h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Evening all! Amazing birdies! I've never heard of any of them. So exotic!

I'm living in a world of magpies right now.

That sounds like an intense lyric. Right now I'm living in a world of magpies.



Why do magpies steal things? We have a little birdbath in our yard that I found in the shop in the recycling place. A few months ago a magpie stole the entire birdbath, to sell for a profit on ebay.

... .. no ...

I put some interesting pebbles in the water (in aforementined birdbath) for arty effect, and I added our two cowrie shells that we bought for good luck from an Irish gypsy lady some years ago.

Anyway, a magpie stole both the cowries, but left the pebbles.



Games people play, eh?

Reminds me of philosophical discussions in the 70s. I could get weird here, and write an odd novel involving cubes.

There were always these strange books around in the 70s with pictures of cubes on the cover, symbolic cubes.

There were?

Erm .. although now I think about it, I'm not sure what I'm talking about.



Games at school, aaaargh, I had to play lacrosse at school. What is the point of lacrosse I ask myself, repeatedly. Or at least I did then, I don't think much about lacrosse these days.



Very happy to have been introduced to the groundhog. It's a much bigger creature than I imagined. So it would steal my salad crop, but we assume not my cowrie shells.

I just had a breakthrough concerning cubes.

I put something like '70s book covers with cubes' into google images, and lo!

http://blog.psprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/639266.jpg

My copy of Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game had cubes on the cover! This very copy!! Green cubes.

So I'm not mad after all.

I never read the book. . I just remember the cubes.

There was another book also, there were yellow cubes and straight lines ...

I can't find the cover with the yellow cubes. My luck has run out. It's because a magpie ate my good luck cowrie shells.



Book covers are magic. I still love them. They are like album covers, the gateway to a world. Or in my case they are often an entire world. I fail to pass through the gateway to reach the text beyond.

Beyond The Green Cube. A novel.

.

I'm in quite a stupid mood tonight.

No, really?

Magpies are funny. I wonder what they wanted with the cowrie sheels?

The Zen Bunny has been flaked out in the backyard all day. I took his picture, but he was too zen to move. I'll use the pics once I get them back by Pony Express in a week or two or three...

Then there was Rubik's Cube. A very cubular aspect of the 70s. Who was Rubik?

OK, this is the last cube posting in the series. I'm going away now to think about circles.

The Zen Bunny! Yes! Must see these pics. Too zen to move, I love that.

Rubik is a Hungarian architect.

Beyond the Green Cube, a novel.

In the future, when much of the Earth's surface is uninhabitable, a group of humans live in a green cube, where everything is tightly controlled. There is dissension in the cube, as the young people feel their needs and ideas are being ignored. Some of them plan a breakout but what will they find beyond the green cube?

Really?

This is most interesting.

And I just found a couple of quite brilliant looking Guide Entries about Rubik's Cube, here on our very own h2g2. It seems to be alive and still around, the Cube that is, I know that h2g2 is alive and still around, because I'm 'ere right now, even at 23.02 pm. learning things.



Remember those metal link puzzles? Two or more metal links joined together and you had to separate them, or the other way round, you had to link the links.

I spent a lot of hours of precious childhood trying to figure my metal link puzzles. I never did link the links. I wonder what happened to them? Somewhere are all my missing links. Fragments of a greater chain of events.

The Games People Play. Interesting phrase. Evocative.

Ah splendid mvp! I knew I could rely on you to come up with the plot!heheh. Two hundred and fifty more chapters please.

I like the plot.

As for those metal link puzzles...you know what? They go back to the 18th Century. Really. Blacksmiths made these metal puzzles. They were all the rage back in colonial Philadelphia taverns.

The things you learn when you work at a museum with a shop...

Ah. I didn't realise that tavern puzzles had a real purpose - they were training exercises for apprentice blacksmiths.

http://americanprofile.com/articles/tavern-puzzles-confuse-and-amuse/

Some people think this may be the original link puzzle.

http://www.google.com/search?q=the+chains+of+St.+Peter,+images&newwindow=1&client=tablet-android-verizon&espv=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&sboxchip=Images&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDwQ7AlqFQoTCOLezvvmkMcCFQaYiAodfc4MQA&biw=962&bih=601#imgrc=pleB9k_6tTXcbM%3A

Hah! Really? This is most interesting. The things one learns on h2g2. When you talk to people who worked at a museum with a shop. heheh. And who know things anyway, even if they haven't worked at a museum with a shop. .

This somehow changes metal link puzzles for me. They have deeper origins than I thougt.



