Two Tumblr Blogs: The Manna Tease & Five Word Poems

Hello. You may have noticed that itwaslost.org is updated much less frequently than in the golden era. We're not dead, and we will continue to use this ole blogger bloggity blog to log-roll and blog-roll, and occasionally post some new writing, art, or music.

However, our energies in the blogosphere are more concentrated right now at certain other projects: there's two tumblr blogs you should follow if you are a tumblererer. The first centers on music projects related to our folk duo The Manna Tease. (We've also been posting Spotify mixtapes and other delicacies in addition to our music videos, et cetera.) The address is themannatease.tumblr.com.

The second brand new tumblr blog is exclusively devoted to FIVE WORD POEMS. We published some five word poems here two years ago, inspired by the Five Word Poems of F. Keith Wahle. The new tumblr blog will post the entire series of Wahle's and mine own daily for the next year, and hopefully more to come. There is also a way to SUBMIT your own directly to the blog. Please do, if you are an aspiring five word poet. Add these new blogs to your feeds!

Disc Baseball / Frisbee Baseball / Basedisc - How to play a game that doesn't exist

I was playing frisbee in a baseball diamond today, & trying to imagine how disc baseball might work. Something closer to disc golf, I would hope (where you can drink beer & trash talk), than to Ultimate, which is actually athletic. (So, more whiffle ball than MLB.) I assumed that this game has already been thought up by others, but my googly-research was a bit depressing. It revealed perhaps the saddest novelty sports blog possible, which owns the domain name www.discbaseball.com, screen shot below:

I imagined a game where the "pitcher" would throw a disc to the "batter," who would have to catch it and then re-throw it as far as he could into the outfield. Perhaps the baseball strike zone would be fairly larger than a baseball strike zone: If the pitcher failed to throw within the strike zone, it would be a ball, & if he threw it in the strike zone but the hitter couldn't catch it correctly, it would be a strike. Likewise, if a fielder caught the disc after the hitter re-threw it, the hitter would be out. I think the problem is, this game might be too easy for decent athletes, and only fun for beer-drinking hippies like ourselves who don't receive or throw too well. It might not leave enough time for the hitter to get to first base, & It might be harder, & better, with a smaller disc like a disc-golf disc. 


A website called gaggleofgames.com has also conceived of this game, and offers other hypothetical rules. Their use of the term "probably" makes it seem that they have not tried it either:

DISC BASEBALL

Thursday, 19 April 2007

Additional Props: Spots for Bases This game is played like baseball except for a few minor rule changes. Set up a baseball diamond by using the spots for bases and make the bases about 20 feet apart. Divide the group into two teams. Team 1 in the field, Team 2 at “bat”. There is no pitcher, and the rest of the team in the field can position themselves as needed (probably much like baseball). The first player from Team 2 throws the disc from home plate, then runs the bases. If the throw doesn’t go 20 ft. or goes foul, the batter tries again. Three fouls is an out. If the throw is caught on the fly, or the disc reaches a base before the runner gets there the batter is also out (just like baseball). As far as the fielders go, only the basemen (1st, 2nd, 3rd) can run with the disc. The other fielders have to throw it where it was picked up. Team 2 scores a run each time a runner crosses home plate. We play three outs to an inning and then the teams switch places. Make sure the fielders are at least 20 feet away (mark this area with the boundary cones) from home plate, so they don’t get beamed with the disc.

Please comment if anyone has attempted to play Disc Baseball, if it is just a bad idea, or how the rules might evolve into something functioning & fun.
Update: I also found this video, listed under "BaseDisc":

¡Art! ¡Cuidado! Liam Golden & Grace Marlier Art Pages

Ennui, ecstasy, immortality, & antipathy... that's right, gentlemen, art is on display on the internet.

First, Liam Golden Does Things, the blog on his website liamgolden.com, has been rapidly putting up art in the last twenty-four hours. These are websites you should occasionally peruse. Here's one of the posts, called "Bird! Stone! Water!"

