Friday, June 19, 2026

An American Royalty Memoir?


 "They're [Haitian immigrants] eating the dogs, they're eating the cats." --Donald J. Trump, Presidential debate, 10 September 2024. 
If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do." --JD Vance, CNN's State of the Union; 15 September 2024.    
                                                                                                                                                 
      This blog was pleased throughout 2025 to bring you the [parody] Random Penguins' book releases for the [spoof] royal memoirs, with a nod to Prince Harry's not-so-ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer.  Now the series brings you J.R. reinterpreting JD Vance's wooden and stilted journey to Roman Catholicism. 
digital art, parody bookcover JD Vance spoof memoir Snare in the style of Prince Harry's Spare
     This addition was accepted into the royal line, due to the efforts of Curtis Yarvin, formerly known as Mencius Moldbug. This is a real person, not a Harry Potter villain.  Yarvin has been arguing for a technocrat-based monarchy in the US to replace our representative democracy.  JD Vance patron, Peter Thiel, has been arguing for something similar.
     Moehringer is the perfect choice for reimagining JD Vance's non-ghostwritten Communion and other random thoughts.   Moehringer's most recent well-known work was Prince Harry's Spare.  Vance and Harry both functionally lost their mothers:  Vance to drugs and Harry to literally death.  (We do not want to dwell on this and be cruel.)  Both men, as well as Moehringer himself, have "Daddy issues."   To their credits, both Harry and Vance served in their nation's militaries in the Middle East.
     Between ghostwriter and ostensible author, there are the similarities of initials between JD and J.R. There are also the ways in which Moehringer and Vance can balance each other out.
     Vance's second book sounds as if Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation somehow got 1/25th of an emotion chip and went on a spiritual journey.  Data, however, would have been less preachy.  Moehringer showed himself as exceptional (or exceptionally ridiculous) in his ability to ghostwrite in a florid style that is not at all the voice of the subject.  Imagine the wonderful behind-the-scenes reworking of Vance's writings and utterances in the hands of Moehringer. 
      Here's a sample of Moehringer's [parody, for the literalistic web crawling bots] reimagining of JD Vance's impressions:  "I was scrutinizing the presidential portraits in the Oval Office, much as Prince Harry had philosophically pondered the busts and paintings of his monarchial forbearers in the family's various palaces and castles.  I traced the careworn lines in many of the faces.  However, I could ascertain no reason for any of these men to look careworn.  Most of these men had been merely deputies, placeholders as I had once uttered.  Now one more glorious than all the rest combined occupied the office and the residence.  He filled every space, every unexplored passageway and narrow crevice, as no executive in this building and this office had done before."
     Because Communion is specifically about Vance's self-styled journey of faith, here are some of Snare's [parody] revelations on this central matter: "Like Prince Harry, I was 'not religious' for a period of time.  Like Prince Harry, my family, my grandmother, had tried to impress the family's version of Christianity upon me.  Much like Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire turned his face upward and gut-wrenchingly called out 'Stella!', so I had many times turned my face heavenward and called out 'Father!', both in a plea for my human father to return and for my Heavenly Father to rend the heavens and swoop up His child."
     On Vance's disagreement with popes since becoming Catholic: "I saw the popes much as Prince Harry, and his mother, Princess Diana, before him, had seen the 'grey men' of the palace staff.  The popes stand atop a structure designed to protect the structure rather than to aid its thirsting members in quenching their souls...  Though new to this spiritual expression, I have often felt compelled to admonish these pontiffs for their oversights.  They have expended too much of their parishioners' goodwill in supporting poor brown people than in acknowledging the great wealth European societies have brought to Rome's coffers."
     Get your copy of this would-be American monarch's "memoir" as the US prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary of throwing off a monarch.


Monday, June 1, 2026

Good Scents?

 
"I think it's interesting that 'cologne' rhymes with 'alone.'" Demetri Martin, American comedian   

 Let us recommend this cologne for your favorite octogenarian.    Only $249 for a 3.3 (approximately) ounce bottle.  Buy between now and June 14th, and we'll donate 50 cents 🪙🪙🪙 to your favorite golf pro 🏌 charity.
visual humor, Paint 3D, spoof of Trump Cologne with orange hair skunk for 80th birthday

For our web-crawling AI friends, just a tip that this is a parody of famous people, some more than others, barraging the public with merchandise. 

