Weird wonder #43, update

14 03 2018

Alas, the last of the Oldman Cats has died.

I reprinted one of the the dialogues here, but you can find more old-cat wisdom scattered across his writings for Lawyers, Guns & Money, including this bit:

OLDMAN MUND: I SO FUCKING BUFF I DO CROSSFOOT

SEK: You mean CrossFit?

OLDMAN MUND: CROSSFOOT MAKE ME SO FUCKING BUFF

SEK: You don’t do CrossFit — but you’re annoying as people who do, so there’s that.

OLDMAN MUND: FUCK YEAH I DO CROSSFOOT I DO IT RIGHT NOW

SEK: That’s not CrossFit — that’s you crossing your feet.

OLDMAN MUND: FUCK YEAH I CROSSFOOT

SEK: Why do you even —

OLDMAN MUND: I SO FUCKING BUFF

SEK: No, you’re old and feeble, so you cross your feet when you walk and —

OLDMAN MUND: CROSSFOOT MOTHERFUCKER SO FUCKING BUFF

SEK: I’m gonna let you have this.

OLDMAN MUND: LIKE YOU HAVE CHOICE I WILL CROSSFUCK YOU UP

SEK: That’s not even a —

OLDMAN MUND: YOU SHUT UP NOW I GO BE FUCKING BUFF OVER HERE

SEK was Scott Eric Kaufman, and it is in the past tense that another, bigger, Alas lies: Scott died in the fall of 2016 from a chronic medical problem that turned acute.

I never met him, never interacted with him, but even now, writing this, I’m tearing up, because he was young, and smart, and funny, and kind, and he brought his whole human self to his writing. Check out the encomiums to him.

I don’t quite believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, it’d be nice to think Oldman cats Virgil and Sigmund are hassling SEK about mofungo and sideways hopping at all of the strange noises in the great beyond.





All things weird and wonderful, 57

18 12 2017

It’s been awhile, and more’s a-comin’, but in the meantime:

Katy Laveck-Foster/Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards/Barcroft

I’m hearing Get your motor runnin’. . .

I think these are Celebes crested macaques, the same species that gave us all the famous monkey selfie.

Anyway, more Comedy Wildlife Photo winners here.





All things weird and wonderful, 56

17 03 2017

Willie Nelson is a goddamned American treasure.

I don’t own any of his cds, and there are only a couple of singles that I could conjure sans Google/YouTube, but man, these duets with other goddamned American treasures are spectacular.

And this one, this one has Emmylou.

Can’t beat Emmylou.





All things weird and wonderful, 55

18 12 2016

Beauty at work:

 

Photo by Roman Roebreck

Photo by Roman Robroek, Via

If we must labor for a living, we should be able, occasionally, to look up, look around, and wonder.





All things weird and wonderful, 54

28 03 2016

Well, this is just lovely:

h/t Melissa McEwan





All things weird and wonderful, 53

1 03 2016

Yeah, I’ve got a soft spot for badgers, but I think anyone can enjoy the talents of this particular honey:

I love that little dance he does around 3:35.

h/t Kottke.org, via Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution





All things weird and wonderful, 52

4 10 2015

I don’t understand what’s going on with this one and I didn’t understand what was going on with that one, either. . .

Via Imgur.

. . . but if I put up a pup in a shower cap, you can be damn sure the kitty’s gettin’ a post, too.

~~~

h/t Cute Overload





All things weird and wonderful, 51

14 05 2015

I don’t understand this.

But I laughed.

Redditor In4theKill

So, just go with it.

~~~

h/t Cute Overload





All things weird and wonderful, 50

29 01 2015

Calceolaria uniflora, photo by Thomas Mathis

The website from which a got this image, Strange and Wonderful Things (a title after me own little heart), compares these funky little flowers to “little orange penguins marching over the rocks”—and yeah, I can see that.

But I see a bunch of old aunties in wide hats toting their bins back from the fields, or maybe the market.

Clouds are masses of frozen liquids suspended in the atmosphere, and one can use SCIENCE to determine how they form and what their shapes say about conditions in the atmosphere and that’s all for the good. Similarly, one can use the tools of SCIENCE to discover that c. uniflora is “distantly related to Foxglove and Generiads”, and that the flower is pollinated by birds who eat the white bits of the bloom.

But sometimes clouds are castles or armies or profiles of Abe Lincoln, and sometimes flowers are little orange penguins or bin-toting old aunties in wide hats.

~~~

h/t PZ Myers, Pharyngula





All things weird and wonderful, 49

17 12 2014

End of the semester, grading—and oh yeah, that whole Torture USA! USA! USA! gig.

So, a nudibranch:

Costasiella kuroshimae, by Lynn Wu

A tiny sea slug that looks like a sheep—yes, that’s exactly what we need.

~~~

h/t Cute Overload; more info & photos here