Working on an illustration

for an article on Rock! Paper! Scissors!

or as I know it from childhood, Ro! Sham! Bo!

(or Rochambeau, not to be confused with the French vicomte and soldier who shares my two christian names (Joseph, Mary)).

Also known as Bird! Stone! Water! and Wrap! Cut! Crush!

Interesting that Olaf Mary shares my newfound love for Comic Sans, great minds thinking alikely.

Next I invite you to "like" Grainne Proinseas' new facebook artist page, Grace Marlier. It has FASHION! SKETCHES! DRAWINGS! PAINTINGS! ART!

That one, from the album G.F. Marlier; some fashion illustrations, is captioned "want to make this for [Minnie Molly Mary]," of The Manna Tease. Exciting. And, finally here's a sketch of Mr Quill & me in Bulgaria, from the album Beautiful To Forget, More Beautiful Still To Be Forgotten, a collection of drawings from our Eastern European vacation:

W.O.S. - "What's Op, Sammy?" - Sam Amidon's Tumblr

If you're not following Sam Amidon's new tumblr blog, I recommend it. It's good to see him bloggifying again. Mr Amidon is a folksinger, movie star, and mid-level Virgin Airlines executive. (He & I were in the legendary Liberal Arts college band Radiohead a decade ago - not to be confused with the British band - so if you ever see posters around Westchester County maintaining "RADIOHEAD WILL REUNITE!" that's the reason.)

This was a good series from W.O.S. (which I believe stands for "What's Op, Sammy?") He responded to several e-mails he received intended for other S. Amidons:

The Ballad of Henry K. Lee featured on KQED news blog

Jon Brooks posted our Henry K. Lee song on the KQED news blog this morning, and added further mythologizing to the legendary Lee:

A Musical Homage to the Chronicle Crime Reporter: The Ballad of Henry K. Lee

June 30, 2011, 10:29 am • Posted by Jon Brooks

I don't think you have to do exactly what I do every morning to fully appreciate the video below, but it would probably help.

See, it's my 6:30 a.m. pleasure each day to sift through a hundred or so articles from Bay Area media, culling the most important news for inclusion in our Morning Splash feature. Among the municipal affairs of state -- the budgets, court decisions, and political goings-on -- inevitably, included in the pool of potentially newsworthy items, is the crime reporting of the Chronicle's Henry K. Lee.

• Man found shot to death in downtown Santa Rosa - Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer (Jun 30)
  
• Fairfield, CA, market owner killed in robbery - Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer (Jun 29)
  
• Mom, daughter guilty of murdering Dublin woman, 91 - Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer (Jun 28)
  

During those groggy 6:30 a.m. sessions, it's been my indulgence to picture Mr. Lee as a Weegee-like figure, working late into the night to chronicle the region's noiresque underbelly. Haunted, perhaps, by the things he's seen, the places he's been, the dark corners of minds touched by just enough madness to murder. Yet driven by duty, professionalism -- hey, it's a job -- he carries on, carries on, cigarettes and flask at the ready for the rare moments it all becomes just a little too much...

And then I'm moving on to read about the Twitter tax break or the redevelopment fight...

Silly, I know. But someone else has also engaged in projections about the man-of-a-thousand-crime-scenes, the Berkeley-based rock duo The Manna Tease. Pretty awesome song, I think:

Lyrics and more about the song here.

And he linked to The Manna Tease facebook page and to this blog! most excellent. Thank you Mr Brooks. The "real" Henry K. Lee posted it on his facebook page and added "Thanks to KQED's Jon Brooks for this post -- and his comparison to me as a 'Weegee-like' figure! (I had to look that up on Wikipedia!)."

There were also some positive reactions from other Bay Area journalists on Twitter:

@JulieStrack: Which former @dailycal writer has contributed more to popular music -- Jann Wenner or @henryklee ?http://t.co/UCQti7T

@matthai: @MannaTease We loved it. Your song was just hilarious. Those of us who work with @henryklee have been singing the lyrics to him.

