Monday, April 15, 2024
Pathways
Thursday, February 1, 2024
February 14th Hoopla
Saturday, January 13, 2024
Friday, January 12, 2024
Spare No Expense
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Downfall of Our Forebearers
Cicero Denounces Cataline --Cesare Maccari, 1889 |
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Saturday, June 24, 2023
Prince Harry in a Can
- "Todger sheaths" (blue-colored would be best sellers)
- Snake in a can joke-- Harry still recounts with relish the way he was able to pull stunts on others. He could roll out his own snake popping out of the can practical joke line.
- Dried bananas-- the prince reports bananas are a favorite food. Bananas have also figured into some of the couples' internet and royal outing stories...
- Dried mushrooms-- the big surprise would be that they are actually culinary mushrooms and NOT psychedelic mushrooms!
- Ginger Snaps or Ginger Chews (a real thing)
- Removable hip flask of hooch (see, also, below for tequila-specific suggestions). These small tins were, after all, first designed as pocket tins.
- Photo trading cards of the heroic Sussexes saving the world!
- Empty can would make a great cell phone carrier: it might block hacking! He could market this as a 2-in-1 purchase!
- Toilet paper for Arctic & Antarctic adventures
- Tequila minis-- best choice, a joint venture featuring Casamigos Tequila, co-founded by erstwhile acquaintance George Clooney and once shilled by cousin-in-law Jack Brooksbank. He might even get a deal to chug it on camera with Stephen Colbert. [It seems "recovery" from substance abuse means different things to different people, although the recovery community is quite clear about what it means to them.]
- Dried, 'smoked' roast chicken. Apparently roast chicken is another favorite dish of the prince's. [I wonder if the chickens in the Montecito coop realize this; it could make them pretty nervous if they do.] There are several ways that the chicken could be smoked...
- C**k cushion for extreme cold weather adventures. Who knows-- maybe they could even be sold in the small can? I don't really want to know that much detail. [That was a common sentiment of many readers along about January 2023.]
- There's a product sold called "Candle in a Can." Considering painful connections between "Candle" and either of Princess Diana's sons, we will pass on this and wish both men peace in this regard.
- "Air from [Name Place]" is something that is actually sold. Perhaps the California prince could sell "Air from Montecito." (Maybe Montecito is far enough out to avoid the serious smog of L.A.? No one would want "Air from Los Angeles.") There are plenty of "hot air" jokes to Spare here.
- Sterno-type Stove in a Can. Besides melting some snow to rehydrate that dried chicken in a can on your Arctic adventures, you could warm up your freezing todger a bit.
- Empty can would make a great toupee carrier. Or maybe sell "Toupee in a Can." You never know when that time might come for this prince or any man. This would be a great-crossover into cold weather adventure supplies: keeping the bald pate warm as on outdoors adventures. This is another 2-in-1 marketing angle.
- In fact, launching a whole line of outdoors adventuring supplies 'in a can' could work. You, too, can go camping (or glamping) with Prince Harry, even if you can't afford to do so in Botswana.
- The empty can of either size could be used as an old-fashioned "hair receiver": save your falling hair for 'future use' in a custom toupee if you don't purchase pre-made in the can). Still another 2-in-1 marketing plus.
- Either size could be offered in the "Dior Suit Coronation Version."
- Sadly, no "dry humor" in either can, despite the other dried goods possibilities. Harry's humor doesn't trend in that direction, not even with the help of a renowned ghost writer. Harry's is more the "in your face", unsophisticated type, often practical jokes at others' expense, if Spare is at all accurate.
More Ducal Branding
Friday, July 1, 2022
Patriot of Another Country
July, of course, celebrates American Independence Day. Demonstrations of patriotism will abound. If you wish to see old July 4th related posts on this blog, please choose the "Fourth of July", "patriotism", or "politics" links on the left sidebar (on the desktop version).
- That which is imposing here on earth has always something of the quality of the fallen angel who is beautiful but without peace, great in his conceptions and exertions but without success, proud and lonely.
- Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
- A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.
Saturday, June 25, 2022
What the Heck?
