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January 2007 Archive 28 January - From the Collection  A favorite with Museum visitors is this handsome oil painting of a white horse among the cherry blossoms, by Anon. link home 27 January - Gray in Tooth and Claw  Very relaxing to walk in the Janus Museum Forest Preserve, after the hurly-burly of the Metropolis. Relaxing up to a point, since I once again ran into the rare elusive dangerous Gray Dire Cat near the old footbridge. I prepared to flee, of course, but something stopped me - his look; proud and fierce, and yet strangely vulnerable and even wistful. I walked a bit closer - snapped his photo - he didn't go into his attack crouch, nor growl or show his fangs - just stood there, looking almost friendly. Next time I walk in the woods, I'll take some hamburger or a chicken or something; see if I can lure him to come closer and get used to me. I've never heard of anyone taming a Gray Dire Cat before, but if I do it and survive, I shall name him Leroy. link home 26 January - Visiting the Metropolis  F Train, NYC Up to New York City for the day on Wednesday; took the Chinatown bus - very economical - 40 bucks for the roundtrip as opposed to $128 on Amtrak, or even $199 on the fancy Acela Express, lor' bless us. It was my first time on the Chinatown bus. There's a bus stop in nearby Rockville, just down the road from the Janus Museum. The convenience, the price, and the novelty of the thing are what sold me. Arrived in the metropolis - always a bit of a shock to be in the big city after the slow pace of Washington, that city of northern charm and southern efficiency, as JFK called it; felt like a regular country bumpkin. Good eating opportunities, especially in Chinatown:   I recommend the grill cuttle fish especially; didn't try the tea egg. I also bought a bag of pork buns at a carryout on East Broadway - very nice. The evening's return trip was a bit unnerving, in that there were about a dozen buses all lined up on East Broadway, each from a different bus company, each going to a different place, though the destination not being readily apparant unless one could read Chinese; and each with a pushy lady tout shouting "Where you going?" to every passerby, trying to shanghai people to board her bus. One lady tried to bully me onto her bus, which was not going to DC - she was actually trying to shove my considerable bulk up the bus steps. I finally feinted and dodged around her and got away. At last I found a bus that seemed to be going to "Rockavirr", as the driver said. Then a lady I recognized from the morning trip up got on, and we almost fell into each others' arms, we were so relieved to to find our selection validated - it would have been a fine joke on us if we'd ended up in Boston. Forget Chinese fire drills - Chinese bus stops are where the action is. I had loaded up on more pork buns and an order of beef flank noodles at a nearby bakery. When we rolled out, I ate my buns, fired up my laptop, and read my email by hitching on to unsecured wifi as we passed through town, which made me feel very high-tech and all. I read my book - The Fall of the House of Habsburg, by Edward Crankshaw - very exciting - which distracted me from the uproar of the Chinese variety show playing on the bus TVs. All in all, not a bad trip, except for the scary lady touts. link home 21 January - More of the Event  The Museum's now closed for the day, due to the howling tempest. The Museum Cats have hunkered down for the duration, and after I put the pork roast into go in the oven, I'm going to take a nap. Things could be worse. Of course, they could always be better. link home 21 January - Winter Storm Event  We're enduring our first winter storm event of the year. Current conditions may be seen above, and may be monitored via the Museum's Circle Cam during daylight hours.. Even though it's only the lightest dusting, our expected lucrative bus tour of Japanese tourists has already cancelled - great depression reigns in the gift shop. We've discovered that Allan Janus has an almost Anne of Green Gables popularity in Japan, though there's no anime version of his life, yet. link home 20 January - The Illusionist  Excellent film, The Illusionist - I particularly liked the use of pickelhaubes. Above, Jessica Biel as Sophie, Edward Norton as Eisenheim, and Paul Giamatti as Uhl with a skirmish line of pickelhaubed Viennese peelers.  As one would expect in a film set in the Dual Monarchy period, there are also some very nice tschakos on display, too. One associates the spiked helmet with Prussia and the German empire, but it seems that the Austro-Hungarian constabulary also wore them:  ... As this illustration, one of Josef Lada's famous images from The Good Soldier Svejk, clearly shows. My one reservation with the film is that it's a bit hard on poor Crown Prince Rudolf - he of Mayerling fame, who was actually a good sort of fellow. He's called "Crown Prince Leopold" in the movie (played very well by Rufus Sewell from Cold Comfort Farm). Did they think people wouldn't remember? Sheesh... Also in antique European headgear news, I saw a fellow in downtown DC wearing a reproduction French World War I cap (a bonnet de police, not a kepi) the other day. As I passed him, I winked and said On les aura! to him - he studiously looked away from me - ignored me. Could a fellow who actually chooses to wear a bonnet de police not know the meaning of On les aura!? It couldn't have been my accent, which is flawless. A mad world, my masters. link home 20 January - News Flash Jittery Beltway Insider Guy says that Fidel has died. You