Dracula Orchids and Goblin Spiders

Oh Great! Orange spiders! Now I will need to micro scan every piece of candy corn....

Morning all - My son & his lovely lady are here for the weekend, so don't think I don't love you any more if you don't hear much from me.
This evening we are attending a performance of Under Milk Wood at Portmeirion. Anybody who has seen the classic 60's series The Prisoner would recognise the place instantly.
My son spent a large part of last night sorting out my laptop. Hooray! The Wi-Fi works again. We also spent a lot of time laughing at various funny things that you guys have sent me via E-mail.
If spiders are a measure of spookiness it's haloween in my place all the time.
 

HAZEL:  I hope y'all have a marvelous weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
 
I remember The Prisoner Series very well ... Patrick McGoohan and Leo McKern were the Principals ....... Good Show, as far as Dialogue, and the Acting itself ... but the Property was like a cardboard version of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes ....... I figured then that the Actors must really have needed a job .......

I would love to attend a performance of Under Milk Wood where the
characters did not speak with a Midwestern American accent.   Let me be more
specific, I would like to hear the words spoken with a Welsh tongue and if the
performance were in Wales, that would indeed be a bonus.  Thanks for the invite
Hazel.
 
Good day to you Ivan and thanks to you and Park4 for those most
enlightening insights into the life and times of Papa Hemingway.
 
There are two Hallowen parties in the offing today and much to
prepare.  One is in the afternoon for a small group of  7 year old girls and
another tonight for a small group of 14 year old girls. I can't wait, sometimes
life is just toooooooo good.  Girls and Halloween! Can it get any better than
this?  BOO.  

boo ! to all y'all.  be on guard for ghost and goblins.

Y'all who enjoy that stuff have a great Halloween & OD on pumpkin. I can't wait to Begin at the beginning & be transported to Llareggub by our local Am-drams. All with real Welsh accents.
When some of you speak of your beloved spouses I am minded of that bit about the old fisher-folk couple curled up together in bed like sardines in a can. I just know it's going to be a great evening. I've reserved virtual seats for you all.  
paolos~ rather you than me - the sound frequency of girlie screams sets my teeth on edge, like fingernails down a chalkboard.

Planning  to  watch  Charlie  Brown's  Haloween  movie  with  the  little  people,  new  generations  of  kids  haven't  seen  the  good  stuff  that's  timeless.   The  stuff  at  the  cinema  or  on  tv  is  way  too  scary.  I  seem  to  remember  that  someone  is  upset  since  the  Great  Pumpkin  always  gets  2nd   billing  to  Santa  Claus.   My  kind  of  movie,   innocent  in  theme...and  with  lots  of  buttered  popcorn.

I will watch The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, until the day God decides he doesn't want me living here any longer. Those cartoons are so interwoven into the fabric of my being that to miss them is like missing an integral paet of the season.

We really need Mr. Geisel and Mr. Shultz again, leave Hemmingway buried.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuPO2Kvqlms

Good grief!  2 millimeters is the thickness of a Ziploc bag!  How do they ever find those critters?  Dig up a heap of leaves and start going through it with a microscope?  The orchid is neat.
And the wonder of Dylan Thomas!  Under Milkwood was performed on the BBC a few months after his death with an all Welsh cast, including Richard Burton and his incredible voice.  I think it is still available as a recording.  I remember my mother had an LP of Dylan Thomas reading some of his poetry.  One side was a complete recording of A Child's Christmas in Wales.  Some Christmases I have read it to my children.  I love his poetry.  His words so often make images rather than having conventional structure.  Such power!  And so sad that he died so young.

House Guest - What a wonderful recording.  It is too easy to forget how rich Richard Burton's voice was.  The true crime is that the movie industry never had the courage to have him star in one of Shakespeare's plays.  It is said he was one of the best Shakespearean actors ever.