@katieworth: Amazing ballad about Chron reporter @henryklee: http://t.co/5vUmbUG. Hey @hankschulman, how come you don't have one?

@SovernNation: @Josh_Richman @HenryKLee I want one about Melrose! A guy on the street sang me a song he wrote about me once called "The Lonely Newsman"

@Josh_Richman: My career will not be complete until someone writes a song about me, as this man has done for @HenryKLeehttp://t.co/HZM35QH via @youtube

@jpanzar: A truly amazing ballad: "If it's crime and it's grimy, it's written by @henryklee."http://t.co/E36YeQ8 ... via @WgKANE

Most of those twitterers were reporters who work for the SF Chronicle, SF Examiner, Daily Cal, and others. The biggest fans of that song seem to be journalists who actually know the man himself. I wonder if I can cull some promotional quotes from those. All I've got so far is "croons... for seemingly no reason at all." -SF Weekly.

Here's the demon mp3 of the song, available for a dollar if you desire:

NEW DEPARTMENT: HIYA! I'm INNA EDINBURGH

As you all know, I am inna Edinburgh now.
I will be here for two years.
Why not start a separate blog you ask.
Because most of the people who would read it already read this blog.
I am saving you time.
I am saving me time.

Anyway.

For my first installment: an email from my kind, loving mother who is caught in a whirlwind of my forgetting my toiletries etc...

Dear Liam, I went to the post office today. It turns out that packages have to be a certain size to be sent in the regular mail. If the box is large it goes slow freight. There are no choices. So one of the boxes will arrive about a week before the other. Also they kept asking me what the state or province was I said I didn't know, but that since UK was the country maybe Scotland was the province. They didn't like that. I hope you get the two boxes, let me know. I would like to know for future mailings. I also had to make an itemized list of everything in the boxes. I didn't really know so I made it up. I hope this doesn't mess things up. Also you aren't suppose to send toiletries so I didn't mention that yours were in one of the boxes. Did you play frisbee today? Love Mom

More Verbiage Spoilage: Sarah Palin's uses "cackle" as a collective noun

Again, I have to disagree with the blogosphere about Palin's twisting of language, & side with the sometime governor for her creativity. I love the use of "cackle" as the collective noun for "rads." The Huffington Post complains that none of the standard dictionary definitions of cackle "are appropriate in the context of Palin's tweet." I recommend wading thru the whole quote:

A Song from the Wiggly Tendrils: "why can't we get along (mute the vuvuzela)"

The blog band, The Wiggly Tendrils, creates songs upon request for people, based on a questionnaire. Friend-of-the-Blog Miss Enid Darius was inspired by an incredible song created with only a days notice for a birthday of one Ryan Keeley, forever immortalized now in a song called "Someone Stop Ryan Keeley". So we took a stab at the questionnaire, (I've had both jugs & vuvuzelas, both dubious instruments, on the mind recently.)

who is the imagined singer

a disco jug band

who is the intended listener

all the nations of the world

ask three questions

why can't we all get along? (like when the earth was a single continent--gandwanaland/pangea)

Can we mute the vuvuzelas?

what is this strange feeling I have in my body?

describe your song in one word

rickety

The song can also be heard there & the mp3 downloaded here.

mute the vuvuzela

mute the vuvuzela

what's this feeling in my body

probably martians probing blindly

they must see us like pangeas

they don't know we're incompleted

why, why can't we get along, why can't we get along

why, why can't we get along

why, why can't we get along

why, why can't we get along

why can't we get along

Happy Twenty-Ten, Blogosphere

We didn't quite make our goal (616 posts in 2009, double from the 308 in 2008), despite Grainne's valiant New Year's Eve marathon posting of Young Werner Herzog, his Bulgarious political party narration & other videos. I propose we don't attempt 1232 posts in 2010 - where will it end!? I've been down with a stomach flu all week, but still made it out for Balkan dancing with Brass Menazeri at Berkeley's Ashkenaz, after a roast goose dinner with a dozen good friends. Waking up feeling healthier than the last year is a good omen for the new decade.