heard it here first. link home 20 January - Home Decor Tip  When hanging pictures or objects on the wall, it's very very important that you locate and hang it from a wall stud, rather then just pounding a nail into the wall board. Stud locators are cheap and easy to use. Take it from me, people; find the damn stud, or you'll be sorry. Eggy Update - According to Wikipedia's rather complete article on "egg in the basket", one of the reasons that the author of V for Vendetta, Alan Moore, had his name removed from the film's credits was that the dish served by V was called in the film "eggy in a basket", which is, apparently, not the proper British name, or the dish itself is not made by Britons: They don't know what British people have for breakfast, they couldn't be bothered. "Eggy in a basket" apparently. Now the US have "eggs in a basket," which is fried bread with a fried egg in a hole in the middle. I guess they thought we must eat that as well, and thought "eggy in a basket" was a quaint and Olde Worlde version.Just another tragic example of American cultural imperialism. I'm so ashamed. I still call them firehouse eggs, by the way. link home 14 January - V for Vendetta with Egg on It  The thrill of recognition that I had while watching V for Vendetta last night wasn't because the story of a heroic fight against a repressive government reminded me of my own struggle against thuggish authority, but because the "eggy in a basket" served for brekkers to Evey (Natalie Portman) by both V (Hugo Weaving) and by Gordon (Stephen Fry) is the same as the firehouse eggs that are a frequent fixture of breakfasts in the old carriage house. I confess that I don't attempt the elegant flip that V performs, above.  ... Nothing like our modern cinema for breath-taking images of power and inspiration.  Evey (Natalie Portman) scarfs down her eggy, and then helps fight oppression. Guess what we had for breakfast this morning? Right - didn't have the opportunity to fight oppression today, though; will do it tomorrow. link home 13 January - Your Current Cat Report  It being another warm balmy January day, though threatening rain, the local cats are out in force. Above, a charming "Peaceable Kingdom" type snap - Leroy, the lion, lying down with the calamare.  Cat Peake hangs out on a neighbor's porch on the Historic Circle.  Meanwhile, young Buddha keeps an eye on the action...  ...While Tucker has a jolly good wallow in middle of 5th Avenue. Further developments will be reported as they occur, if not before. link home 12 January - Multiple Dangers Lurk  Here's a snap that I got at extreme danger to my own precious skin. Really, one should stay away from the Janus Museum Forest Preserve nowadays, what with all of the bleeding dangers that lurk within. We got your Giant Tree Squid (Arborteuthis dux)(left) and we got your Gray Dire Cat (out of focus, right). Not shown, but alway to be feared - deer ticks. Why do I keep going into the woods? Moth to the flame kind of thing. Life on the edge. Because it's there. Plus, we need the ginseng. link home 9 January - Big Media Squid  The Washington Post's Richard's Poor Almanac, drawn by Friend of the Museum Richard Thompson, featured a hilarious giant squid in Saturday's installment. Could he have been inspired by our own dear tree/porch knit squid? I admit that it's a sobering thought that this site may be influencing Big Media. I promise not to use it as a force for good. Also in squid news, the various squid classifications mentioned here earlier - Porchiteuthis, Arborteuthis - have inspired a couple of not-yet-discovered species of giant squid. For example, I came up with a new variety of Very Angry Squid - Soreteuthis. You probably get the idea. Friend of the Museum Rebecca Richters came up with an Elderly Squid - Longintheteuthis! But the prize, if there was a prize, goes to the Tsarina - Lisa Grossman, genius creator of our knit squid, who proposes an Ungrateful Squid - a Serpentsteuthis. Oh, it's the finest thing! link home 9 January - Rum and Janus I occasionally examine the Janus Museum site's web statistics to glean what information I can about our visitors' varied interests - it's how I know that Debra Paget's Cobra Dance from The Indian Tomb is such a big draw, and that we still get lost souls who arrive at the site via a search for sweaty women. But the search of the week has to be this question from a visitor from London: what is the connection between rum and janusIt's a good question, and I'm afraid I don't know the answer. According to Museum files, Allan Janus would drink just about anything he could cadge, rum included if it was on offer; but his favorite tipple seems to have been the local apple jack. Certainly there is no mention of rum being involved in the cult of the god Janus, according to Bessie Rebecca Burchett's important study, Janus in Roman Life and Cult (1918). Next question. link home 7 January - Happy Janus Games I'd like to wish everyone a jolly Janus Games Day. Ancient Rome celebrated January 7 with games held in the Circus dedicated to the god Janus. I learned this fascinating fact while slaving away at my current project, making an e-text from Bessie Rebecca Burchett's important study, Janus in Roman Life and Cult (1918). Almost unobtainable, this is the most complete work on the god Janus. The Museum has a rare copy, and I've got the job of scanning the book page by page and OCR-ing the text - an incredibly tedious job, let me tell you, since the Janus Museum lacks the resources of operations like Google's Library Project. And the OCR software's tendency to read cosmic as comic - as in Comic Janus - is beginning to piss me off - it just doesn't want to learn. But I'm convinced that this is a great public service. By the way, this is also a good day to make a pious offering to the Museum that bears Comic Janus's name. link home 6 January - Unseasonable Warmth  The unseasonable warmth - 64º at noon - means that it's a good day to hang out with the porch squid (Porchiteuthis dux) on the Historic Cottage's cluttered but cozy porch.  ... And then have a snack at the salad bar. link home 5 January - Dangers of Catwalking  One must always be on guard, while on a catwalk, against the dread Tree Squid (Arborteuthis dux). Natasha survived the encounter. In further knitted cephalopod news, Sherry Weller wrote in to share the lovely knitted nautiloids from her online Nautie Knit-Along. And here's an excellent link home 4 January - Continuing Survey of Swag - Introducing Archie  All in all, I undeservedly raked in some very fine swag over the holidays. From our old Friend of the Museum, the culinary historian and fine art sock designer Lisa Grossman, I received this wonderfully huggable knitted giant squid (Architeuthis dux), christened Archie, designed and knitted by Lisa herself. Above, Archie on board the Pauline, Lisa's sailboat.  Our maintenance man Gus introduces Archie to Cat Leroy. This is also an excellent moment to introduce Lisa's fascinating new blog The Tsarina Tsays, part of her web site The Tsarina of Tsocks, which introduced me to a genre I confess that I was previously unacquainted with, the fine art sock - fine art sock kits are also available. Lisa goes into Archie's technical details in a blog post in which she also says some very nice things about these pages.  Lisa devoted wonderful attention to Archie details, like his superb, though terrifying leather beak.  Leroy contemplates Archie from a safe distance. Archie joins a select company of fine knitted cephalopods. We all love Archie, Lisa - we'll take care of him and feed him and take him for walks and definitely won't put him in stir-fries. link home 3 January - Sparring with TR  The other night I dreamed I was hanging out with President Theodore Roosevelt. The president wanted to spar with me. I didn't want to, but it's very difficult to say no to Teddy, so I ended up in the ring with him. We fought bare-handed, for some reason - no mitts. I did pretty well for a round or two, but I finally missed a feint and he slipped a nasty uppercut through my guard, knocking me, (in my dream), unconscious. While in my state of unconsciousness, I dreamed that I was a minor functionary in a small underfunded museum - it was horrible. Still in my dream, I regained consciousness. My jaw was quite sore. TR was concerned, apologetic. I told him about the dream I'd had while knocked out - TR laughed, said it was a miserable existence for a man, and promised he would name me US Consul to Ecuador. I thanked him, and then woke up. All in all, it was a pretty strange dream, and much more exciting than my previous presidential dream. link home 2 January - Seasonal Booty  I raked in some delightful swag over the holidays. My colleague Martha Norbeck-Wallingford proved that she's in the right job as the Janus Museum's director of planned giving - she gave me this fabulous Porco Rosso statuette. And it's a music box, too! It plays Le Temps des Cerises, the tune played on the radio in the scene the statuette duplicates and later sung memorably by Gina in her night club. Here's the music box version (streaming Real Audio format) Porco is surrounded by the characters from Patrick McDonnell's comic strip Mutts, my other excellent prezzie from Martha N-W. From left to right - Shtinky Puddin, Guard Dog, Earl and Mooch.  Our maintenance man Gus was very kindly given this fine vintage Russian fire helmet by Dr. John Herrera of the High Speed Triumph Research Laboratory. It seems that Gus likes hats. link home 1 January - The Perfect Gift in Action  Old friend and fellow former tintypist Bob Lyon sent me this snap of an Animals Aloft reading group discussing my superb steely prose. From left to right, Kikko, Elizabeth, and Sarah. In the background, Joan's going for more cookies. But what is the portrait of Gus doing there on the coffee table? link home 1 January - Disbelief of Suspension  Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators, July 7 1865 - Alexander Gardner (Library of Congress) The news of Saddam's scragging, and the strange intense public interest in the photos and videos of the occasion, reminds me of a sales pitch I was subjected to at a photographica show years ago. I walked past the booth of a dealer in historic photographs - let's call him "Kevin". Kevin had on display a large albumen print of the image above, the execution of the Lincoln conspirators in the yard of Washington's Old Arsenal Prison. I stopped for a quick look, and Kevin moved in to close the sale: Kevin - Hi, ya, Tibor - why don't you buy it? (Kevin prefers the simple direct approach in sales).link home 1 January 2007 - New Year's Eve Carnage  Hideous carnage ensued when a giant squid (Architeuthis dux) attacked Museum Cats Max and Maxine during last evening's festivities. Above, Maxine confronts the predator. Below, Max exhibits Zen-like calm in the moments before the terrifying attack:  After the menacing cephalopod was soundly trounced, Maxine, her blood thoroughly roused, turned on poor Max, and feline-on-feline carnage ensued:  That'll teach me to limit Maxine's mojito consumption - she just can't handle more than six. This is Panabasis's fourth anniversary. Thank you for your kind attention. link home |