Has anyone seen "The Edge of Love," starring Keira Knightly?  It shows a section of Dylan Thomas's life during WW II, his affair with Vera Phillips Killick, a former love, and Vera's involvement with Caitlin Thomas, Dylan's wife.  Incredible acting by Keira Knightly, Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys.  Part of the movie was filmed in New Quay, Wales.

those little red/orange spiders were everywhere! I had never seen them that I could remember,and yet,servicing the A/C units on roof tops this last spring/almost summer, there were literally miillions,no,billions of them,on roofs.....they are not easy to see with sunglasses,but whenI would remove my 'specs' to look closely at something, I did notice them,like ant swarms,but much smaller(the individual spider,not the group).....reminded me of that song Nature's Way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsTK2LHZKPQ

Lynn830~ I have the recording of Richard Burton narrating Under Milk Wood. It is brilliant. Sends tingles up my spine. I think I have a copy of all of his published works. and R.S. Thomas, who spent his last years living in my village. I'd join him blackberry picking down the lane & he was amazed to hear me quoting his poetry that he had long forgotten he had written. What a treat! It was nice that hearing the words he had written years ago, he enjoyed them and rembering, would sometimes explain why he had used this word instead of that word. And he was funny his take on the "carers"who came in daily to look after him & his ailing wife was worthy of a comedy series in it's own right. Weather permitting, he'd just get out of the house & leave them to it. Shame he never wrote about it.

RY- Great Song of momentous proportions. Randy California truly was something special.   When I was in college I drove a flower truck for a wholesale florist company. The orchid cooler in the warehouse had a surreal look and an scary aroma to it. It was a cool job and on Friday nights when we dumper the roses that had bloomed, I snatched them and headed straight for the local TGIF on Elliston Place near the Vandy campus and made an impression on the Coeds. I had a young Kris Kristofferson look in those days sans voice but I could still quote lines from The Pilgrim Chapter 33... he's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction takin' every wrong direction on his lonely way back home

Hazel - My God, what a treat!  To have actually known Dylan Thomas.  All of his poetry is one volume which I've owned since my undergraduate days.  And somewhere (I cannot find it right now) there is a web site with all of his poems - 190, I believe.  He is definitely my favorite poet.

House Guest: oh thank you for that...he pulls you in with that voice, Burton does, and then Thomas finishes you off with those words one nudging and bumbling against and around each other -- oh.  "Look, it is night...listen, come closer now, on you can see (only you can hear)..slow deep soft and silent black bandaged night..."  How had I forgotten "Under Milkwood."  Don't know, but I never will again.

Lynn:  We have a recording of Dylan Thomas's reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales" and I have an old copy of the book.  I try to convince the Wigglers (that's the grandkids) to stop the wiggling and listen, but I think they're too young yet.  They wiggle better than they listen.There'll be a day soon when one of them, and I'm guessing it's the middle one -- he's got the dreamer in him -- he's only 5 now, but someday he'll be the one to take the book and the recordings down and ask, "Mormor, what are these?  Have we heard them?"  Yes, that would be our Finnian, and I'd say, no, not yet, but Finn, there's no time like the present."

I hope everyone is having a very reasonable weekend!

Quite reasonable, Michael.  Dare I ask why?  (I didn't read the info at top).  If it's you hoping we're being reasonable on this most unreasonably silly weekend -- why Michael why?  Reasonable doesn't get me any Snickers, I'll have you know. ;)

Oh yeah, I should buy some candy . . .

This may require me to find some socks.

TO THE LAUNDRY!!!

I'm not sure how the village collectively feels about spiders. I, for one, think the only good spider is a flat one.

When I was a kid growing up in West End Atlanta, every year past third grade we'd get one field trip and we'd go the Atlanta Zoo, where my fervent aracnifobia was born. Back in the day, each class had a Zoo guide, and my class happened to get one Elimira Snodgrass, former science teacher, current old biddy, and a picture of the gal in American Gothic, minus the horn rims but with added cat glasses connected to a lanyard, old lady style.

