Manhole Covers and Japanese Manhole Cover Art, Part 2

I will be away from my computer for a day or two so there will be a few Bytes missing. 

In the meantime enjoy (and perhaps be amazed) at the following item  . . . 

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If you thought some of the previous pics of manhole covers were unique and items of beauty, all the more so for being a quite mundane object, take a look below at what the Japanese have done with theirs.

The following commentary is from a website Amusing Planet:

One of the coolest attraction in Japan lies beneath the feet. All across the country, manhole covers are custom made for individual towns and cities and they are colorfully painted. Designs ranges from images of cultural history, from flora and fauna, to landmarks and local festivals, to fanciful images dreamed up by school children. 

The trend started in the 1980s when Japan wanted to standardize their sewer system. Until then, Japan used regular geometric shaped manhole covers similar to those used in other countries. As communities outside of Japan's major cities were slated to receive new sewer systems these public works projects were met with resistance. One dedicated bureaucrat solved the problem by allowing the town folk to choose their own design. Today nearly 95 percent of the 1,780 municipalities in Japan sport their own specially designed manhole covers.

Btw, afficionados apparently refer to the pursuit of manhole cover pics as drainspotting.

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Funny Friday

At trivia on Wednesday night one of our team members, Jess, was unhappy that her cat was not well. 

Now some years ago my daughter and I lived in a flat with a cat that was, funnily enough, called Jessie. Now this cat, a tortoiseshell, began peeing and spraying everywheret – on the carpets, on the clean washing (I did the washing, I might add, not my daughter), on the beds, inside my camera bag . . . This was in the height o summer and it stank. Someone said have it desexed, that that would solve the problem, so I did but it didn't.  Eventually we had to find it another home but to this day I can detect cat urine at 100 paces. It has also left me wondering why the Almighty saw fit to breathe life into such a cold, unfeeling, aloof, pissing, spraying, useless occupier of space. 

Nonetheless, in an attempt to cheer up Catwoman Jess, today’s Funny Friday is dedicated to feline furballs.

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Some items from the book “101 Uses for a Dead Cat” by Simon Bond:

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Pet Diaries:

Excerpts from a Dog's Diary:

* 8:00 am -   Dog food! My favourite thing!

* 9:30 am -   A car ride! My favourite thing!

* 9:40 am -   A walk in the park! My favourite thing!

* 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing!

* 12:00 pm - Lunch! My favourite thing!

* 1:00 pm -   Played in the yard! My favourite thing!

* 3:00 pm -   Wagged my tail! My favourite thing!

* 5:00 pm -   Milk bones! My favourite thing!

* 7:00 pm -   Got to play ball! My favourite thing!

* 8:00 pm -   Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing!

* 11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat's Diary:

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. 

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am.

Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow - but at the top of the stairs. 

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now...

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I knocked on a bloke's door earlier and said, "Have you lost a cat?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "Black & White?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "I've just seen it."

He said, "Whereabouts?"

I said, "Follow me."

I walked up the road, pointed to a tree and said, "There, on that poster."

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Roy Rogers buys himself a pair of specially made, hand tooled leather boots. That night, as he is asleep in his bunk with his boots on the floor next to him, a tom cat starts making a racket on the fence outside the window. Roy puts up with the noise as long as he is able until finally, in exasperation, he throws his new boots at it to drive it away. The next morning he goes outside to retrieve the boots, only to find that they have been chewed up by the cat. Angry and annoyed, he places an ad in Variety offering a reward for the cat.

The next morning the doorbell rings. When Roy opens the door, he finds Bing Crosby standing on the doorstep holding a cat by the scruff of the neck. Bing sings “Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?”

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LIMERICK SPOT

(Risque language)

My wife, Kate, and I were watching one of the episodes of that excellent BBC series Restoration Home. If you haven’t seen it, the shows follow the restorations of decrepit historic mansions and houses in Britain, at the same time researching the history of each house. The episode we were watching had someone carrying out research in the town of Aberystwyth (pronounced Aber-ist-with). “Hey,” I said, “I know a poem about that town” and i recited the poem below. She must have been moved by my literary skills because she spoke a single word of appreciation. “Nice,” she said as she used the remote to take the DVD off pause.

