July 30, 2026

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DancingBuffalo
Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

DOUBLE TROUBLE!

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Beer goggles got nuthin’ on wine goggles…

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Not, as I feared, 37 college students puffing on the giant cigarette they made, trying to get into the Guinness World Record Book.

No… this is a real, natural smoke ring puffed out by Mt. Etna in 2000.

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

How much are women worth in this town?

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  JP Steve
1 day ago

If that’s where i think it is, its not polite or politic to ask.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

This is Randolph St., in Chicago, in 1900, when the traffic was still almost all, if not entirely, horse-drawn, except for the tram. I wonder whether it had a cable system, like the San Francisco cable cars.

If you look closely, just past the Powers theater, you can see the headquarters of the Cook County Democratic Party.

More_Cats_Than_Sense
Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 day ago

The smaller vehicle in the front looks to me like a steam tram. It’s hauling three tram cars. The driver and fireman would have been skilled in keeping the engine ‘quiet’ so as not to frighten the horses. It is probably burning coke, which would have been readily available given there is gas street lights. Coke burns without smoke.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
23 hours ago

Okay… I can see how that would be, as long as a coke fired engine doesn’t need a smoke stack…

I was looking for one before my earlier post, and didn’t see one, so I thought of cable.

The cable cars in SF do run on steam, but it’s centralized at the power station, to run the cables, rather than the individual cars, which grip the cables to move.

Last edited 21 hours ago by SusanSunshine
More_Cats_Than_Sense
Reply to  SusanSunshine
15 hours ago

Looking closer at the picture I think I see a line in the middle of the two running rails, so it could be cable hauled, with the small unit in the front being the ‘gripper’. In London, the trams had a similar groove in between the running rails, but in that case it was for an electric connection for the areas where there weren’t overhead trolley wires. I doubt this one in the picture is electric though.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
14 hours ago

From Wikipedia… (Don’t ask me why I keep looking at this…):

“In 1900, Chicago already had the second largest cable car network in the United States and would eventually surpass New York City to have the largest streetcar network in the world in a few decades. In 1900, there were three private companies operating 41 miles (66.0 km) of double track routes radiating out from Chicago’s downtown area. State of the art technology when the first line opened in 1882, by 1900 electric traction had proven superior and in 1906 all cable routes were changed to electrical power.”

So it sounds like this line was probably cable as well.

The article has tons of information. I don’t know where Mott St is in the city… But if you’re interested (and I don’t know why you would be… But then…)
the rest is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_cars_in_Chicago

Last edited 5 hours ago by SusanSunshine
JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Oh, look! it’s the Iron Maidens…

Tigressy
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Reply to  JP Steve
1 day ago

Tin Woman!

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

This hardware store I guess was doing well enough to hire two banner ladies, to meander on the street, showing off nails and keys and spoons… Yet even between the two, they don’t seem as heavily encumbered as some we’ve seen, who singlehandedly seem to carry half the store.

I would advise them, though, to watch out for magnets.

While I’m giving advice, I think I should tell the store to improve their signage. While they have two lovely ladies, and have provided one of them a wonderful hat… they don’t have a sign or an address I can possibly make out.

If the goal of advertising is to bring customers, you need to identify the business. Or maybe they need to switch photographers..Matson Bros seems more focused on advertising themselves than properly lighting and presenting their client.

BTW… I love the floral shoes, as well. Probably belong to the lady herself.

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

“Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world, what a world!”

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

The osprey is actually rising from the water after a dive…. photo at just the right moment by Kristi Odom.

He does look like the witch melting… funny, my first impression was conducting a grand orchestra.

Liverlips McCracken
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

There’s a tantrum if I’ve ever seen one.

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

I’m sure Susan will have something to say about this…

Last edited 1 day ago by JP Steve
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  JP Steve
1 day ago

Gee, why would you think that? 🙂

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

But you’re right, of course. I do have something to say. LOL

Mostly: What a horrible idea!

This ad is from 1890 or 1892, depending on which source you believe…. And this corset, according to other ads from the Good Sense corset company, was meant for girls from six to sixteen.

By 1890 or so, even though this looks rather draconian to modern eyes, corsets had actually gotten a little less restrictive, and six was considered a decent age to begin wearing them.

But some mothers still started lacing their daughters as babies, as had been done to them, and to their mothers… all for their own good, of course.

Women were considered inherently weak. A tight corset was thought to improve their posture and strengthen their backs… though it actually did the opposite, causing muscles to weaken because the corset did their job

But mostly, the goal of womanhood was marriage and children. The goal of a mother with daughters was to marry them off.

So as soon as possible, you start shaping their bodies, to make their waists small, their hips rounded, their bust protrude. What better way than by lacing them into a mold, to help them grow into the proper silhouette.

At sixteen, a girl was presumably ready for an adult corset. By then, in many cases, her ribs were deformed, her breathing and stomach restricted, her digestion poor, and her back weak… all to help her have a shape that would attract the right man.