The chains of St Peter! I never heard of these either, but I checked what they are. An angel released St Peter from his chains, and led him out of prison. That is very beautiful. I love that angel. That angel is good at metal link puzzles.



It must be really good working at a museum.

Unless one is on nightshift security, all alone in the room with the dino skeletons and things from tombs, who watch your every move.

Things from tombs? I remember seeing the Tutankhamun Exhibition in the British Museum in London, sometime in the 70s, that was waaay spooky.




What about waxworks, or wax museums, then? Waxworks are strange. I've only ever been to Madame Tassauds in London, that was even spookier than King Tut.

Do you get wax museums the world over? I guess you do. I think I shall study the famous wax museums of the world, but not tonight, because I'll have funny dreams.



Snakes and Ladders. Ahhh, now I'm on safe territory. Or am I? I love Snakes and Ladders, especially the designs on the vintage boards, with real snakey snakes, but I wonder about its origins.

Methinks it could have moral undertones or overtones, determined by the snake population and the slippy slide into sin, and the availibility of ladders to heaven, or somesuch place of salvation?

hmmm

Snakes and Ladders does, indeed, have moral implications. You are prescient.

It's a game about karma. Seriously.

Oh, and wax museums. Best one, I swear, is in Virginia. Let me see if I can find it...

Apparently, they had a scare last year that they would close it. That would have been a shame. It's still open, I guess...

http://www.visitnaturalbridge.com/natural-bridge-wax-museum.php

The wax museum is near Natural Bridge, as far as I know, the only natural wonder defaced by grafitti committed by George Washington himself. (He was young at the time.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Natural_Bridge_VA_size.JPG

Thomas Jefferson bought it from King George III, so it's pretty historic.

The wax museum has a life-sized Last Supper that's worth seeing. Also many strange historical figures, like Confederates...

Seriously?? A game about karma?? Karma, like karma from Hinduism?

(Scrabbles through h2g2 Guide Entries, searching for truth, beauty, cupcakes and maps of universes formed entirely out of smiles and genius.

Scrabble! No, let's not get on to Scrabble. I've played Scrabble with one of the most fearsome players in the history of Scrabble players, a lady poet of determined origins, , and I haven't yet successfully returned to tell the tale. )

A3868716

Snakes and Ladders has Indian origins? Moksha-patamu?? This is unbelievable. Moksha-patamu?

Strange coincidence, I've just been reading Moksha by Aldous Huxley, his letters and things, and have been considering the word Moksha.



I am somewhat faint.

Natural Bridge Wax Museum is a fine place to recover my faculties, and start my research. Splendid!

So, what was the content of the graffiti? George woz 'ere?

A life sized Last Supper? This could make me faint all over again.

I'd like to see the Natural Bridge Park. I'm not sure about the Wax Museum - walking into a life size Last Supper might be a bit overwhelming!

We're off to France on Tuesday. I hope it's not too hot!

Don't forget to read . The new issue has stories by MVP and Florida Sailor.

Bon voyage mvp!!



I just got the dvd of Harvey, I've watched it twice already last night. ahhh Harvey. I love this film, I forgot how much I love it, haven't seen it for years.

James Stewart and his imaginary friend, the cheeky and delightful pooka, in the shape of a six foot tall white rabbit.

Or is Harvey imaginary?

Is a pooka a mere hallucination or an actual sprite, we wonder.

Such a heartwarming, hilarious and moving film, with a deep message, and incredible acting.

Special effects are great, but to work with a blank space and have the viewer believe there's a six foot white rabbit there all the time is a work of art. And all in black and white of course. I love these vintage classics.

Here's to you, Harvey.

I wish there were hundreds of films as good as Harvey, like the same type of atmosphere, subject matter.

Not that I'm obsessed or anything. I just ordered the script of the original play by Mary Chase. You can get it in slim paperback format.

What do I watch after Harvey?

Nothing! I just watch Harvey again.

Or else Red Dwarf, I have DVD's, , because I'm in love with Holly in male and female incarnation. Oh dear.

Life good. Been drinking Guinness in a beach tent, in between rain showers, as one does, unless one doesn't.

Also been studying the work of Dom Sylvester Houédard, Benedictine monk, very influential in the 60s, artistic, poetic, visionary, I love him as much as Harvey. Except he's not a six foot white rabbit. I don't think.

I was reading a magazine article the other day, and it mentioned the phrase 'concrete poetry' and I wondered what that was, so further reading was necessary, and I ended up with Notes from the Cosmic Typewriter by the aforementioned monk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/arts/design/the-eccentric-monk-and-his-typewriter.html?_r=0



Busy in Sept, have to come out of beach tent. Damn. Visit to Brighton and things to attend to.

Laters.