And yes it is the New Decade. The first century started at Year One. The second century started at year 100. The first century was only 99 years, because there was no year Zero. This was a solution to the obnoxious 2000/2001 problem, a solution posed by an autistic child (according to Stephen Jay Gould), & the more I think about it, the more I think it's the only right way.

It's also the Tweens, the Obama era, the end of the Naughty Aughties, & an optimistic time for the players of the world. Also for the haters thereof.

From the Lewis Carroll blog: "The Lewis Carroll Society of Brazil all over this series of tubes"

As you might already know, I've been blogging for the Lewis Carroll Society of North America at lcsna.blogspot.com--, an extension of the "From our Far Flung Correspondents" section of Knight Letter, the society's magazine, which Mrs Eley & myself have been hired on to help edit. I would like to occasionally re-post some of the Lewis Carroll blogging over here on itwaslost.org, if that's alright with you, it's alright with me, as these two websites get different traffic. And this one should interest our lovely seguidores brasileiros:

___________________________________

Attention Portuguese-speaking Lewis Carroll readers! The Lewis Carroll Society of Brazil has several colorful blogs and websites with a bottomless rabbithole of books, links, art, tudo Alice. Look at all of these edições Brasileiras de Alice no país das Maravilha listed on the dizzying alicenations.blogspot.com. (The groovy cover to the left is from a 1974 edition with ilustrações by Brazilian artist Oswaldo Storni.)

Their second blog, for "deeper research with more articles and images", is at brasillewiscarroll.blogspot.com. This one is also expansive, and both sites have some English (always demarcated by stylish italic pink text). I've long been a fan of reading websites in translation using the various cyborg cyberspace interpreters at our disposal, and the Sociedade has provided an occasional easy link to do so. For instance, if you desired to read Myriam Ávila's Alice e Macunaíma, you could feed it thru Google Translate like so. This occasionally creates interesting sentences like: "Such people, the girl significantly calls 'obnoxious' (meaning 'antipodal'), are Anglophones, even though they walk 'upside down'." (Both websites, unfortunately, include all or most of their posts on their homepage, so they can take a long time to load on slower computers.) There is also an impressive cache of art and illustrations on these two blogs, like the large one that I'm putting at the foot of this post, which comes with the following pink italicized explanation:

Marina Peliano once was my little sister. But she ate any strange cookie and so suddenly she grew turning trapeze artist, sweet maker and art student, artist growing too. I asked her to do some drawings inspired on Alice and she followed the adventure. I found really beautiful her Alices who look like her. I remember now the letter of the writer Paulo Mendes Campos to his daughter when she was fifteen: "This book is crazy. The meaning is in you."

From All Forgotten: Tolstoy's Brain

From Mr Quill's All Forgotten Blog:

For those of you who were bored reading Tolstoy's ramblings in War & Peace, perhaps this will help you appreciate just how crazy one can go thinking too much. I'm sure we've all had such conversations with ourselves in various states of sobriety.

Fake Magazine Cover from Testpattern: Late for Fucking Everything

This mockup magazine cover from Mr Chadwick Crawford's blog. He writes: "The streetcar photo is by Tony DiLorenzo, and I greatly appreciate his allowing me to post it here!"

From the Younger Welsch's blog: Super Mario Guitarists

Reposted from .earspray.




)-mario electric-(




)-double mario-(

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere: Thoughts for the future

I had a couchsurfer this week, a Swedish girl who I met four months ago, she was supposed to stay with me then, disappeared & reappeared this week in urgent need of amnesty. She writes about sustainable cities also, like our Department of Non-Violent Non-Driving, at her weblog, environmentalistonamission.blogspot.com. For complicated reasons involving failed San Franciscan romance, she flew home early today back home to Sweden, & she was just gee-chatting with me from the airplane & writing more reactions of the bay area's urban planning. (I'm not sure if the drama influenced her opinion of San Francisco's public transit.) Her post is charming, so I will repost it word-for-word here:

It's easy to walk in San Francisco for sure, but the city is build for cars with straight roads (with an small exceptions of Lombart steet) and highways in different levels (!) at entrences and exits from busy roads. Where does everyone goes? Where does they come from? Do they need to take their car?

