August 11, 2026

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Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Sing
Sing a song
Sing out loud
Sing out strong

Sing of good things
Not bad
Sing of happy
Not sad

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

I didn’t know it had a red ring around it!

Okay okay… yeah yeah…. but did you know it’s bigger than Pluto?

Not a huge feat, actually… cos I think four of Jupiter’s moons are bigger than poor little Pluto, and so is our own moon.

That’s one reason Pluto doesn’t get to be a planet any more….

But don’t worry Pluto, you’ll always be a planet to me.

Io, meanwhile, has a very volcanic personality.

Arfside
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

That planet is super hot. It’s Mag, Ma!

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

Pluto is now the system’s largest dwarf planet.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
1 month ago

I know, but it’s not the same.

When children learn the names of the planets, or to make models of our solar system, teachers no longer include Pluto.

He feels left out.

There’s nothing wrong with being a dwarf. I used to have a friend who was a dwarf, and a cool guy.

But how would you like to wake up one day and find out everybody suddenly thinks you’re a dwarf, when you weren’t one yesterday?

It wouldn’t be so bad, if they didn’t leave you out of things, kick you out of the club, and take your name off of various lists.

Being the largest of the outcasts doesn’t really console him.

JP Steve
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

i’m still sticking with “Mother very thoughtfully made a jelly sandwich under no protest. (Including “A” for asteroids…)

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Obviously a shoe store… I love the little kids’ boots at the top of the sign.

But what’s the other stuff?

I thought so those loopy things kinda looked like keys, but they don’t have the actual key part. Then it occurred to me they’re probably button hooks… I can’t see a hook, but they’re small, and the resolution not that clear.

You don’t see a lot of button hooks with loops, but there are some, and some even have advertising on them…. Maybe the name of this shop.

But what about those other things? Ties? Cravats? Beaded bags?

SmartSelect_20260811_002513_Samsung-Browser
baconboycamper
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

What I got from my Google search, which wasn’t much:

917878

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  baconboycamper
1 month ago

Hmmm… I may have gotten that link in my quick search but for some reason didn’t follow it. Silly me.

As you say, not a lot more information, but there’s some, like that the shoe store, like the photographer, is in Lake Mills, Iowa, and that a copy is at the Met.

But the image is bigger and much sharper… You can clearly see the hooks on the button hooks, and that there are more hanging from her banner, and that the backdrop is a painting.

There’s a pair of small shoes on her head, and her dress, as I suspected, is decorated with black shoe buttons.

The patterned thingies are indeed some sort of ascots or cravats, to tuck into ones neckline, I’d guess.

baconboycamper
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

Yes, and if you enlarge the one in my link, you can see the numerous button-hooks hanging from the bottom ruffle of the banner she is supporting. A whimsical view.
As for the “patterned thingies”:
Related Neckline Fillers and Terms

  • Fichu: A large, square or triangular lightweight kerchief (often cotton, linen, or lace) draped over the shoulders and tucked into or crossed over the bodice of a dress.
  • Tucker: A frilled or laced piece of linen or muslin pinned or sewn along the top of stays or a neckline to shade the breast and fill a low cut. 
  • Chemisette: A later 19th-century partial underbodice or filler made of lace or muslin designed to sit inside a low neckline.
  • Neckerchief / Neckcloth: General terms for a square or triangular piece of cloth worn around or tucked near the neck
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  baconboycamper
1 month ago

Yes… I mentioned the button hooks hanging from her banner.

As for those neckline fillers…

Most of those are older and frillier, designed to cover the exposed upper breasts in late 18th and earlier 19th century wide necklines and decollettes.

If you look up “cravat” you’ll see some closer to these, which tie around the neck, like a tie, or an ascot, and often blouse out decoratively, rather than being tucked into a low neckline for coverage.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

I keep meaning to say that I’ve been absent a bit, though not much, and late a lot, because I’ve been going to the county fair…
I still have a vendor friend who gives me tickets, so why not.

Saturday night was the (almost) annual Elvis impersonation contest, where they have six guys… actually this year it was five guys and one fairly obvious woman… I mean, not really trying to hide it or trans or anything… just doing her (unfortunately not that great) best…. all trying to imitate Elvis.

It used to be really funny, totally amateur, some good Elvises, some awful, and we in the crowd got to clap to choose the winner. Most applause took the $100 prize.

Now it’s gotten more professional, both the entrants, including their costumes, and the judges, and the prize is $1500, so everybody takes it more seriously. The acts are mostly better, and the judges get together and pick the winner without audience participation, which I miss.

I have to say, none of them were as good as one guy who wasn’t in it this time, but used to win the old contest about every other year. I knew it was rigged cos he always got the most applause but they said he didn’t, cos they didn’t want him to win every year.

But none of them, not him, not this year’s contestants…
None of them matched the guy in the picture above.

There was and will always be only one Elvis.

