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May 21, 2019

OH, THE THINKS YOU CAN THINK

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

THEODORE GEISEL

... my brother and i shared a little wanderabout this afternoon ... we ended up in springfield, massachusetts, where we once lived a long time ago ... after checking out the mgm grand casino (yes, turns out all casinos are pretty much the same), donating $13 in as many minutes, and enjoying some tasty mexican food, we drove a few blocks to the springfield museum complex ... when i was in high school this collection of both fancy and classic buildings was simply a place we could cut through while avoiding the truant officer ...
   
  
... a sword scabbard made from a single elephant tusk ... fascinating, but i'm glad they don't do this anymore ...
   
   
  
... the right face is "normal," while i've a feeling the one on the left is after being poked in the belly with a samurai sword ...
   
  
... some of the earliest japanese "fire-arms" ...
   
  
... i can't imagine carrying and shooting the one in the center of the picture ...
   
  
... samurai swords, exquisite, absolutely, but it turns out that their "superiority" is more a myth than fact ...
   
  
... mostly for show, i imagine ...
   
  
... my brother was intrigued by the exhibits ...
   
  
... it turns out that if rich people can't buy art they desire they have copies made ... this leads to the question, "where does stolen art disappear to" ...
   
  
... nefertiti ... in ancient eqypt she and her husband were considered radical/crazy for worshiping a single god ...
   
  
... in the center of the museum complex is the "dr. seuss national memorial sculpture garden" ... theodor geisel is one of the most famous alumni of my high school, classical ... the statues were done by his daughter ...
   
  
... "i am the lorax, i speak for the trees" ... dr. seuss spoke for all of us ...

Think left and think right and think low and think high.
Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!
   
  
... inherently unstable, the "granville brothers model r super sportster" (GB Racer) was a deathtrap to all but the most skilled pilots ... in 1932, with jimmy doolittle at its controls, it reached a speed of 296 miles-per-hour which was a world record for land planes ... cycling to work at my swimming pool i used to pass the mall that had been built upon the runway from which it once rocketed into the sky ...
   
  
... this machine, too, probably set some records ...
   
  
... an all-electric "motorcycle of the future" ... in 1976 its developers promised that it would be "on the market within a year" ...
   
  
... fifty years ago, which, yes, is exactly one-half century, i stood on these steps protesting the war in viet nam ... okay, so mostly i sat and enjoyed the fashion of the day, mini-skirts ... (yea, i hear you ... right, it wasn't exactly fashion that interested me) ... classical high school, one of the oldest secondary schools in america, has now become a community of rather posh looking condominiums ... i was a bit saddened by this ... i don't know why, but i was ...
   
  
... yet, so nice, i was also most appreciative i felt this way ...


“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

THEODORE GEISEL

... p.s. "seuss" is one of the most mispronounced names in the english language