If you take the bay bridge over to Oakland and later to Berkeley you will see the highways in different levels, and maybe you would think in the same way as me- "is that a bridge for a railway?" -"no it was for cars" ""is that a bridge for a railway?!" "-no its another for cars" "that one then?!!!" and you look again and you see a truck like 50 meter up in the air.

Catastrophe!
Also.. when I walk I see things that people in cars doesn't matter (anyway you have to have the eyes on the road), and I just realised that many of both ugly buildings and spaces are just ugly cause noone is never walking there anyway. It's just the cars, and they don't look.

Originally posted here. Catastrophe!
Here's some of our airborne gee-chat, I'm not sure how much of my conspiracy theory is verity or truthiness, but it's worth spreading rumors about nonetheless. Pay closer attention to Judge Doom's plot in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Anna: [...] I had a big big bed with like 6 pillows and a biiiiig cover and two enourmous windows in two different directions. and I could lay in the bed watching the view

2:14 PM haha maybe another time

do you think you will stay without Jenny?

me: For sure, I love that flat

The bay bridge used to have trolly car on the lower level

2:15 PM The "key system", the old public trains that went everywhere.

Anna: oh

me: Car companies bought them last century & dismantled them

Anna: I took one yesterday

2:16 PM oh

me: Now, cars every where.

Anna: really?

me: There's a book about it, the car conspiracy

I don't know what it's called

Anna: I'm sure I can find it?

2:17 PM or maybe the car companies burned that too

me: GM bought all the train cars in Los Angeles & killed them.

"DAYS OF ANTON ABADZHIEV IN VENEZIA"

Friend-of-the-blog, Anton Abadzhiev, & the man who's been translating Mr Quill's & my writings into Bulgarian, has posted some travel correspondence at antonabadzhiev.writs, with a few classy photos:

Yes, guys, I did it. Far from the madding crowd I worked on and on on my own Itallian balcony in Venice. I found the first copy of "Christine" in Italian and visited all the Middle East Divan exhebitions of art - all placed in Catholic cathedrals. I missed Leonard Cohen's concert, because I was eating Pana di tutti ravini in a Kosher restaurant in Gheto Nuovo. I could afford myself that.

I think I have to write only a sentence, spontaniously but I will not. It's still a great euphoria.

In related news, Mr Quill & Mr Southworth People have met up in Bucharest & are traveling to Odessa & then Kiev for an ultimate frisbee hat tournament, "played on a mysterious beach on a mysterious island". Keep a keen eye towards allforgotteneast for updates.

Repost: Lost & Forgotten Company

I don't suppose Mr Quill will mind if I fully quote his nice ending monologue about our visit & wanderings, & lovely photographs. (I've made them bigger).

Three weeks of joyful madness passed with dizzying speed. While the immediate effect was exhaustion, I am hopeful that it is leading to revitalization. The Big Little is certainly my home of the moment, but it never felt quite so much like it.

For the first time, I could approach activities with confidence that something would happen. It's amazing how much support one's friends can offer without even exerting effort in that direction. I knew that we could step outside with baseball gloves and bats and that something would happen. Cameras and resolve to make movies will lead to movies. I rarely feel that way on my own here.

All of this is horribly vague. It always is so when I try to catch up and explain the past. Soon there will be a movie available for all of you for watching purposes.

Grace has chronicled our misadventures more beautifully than I could ever hope to.

Itwaslost team's visit to beautiful Bulgaria will resound throughout this coming year. For now, it's too close to be seen. But it was good.

-Originally posted here at All Forgotten East.

News: David Rees entering Mitt Romney's Essay Contest

David Rees (of the "Get Your War On" comic) has been blogging about his plan to win Mitt Romney's "Free & Strong America" essay contest. Here's the developments: On June Tenth, Rees wrote:

...sorry for the light blogging recently. I’ve been busy with top-secret procrastination secrets “they” don’t want you to know about.

