8 February - Reenactments for Felines



Cat Natasha takes advantage of the snow and the shoveled trenches with a moving reenactment of the famous 1914

8 February - Museum Closures


The Circle, Washington Grove, during the Great Blizzard

Perhaps I ought to have mentioned that the Janus Museum is closed today, due to the Great Blizzard of '10. Actually, we were closed on Saturday and Sunday, too. Will probably be closed tomorrow, what with the additional expected snowfall. And things are beginning to look kind of iffy for the big

8 February - A Generous Gift, with Pickelhaubes



Am very pleased to show off a generous donation to the Museum made by our old Friend of the Museum, the eminent photographer and collector

Rodger's generous contribution is shown above - a postcard showing German troop train preparing for departure, probably at the beginning of the war, July 1914. The caption, translated, says "Departure for the Theater of War". Many of the soldiers are wearing their pickelhaubes, which are fitted with fabric field covers - an überzug, it was called. The others wear their round caps - feldmützen, or krätzchen. Wonder how many of the chaps survived the war?




Gus models a feldmütze from the Museum's collection. By the way, he says his back "feels a lot better", though I predict a relapse when he hears about tomorrow's forecast of more snow.

Many thanks for the superb donation, Rodger. Oh, and check out Rodger's online gallery, too.

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7 February - After the Snow



Awfully sorry to report that I'm too exhausted to give a full report on our snowfall of the last two days - our so-called "maintenance" man Gus called in with a "bad back", so guess who was called upon to do shovel out the Museum? Really, it's all I can do to weakly lap up a glass of cheap Fellows' Common Room brandy and make this inadequate entry.

Above; at least Nutmeg (front) and Natashsa enjoyed themselves. More snow is expected on Tuesday, by the way.

6 February - Our Man in Havana



I've seen

5 February - Cancellation Due to Weather Conditions



Cat Natasha checks the current conditions at the edge of the Janus Museum Forest Preserve as the snow comes down. Local reports of the storm are practically apocalyptic - I swear I heard a news report claiming a chance of a snow zombie onslaught. Anyway, we were forced to cancel the annual Groundhog Day Catwalk scheduled for tomorrow - most disappointing - always a popular event - had to call off a couple of busloads of paid participants. Here's video of a previous Groundhog Day Catwalk:




One may keep an eye on the catastrophe on the Museum's

31 January - Inspired by Ramen



Reading Matt Gross's

31 January - Back on the Old Quai



And now, a rare quiet moment without traffic on the Quai de la Mégisserie, Paris, home of a street

30 January - More Snow; Some Helmets



These were the conditions in the Circle earlier today. There's now about 4 more inches; I would go out and snap the same scene, to show the dramatic contrast, and all, but I don't wanna. Instead...




... Let's admire the mode in early aviators' crash helmets circa 1912, via the always fascinating

30 January - The Origin of Cosmo Cat



And now, the thrilling origin of superhero Cosmo Cat,

24 January - Lamb Lunch at Accokeek



A new-born lamb, still moist, has a spot of lunch, Accokeek, Maryland, 1987. And there's even something related, tune-wise:





Hallalujah to the Lamb, performed by our old favorites,

23 January - Just Me and the Horse



Another foggy morning in Versailles; just me and the horse, not far from the Petit Trianon. I don't think I ever made it to Versailles when it wasn't foggy.


Previously Posted Versailles Imagery:

23 January - Hannibal the Bentley



Hard to miss while taking a walk this afternoon was this beautiful Bentley parked by the town hall. A note on the windshield told me that it's from 1934, and it's for sale - could I ever afford it? Haw, haw - no. Its owner was at the town hall for a meeting of homebrewers of

23 January - The Missing Magi



An apostle, a deer, and a squad of magi at a statuary factory in College Park, Maryland - a wonderfully contemplative site along Rt. 1, now tragically gone. Wonder what happened to all those magi?

