Halloween Thoughts

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.

What do you get when you divide the diameter of a jack-o-lantern by it's circumference?
Pumpkin "Pi"

How do you mend a broken Jack-o-lantern?

With a pumpkin patch!

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion." ~Henry David Thoreau

The Duke and the Llama Llama Ding Dongs

Oh I got a girl named Rama Lama, Rama Lama Ding Dong
She's everything to me
Rama Lama, Rama Lama Ding Dong
I'll never set her free
For she's mine, all mine - The Edsels

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, June 29 - November 2, 2008

"Thanks to an unprecedented and exclusive loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kimbell plays host to 92 of the most celebrated works of the great Impressionist painters. The Art Institute’s Impressionist collection has never before left Chicago in such a large group, and it will be shown only at the Kimbell.

The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago features signature works by the most beloved group of painters of all time, including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The fact that this succession of geniuses worked largely in the same country and within the span of a single lifetime is one of the miracles of the history of art.

The exhibition is especially rich in the work of Monet. The 26 works by him form an exhibition-within-the-exhibition that shows every phase of his career, from his earliest Impressionist experiments to the great serial paintings, including 6 of wheatstacks, 4 of scenes on the Thames in London, and 3 of the water lily pond in his garden at Giverny. The exhibition also features 7 Manets, including The Races at Longchamp (1866) and Woman Reading (1879/80); the monumental Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) by Gustave Caillebotte; 12 Renoirs, including Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (1875), Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (1879), and Two Sisters (On the Terrace) (1881); 6 paintings and pastels by Degas, including Yellow Dancers (In the Wings) (1874/76) and The Millinery Shop (1879/86); 7 Cézannes, including Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair (1888–90) and The Bathers (1899/1904); 5 Van Goghs, including Self-Portrait (1887) and The Bedroom (1889); 7 Gauguins, including Arlésiennes (Mistral) (1888) and The Ancestors of Tehamana (1893); and 3 Toulouse-Lautrecs, including Moulin de la Galette (1889) and At the Moulin Rouge (1892/95)." -The Kimbell Art Museum

Three Weeks From Today, Going Back to the Yucatan

"A ship in harbor is safe - but that is not what ships are for." ~John A. Shedd

Big Tex

"Big Tex made his debut at the State Fair of Texas in 1952. Back then, he had a crooked nose, a lascivious wink and no ability whatsoever to speak. Today, the long tall Texan has a perfectly straight nose, wide-open eyes and a booming bass voice that periodically welcomes visitors to the State Fair of Texas. He also wears size 70 boots, sports a 75-gallon hat and towers 52 feet above the crowd. His shirt is a size 100 180/181 and his Dickies jeans come in size 284W/185L XXXXXL. All of Big Tex's announcements are performed "live" by Bill Bragg. His booming voice echoes over the entire 277-acre grounds of Fair Park for nine hours each day. During the State Fair of Texas, you’ll find Big Tex overlooking Fair Park from his station in front of the Tower Building, next to the northern entrance to the Texas Skyway." www.fairpark.org

Big Tex's Train Set

If you miss the train I'm on,
You will know that I am gone,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles -sung by The Kingston Trio

Oh, listen to the jingle, the rumor and the roar
As she glides along the woodland, o'r hills and by the shore
She climbs the flowery mountain, hear the merry hobos squall
She glides along the woodland, the Wabash Cannonball. - sung by Roy Acuff

Down by the Old Mill Stream

Down by the old mill stream, where I first met you,
With your eyes of blue, dressed in gingham, too;
It was then I knew, that you loved me, too;
You were sixteen, my village queen, down by the old mill stream.

"God's mill grinds slow, but sure." ~George Herbert

Seeing Horses

"You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people." ~Will Rogers

"There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse." ~Robert Smith Surtees

"A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words." ~Beryl Markham

On the Blue Settee

"Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation." ~Lois Wyse

"No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch" ~Leo Dworken

"Why do I have to get down, if he doesn't?" - Sophie

On the Midway, 2008

"You'll never know how great a kiss can feel

When you stop at the top of a Ferris wheel " - Freddy Cannon


"The belly rules the mind." ~Spanish Proverb

It Must Be the State Fair of Texas!!

"I just want Texas to be number one in something other than executions, toll roads and property taxes." Kinky Friedman

Texas, O Texas! your freeborn single star,

Sends out its radiance to nations near and far,

Emblem of Freedom! it set our hearts aglow,

With thoughts of San Jacinto and glorious Alamo - from the State Song of Texas

Colorado

There's a place where Mother Nature's got it all together,

She knows just when to let wild flowers bloom,

Some how she always seems to know exactly what she's doin'

And The Lord saw fit to furnish elbow room.

Have you ever been down to Colorado?

I spend a lot of time there in my mind.

And if God doesn't live in Colorado,

I'll bet that's where he spends most of his time.

I'd love to be there watching, early in the morning,

The sun comes up and crowns the mountain king.

If by chance you dare to be there, high upon the mountain,

I swear that you can hear the angels sing.

Merle Haggard

Girlfriends

"You must remember this

A kiss is still a kiss,

A sigh is just a sigh

The fundamental things apply

As time goes by"

Herman Hupfeld, 1931

Acorns

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze." Thomas Carlyle

Caladiums

"Heart Of My Heart", I love that melody

"Heart Of My Heart" brings back a memory

When we were kids on the corner of the street

We were rough 'n ready guys

But oh, how we could harmonize

"Heart Of My Heart" meant friends were dearer then

Too bad we had to part

I know a tear would glisten

If once more I could listen

To that gang that sang "Heart Of My Heart" - Ben Ryan, 1926

Scarecrows

I'm a little scarecrow,

Raggedy and worn.

I wear a hat,

And a shirt that's torn.

When the crows come,

I wave and shout,

"Away from my garden

Get on out!"