Anyway, for all the writers out there, I was scanning a list of grants and fellowships (Yaddo, Guggenheim Fellowship, McArthur Genius Award, etc.) when I found a new prize that raises the bar on prestige and reward:

"Mitt Romney political organization, the Free and Strong America PAC, is offering supporters a new chance to take an expenses-paid trip to Boston and join Mitt himself in his family’s seats at Fenway Park for a Red Sox Game."

[...]All you have to do is write an essay about “What A Free and Strong America Means to Me.”

A half hour later, he blogged:

250 words or less? Please, I can knock this out in 25 words or less.

I reckon that's only the equivalent of ten or twelve twitter-twotes, which is more than I'm used to writing these days. Too bad, tho, it costs $50 to enter! Another half hour after that, he wrote:

DEVELOPING … more information about the Mitt Romney essay contest …

The author of the best essay will get to go to Boston with a guest, while the other top-five essays will be featured on the site, and the authors will receive baseballs personally autographed by Mitt himself.

I’m telling everyone now: DON’T BOTHER ENTERING THIS CONTEST. I AM GOING TO WIN ALL THE BASEBALLS.

“What does a free and strong America mean to me in 250 words or less?”

That is the question I’m going to answer. Anyone who tries to answer it before me, you’re going down.

The next day, "Gathering My 250 Words"

I stayed up all night thinking of what a free and strong America means to me in 250 words or less … and dreaming of baseballs signed by Mitt Romney! (Seriously, if anyone else even thinks of entering this contest, there’s gonna be trouble courtesy of Hi & Lois, aka my FISTS.)

Anyway, I’ve started collecting my 250 words for the essay. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Free (duh!)
Strong (double duh!)
America (figure I’ll need this one)
The (x5) (stockpiling definite articles is smart, according to my writer friend)
Declaration of Independence
Terrorism (x2)
Principles
Bravery
Mitt Romney (x3) (LOL, a little buttering up never hurt anyone, right?)
YOGA (this is my own little twist I’m bringing, this’ll take the judges by surprise and I’ll win the contest!)

Still need a few more words … I’m working on it … I can smell the Romney sky box already …

Yesterday, a competitor reared his head:

I checked out Mitt Romney’s new web site, freeandstrongamerica.com, to see if there was more information about the essay contest I am going to win.

Lo and behold, in a blog post about the essay contest, a commenter named Chris Bentley has posted the following:

To me, free strong America means that when someone steals, there is punishment. Is that yours? No? Then you can’t take it. See? It’s simple. Another thing free strong America means to me is that if I want my family to have a puppy, they can have a puppy, OK? Thank you Milt for all you’re doing.

“Milt?”

This Chris Bentley fellow is going to give me a run for my money. Well, that’s fine– I’ll just run faster, harder, and stronger than him.

Those baseballs are mine.

My best to Mr Rees. Too bad the essay contest isn't democratically voted upon, as it should be in a Free & Strong America, then we could tilt the scales. I also noticed at Romney's website, one of his many studly sons Tagg Romney is still blogging for him. I wonder, when did Gov. Romney start consulting with Gov. Palin for baby names? OR, since Romney's children are older, maybe that's the secret influence of the Republican Guber-spawn names. (Remember, The Onion's suggestions for more Palin baby names were Frag, Moss, Scoot, Skiffer, Minnow, Plow, Snatch, Twiglet, and Drum). I think Tagg & Milt should unite with Track, Trig & Tripp, form a secret monosyllabic male society, & CONTROL THE WORLD.

Wound-Slurry in my Dirtiest Panties

This might have to become a regular segment... The google Analytics I set up a few months ago, which tracks statistics on this site, tells you what keywords people have searched to arrive at your website in the past month. Thank the world for continuing to google strange things. There's always a ton about Michael Jackson's testicles, purple flags of the world, & a new favorite is "lepiota lutea", the yellow houseplant parasol mushroom, which is currently the second most searched-for term to arrive here. I weeded thru about four hundred last night & picked out my favorites for the last month.