In case the job wasn’t finished, the adult corset had more boning and was tighter and more curved. But the childhood one had made her body more able to tolerate it.

Brilliant, no?

Last edited 1 day ago by SusanSunshine
JP Steve
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
21 hours ago

Yup! Just about what I was expecting…

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  JP Steve
21 hours ago

Sigh…. am I too predictable?

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Not the nicest outlaws that you’d ever want to meet.

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Bony and Clod. (Mad Magazine)

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Just slightly glamorized and modernized.

The real ones:

comment image

When they met she was 19; he was 20, and had already been in prison. They died at 24 and 25. This undated picture was taken about halfway in between.

Greyhame
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

We’re kind of proud of our chapter of the story. The gang was holed up in a bungalo on the edge of town for about two weeks. The neighbors reported their raucus partying to the police. Thinking they were bootleggers, the police sent their version of a “SWAT” team. Before the tyres stopped screeching, the gang had opened fire. They burst their car through the garage door to escape.

JP Steve
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Reply to  Greyhame
21 hours ago

So the movie got that bit right!!

Greyhame
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Reply to  JP Steve
8 hours ago

That was Joplin!

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

He was surprisingly good-natured about it. He must know her. A younger sister, perhaps?

DancingBuffalo
Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Egg shampoo is good for hair, right?

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

So they’re doing this behind the counter in a restaurant?

She looks about ten years old

What is she actually trying to do?
You don’t usually flip eggs in the shell on the flattop grill.

Last edited 1 day ago by SusanSunshine
Arfside
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 day ago

They’re at a teppanyaki, where the chefs put on a show with the food. She’s trying to catch the egg in her chef’s hat. It looks like she ‘missed it by that much.’

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Arfside
1 day ago

Oh, okay, that makes sense. The tapping of the spatula is definitely a teppanyaki move… and I see another chef in the back.

I wasn’t thinking of teppanyaki, because the only two I’ve ever been to were more formal, kind of fancy places, with dark wood and.soft lighting… and the teppans themselves were smaller.

This has more the decor of a casual diner… and the kid messing around threw me off. I still don’t know why they’re letting her do that.

Maybe indulging somebody’s daughter.

Last edited 23 hours ago by SusanSunshine
Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 day ago

Most probably the one’s who’s filming it at their “table”.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

It’s a canal over a river.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Flowing, yes …floating no.
But boats could float in the canal…. 20 feet over the river.

I hope it’s strongly built!

Liverlips McCracken
Liverlips McCracken
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Pretty good feat of engineering.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

A big velvet kitty.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
21 hours ago

Details details…

More_Cats_Than_Sense
Reply to  nighthawks
15 hours ago

With large murder-mittens 😉

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

No. It’s another AI Messterpiece…

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Yup!

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

Looks like they had to get up early so some Russian general could feel important.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

You have my full attention!

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
1 day ago

I thought he was a weimaraner pup, but the file name says he’s a blue great Dane. Beautiful eyes.

happyhappyhappy
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1 day ago

happyhappyhappy
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1 day ago

DancingBuffalo
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1 day ago

Kind of hard to play piano with flat feet. But you go, RocketDog!

More_Cats_Than_Sense
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1 day ago

‘Fried Eggs’, 2022, Grant Boland (Canadian Artist, born 1972), Oil on Panel, 24 x 24in (61 x 61cm).

Fried-Eggs-2022-Grant-Boland-Canadian-Artist-born-1972-Oil-on-Panel-24-x-24in-61-x-61cm
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
1 day ago

Wow.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
1 day ago

Looks like a photo!

Tigressy
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
1 day ago

(burp) Now he tells me!

Arfside
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
1 day ago

If not a photo, it looks like he copied a photo. There’s too much detail that you would miss while just watching eggs being fried in a pan (or sitting on a plate after being fried). Then again, I don’t have an artist’s eye to catch that much detail, so I’ll accept his claim that it’s a painting.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Arfside
23 hours ago

Gosh…. from the time photography was invented, a lot of famous artists have painted from photographs.

I know Degas was one of the first to experiment with taking pictures to “freeze” moments of the dance, so he could paint them precisely.

Andy Warhol used photos in various ways…oh… And Norman Rockwell set up whole scenes with his models, and took pictures… then he sketched the photos, so the models wouldn’t have to pose all those hours.

As for this work, I think Mr Boland was probably drawing from a photo, probably an enlarged one…. but he’s also very talented.

He doesn’t have to claim it’s a painting… Looking closely, you can see his brush and palette knife strokes, and not the pixels of a photo.

Fried-Eggs-2022-Grant-Boland-Canadian-Artist-born-1972-Oil-on-Panel-24-x-24in-61-x-61cm-1785398563.20283
Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
2 hours ago

Well, I learned something today. Mostly that I’m not an artist (which I already knew), and that I’m still unaware of many of the tools that artists can use to further their craft.

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