I once saw a hummingbird on the sidewalk on Wilshire Boulevard. He was just standing there. I'd never seen a still hummingbird before. Nor since.

Standing on Wilshire Boulevard trumps flying on Leroy Street.

Yeah, but flying is surely better for longevity.

Instant messaging with a friend just now who lives in Oxford. She had to sign off because the fire brigade was at her flat because of the threat of the Thames flooding. She's on the second floor....

Hope Orik's neighbor didn't catch it

I think I have you both beat:

Braggart.

I saved a hummingbird once -- he'd flown into a shop window and was lying in a daze on the sidewalk. I managed to move him out of harm's way, but then he shook himself off and flew right out of my hand

I am getting used to seeing weird assemblages of people in the Munich U-Bahn, but today at 2am there was a couple in full wedding getup (tux and long white bridal dress, respectively, both carrying white roses) walking around in the station looking kind of confused.

I just saw a woman downstairs with two cell phones and a Blackberry... and she was using all three of them.

My boss in drag, maybe?

Shall I forward that to Eater?

Very convincing drag, if so. This woman was what I believe is referred to as a "knockout".

Yeah, but what was she actually DOING with them? You're in San Francisco. She could have been juggling them on a street corner for tips.

This morning on the subway I saw a blond woman in her mid 30s with furry arms. Serious hair - a kind of heavy golden down that was easily noticeable 6 feet away. I would not have posted about her unfortunate condition here except for the fact that she was carrying a large shopping bag with the logo -

I was at Williams Sonoma the other day buying an Emile Henry casserole that was on sale for 50% off. I smelled something sweet and sour burning. I asked if they just had a cooking class. The salesperson tells me no, they are heating a jar of demi-glaze sauce to attract customers. I look into the pot and tell her the sauce is burning. I tell her it's burning and that it smells like burning sauce in the store. She dumps a cup of water into the pot and leaves it burn even more.

I was googling for Algerian terracotta and found this

1660. Roman North Africa Phallus AD120

Cute cat

Dimensions?

...it'll end up in Elton John's collection, like all the rest, no doubt about that...

My parents been out of town for the past three weeks, but this afternoon my dad called wanted to know if I saw the ad placed in last week's NYT Week in Review section by the law school for a job opening. He was concerned it was my job - After re-assuring him that I am still gainfully employed I explained I did know about the ad and that I actually helped write it.

Young women walking the streets in 80F humid NY wearing brighly colored Wellington boots.

Okay, there are so many surreal moments in the past 24 hours, that I'll let you pick out your favorites...


I'm stuck here in Reno trying to move my business to San Francisco and up against a whole lotta obstacles. The upside of all that is that the hotel I'm staying in is hosting the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction. Cool - I'm stuck in Reno but I get to look at art. Well, Western art (Remingtons, Russels, etc), isn't necessarily my cup of tea but there is a smattering of French pieces and a few Diego Riveras and Mary Cassats to admire. Surreal part I: cheesy Reno hotel with $2m dollar paintings sitting on banquet tables in a large ballroom.

So here I am, wandering among the elite in the Western Art World. The buffet includes platters of ice with thousands of giant cocktail shrimp - the middle of which is festooned with a CHEESE SCULPTURE of an American Indian (Surreal #2). There is also horrifically overcooked lamb chops, California Rolls (not being eaten), and egg rolls, pot stickers, and a carving station with tough prime rib. Bad wine; don't remember the name, but suffice to say I took one sip of a Merlot and put the glass down. The eavesdropping dialogue includes phrases like, "oh, I bought my Picasso from you!" and "yeah, I put my Russell cow painting next to my Dali." (Surreal #3).

I watched a Charles Russell go for $2.7m while the bidder was chomping on chicken wings (Surreal #4).

this is more of an annoyance, but still: when i try to recover the password i set up for my new university email and then promptly forgot, the first thing it asks me for is my current password....