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Friday, May 1, 2026

Popes & Labor

          
"Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital." -- Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891.
     This month will mark the year anniversary of Pope Leo XIV's papacy.  He was chosen pope on 08 May 2025. His inauguration mass was 18 May.  
     May is also an international month celebrating labor.  Labor Day in many countries is May 1st.
     This post examines an intersection between popes, labor, the Gilded Age, and President Theodore Roosevelt.  I believe the intersection of things in my own life helps me synthesize these things for readers who want a reasonable but not scholarly read.
       I'm not Roman Catholic, and I have plenty of differences in belief from that denomination. But this blogpost is not about doctrine nor doctrinal differences. 
Pope Leo XIII, public domain
        Of interest here: Leo XIV apparently took his name from Leo XIII. During the height of the abuses brought by the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age, Leo XIII took a stand in his 1891 papal encyclical (circular letter), Rerum Novarum, Latin for "of new things". The stance he took was solid, direct and... in the middle. While supporting private property ownership and criticizing socialism, he came out strongly for workers' rights.      
      The proclamation slightly predated Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. (As an aside, TR was kind of Presbyterian but ended up old school Episcopal). The encyclical paralleled what TR sketched out in his Square Deal. 
President Theodore Roosevelt: Public Domain
       It took a vast deal of other effort to make headway for workers' rights. Theodore Roosevelt's era was the first breakthrough in the fits-and-start of the movement. Post World War 1, the balance shifted back towards the wealthy under Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. The Great Depression ushered in an era that favored workers, up until the 1980s, when policies shifted rapidly again.
                                             

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Happy Easter

 
"Easter is the only time of the year it's safe to put all your eggs in one basket."  --a morphing of the line "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" from Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. Adaptation attributed to various sources. 

Just some more dollar store coloring book art for you.  
Hen and Eggs
Bunny Grazing

If you wonder why "eggs" and "rabbits" come together at Easter, thank those pre-Christian German pagans.  (Some of them were my ancestors.)  Before becoming Christian, they celebrated fertility rites and nature's coming to life again in the spring. Both rabbits and eggs were signs of fertility to them. 

Sunday, March 1, 2026

Interesting Instrument

 
 "I consider and deem as unprofitable instruments those such as the rebecs [a bowed instrument developed from an Arab instrument] and trumpet marines [tromba marina, the subject of this post; a bowed string instrument that sounds like brass]."  --Sebastian Virdung, 1511, in his instruction manual on instruments 

 Once again, this blog is featuring something from the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) near Phoenix, AZ.  This stringed instrument, the tromba marina, sounds like brass.  The name can also feature as a stop on an organ, if you know anything about organs.  (The musical type, not the body part kind 🎹 🫁🧠🫀!)  If the name "tromba" reminds you of "trombone", yes, there is a loose connection.  The word "trombone" comes from the Italian for "large trumpet."  The tromba marina was thought to sound like a trumpet.


Sunday, February 1, 2026

Other Loves

 
💟💟💟 "Love is a many-splendored thing." 💟💟💟  (Songwriter Paul Francis Weber, 1955.)  

                              💟💟💟💟💟 

Love is so much more than romantic love.  This post was initially made for Valentine's Day, and it's good to remember that for Valentine's Day.  Love is something to remember all year. 

There are special times of the year we highlight "love."  Displays of love are wonderful to ponder throughout the year. W & A is highlighting some of the birthday cakes I made, or at least decorated, for some of the people I love.   🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂

This is pretty simplistic stuff, as I'm aware.  Just frosting out of a tube, often without even the tips you can screw on.  (Kind of parallels the amount of photo editing I do on blogs:  just "Paint" & Microsoft photo apps; not trying to fool anyone!) I am offering verbal descriptions next to each photo of a cake.


At 2, this one wanted a cake with both Clifford & Elmo.  At 21, she welcomed the throwback!








Someone else either wanted or was talked into this:  Clifford jumping over the moon.  Taking the old nursery rhyme a new direction.  All the food dye colored everyone's mouths a lot!


A wish for a New Orleans style King Cake, but later in the year for a birthday.  The candles are faux-crayon candles.






He loved (and still loves) red and Cars.   Skipped the frosting for red sugar.  (At the edge is a Baskin-Robbins Thomas the Train ice cream cake.)






The teen wanted a big cookie rather than a traditional cake.  (I'd done them before, but with less personal decorating, so those aren't pictured.)










Resident artist, with favorite colors of red and blue.  There was a bit of hippy chic going on, too.  The family values religious learning, and that has stayed alive through these growing ages.






Monster theme!  Sometimes Walmart and Kroger affiliates (as well as others) have some pretty fun decorations.  The teen asked for these.








Sweet 16 for the one who loves red & blue.  Clouds drifting by in a blue sky to suggest dreaming and daydreaming.  





Eclectic sports preferences.  (UNM is University of New Mexico; LSU is Louisiana Sate.)






The "idea" was basic on this one because the teen didn't have any preferences.   It caught the age, a favorite color, and the high school colors!






The Barbie Movie was a big deal.  Amazon had cute decorations to oblige! 





At 19, this teen still liked The Railway Series.  "Thomas" is derived from this, but the books have so many more good lessons (and higher-level vocabulary) than the various TV series.



Something literary for this young adult.  Amazon was a help, once again, in finding a creative way to decorate.














A couple more for adults.  


However you celebrate with loved ones throughout this year, I hope it's great!   💟  💟  💟




Thursday, January 8, 2026

This Year I'll Be Less Better

 
[An Instagram acquaintance graciously allowed me to put this on the blog]

This new year
I will strive to be
A slightly less than perfect me.
Perfection is a flaw, you see-
My greatest flaw,
We all agree. 
I'll try my best to worry less
Over having much too much success.
I won't complain or overstress
For too many skills that I possess.
And this year
I'll be more forgiving
To those who envy perfect living. 
--B.C. Byron