22 January - Advances in Bacon; Possible Service Interruption



I haven't joined in the current

17 January - Hiawatha - Now in Color



Thought I had a color shot of

17 January - At Jug Bay



Another January afternoon, some years back, on the beautiful shore of

The Flame and the Arrow - The Fan Page - Audio Experiment



The evil Count Ulrich (Frank Allenby) wears a fine proto-pickelhaube in

16 January - Gerald, a Soldier of Fortune/House Cat



This is Gerald, soldier of fortune/house cat - snappy dresser and lapsed Catholic with tuna stink. Can he speak enough French to get by? From a superb series by

9 January - Hiawatha



Hiawatha, over on the grounds of the old

9 January - The Winter War



Cold and windy today, but we decided that a short catwalk was in order. Above, the battle of the drifts - Natasha (right) prepares to ambush Nutmeg. There was a brief though spirited chase, then we went in for espresso and to watch

9 January - Versailles Atmospherics



Very foggy - a real pea-souper, or a soupe aux pois as the French say, early one morning down at the Bassin d’Apollon, Versailles, back in November, 1987.


Previously Posted Versailles Snaps:

8 January - Elegy Photographed in a City Graveyard



The quick are supported by the dead as the gardener of the Etting Cemetery takes a break during mowing ops, April 1987. The Etting Cemetery, Etting Street, Baltimore, dates back to 1799.

Previously on Etting Street,

8 January - The Black Sheep of the Flock



Kind of sad, really - a black sheep, all by itself, at

5 January - Broadway Cat from the Collection



Here's a fine cabinet card portrait of a fine, though unnamed cat from the

5 January - Call of the Wild Poodle



I had a look at

3 January - Nostalgie in the Luxembourg Gardens



And now, a walk in

1 January - Near Comus



Oh, one more shot of Sugarloaf Mountain from this afternoon's expedition - taken near Comus, Maryland, off Comus Road, not far from

1 January - The Lost Opportunity, with Curry


Wild Highland Spaniel

I snapped this shot below

Me: Good Day. Order of chips, please.

EAG: Yes sir, right away - would you like a nice haggis with that, sir?

Me: No thanks, just chips.

Proprietor: Very nice, very fresh haggis, sir!

Me: Chips, please. Just chips.

Proprietor: But sir, it is deep-fried haggis!

Me: Chips.

Proprietor: But sir, it is deep-fried CURRIED haggis!

Me: ----!!

1 January - Monadnock and Pickelhaube


Sugarloaf Mountain from Beallsville Road
From One Hundred Famous Views of Sugarloaf

On New Year's Day, for some reason, I occasionally post a picture of Sugarloaf Mountain, Central Maryland's mighty monadnock. Today is also the blog's seventh anniversary, which makes me feel very tired, which totally has nothing to do with the quantity of méthode Champenoise de Moldova I consumed last night. In related news, the condition of Fellows' Common Room this morning is startingly squalid, and the maintenance man is nowhere to be found, so who does one suppose will have to swill it out?


Previous Sugarloaf Posts:

31 December - The Year in Catwalks


Positively the Last Catwalk of '09

Looking back, it was a pretty good year for catwalking, except that my sprained foot back in September cut back on my mobility a bit. After

24 December - That Cherub Pose



The Janus Museum holds a particular photographic collection that I think must be unique. Some years back I found an uncatalogued group of nineteenth century images in an unmarked box; the first image was the picture shown above - how odd, I thought, to find a shot of two dudes with their shirts off, c.1880. Then, with the next tintype...




... I figured out what was going on. These pictures were take-offs on the famous image of the two putti, the cherubs, looking up from the bottom of

24 December - Toscanini's Guilt Trip



Our old friend Herb Grossman, former assistant to

In his last years with the NBC, a number of things happened, for the most part not witnessed by me (those were my Munich years), but the incident I remember mostly had to do not with one of his final performances overall but with his last performance of an opera he had conducted since Puccini himself was alive, La Bohême - in concert form. It occurred in the final scene of the last act where Rodolfo overhears one of his colleagues whisper that Mimi is dead. The French horns (why is it always the French horns?), after a silent downbeat of great drama, immediately let loose with a series of three blood curdling chords, the orchestra immediately picks up with a melodramatic, heart-stopping phrase from an earlier aria, at the end of which Rodolfo shrieks "MIMI," a scream of agony which in my estimation is the most powerful such utterance in the history of the medium. As happened occasionally at this time when Toscanini knew he would soon have to give up the conducting which had been his life for more than 65 years, his emotions overcame him and the downbeat which precedes the three chords was struck with such strength and passion that two of the five horns entered where there should have been silence; the others, shocked, tried to catch up, the first two realized their mistake and tried to retreat - chaos ensued for what must have seemed an eternity, though it was only a matter of seconds before they straightened themselves out.