DancingBuffalo
Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

I see energy. He exuded it. All over the stage, every show. Even the photo the other day with him in the recording studio, you could just see the energy pouring into his singing.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  DancingBuffalo
1 month ago

Yes.

Most of the contestants at this year’s impersonation contest tried to mimic that high energy… But it’s not the same.

They seemed like showmen, energetic for the crowd. It’s hard to explain, but Elvis put his energy into the music, not showmanship. He seemed shy, and almost embarrassed at the reaction he got.

Later, he learned his power… He’d give a little wink or a little wiggle, and then look pleased but surprised at the screams.

But what did have was charisma. He controlled the room, without trying.

That’s hard to learn or fake, and it’s what this year’s contestants all lacked. The one who used to win all the time had it. Command of the stage.

All eyes were on Elvis, whether he understood it or asked for it or not. I think he was born to it.

Last edited 1 month ago by SusanSunshine
Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

The Parkroyal Hotel in Singapore

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Yeah, an extra large, long, heavy leather flight jacket and knee high boots, and a helmet with goggles, always evoke the tropics in my mind.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

The adiabatic cooling rate is between 2.7°F (moist air) and 5.4°F (dry air) per 1,000 feet of altitude. That’s why you usually want to bring a jacket or sweater when you take the Palm Springs tramway up to Idyllwild. It’s typically 30-40°F cooler than down on the desert floor.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

I know… I just thought it was funny calling it tropical.

crazeekatlady
crazeekatlady
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

At 5000 feet the temperature is 30-deg F or lower.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Oooey, gooey goodness!

Voxx
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Chocolate cake with Ganache …Mrs’s Voxx’s specialty.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Voxx
1 month ago

What time should we be there?

Liverlips McCracken
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

What do you think the movie is? Benji?

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Liverlips McCracken
1 month ago

We have so many basset classics to choose from.

Saucy1121
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Reply to  Liverlips McCracken
1 month ago

I’ve seen a photo that described it as service dogs watching the stage musical Billy Elliott and learning how to behave in a theater.

JP Steve
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Reply to  Liverlips McCracken
1 month ago

“All Dogs go to Heaven?”

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Inventive and whimsical.

Liverlips McCracken
Liverlips McCracken
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

The mailman has access to your living room?

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

They’re looking at a new map of Europe, posted on a wall in Philadelphia, right after WWI, in 1918.

I should say a map of the new Europe, since so many boundaries and place names had changed.

crazeekatlady
crazeekatlady
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

The village Bartschen, Posen, Prussia was wiped off the face of the earth in WWI. I have a map of where it was in 1907. Now the area is farmland.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  crazeekatlady
1 month ago

There are many such.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

Another candidate for “Find the 9 differences”.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

I was actually expecting it to say “Find the ___” …. you know, butterfly, or duck or something.

I do see a goat! Do you?

What I’ve never seen is a cute little truck full of tomatoes like that. I’d love some nice tomatoes… though he seems to be having a problem just now.

This is an interesting place.

Last edited 1 month ago by SusanSunshine
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

The raccoon is easy…

There’s also a squirrel.
And I think the goat has big shoes on!

Anybody?

Arfside
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

Well, you might think that the goat had big shoes on, but then you’d have to figure out what happened to the legs of the guy standing beside it.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Arfside
1 month ago

Oops.

mr_sherman
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

My solution
1 x 3 + 2 = 5
2 x 4 + 3 = 11
3 x 5 + 4 = 19
5 x 7 + 6 = 41

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  mr_sherman
1 month ago

You could also get the same solution

by….
Ignoring the first digit, multiplying the second and third, and subtracting one.

abc= bc-1

123= 6-1
345 =20 -1
567 = 42-1

Does it make sense? No

I’m too sleepy to think about how/whether those two methods are related.

Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 month ago

Same for me.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  mr_sherman
1 month ago

The numbers they’re starting with are all multiples of 111, plus 12, ie 111x +12.

That must have something to do with why both methods work, but I’m running out of time, and I’m not one of those instantly mathematical minds.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 month ago

It’s like the firefall off El Capitan, at Horseshoe Falls, in Yosemite, which is much bigger, but only happens on just the right days in February.

This one happens every day! Maybe not if it’s raining?

Last edited 1 month ago by SusanSunshine
happyhappyhappy
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1 month ago

More_Cats_Than_Sense
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1 month ago

Bay of Fires – Tasmania.

Bay-of-Fires-Tasmania
More_Cats_Than_Sense
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1 month ago

Many-Colored Fruit Dove, found in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.

Many-Colored-Fruit-Dove-found-in-Fiji-Samoa-and-Tonga
Tigressy
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1 month ago

According to this, that would be the 51st: 8 human years converted to basset-hound years.

Dog Age Calculator


What that has to do with anything? I wonder…

happyhappyhappy
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1 month ago
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