do have some experience at this. So I get what I want (mostly). You can’t stop too often. ….gotta get there.
Expensive
How do you sell onions and garlic for $15 each? Braid them and make them art. They are supposed to be eaten I presume. But braided is extra. …a whole lot extra.
Petting Zoo
This was a perfect shot for wide angle. And indeed, I just pointed and shot. I stuck the camera into the cage past the chicken wire and pressed the shutter. One shot. Honest, one shot only. One and done. They weren’t gonna hang around to let me take another.
Cicada
I did not know that locusts and grasshoppers look pretty much alike. So, that makes this a cicada. I’m seeing all kinds of interesting wildlife since I’m not diving. I hate bugs. I hate insects. I hate mosquitos. I hate spiders. Why is it always ugly bugs? Well, for some, beauty has its own appeal. …just not me.
1892
Singer sewing machines are marked with a serial number. And there is a web site that tells you what, how, and where the serial numbers originate. 1871 is the earliest machine. This one is 1892. If there are no prefix numbers, it’s old. I have (own) some old ones. But this one is the oldest I recall running across. It was in an antique store in Kentucky. The car was already loaded. Alas, no room for another thing. I guess that’s good. We don’t have room in the house either. And, then there was the ½ price Victrola. That wouldn’t fit either. I guess it’s all good.
Art
Cactus is not much interest for me to photograph. This looks architectural. What a difference. This got my attention.
Monarch
I did not know the monarch butterfly goes through four generations in a summer. The first three remain local. The last generation is the one that heads south to Mexico. I have not seen any butterflies in my neighborhood. But we have seen the caterpillars. And now I have seen a cocoon. It’s interesting that I got this far and have never seen one. But here it is. It’s equally amazing that there are gold dots along the top of the cocoon. And if you look closely you can see the developing butterfly. Yeah, all these years and I’m still learning new stuff.
Poison Dart Frogs
When the kids were little I got them a puzzle of poison dart frogs from Ravensburger. It would take time to describe it. The pieces were identical triangles with head or tail of the frog on each of the triangular sides. You had to match up heads/tails and complete the puzzle. Okay? The point is that it was a memorable puzzle. It’s gone. It’s not online or on Ebay. That great puzzle went where all stuff goes when you’re not looking. There was a time when all of my old clothes went into a bag in the closet. If I didn’t look for them in a year, the bag went to the Salvation Army. I was none the wiser. I just lament that some treasured stuff is missing. Gee, that was a great puzzle. Oh! Hey, I got to see some poison dart frogs up close and personal. Wow!
Salamander
White salamander. It’s big and looks just like it shows on the internet. It was in the conservatory at the museum. Imagine that. Honest, it was (there).
Shrimp
Shrimp! Alas, it was in an aquarium. It’s striking how much glass will degrade the image. When I shot through water directly it was so much better. But… it’s fish again. Yay!
It’s ticking
I’ve been watching wind up clocks. You know, the pendulum style wind up kind. Price is important. I’m not spending much. It helps if the clock works. It’s easier said than done – to find a working wind up clock. There were a lot of Korean made clocks. And there are China made clocks. I chanced upon this Seth Thomas. That would be old. Or… maybe not. They can date back to the 1800’s. And they were a clock company until 2009. I don’t know all that much. However, it looks old and there is a Seth Thomas label on the inside. There has also been some work done to replace the glass. Henceforth, the belly reflection. I probably knew it, but chose to ignore my misshapen selfie. And therein lies the companion photo. It jiggles. It was a stand-on-this ride. Meanwhile, I need to stop looking at clocks.
Still There
The naked cowboy owns this corner. He’s been there forever – through snow and rain. Really! (He was dressed like this in blowing snow!) I don’t recall this one. I think the original one left. Maybe he wore out his welcome? Look at all the commercials on his guitar. Tacky!! Nowadays there are hordes of costumed figures angling for a tip – Mickey, Statue of Liberty, Mario… It’s too clean to be sleazy. There are still plenty of undercover cops I presume. The pedestrian space has shrunk under the new mayor. They made more room for traffic. And Broadway shows start an hour earlier – 7PM – on Tuesday. Who thought of that?
Flea Market
Some are cool. Some aren’t. This one’s funky – big on funk low on cool. It feels vaguely unclean. It’s not my kind of place. …so I’ll be back. ??
Signs – old
This was an old car garage. Comet? Hmmm… my lifetime, but I don’t remember the car. It was an offshoot of Lincoln Mercury. I guess the building is due for demolition or to be re-purposed. The old sign won’t be there much longer. It’s hard to look at signs along the road and not be suspicious. Politics have crept into the core of our lives.
Thread
These cabinet displays with their neat compartments were for sewing stores to retail sewing thread. Sewing has not been too popular these days. Or, I don’t go to sewing stores. Probably both facts are true. I was surprised to come across these cabinets. They sell for a lot of money. I’m not sure who wants one. I think that I would like to make one. They are neat drawers of about 2 inch height. I’ve been reading up on what it takes. Soon…
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