Well, did you evah?

Directly below, the star atop the Kremlin, taken in 1937...

... and below, a closeup of the center of the star, adjacent to the Chrysler Corporation Pentastar which served as the corporate logo from 1962-1998.

How were they to know, right?

 

Lately, before I forget

Films:  Ishtar; Dawson City: Frozen Time

Read:  Queen of Crime; All the Answers

Moments during a 3-day weekend:  four rabbits and a pair of mallards in our back yard; PG has an injured leg and I am helping to pick up the slack; I baked a blueberry streusel cake; driving from Macungie back home, saw a field of tall chicory, not just the stunted kind that grows in the gravelly soil next to asphalt roads.  

Awoke at 3:00 this morning and went downstairs, because PG needed me to feed the cats, and they're used to her getting up to feed them around 4:00.  No big deal, it's a weekend.  During the hour between 3:00 and 4:00, I followed Twitter feeds for info about the mutiny/insurrection/coup in Russia.  At the same time, I read about the release of a copy of The Second Arrangement from the estate of Steely Dan engineer Roger Nichols.  One was big news worldwide, the other big news to just a few people, but I'm one of them.  

Similarly, earlier this month when Canadian wildfire smoke covered our area, darkening the sky and turning the sun into a dim red dot, PG's granddaughter graduated on one of those evenings and we attended the ceremony.  

My evening

After supper, Good Queen Swirly and I had more than an hour of Quality Time on the family room sofa while I watched Buster Keaton's The Navigator and a few acts of To Be Or Not To Be (the Benny/Lombard version).  

Meanwhile, there was a mallard drake and his mate in the feeder garden, and when they left, a grown rabbit took their place at the plate of cracked corn and sunflower seed.  When a young bunny hopped over to the other side of the garden, I snapped this picture and noted two more grown rabbits near the back of the property.  Add to that squirrels and chipmunks taking their share of the seed, and there was a lot of life in our back yard today.

Just little

A formerly landscaped area has gone to seed, and the results aren't at all bad.  Here's some scarlet pimpernel, although you can call it Anagallis arvensis, you can call it Bird's Eye, you can call it Red Chickweed, Red Pimpernel, Shepherd's Clock, Shepherd's Weather Glass, or even Wink-a-peep.

The problem with this is that it's not good for rabbits.  (Always ask "Is it good for the rabbits or is it bad for the rabbits?"

Easy Like Sunday, print edition

Thoughts while scrolling:  on Twitter, I follow This Day in 1923, the work of a man who is an editor at the Wall Street Journal.  Here's one of his tweets from this morning.

I recognized Cobb in the right photo. (Tangent:  that "Can't yank" billboard was also in the background of a scene from Buster Keaton's "The Cameraman", which was shot in The Yankee Stadium, as I heard it called in radio broadcasts from decades ago.  Like the Pentagon was called the Pentagon Building in the WWII newscasts now on YouTube.  But I digress.)

The man on the left doesn't look like Cobb, and is swinging right-handed.  Baseball bugs, cranks, and yanigans like me know Ty Cobb batted lefty.  A quick visit to baseball-reference.com and the page devoted to the 1923 Detroit Tigers followed.  My answer:  Harry Heilmann, who hit .403 that season and is also a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.   

Getty Images confirms my guess.

Another source of the obscure word above.

 

Seen along the way

Roadside color from today's drive to and from Tabby's Place.

 

Ceci n'est pas une perceuse

Not original, and I figured it wasn't when I thought of it this morning.  But it was fun.
Better versions are here and here.

The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (or something like that)

I'd like to hear "The squirrel is flying, and it's Rocky."

Buggin' out

Lying on my back in the solarium of Suite F with Ponce on my tummy, I felt something fall inside my shirt.  I reached in and got a finger on it, but only pushed it deeper.  It didn't bite or sting, so I stayed put until Ponce got up and walked away.  Then I went into a bathroom and took off my shirt, and this fellow fell on the floor.  

I got it to crawl onto a wand toy with the felt wrapped around the handle, and took it back to the Suite F solarium.  The last I saw of it, it was on one of the screen supports.

Next, to hit Publish, then Google Image search.

The answer:  Oriental beetle, related to the Japanese beetle, and just as unwelcome in New Jersey.
 

An unexpected happy ending

Not going to Write this story.  Just notes.  I could Write it, but it wouldn't be good.

Wednesday, May 31.  Suppertime.  A noise from the front of the house.  Sounded like something hitting the glass of the storm door.  Went to check, hoping to be wrong.  Found a small brown bird, maybe a young finch, lying on its side motionless on the sidewalk.  

Happened days earlier with a young robin, but the robin was on its feet and moving.  Expected that bird to fly away after it got over the impact.  Not this one.  

Back to the table, but back to the front door minutes later.  Bird hadn't moved.

Talked about it with PG.  Got a paper towel, intending to place the bird on the landscaped side of the house, where nature would take its course.

Unlocked storm door, and at that noise, the bird suddenly got to its feet, but didn't fly away.  It stayed in that position through one or two more follow-up checks.  Finally, near sunset, one last check, and the bird was no longer there.