In a few minutes the performance came to an end and the musicians retreated to their orchestra room not knowing what kind of wrath awaited them. As they sat there pale and anxious, the door opened and a stern Toscanini walked through the door, asked all but the Horns to leave the room, then turned and stared. He continued staring, they shivered in dread until finally, "Tonight you will all go home and make love to your wives," he said, "while I, Povero Toscanini, will lie awake all night visiting and revisiting the shame of a ruined career."

And with that, without another word, the old man turned and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Nothing more ever was said.

23 December - Augmented Seasonal Cat Content



Here, from the archives, is another classic seasonal cat photograph - good old

22 December - Tragic Lack of Seasonal Cat Photography



My apologies for the lack of

21 December - Four Seconds Along the Canal



Here's another

20 December - The One-Eyed Captain



Here's a bit of a puzzle from the scanning queue. The gallant though one-eyed officer shown above is identified on the reverse of the carte-de-visite:




... Except that I can't quite make out the name - "Capt. Teshel(?) 8. U.S. Cav". A bit of searching brought up a Captain E. G. Fetchet of the 8th Cavalry, most notable for his participation in the skirmish that resulted in the death of Tatanka Iyotaka - Sitting Bull - on December 15, 1890:




From

19 December - Ring dem Bells



Here are the lads of

19 December - Closed on Account...



... Of the blizzard currently falling on the Museum, and the rest of the Washington Grove/Washington DC area. Which means that the Museum's Fruitcake Festival is cancelled, which is a shame, since we were hoping to sell a load of recalled fruitcakes. Which reminds me that we had a fruitcake-related disaster the other day - someone attempted to flush a hunk of fruitcake down the toilet in the public facility. We had to call in the plumbers. The Museum fellows refused to allow Museum visitors to use the Fellows' loo, which means we had to close the Museum.

Meanwhile, the maintenance man, Gus, who should be shoveling for god's sake, is nowhere to be found.

Also, the site may go dark - the measly traffic allowance, of course. Ah, but here's something festive for the season and all:




Celebrating around the old iron lung - via

12 December - Now as Seen on TV



During the summer of '07, I

9 December - Alarmed Mountain Cow



I forget what I said that so alarmed the poor cow. It's not as if I gestured wildly toward her calf with a hamburger bun or anything like that. Taken on the Blue Ridge, near Paris, Virginia.

7 December - A Prodigy, Interrupted by Cat


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with his favorite cat, Leroy

The Royal Society is celebrating its 350th anniversary with a new online library project called

My intention in carrying with me this manuſcript compoſition, was to have an irrefragable proof of his abilites, as a player at ſight, it being absolutely impoſſible that he could ever have ſeen the muſic before.

The ſcore was no ſooner put on his deſk, than he began to play the ſymphony in a most maſterly manner, as well as in the time and ſtile which correſponded with the intention of the compoſer.

I mention this circumſtance, becauſe the greateſt maſters often fail in theſe particulars on the fiſst trial.

Witneſs as I was myſelf of moſt of theſe extraordinary facts, I muſt own that I could not help ſuſpecting his father impoſed with regard to the real age of the boy, though he had not only a moſt childiſh appearance, but likewiſe had all the actions of that ſtage of life.

For example, whilſt he was playing to me, a favorite cat came in, upon which he immediately left his harpſichord, nor could we bring him back for a conſiderable time.

He would also ſometimes run about the room with a ſtick between his legs by way of horſe.

6 December - Specialization in Photographic Equipment



I can't say that the need for such a camera's ever come up in my own work, but it's nice to know that the Werewolf Camera Gun exists, at least in the pages of

5 December - A Doe and a Verger Queued



Today's encounters in the scanning queue included (above) a cautious doe photographed in Bushy Park, Hampton Court, and...




... A vintage portrait of old Elias Wallingford, verger of St. John's in Washington Grove, c.1885. By the way, a verger (or virger, so called after the staff of the office) is a person, usually a layman, who assists in the ordering of religious services, particularly in Anglican churches (