Great Great Grandpa Hairy

Edward Uriah Plant

A photo of my earliest verifiable ancestor on the Plant family side: Edward Uriah Plant, born in 1851 in Cork, Ireland, raised in London, and an emigrant to Canada in the 1880s.

Bike-O-Mat

According to STREETSBLOG, where I saw this video (via First Draft), this automated bicycle garage in Tokyo costs about $1 (¥100) for a single use and ¥1,800 for a monthly pass. It has space for 9,400 bicycles.

Recumbents, hi-wheelers, trailers, and others might not fit very well.

It’s Gotta Happen

The Hindenberg in Flight

The Hindenberg Certainty Principle
If it’s big, it’s got a Nazi symbol on it, and it’s filled with flammable gas, it’s certain to blow up.

To Hell With Chihuly

You want a piece of exceptional glass sculpture? Barbara found this old airport runway light bulb at a thrift store for millions of times less than what one of those garish, all-too-ubiquitous tentacled things would cost. It sits on top of an old 1930s refrigerator in a cradle handcrafted from a rubberized clothes hanger, in front of the Wall of Cats.

The Anti-Chihuly Sculpture

Speaking of the Wall of Cats, when Barbara brought home the frames, I made this little arrangement. Art is where you find it.

Wall of Frames

Wall Art

When we were staying in a (relatively) budget motel outside of Birmingham last fall, we were struck by the entertaining choice of wall art, which varied a bit from the bland variety you usually run across in a motel. The photo on the left, from the wall of our bedroom, is a fairly representative example.

On the other hand, when I checked into a nationally-known motel brand’s location near the Pentagon Sunday night, I found a portrait of George Washington and a copy of the Declaration of Independence next to the bed.

Wall Art From the Britannia Stockport HotelWall Art From the Best Western Pentagon

Senryū Thirty-Three. Dungeons & Dragons

Half-Elf, Half-Dwarf,

Double-Plus Good, Billionth Level,

Thief/Mage/Paladin

Gary Gygax, Game Pioneer, Dies at 69

By SETH SCHIESEL

Published: March 5, 2008

Gary Gygax, a pioneer of the imagination who transported a fantasy realm of wizards, goblins and elves onto millions of kitchen tables around the world through the game he helped create, Dungeons & Dragons, died Tuesday at his home in Lake Geneva, Wis. He was 69.

Related posts: “26 Years and Counting” and “My Satanic Majesty”.