30May2019 -Deno’s Wonder Wheel

made 26May2018

Deno’s Wonder Wheel, on Coney Island, opened on Memorial Day back in 1920.  Back in those days, and for most of my life, Memorial Day was on 30May.  That was before businesses decided it was too inconvenient to have a holiday in the middle of the week.  Memorial Day, whenever it falls, is the unofficial start of summer.

The Wonder Wheel is unique in that it has two sets of cars.  The eight cars on the periphery of whe wheel are what I would call “normal” cars.  They go roound and round sedately like the cars on any normal Ferris wheel.  The interior cars — it looks like 16 of them — are the interesting ones.  Each of those is on its own squashed eliptical track.  As the big wheel turns the inside cars seek the lowest part of their individual tracks and are sometimes near the center of the big wheel and at other times are out near the perimeter. I have never ridden this wheel, maybe this summer.

References:

• Demi’s Wonder Wheel
• Wonder Wheel Amusement Park

 

 

25May2019 – Star Wars

made 12Feb2019

For me, Star Wars has always been about the epic theme, Darth Vader’s cruiser passing, and passing, and passing overhead, and about the robots. Today is the 42^nd anniversary of the release of the movie.

I just rewatched the movie and about 14 minutes in there is a brief view of the head of a robot that looks a lot like WALL-e or the Mars rovers.

Like the Space Shuttle memorabilia, Star Wars stuff is rather dear. I found a Transformers-like R2-D2 that wasn’t too badly priced so picked it up knowing I would use it in a Morning Image some day.

C-3PO (Squeeze Me Chicken_pink backs up R2-D2.

The two of them stand on one end the metal screen that keeps my Halloween Moon Crab in his habitat. The other end is occupied by XL Rubber Ducky, a Minion, which hasn’t been imaged yet, and my Volkswagen Beetle.

References:

• Star Wars
• StarWars.com
• New Quirky Pet: The Halloween Moon Crab

 

24May2019 – Mary had a little lamb

made 19Feb2019

Mary Had a Little Lamb
by Sarah Josepha Hale

Mary had a little lamb,
whose fleece was white as snow.

And everywhere that Mary went,
the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day
which was against the rules.

It made the children laugh and play,
to see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
but still it lingered near,

And waited patiently about,
till Mary did appear.

“Why does the lamb love Mary so?”
the eager children cry.

“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.”
the teacher did reply

First published on 24May1830.

I had to use my backup lamb for this image, my primary lamb being a little black sheep.

22May2019 – To the victor go the spoils

made 19Feb2019

At the end of World War II, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States made a mad dash to grab whatever they could that might be of use to themselves or to prevent it from being made use of by anyone else. That anything included people. The United States launched Operation Paperclip to identify enemy scientists who were needed, sanitize them, and snuggle them into the country. The program got the paperclip moniker from the use of a paperclip on the file folder of an individual who was to be fast-tracked.

I started out with a Squeeze Me Chicken in the file folder but he was just too big even laying along the fold. I switched to a Mini Squeeze Me Chicken and was able to have him stand in the crease with his head over the top of the folder.

References

• Operation Paperclip