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
More Choices
Friday, October 1, 2021
Birds' Nests
"Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided. But because we cannot keep birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them build a nest in our hair." -- Martin Luther's Large Catechism, "Explanation of the Sixth Petition" ("Lead us not into temptation.")
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Unity
Culture Wars
"I think there’s an adrenaline rush or dopamine hit from engaging in full-fledged culture wars that otherwise thoughtful souls on both sides of the political spectrum can find intoxicating. For some, life is worth living only when ‘the soul of America’ is at stake. So the soul of America is ALWAYS at stake."
--Phil Vischer, creator of the Christian cartoon series VeggieTales, on evangelical Eric Metaxas, whom he once employed as a writer.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Happy Father's Day!
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Exceptional?
What's the point in arguing about the term "American exceptionalism?" We're a nation of imperfect people, founded on some amazing ideas of a democratic republic, enshrined in our Constitution. We've done some very noteworthy things; we've done some things that were stupid and even cruel. Accepting all these facets doesn't make us [1] less American, nor [2] less willing to accept or work on problematic parts of our past. Can we unify on this, too? --Marie Byars
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Try a New Tool
It's well past time for the "sides" [mostly referring to the culture wars] to think they can use the political system as a sledgehammer to "smash" their opponents into oblivion.
No one's going anywhere, folks. You're wasting a lot of energy, a lot of political capital, and a lot of your ability to try persuasion, instead. --Marie Byars
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Pro-Life Bona Fides
Being pro-life, really being pro-life, means realizing you wanted these lives in the world when you see disagreeable toddlers in the grocery store or are seated near crying children on a plane. Oh, and blaming it on bad parenting (as in "I'm pro-life, and the mother should definitely have had these children, but they're only being awful because she's a bad parent") doesn't count. It also may not be true.
Being pro-life isn't easy for anyone. It's not easy for the mother who bore children at times that weren't convenient for her. But it's also not easy on the rest of society. If you're Christian and pro-life, it doesn't fit the full Biblical ethic to make it solely "that woman's problem." Be pro-life in the best sense of the word, and embrace the messiness that comes from children being in the world!
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Sunday, August 2, 2020
The Second Coming
*Widening gyre: cycles or circular motions; Yeats was referring to his belief in cycles of history. He felt that an orderly one that came with the birth of Christ was about to give way to chaos. [This writer, looking at history, would not agree it had been all that orderly since Christ's birth.] The times just after First World War, with the concurrent 'flu pandemic, brought a lot of "apocalyptic" thinking about. The devastation of those two events was enormous.
**"The center cannot hold" is taken by some political scientists or laymen to suggest that a third, centrist party cannot take off in places like the United States. The touchstone for the metaphor may actually be military: The center of a battle line being broken through. It may also be Yeats' sense that society's ties to religion or other traditional cultures or worldviews are being torn apart. In this sense, it would be things that "center people" rather than a Centrist view.
However, in our current tribalistic political times, it's sad thing that a Center once created by compromise cannot be heard. It's not totally gone (though it seems more and more people are taking sides, and the rude voices try to drown the Center from both sides), but it doesn't have voice in our current society. Note, also, Yeats saying the worse are "full of passionate intensity."
(I would argue that our "First past the post" election system, the winner takes all idea, is a big part of the problem. With ranked choice voting, more people risk voting for others in multi-party systems, not feeling they're going to "throw the vote" to the candidate they really DON'T like. They put that person 2nd, and if their preferred candidate is taken out of competition, their #2 vote still counts for something. And it can go beyond #2, as far down as ranking is deemed feasible.)
***Spiritus Mundi: spirit of the world; the collective spirit of humankind. According to Yeats, it is a mystical concept, ''a universal memory and a 'muse' of sorts that provides inspiration to the poet or write."
****Apparently the AntiChrist, trying to mock and mimic Christ with its birth in a figurative Bethlehem. Interesting, how is it slouching before birth? Is this an accidental oversight? Or is this a description of something so horrific it forces whatever its maternal creation is to slouch off in an evil journey before birth that mocks the holy one of Mary (pregnant with Jesus) and Joseph? [Thoughts of Voldemort in Harry Potter, before he gets his body back. come to mind. Also, a shadowy Tash overtaking Narnia in the last of the Chronicles of Narnia.]