Will the Irish Al Sharpton please nail Arby's?

The Arby's commercial with the jigging chimps is sad and insulting to persons of Irish heritage: If you think step-dancing is so easy that a line of chimps could accidentally (or purposely) break into it spontaneously, try it.

Incidentally, PETA should be gigging Arby's for making chimps look like a line of grinning blackface mummers -- so the real Al Sharpton could show up on the news any second now, explaining that blackface, unlike the noose, is REALLY racist symbolism.

Today's Thick Air(C) is "Hard Thought," (C) 2007 by me.

Inventables(TM), a lifelong frisson

It's hard for others to believe my luck, but not for me. I am the luckiest person I know, not least because I tell my ears nothing but the things I want my brain to help accomplish — ergo, "I am the luckiest person I know."

One piece of such luck happened when a new editor I had copyedited for in hunting and fishing (Predator Xtreme magazine, formerly Varmint Masters) recommended me to a new publisher in a whole nother field — new technology. I can't tell you how excited I was when I realized that www.inventables.com was where new materials and processes met new applications, and they seemed to want ideas!

Somehow this new job led to my obtaining an invitation for all Mensans to view each quarter's new Inventables(TM) technologies package and contribute ideas via the Inventables online database, without having to pay the horrendously high (to someone whose royalties don't pay for a small DQ Chocolate Chip Blizzard per month) subscription fee. What a great benefit for Mensa members, huh? And at no cost to the organization!

Sorry, no can do.

Apparently this organization of smart people has an even smarter Executive Director, and she had already signed the organization to an exclusive contract: The Mensa Process, a marketing consultant company that pays a middle-class-salary licensing fee annually to market the fact that it uses Mensa members' off-the-wall creativity in its customers' behalf, objected to letting Inventables offer such a nifty free benefit to Mensa members if Inventables was going to gather the resulting ideas and, like, do something good with them. Oh, well.

As I understand it, the offer is still open to all members of Mensa's M-Inventors special interest group. Now if we could just find a way to get those 50-some people access online, I feel sure they'd soon be burning up Oz's inbox.

A Pagan's ABCs

(Above: "Dream Visages," (C) 2006, Angela H. Richardson)

A is for Altar, simple or bold;
B is for Bolline, a white-handled knife;
C is for Candle, flaming in gold;
D is for Deosil, direction of life.

E is for Everything, all part of One;
F is for Fire, for the will-flame we need;
G is for Gaeia, Earth under the Sun;
H is for Harm None, our crucial Rede.

I for Invoking, call Deity nigh;
J is for Joking, for Jubilant glee —
K is our Kin, and our Kith till we die;
L is for Light — and Love sets it free.

M is for Mother, and Manners and Me;
N stands for Naiad, for Nox and for Night;
O is for Outdoors, the best place to be.
P is for Pagan, and Power and Pride.

Q is for Quiet, and Quickness of mind;
R is for Ritual, Raise and Restraint;
S is for Spells that the Deity find;
T is the Thought sent out pure, free of Taint.

U is for Universe, listening now;
V is the Vowel it is waiting to hear;
W is Will, strong as your heart allows;
X is the witch-sign, made without fear.
Y is Ye, harming none — do as thou wilt;
And Z is for Zen, when the tumult is stilled.

-- (C) 2007 Angela H. Richardson, Witch Azle

Moonbeams

Through the Eldertree Pagan Homeschooling yahoogroup I met a nice lady, who has just published the first issue of Moonbeams, her pagan homeschooling weekly reader-style newsletter. I visited it and promptly volunteered to copyedit it. Well, after some visiting, it looks like we may have a biweekly reader; two issues a month, six pages, should give us room to touch lightly on many pagan topics.

And we can have fun with it! The symbols, colors and foods of sabbats can form an "I Spy"-type picture or a word-search puzzle. A cryptogram might be two bars from "We All Come From the Goddess" or the Rede. Intro to tools; basic witchly etiquette ... and of course lots of solid info about herbs, aroma, wood and crystal correspondences and readers' favorite crafts or rituals.

I'm looking forward to it!

UPDATE: I never even got to finish the first issue, because the person who originated the idea is a person who can't spell or parse but refuses to admit it -- though she chose to characterize the split as taking place "because she couldn't work with Word newsletter templates." Religious differences actually formed the grounds. She's a Druid, and I never knew they were so prim, so uptight or so body-conscious until this experience. Consider a few topics she thought were unsuitable for a pagan homeschooling newsletter: "Skyclad -- do all pagans run around naked?" "Why does so much secrecy surround non-Christian traditions?" "Pantheons around the year," "Pagan Pride" -- ad nauseam.

Instead, "Moonbeams" now routinely makes pagans look like illiterate barbarians and basically tells homeschooled pagan kids that "spelling doesn't count and sentences don't have to be complete." Pfaugh. This is lifted directly from the Aug. o8 issue:

August, 2008

Staff Notes
A little note to the readers’ from our small staff.
Writers’ then editors listed in hiring order

TristA
Writer, Admin, Webmaster since: Aug. 07
In a year full of bright colors be sure to take notice and
show the bare earth spots attention; Give offering, or energy;
so it can be fruitful in spring. Remember it has made
the ultimate sacrifice to assure nature’s cycle continues.

(Yuck. Thanks a bunch, y'all. -- ahr)

UPDATE ENDS.


Today's Thick Air(C) is titled Imps of Lament, and it is (C) 2006 Angela Hunter Richardson, all rights reserved. Enjoy!

Think Small

Why is it so much easier to think aloud on paper, virtual or no, if the writing area is small?

For the same reason, partly, that a doodle is easier to execute than a full-size portrait: anyone can dash off just one little old line, right? (True, but only a witty person can make you glad he did.) No, that’s not the reason: When I started this blog and the post box appeared, its ~ 2x6” visual open area seemed to say, “You don’t have to write the Great American Novel, just a decent paragraph.” Takes all the pressure off: "Oh, OK! I don't have to be a great writer; I can just say what I mean."

Now that I recognize that, I also see the danger of verbosity. So en garde, self — but en avant.

But speaking of “witty” reminded me of a quote I snatched — probably from my A.Word.A.Day e-mail, but it could have been from a GunIssues (pro-2nd Amendment), Witches’ MeetUp, Mullings, Circle of Crones, PatriotPost, Pagan Pride Day planning group or Mensa e-list post or James Taranto's column — for my random sig quote collection the other day that is pertinent: Saith Aristotle, “Wit is educated insolence.”

And brevity is its soul.

Enjoy the little devil at top. His name is "Horned One," and I created and copyrighted him in 2006. If you were going to colorize him, what color(s) would you choose?

Thick Air(C)

Several people have asked about the Thick Air(C) series. The way I make them is proprietary information (and just plain magick), but anyone who's ever done candle scrying or a smoke reading knows the basic technique.

I like them because what you see is different from what anyone else sees. You see what the goddess shows you, in effect — and later she may show you something completely different in the same picture!

Cyndi is taking off in her own direction with something she calls CAPTURED Air, but these are mine. We did a smoke reading, then she went away on a trip and while she was gone I more or less accidentally did the first one ... and it was so cool I did more. When Cyn got home she loved it, scanned some, and digitally manipulated them by adding color, reversing the background, etc., and that is excessively cool -- but the originals, just smoke on great paper, still hold immense mystery and a power that's nothing short of awesome in the right format. I plan to make them available in large format (4'x5'), signed and numbered, and offer prints in poster size at craft fairs and art sales. Want one?

These are the same print, but one has been Cyndi-ized. The original on white is "God of the Wind & Word," and with Cyndi's womanhandling it became "Lord of Moonfire."