Here it is:

A winsome young lass of Aberystwyth

Took grain to the mill to get grist with.

But the miller's son, Jack,

Laid her flat on her back

And united the organs they pissed with.

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5 Minutes of Bio: Edmund Ruffin

From:

http://www.old-picture.com/defining-moments/Edmund-Ruffin.htm

Most people in this world are not remembered for anything after they are gone. A few people manage to affect the world such that they are remembered for one thing.

Edmund Ruffin (1794-1865) is a man that is remembered for two things.

Edmund Ruffin was born in Prince George County, Virginia on January 5, 1794. He was a farmer and innovative agriculturist. As a noted farmer, he became editor of the "Farmer’s Register", and investigated methods to improve agricultural crop yields. His research interests also included bogs and swamps. Despite his distinguished research, he is not remembered for his advances in agricultural science.

As secessionist tensions grew in the United States in the 1850’s, Ruffin was an ardent supporter of states’ rights and was a proponent of Secession. He became known as one of the Southern "Fire-Eaters", along with Robert Rhett, Louis Wigfall and William Yancey. The famed Fire-Eaters were able to fan the flames of Southern Independence, which led to the secession of South Carolina in 1860, and the formation of the Confederate States of America. Northern sentiment ran so strong against Mr. Ruffin that on August 1, 1862 two regiments of Union regulars from General Fitz-John Porter’s corps crossed the river by Harrison’s Landing and, under the cover of guns on the steamer Mahaska, set Ruffin’s house on fire. It is reported that cheers rent the air from Union Troops as the great Rebel’s house burned to the ground. Despite all this, Edmund Ruffin is not remembered as the Father of the Confederacy, or the leader of the secession movement.

It is for the events of the evening of April 11, 1861 that Mr. Ruffin will be remembered. Major Robert Anderson and some 85 US Soldiers and Officers (12 of whom were musicians) were hunkered down in Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, surrounded by approximately 7,000 Confederate troops under the command of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard. Early in the morning hours of April 12, 1861 the fateful orders came down from Beauregard; and the honor of initiating those orders fell on a 67 year old honorary member of the Palmetto Guards . . . Mr. Edmund Ruffin. At about 4:30 AM on April 12, Edmund Ruffin fired the first cannon shot at Fort Sumter, and the Civil War was officially underway.

Four long years later, with countless losses on both sides, Ruffin received word that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox, and that all was lost. The dream that was the Confederacy was officially over. Upon receiving the news, Ruffin sat at his desk and penned these words:

"I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule -- to all political, social and business connection with the Yankees and to the Yankee race. Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living Southerner and bequeath them to every one yet to be born! May such sentiments be held universally in the outraged and down-trodden South, though in silence and stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression and atrocious outrages, and for deliverance and vengeance for the now ruined, subjugated and enslaved Southern States! 

...And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will be near my latest breath, I here repeat and would willingly proclaim my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule--to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, and the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race.

With the completion of the letter, Mr. Ruffin put down his pen, picked up his revolver, and shot himself in the head.

As such, Mr. Ruffin is remembered for two things . . . firing the first shot, and the last shot of the Civil War.

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Some more Edmund Ruffin pics:

Oops, that's not right, that's Lucius Malfoy

Edmund Ruffin

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Smithers

(Risque language)

Normally I would save something like the following item for Funny Friday but it’s just too good not to share now. It was sent to me by Leo . . .

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In the greatest days of the British Empire, a new commanding officer was sent to a jungle outpost to relieve the retiring colonel. 

After welcoming his replacement and showing the courtesies (gin and tonic, cucumber sandwiches) that protocol decrees, the retiring colonel said "You must meet Captain Smithers, my right-hand man, God, he's really the strength of this office. His talent is simply boundless."