My best buddy at the time, Dickey McGrew, and I maintained our usual "back of the line status" knowing it genrally meant we'd stay below the radar, meaning we were never paid much attention(cool by us). We were disapointed that their wasn't a Zebra striped Jeep or Land Rover ala "Daktari", a popular TV show back then, so the entire trip was for naught.

When we finally entered the reptile house, what every male kid anxiously waited for, it was rumored the guides would take a non poisonous critter or two out of its cages and allow it to crawl up and down their arms. Sometimes the guide would let a student hold one of the expensive and rare species acquired by the zoo.

The reptile house was actually a covered circular outdoor display with an entry point that allowed basically a single file line and the exit point situated just left of the beginning point of the circle. Ms.Snodgrass, from what I could hear, had obviously removed a few of the display reptiles from the small spaces and allowed them to roam free, evidenced by the sqeals and ooohhs and ahhhs Dickey and I heard from our position in line. As fate would have it, the giant hairy Venezuelan Tarantula was the very last display, and Ms. Snodgrass stopped the procession just as Dickey and I entered the exhibit. This placed the very front of the line, full of suck-ups and goody two shoes types, breathing the same air as us back of the line slackers. I was totally engrossed in the giant snake exhibit Dickey and I were eyeballing through the thick glass, not paying much attention to the more favored teacher's pets who enjoyed the spoils of the title, and us back of the line boys without a care in the world.

I was studying the massive snake, minding my own business, when it occurred to me that my good friend Dickey was three steps away from me with eyes as big as two saucers. I detected giggling and sensed a lot of eyes on me. I stood, looked at my friend, and he pointed over my shoulder like I should engage the guide and host for some strange reason. I turned and made full eye contact with Ms. Snodgrass, noticing the satisfied look on her face, her obviously knowing something I didn't know but needed to. She also pointed at something in Dickey's general direction, or so I thought. Growing tired of the game I turned back to my friend, still wide eyed, and said "what!?". He immediately pointed to his own shoulder instructing me to look at mine. The smart asses in the front of the line were laughing by then and I was just pissed off.

That's when I sensed something crawling on my shoulder. I turned my head ever so slightly to be met eye to eye with the biggest, hairiest, most long legged and giant fanged (I was a kid, it had fangs I tell ya) Venezuelan Tarantula that had ever been built in the bowels of Hell.

The brief look of satisfaction on Ms. Snodgrass's face disappeared faster than free gasoline at the beginning of summer vacation when I instinctively slapped that big hairy sucker and he fell to the sidewalk, all eight legs contracting in some weird spider death dance, expiring, to the silent wide eyed horror of our guide.

She stood in stunned silence, then grabbed me by the ear, screaming at me for killing such a rare addition to the much heralded Zoo. She dragged me to the Zoo office, with my teacher Mrs. Reynolds in tow, looking for justice and a dead exotic spider murderers confession her superior.

The head honcho heard both of our stories, me stating emphatically my dislike of spiders (that had began that day), all agreed upon by my teacher. I was send back to my class, and as I left I heard the Captain of the Zoo chewing the last of Ms. Snodgrass's skinny ass off for putting a spider on a kid without his (my) knowledge.

I've hated spider's ever since.

Sorry, the correct number of poems is 64.  And the entire collection is at http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/dylan_thomas.
Park4, I didn't try A Child's Christmas in Wales until my daughter was in high school.  By the, they either are ready or they never will be.  Burton has one of the best voices of the 20th Century.  And Dylan Thomas uses words like a painter - as you say, one tumbling against the next - creating vistas we have never seen.

Ummgawa - Any ass that puts a spider on anyone's shoulder deserves the worst.  Arachnophobia is so common that it should be assumed.  When I was in grad school at Michigan State, there was a lady in East Lansing who had a pet store.  She was a good and kindly sort, and the store was fun to browse.  One day she had her pet tarantula.  The damn thing was on its back on her hand, evidently wanting to be stroked on its hairy tummy!  She did so, and offered to let me have the vast pleasure.  I refused, and she was good enough, unlike Mrs. Snodgrass, to accept my wishes.  Good grief!  A hairy tarantula that wants to be petted! 

