Timonia

Get ready for a carefree weekend with Otava Yo.

 

21 years

Bored and Drunk by Oliver Perry Rauch
(click image to enlarge)

Today is my blogiversary. Flares into Darkness turns 21 years old. It occurs to me the blog is now old enough to drink, so I assume it will be off on a bender tonight. Hopefully it will have a designated driver, so it doesn't end up on the side of the road making a fool out of itself doing a field sobriety test. And, if that should happen, we can only hope the body cam footage doesn't end up on the internet.

As for Flares, it started out as a group blog, but gradually, one by one, the other posters drifted away. At one time it was largely dormant with me posting very erratically, only once every couple of months. Eventually, for reasons even I can't fathom, I started posting more regularly. It also used to be more focused on politics and current events, but I think other sites do a much better job than I of covering such matters, so I just focus on whatever amuses me: art on Sunday, music on Friday, and whatever catches my eye on Wednesday. 

That's the state of this blog today. I thank my small cadre of regulars that drop by, and I hope that the visitors who wander in are at least momentarily entertained by my nonsense. Have a good one all.

 

Paintings of tea drinking

Click any image to enlarge

I'm a coffee drinker although occasionally I will drink tea. These are paintings of teacups, tea pots, and people drinking tea. Americans associate tea with daintily upraised pinky fingers, but tea culture varies widely in the places where it is pervasive: England, the Middle East, India, and East Asia. There is a mix of paintings from different times and places. Enjoy, especially the last one if you're American.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Get ready for a steadfast weekend with The Petersens.

 

Never forget

First responders on 9-11

From Queen Elizabeth II's message after 9-11: 

"My thoughts and prayers are with you all now, and in the difficult days ahead. But nothing that can be said can begin to take away the anguish and the pain of these moments. Grief is the price we pay for love."

Walking in Bratislava

This is a walk through the old town section of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It starts in the late afternoon and progresses through twilight. The area has no motor traffic. It is a very pleasant looking area, with nice architecture, churches, sidewalk cafes, and a lot of fountains and statues. There are many people out and about enjoying themselves.

As an aside, Slovakia is one of my ancestral homelands. My maternal grandmother immigrated from there early in the 20th century. Who knows, maybe one of my distant relatives wandered past the camera. 

Amusingly, when asked if she would ever return to Slovakia my grandmother replied, "No, why would I ever go back to that dirty little country?" Seesh, a little cranky or what? From the video the city is very clean and well maintained. Then again, she left it over 100 years ago and besides, she came from a village in the mountains, not Bratislava.  

 

It's Labor Day

Tote that barge, lift that bale.
(click image to enlarge)

Today is the federal holiday where workers, or at least most workers, get the day off. It started out as a day to recognize trade unions and the labor movement. In 1894 politicians pandering to the unions declared it a federal holiday. By now the labor union slant of it has been pretty much washed away and it recognizes all workers but, even more importantly, it is the unofficial end of summer and so there are sales, barbeques, and family gatherings.

Still, in spite of the popular beliefs of much of our non-laboring class, those pyramids don't build themselves and so tomorrow work resumes. To leave on a properly cynical note I'll quote Anna Louise Strong, "They say the Pharaohs built the pyramids Do you think one Pharaoh dropped one bead of sweat? We built the pyramids for the Pharaohs and we're building for them yet."

After that annoying thought, enjoy your day off.

  

Stevan Dohanos paintings

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Stevan Dohanos (1907 – 1994) is best known for his paintings for covers of the Saturday Evening Post. He also painted murals for post offices and designed stamps. He painted in the mid 20th century realistic Americana style. His paintings were often complex to set the scene he was depicting.  

Stevan Dohanos