The moon stuck around this morning. It was hanging large above the horizon like a sentinel, and for a brief moment as we were driving by the Health Sciences building it lingered next to the flag at half mast.

I remember the half-light of another December morning before school, and rows of faces in the newspaper, and a reckoning with the evil I’d read about in Stephen King novels and yellowy library books about World War 2. I was looking at the Real Thing and I knew it.

Sometimes a national character is defined by things refused as much as those embraced. Or more importantly, the responses we manage to come up with.

uno-universal:

This picture circa 1900s shows knife grinders also called ventres jaunes (‘yellow stomachs’ referring to the yellow dust released by the grinding wheel). By laying face down, these yellow stomachs would save their backs from being hunched over all day. Workers were encourage to bring their dogs to not only keep them company but to act as heaters to keep them warm by having the dogs lie on their legs. (Photo is from the web-site of, French knife maker, Claude Dozorme – ” The Wolf ”).

Rules: Tag followers you want to know better

tagged by @agovernmentman

Name: Ted

Nicknames: How is it I’ve never had a viable nickname? 

Gender: On the masculine side of the spectrum.

Starsign: Taurus

Sexual orientation: Druid, non-practicing.

Favourite color:  Outside the range of the known visible spectrum, it fell to earth in the hills west of Arkham in 1882.

Average hours of sleep: 7

Cat or dog person: They both love me.

Favourite fictional character:  This one’s impossible.

Band/Singers: Tom Waits.

Trip: Road trips that involve a lot of museums and points of historical interest.

Dream job: Guitar maker / restorer.   I think.

When was this blog created:  2010

Current number of followers: 600ish

When did this blog reach its peak: I’d like to think its best days lie before it. I’ve had some popular posts with 7 or 8 thousand notes, but I’m not sure that was an indication of peak power performance.

Time right now: 14:27.

Song stuck in my head: Nothin’ But A G Thang.

Last movie I watched: Mudbound 

Last tv show I watched: Reliable Sources, with Brian Stelter

What am I wearing right now: jeans and t-shirt

What kind of stuff do I post: self-involved musings and hasty drawings.

Do I get asks regularly: Not really.

Why did I choose my url: it has to do with Renaissance lute music.

Lucky number: got to go with 1, because it’s both the loneliest and it brings the funk.

Following: 127

tagging:  I already know you people better than your mammas do. Why not tell me what you think I should know?

-I haven’t drawn anything in so long. The creative urge is there, but it’s hard to pick up a pen. I think it has something to do with November. I’ve never been comfortable with this month. In any case, the little flashes of inspiration haven’t been showing up lately and if anyone has a suggestion I would welcome it.

-Yesterday I got a call from a man who wants to travel some distance to have me repair the damaged finish on his very expensive guitar. There are three kinds of people who own very expensive guitars. They either: care very deeply about music, care deeply about the guitar as an object of desire, or they spend life not having to care about anything at all.  Each type is hard to satisfy, but the sense of accomplishment I feel meeting their expectations varies wildly.

-80′s nostalgia fascinates me.  I think because this is my first view into the workings of a time I actually experienced as seen through a lens informed by research.  Stranger things is great at recreating the media of that era, but it doesn’t *feel* like those times. It’s funny how collective memory works.