--"new mexico" mushroom penis
--blanket jackson looks like his daddy
--botch of egypt
--can a pervert and a womanizer ever be cured of their desires and disease
--castrating a boy
--christ told his children, i know life is fucking crazy, but i’m here to tell you there’s a purpose behind it
--dirtiest panties

--hello muscle palace rupert's mail address it appears not to be being positively. nya the inside inside the cotton 3 all helped the mail does not see anh ass why .... and reply it entrusts certainly . i language ardency maybe too much without ? it peels anyhow and phyey the use method petty egg it lights and it gives. only is like thatgoodbye
--laura bush fake photos
--osservatore anus
--percontation point
--photo of young guys from bulgaria
--rahm emanuel born of a virgin
--shall not a dog move his tongue
--studly guys

--what is some of the things that could happen if you are not sir cumsized?

--who sings this: we've all seen men at the liquor store begging for your change his hair on his face is dirty dreadlock for the main. he asked the man what he can despair with shame in his eyes, get a fucking job is all he replied.
--wound-slurry

I wonder if they ever found their Laura Bush fake nude images? I shouldn't discuss it too much, or I risk trafficking more people looking for Laura Bush fakes. Perhaps I should encourage such behavior by posting about "LOOK HERE FOR YOUR FAKE LAURA BUSH XXX NUDES" et cetera. And "Rahm Emanuel born of a virgin" - that's gold diamonds. The report from mid-April is HERE.

Elsewhere Around & Around the Blogosphere

From Pele's Sweet Employ, original vue d'optiques:

I recommend the Chronicles of Aishe, properly anticlimactic, recently concluded at Mr Quill's All Forgotten Bulgarious Blog. It starts with a startling story about one of his thirteen-year-old students running away:

A week ago, Aishe told her parents she was going to a Green School Camp for the break, stole her mother's purse, and disappeared. The rumor is that she went to a nearby village and married a boy. With that, it seems that my involvement in her life, however cursory it was, has come to an end. Don't think that I'm saying that if I had pushed her harder and somehow turned her into an exemplary English student, something else might have happened. [...] This is all assuming that the rumor is true and that she doesn't show up in school again next week.

We'd all been waiting in suspense for updates, & today the cliff-hanger gets unhung:

In fact, mere hours after writing the original Aishe entry, I ran into Aishe herself at the Popovo train station. I had been discussing her with Sevi who told me that she had not actually gotten married as the rumor was suggesting at the time. She had told her mother that she was going to the green camp, received money to pay for it, and then had stolen her mother's purse and disappeared. It turns out she had arranged to stay at the home of a woman in a nearby village where they spent the week drinking away the money she had acquired.

I like the analysis:

At first the meeting struck me as distinctly bizarre. Do kids really run off on benders with random older women? In conversation with Mister Olaf Mary, however, I was reminded that drinking with older kids at the train station is actually pretty standard teenage behavior.

Now that she's a regular character on your website, we expect CONTINUING ADVENTURES. Also from Bulgarity, on May 24th, Mr Anton, a friend of Mr Quill's & his translator, celebrated:

I would like to inform all the readers who do not speak & read Bulgarian that today is The Day of Bulgarian Script and Culture - the day of the saints Cyril and Methodius who are Bulgarians.

If you are still unaware of these saints I present you a simple example: You legally read The Holy Bible in English namely due to these Bulgarian brothers. Bearing in mind that the computer was invented by Bulgarian - Jonh Atanassov, as well as the first plane bombing was done by Bulgarians - no wonder why Miss Utah is Bulgarian too!

A step aside from these facts I proudly present the students and teachers from Ivan Vasov School in Varna, where I teach English.

And, daresay: "It's all Greek to me" is a good and vivid expression!

Lastly, I thought the Huffington Post was joking when I saw "SUPREME COURT STYLE: Who's the Best dressed Justice?" Don't they all wear the same robes? But, no, they actually had a slideshow & poll.