There Be Giants

This water faucet is approximately 20 feet (6 meters) tall. The red water hose is over three times as long. It is part of the art work by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The sculptures are located around the world. View scores of the pieces here: (link). My favorite was the "Buried Bicycle".

It's the perfect time of day
To throw all your cares away
Put the sprinkler on the lawn
And run through with my gym shorts on.
Take a drink right from the hose
And change into some drier clothes
- from the song "Pinch Me" performed by Barenaked Ladies, written by Steven Page & Ed Robertson (c) 2000

You're Invited...Please Don't Come

A couple of creative writers wanted to generate ideas for stories so they published a fake wedding invitation and invited people to write fictional letters declining the invitation to their fictional wedding. There is a hilarious response from the mother of the groom:

. . .Needless to say, your father and I will not be attending. We would rather sell ourselves to a meat packing plant than acknowledge the union of you and this gold-digging hussy. . .

Read the complete letter from "mom" here.

You said your mama didn't think girls should be so bold
All of that from one little innocent kiss

Well now I heard it all
Maybe I should ask your mama to give me a call
Maybe she could tell me what to do about this
- from the song "I Got It Bad" by Matraca Berg (c) 1990

Happy Birthday America!

When was the last time you read the Declaration Of Independence? How about the Bill Of Rights? Time to surf over to Project Gutenberg and catch up on your reading:
List of United States of America documents
links for United States Declaration of Independence
links for United States Bill of Rights
links for United States Constitution


Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

The problem with tyrants is they pop-up when you least expect them - sometimes as external threats to America and other times as internal threats. Pay attention to what is happening, get involved when you see YOUR freedom slipping away. Regardless of where you are in the political spectrum we all have pet freedoms being eroded.

No more shall tyrants here
With haughty steps appear
And soldier bands.
No more shall tyrants dread
Above the patriot dead;
No more our blood be shed
By alien hands.
- from the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (aka "America") by Samuel Francis Smith (c) 1832 (this verse was removed by Smith from the original because it was too anti-British)