Smithers was summoned and introduced to the new CO, who was surprised to meet a toothless, hairless, scabbed and pockmarked specimen of humanity, a particularly unattractive man less than three foot tall.

"Smithers, old man, tell your new CO about yourself."

"Well, sir, I graduated with honours from Sandhurst, joined the regiment and won the Military Cross and Bar after three expeditions behind enemy lines. I've represented Great Britain in equestrian events and won a Silver Medal in the middleweight division of the Olympics. I have researched the history of..."

Here the colonel interrupted, "Yes, yes, never mind that Smithers, the CO can find all that in your file. Tell him about the day you told the witch doctor to get fucked."

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Reader Comment

Otto, 

Not in an attempt for one-upmanship, but I still do peel apples this way, as taught by my mother. As one of now great age (but less than your Dad), I went to primary school during the 1939-45 war and no tuckshops in those days. Mum had found that she could peel an apple with continuous peel, leave it attached to the apple at the bottom, and then re-wind the peel before putting it in the lunchbox. This stopped the apple going brown between the time she did it in the morning and when I ate it at lunchtime, fresh as a daisy. Oranges likewise were routinely peeled that way and their continuous peels made better ‘pretend’ yo-yo’s, being more springy.

All this with a sharp kitchen knife – there were no little plastic peelers in those days!

Lapun Pinis

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Some more fruit carvings . . .

Caution, includes a risque pic . . . 

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More items sent by Thomas:

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Fruit and Vegetable Carving

Once I peeled an apple with one continuous peel. Whilst that may not seem impressive to you, dear reader, I ask whether you have ever done it?

I mention this because I recently came across pics of the works of some of my fellow fruit and vegetable carvers.

There are disputes as to whether fruit and vegetable carving originated in Japan or Thailand, although the preferred theory is that it began in 14th century Thailand. It has now spread world wide and the various carvings are, I admit, somewhat more impressive than my continuous apple peel.

Here are some examples:

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Ringo Starr's Pic

"Every time I see your face

It reminds me of the places we used to go

But all I've got is a photograph . . . "

- Ringo Starr, lyrics from "Photograph"

Forty nine years ago, in 1964, the Beatles visited the US. In a limousine on the way from the airport, a Chevy Impala pulled up alongside and Ringo Starr snapped a pic of the teenage occupants waving at Starr and the other Beatles: 

Fast forward to October 2013. Ringo Starr, now aged 73, launches his book “Photograph”, which includes the above pic, and states at the launch that he would like to know their identities.

The publicity results in their identities becoming known - Bob Toth, Gary Van Deursen, Suzanne Rayot, Arlene Norbe Ressler, Charlie Scwartz and Matt Blender – and that they had skipped school for the occasion. All had been suspended as soon as they got back to High School.

US TV station NBC took it one step further and recreated the photo using the same persons in the same positions in an Impala:

Starr invited them to attend Las Vegas to watch his show this month and to meet with him after the show.

According to Gary Van Deursen, who was driving the borrowed Chevy Impala, they had cut class to go see the band arrive, and got lucky as they passed a row of limousines carrying the Beatles. "We went back up to the front (of the limousine line), waved to each one of them, and the last one was Ringo, he's the one who went, 'Roll down your window!'" 

They did and Ringo took the photograph.

Gary Van Deursen holding a copy of the Starr pic.

Bob Toth points to his position in the car

The Beatles arrive in the US

The Beatles

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Don’t go rushing off to your bookstore for Ringo's book or try to order it on Amazon because it is only available by ordering it from Ringo’s website, www.RingoPhotoBook.com. There are only 2,500 copies, each is signed by Ringo and it is bound in leather with gilt lettering. Each page is edged in gold foil. The price is £345 and the royalties go to the Lotus Foundation, a centre in London in which small groups of people can explore such fields as mysticism, healing, and meditation.

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