Soon...

 

I love this so much.

This awesome piece of Nevermore is by Jim Wright, of Stonekettle Station, on Twitter, proving that, just like I said; if you don't go looking for fucking Nazis there's still lots of good stuff over there.

Scrappy Doo

The little re-purpose place Scrap used to be a "cool thing in North Portland" until it moved downtown.

It's still amazingly cool.

Because, well...

...because, well...

...because.

Well.

There's just so many freakishly weird and cool things that you can assemble in one place, but Scrap does a helluva job giving it a good shot. It it true that you can find pretty much anything at Scrap?

Next time you're in Portland?

Check it out.

Blindados adelante!

Why I find this ridiculously cool I have no idea, but I find ridiculously cool the notion that the Ejercito de Paraguay - the Army of Paraguay - has reactivated it's seventy-five-year-old M4 Sherman (76mm) tanks at their Regimiento de Caballería N°4, the armor school for the REP.

Maybe it's that these tanks are older than I am and still going. Maybe because if they can do it, so can I, dammit.

Just a reminder that this year I'll be working on a series of posts covering the Chaco War of the Thirties between Paraguay and Bolivia, one of perhaps the bloodiest, most pointless wars every fought, and that's saying a hell of a lot...

Black (Rat) Sails!

This story is entirely composed of 100% awesome:

A ghost ship carrying nothing but disease-ridden cannibal rats could be about to make land on Britain’s shore, experts have warned. The Lyubov Orlova cruise liner has been drifting across the north Atlantic for the better part of a year, and salvage hunters say there is a strong chance it is heading this way. Pim de Rhoodes, a Belgian salvage hunter who is among a number looking for the Lyubov Orlova off the UK coastline, told The Sun: “She is floating around out there somewhere. “There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other. If I get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison.”

Oh my fucking God; if nobody else is going to make this movie I will personally sell all my worldly possessions to ensure the story is immortalized on film.

I mean, can you just picture the scene where the horde of verminous, cannibal zombie rats come swarming ashore in Leith like some sort of horrible rodent D-Day?

It's just too perfect.

Tears cannot restore her. Therefore I weep.

One of my sort-of-forbidden pleasures is the cinematic stylings of the Self-Styled Siren. I am a great fan of the studio films of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties and she has a studio full of stories, observations, critiques, revelations, and appreciations of them.

Here's the thing, though. She so often writes about the cinematic and movie-related things she enjoys that it's easy to forget that the Siren can flat-out, pure-D, stomp-down, kick-ass, tear-the-roof-off-the-muthsucka fucking write.

Every once in a while, though, she reminds us. Here's a terrific little story for your enjoyment; Manhattan Thoughts on a Hot Evening

"...she was most likely weeping because Citibank has plenty of money, and she does not."

Pure brilliance.

The Right Stuff

Courtesy of "Gin and Tacos":

"The real question is where they found a balloon with enough lifting capacity to accommodate Kittinger (150 lbs), his gear (155 lbs), and his gargantuan balls (3 short tons)."

Yep.

Damn. Have a great weekend.

Cat-faced Eagle

Jim Fallows posted this, with the comment

"...owls are cats that happen to have wings. And thanks to various Chinese friends for the reminder that the Chinese word for owl, maotouying, is written 猫头鹰. Which character-by-character is "cat head eagle," or more vividly "cat-faced eagle." Long before slo-mo they got the point.

And that it's a good thing they are not much bigger than their real size."

Ummm. Yep. That'd make the whole "you humans REALLY need to get up earlier and put the fucking cat food in the fucking bowl" issue a lot more fraught.

Anyway, it's a cool video.

Moggies

So we seem to be the domestic servants for a "Calico Tabby" (or Patterned Calico) domestic shorthair and a full solid (or "self" colored) black/ebony domestic longhair.It's always good to know whom you serve.Fascinating little cat chart, courtesy of Jezebel.

I need a virgin! Stat! Again!

Amazing. Beautiful. Frightening.

Big

Who didn't love the scene in "Big" where Tom Hanks and Bob Loggia dance out "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks" on the giant floor piano?

Yeah, Stockholm, too, it seems.

Cool.

(h/t to Group News Blog)