More surrealism.... flipping through the limited channels in the hotel room I stumbled on some old Lawrence Welk; this guy is singing a diddy "That's what I like about the South" but he frequently missed his lip-sync! Shades of "whats-her-name" from Saturday Night Live that caused such a controversy?

It's "hobo_camp". All lowercase.

Carolyn- I haven't been to Reno in 30 years, but aren't they a lot of campy, seedy places like there used to be in Vegas?

Yes.

The BF insisted on taking me to dinner at Harrah's steakhouse this evening. It was actually quite good in a 1978 sort of way with table-side Steak Diane, Bananas Foster, and Coffee Diablo - cushy, brocade-covered booths with dark wood walls and waiters that have been there for 30+ plus years. Afterwards, the BF wanted to walk around "downtown Reno and its casinos" which reeked of the opening minutes of Koyaanisqatsi with its overwhelming bright lights, waitresses and dealers with bouffant hairdos, and the stale odor of cheap cigarettes everywhere.

I should say that I really enjoyed dinner but for the money spent (because of the '95 Haut Brion I ordered), I could have had dinner for two at the French Laundry...

I had a quick work trip to Reno two weeks ago and went into the Peppermill just to see what it was like. I was completely disoriented in there with the flashing lights of the slots and the neon and the mirrors. It was difficult to tell where to go to get farther back to see the cards and dice games.

I don't know how you could spend a significant amount of time in there without getting a rather serious headache.

At $3.25/plant and a very good yield so far, my back porch tomatoes are now less expensive than the ones at the greenmarket.

Actually, most casinos are designed exactly to do just that -- and so that you can rarely find the exits. The worst is Atlantis. I get lost there every time. I was really surprised by staying at the Grand Sierra this last week where the casino is rather spaciously laid out in one long stretch with views of the exits from many vantage points.

time for you to get a stall.

1) Seeing Marcus Samuelsson's mug on this how-to 'dress up' a packet of ramen noodles.

2) The most bizarre commercial I've seen in ages: A group of middle-aged misfits (one of them is 'biker' as he has a bushy beard and wears a bandanna like one of Mongo's dogs) sitting around heartily singing 'Viva Viagra' to the tune of 'Viva Las Vegas.' Really, guys? Do you sing about your ED pills when we gals aren't looking?

That is odd and with a peanut sambal?

Easy Korean ways to dress up ramen, add kimchi, frozen mandu (wontons), scallions, sliced chiles, etc... The point is to dress it up with easy pre-made stuff.

C'mon -- chefs aren't allowed to do that.

my dogs wear bandanas?

By the way, did you ever get any sort of yield from your garden?

last year's garden? yes: loads of cherry tomatoes. some of the others too but then blossom-end rot and an early snow storm struck. but i planted a month late, for unavoidable reasons. the peppers did not pan out.

the garden here next spring will be given over entirely to cherry tomatoes and herbs. maybe i'll try peppers again as well.

I was channel surfing and saw a bit if Hairspray on ABC FAmily and though how odd that Mink Stole is on a family channel!

Sounds like you need a small hot house.

Nifty. Somehow it's comforting to know that all the fuss was not in vain.

And yes, you should try peppers again. I've found them spectacularly easy to grow in all sorts of environments. I even had a Texan friend that moved to Germany and missed fresh salsa. I sent her some chile seeds and she successfully grew serranos and jalapenos in pots on her balcony.

We should just merge the gardening and surrealism threads. Big overlap.

Well, it was the image of Mongo's bandana'd dogs frolicking in his garden that did it.

I'm sorry.

Although I do find serranos and jalapenos growing in pots on a balcony in Germany in order to provide fresh salsa for a displaced Texan to be somewhat surreal.

Don't you?

How would poblanos do on a south-facing balcony?

Mexico is South of Texas.

Tips on cultivating surrealism? Thanks.

Fish.

Getting away from topiary for a moment, I posted a question on CH and got reponses only from MF members (so far). That'll teach me to go whoring my curiosity around the worldwide web.

Here you go.

Or what about looking at these for several minutes at a time?