Ummgawa:  I LOL'd at that first line about good spider=flat one.  Very funny!! ..........Now, I must ask, didn't any of you spider haters read CHARLOTTE'S WEB BY EB WHITE about a pig named Wilber and the spider who wrote something (it's a secret unless you read the book) in her web - just before she died, she gave her life for Wilber! - so she wrote this message, and Wilber was saved from becoming pork chops and Charlotte, she DIED.  And me, I cried.  I'm still crying, you arachnophobes!  Get over yourselves and  think about Charlotte and ask yourself, amI as good aperson as Charlotte is a spider?  Would I have done for that pig what Charlotte did for him?  ...............Well, would you?   If nobody answers, I assume your education is sorely lacking and you have never read this wonderful book by a very wonderful writer and master of the Elements of Style.

All of this talk about Dylan Thomas led me to Amazon.com and an order for the Caedmon recording of his reading several poems, all of A Child's Christmas in Wales and excerpts from Under Milk Wood.  I was tempted to also get the 1954 recording of Richard Burton et al. doing Under Milk Wood.  Both are on CD.  I no longer have a functioning turntable for vinyl.  There is a DVD done quite later of Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor that gets very mixed reviews.  Evidently the play is cut quite severely, and the reviewers find Elizabeth Taylor miscast.  The play has a lot of characters in it, and the reviewers tend to think that having several parts done by one player is less confusing.  Peter O'Toole is also in the DVD, which could be a plus.

Ummgawa - what a terrific story!  For my money, after that episode, I'd be much more afraid of Snodgrasses than spiders! 
 
I personally like spiders, or perhaps more precisely, I appreciate spiders.  I don't want to pet the darn things but they do kill and eat a lot of creatures that are even more icky than they are.
 
One weekend I came home from college to visit and found a healthy spider living quite comfortably in a easily noticed corner of the living room.  When I asked my neatnik mother why she had let the spider live there, she answered that she liked him and had named him 'Bruce.' 
 
"Bruce the Brown Recluse?", I asked..... 
 
I don't remember how long he lasted or how long I wondered about her sanity.
 
 

Ummgawa ~  STAY AWAY from this one....
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpz2OYf1QU
 
HAZEL ~ every little boy likes to make girls
scream, it's not the sound of the scream that creates the glee...and it is
something the boy never outgrows,  sooner or later one girl will appreciate the
lad's efforts.
 
Houseguest ~ Thanks.
 
RY and Tommy  ~ I thought everyone had forgotten about
Spirit.
 
The party has begun.  Time to make the little girls
scream. 

I don't get any trick or treaters.
So if anyone shows up they get to dip into the change jar and it's money not candy.
If I got candy I'd only get fatter.

Is that my spider web? Did someone steal from my posted photos?

paolos..... Boris rocks!  WARNING...... if you suffer from arachnid phobia ....... Just turn around and walk away ...... Whenever my grandson would stay over, we would eventually watch this ...... it was awesome dudes and dudetts  

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x42pwv_eight-legged-freaks-theatrical-trai_shortfilms

But my all time favorite........ well, in the top 18 for certain 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TVooUHN7j4&NR=1

enjoy youselve folks..... and save the best candy for yourselves..... make mine a fozen peanut butter cup....

RY --yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuukkkss!!! Meeting all those spiders at work!
 
Ummgawa! I was entranced by your story...lol......it was vivid and I could see the scene play out in my head
 
Park4 - your post reminds me of my colleague's daughter, married a Mr Webb. When she had a baby girl, she really wanted to name her Charlotte, her favourite name for a girl. But she thought wiser of it, knowing she would be quite mercilessly teased. She then named her Scarlet...personally, I think she's still set up for lots of teasing

I think she might be too, SF.  I did know a Charlotte Webb, we roomed together in college.  I understand she moved to San Francisco and married a Smith or a Jones, and all ended happily ever afterwards...;)

I wooed and won the woman doing Richard Burton. When she found out it made me hoarse, it had to stop.

My apologies for such poor sentence structure and grammatical errors. I found myself waiting for my lovely bride to disembark from one of her favorite department stores, serving as her long suffering chauffeur.

I might ought to wait for bigger keys and spell/grammer check, but seeing the spider up top inspired me.

If you don't care, I don't. Sorta.

Park4,  I  like  that  woody  you  use  as  your  avatar. Hi,  Spring  Fragrance.   Chalotte's  Web  was  a  children's  movie  that  generates  fond  memories  for  me.   The  kid  was  little,  and  little  people  often  relate  easily  to  personifying  other  animals,  even  inanimate  objects.   CW  was  a  movie  that  helped  wind  kids  down,  and  make  little  eyes  sleepy, including  my  own...

No,Lynn830~ pay attention! I said R S Thomas - another famous Anglo-Welsh poet. I never met Dylan Thomas, but I have a friend who kept a nice eatery in Laugharne & I met several people who had met the man .Usually in the pub.
Anyway - all this is off topic, unless we agree that like Hemmigway, Dylan Thomas wove a manipulative web.
 
The performance of Under Milk Wood this evening was even better than anticipated. I'd forgotten how funny it is. And I misquoted - not sardines in a can, kippers in a box. Same idea.
PARK4~ Snickers bars winging their way to you. I heard you are partial to them.
 
Duvet time now. Have a great evening. Nos da.

While the old Urban Legend of the average person consuming 8 spiders per year in ther sleep is unfounded. I do believe that most Medical Examiners confirm that insect DNA is present in a high % of cases as it does not dissolve indicating perhaps at least 8 spiders and other insects  in a lifetime are swallowed. I have swallowed my share of gnats riding motorcycles. Most houses have hundreds of them and once I read up to 1 million per acre. I dunno...  Once while surfing I stepped on a Stingray and it punctured my foot leaving a big hole and I stumbled up to the Tiki Bar and was told Hey. it's their turf.  Rum made it feel better.  Certain creatures get a bad rap and have even been called evil just because they are who they are. I know one thing I sure do like that treat where you make dirt out of Oreos and chocolate and you fill a flower pot with it and pour in gummy worms. Makes me feel like the little boy again made of puppy dog tails and the such. Being gross was a way to get girls' attention in those days. Remember "Sea Food" and showing everyone a mouthful of mush. We are all inches away from being Cave People.  

I got my first trick-or-treater in four years of living in my and my bride's home today. My wife and daughter were out in shopville, and I was faced with a delimna... what to give!

The kid and I settled on a can of Progresso Chicken Corn Chowder and a sleeve of Ritz Crackers. I was glad to have negotiated with the kid, he went to the trouble to dresd up (He had a suit on with a piece of luggage and said he was dressed as a former incumbent politician). I got a good laugh out of that kid.

Much to my dismay, my driver's license photo looks like I'm Herman Munster's sister. I tried to lose it once, but thanks to our technical advances, my DMV has the horrid photo on a digital file ...now I have a spare.  Who knew Herman Munster had twin sisters.

Happy Halloween...on this day...eat more chocolate than can possibly be healthy.

Best, Herman's kid sister.

Can watching I Love Huckabees give one a more existential perspective?

AND DO NOT FORGET "NOSE MILK!"....someone here was talking about 'girlie screams'....my favorite torture was to try and make people laugh when they were drinking milk, or at least while they were eating.....and ya know what? it has not lost its allure....BOO!   .   works too   .   and it could cure hiccups

Rangers win 4-2.

Go, Rangers.

Go, go, go.

And the Giants? Scare me!