Spotted either a mountain fox squirrel or a fisher on our road trip today while leaf peeping
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yBd81g8BHf4B9hSM9
Assorted leaf peep pix from paint bank in the link
Halloween with @suproanoke and @maximillian_deersteak
Lucky break
Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to replace our main car’s alternator, but it was just a bad battery cable.
Instead of $1000-$1500 , it was under $200.
Thank you, Hamren’s Auto Service!
We lost a few today.
Elke Sommer, Susan St. James
Rest in Peace Sir Patrick Stewart
Proton CEO Andy Yen projects a calm persona and rails against Big Tech and critiques AI. Internally, he is pushing engineers to build Proton with AI, even when they have security concerns.
A comparison chart titled with Proton services on the left pointing to privacy-focused alternative services on the right using green arrows. The listed alternatives are:
• Proton VPN points to Mullvad VPN
• Proton Authenticator points to both 2FAS Auth and Aegis
• Proton Drive points to Filen
• Proton Mail points to Tuta Mail
• Proton Pass points to both Bitwarden and 2FAS Pass
https://www.404media.co/manifestos-fear-and-loser-thinking-inside-protons-ai-reckoning/
They never stop co-opting folklore.
When I was a kid, one of the priests I knew co-opted jack-o’-lantern making as a Christian thing.
The Pumpkin Gospel or Pumpkin Parable is a Christian teaching tool or children’s ministry activity that uses carving a pumpkin as a metaphor for spiritual rebirth: picking a pumpkin represents God choosing a person; cutting the top and cleaning out the inside represents removing sin; carving a smiling face represents a new creation; and placing a light or candle inside represents letting Jesus’ light shine outward.
That’s all nice and everything for him, but I remember rolling my eyes at age 8.
Somehow, to me, having your brains scooped out and replaced with the light of another mind is a horror; that level of loss of self seems beyond existential.
Channel 42 halloween special
The Green Eye Of The Little Yellow God
https://allpoetry.com/The-Green-Eye-Of-The-Little-Yellow-God
The Green Eye Of The Little Yellow God
There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave
Of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.
He was known as "Mad Carew" by the subs at Khatmandu,
He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell;
But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks,
And the Colonel's daughter smiled on him as well.
He had loved her all along, with a passion of the strong,
The fact that she loved him was plain to all.
She was nearly twenty-one and arrangements had begun
To celebrate her birthday with a ball.
He wrote to ask what present she would like from Mad Carew;
They met next day as he dismissed a squad;
And jestingly she told him then that nothing else would do
But the green eye of the little Yellow God.
On the night before the dance, Mad Carew seemed in a trance,
And they chaffed him as they puffed at their cigars:
But for once he failed to smile, and he sat alone awhile,
Then went out into the night beneath the stars.
He returned before the dawn, with his shirt and tunic torn,
And a gash across his temple dripping red;
He was patched up right away, and he slept through all the day,
And the Colonel's daughter watched beside his bed.
He woke at last and asked if they could send his tunic through;
She brought it, and he thanked her with a nod;
He bade her search the pocket saying "That's from Mad Carew,"
And she found the little green eye of the god.
She upbraided poor Carew in the way that women do,
Though both her eyes were strangely hot and wet;
But she wouldn't take the stone and Mad Carew was left alone
With the jewel that he'd chanced his life to get.
When the ball was at its height, on that still and tropic night,
She thought of him and hurried to his room:
As she crossed the barrack square she could hear the dreamy air
Of a waltz tune softly stealing thro' the gloom.
His door was open wide, with silver moonlight shining through;
The place was wet and slippery where she trod:
An ugly knife lay buried in the heart of Mad Carew,
'Twas the "Vengeance of the Little Yellow God."
There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave
Of Mad Carew,And the Yellow God forever gazes down.
Day 25 Gentleman Ghost
Meet James Craddock, the Gentleman Ghost. He first appeared in Flash Comics #88 in October 1947, created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. In life he was Gentleman Jim, a highwayman who robbed the English countryside in the 1800s, courtly to his victims even as he took their valuables. He crossed the Atlantic and ran afoul of the gunslingers Nighthawk and Cinnamon, and Nighthawk lynched him on a false charge.
Death didn’t hold him. Craddock rose as a real ghost and learned he must wander the earth until the spirit of his killer moves on. The cruelty of it is that Nighthawk and Cinnamon are the reincarnated souls of Prince Khufu and Chay-Ara, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who can never truly die. So the Gentleman Ghost is stuck here, elegant and furious, robbing the living forever.
He shows up in Gotham City every now and then, first to bug the JSA, then Alan Scott (one of my two preferred Green Lanterns, and sometimes hassle Batman.
#mabsdrawlloweenclub2026, #doodle, #ghost, #moon, #pumpkin #mdwc26d24, #mdwc26d25 #mdwc26d26 #roanokeva
20 years married today
Doesn’t feel that long, and weirdly, feels like it’s always been this way.
I’m glad that I found my other half.
We took a little trip to Blacksburg for some leaf peeping and a late lunch on the deck at Mellow Mushroom.
We went to Gardner’s and got some ice cream, then made a quick pit stop at a McDonald’s en route home. Apparently, we made the mistake of turning off the car and had to get a jump start to wake the Black Pearl enough to drive it home. Tomorrow, it will go to the mechanic to figure out what is wrong; the battery was dead the other day, so I brought it back to AutoZone for a replacement, and now a second battery has failed us.
No big deal, McDonald’s has high traffic, and the second person I asked was a friendly face who helped me start the car back up (the first were some ladies who probably thought I was some weird troglodyte looking to strangle them with my cables).
We got home and have been having a little trouble finding a movie to get us into a Halloween mood. The lightweight Disney stuff didn’t have the oomph for us. Agatha All Along, Marvel Zombies, Coven Academy, Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic—all kind of meh. The latest season of Taskmaster with Ayoade and that group is blah, too. The standby of Newhart isn’t doing it; BHK said to try the live-action Moana. I never did see the animated version. Given that it was unknown to me otherwise, it was fine; not my cup of tea, but it was okay.
Judy Canova in Puddin’ Head
Judy Canova in PUDDIN’ HEAD (1941), directed by Joseph Santley for Republic Pictures. In “The Ghost Routine,” an attempted haunting becomes a musical number for a heroine who sings whenever she’s frightened. A stormy night and a skeleton-costumed intruder provide the spooky atmosphere, even if the film itself is decidedly a comedy.
Known as the “Ozark Nightingale,” Canova built her career around a country-girl persona, complete with pigtails, a Southern drawl and exuberant yodeling. Born in Florida, she began performing alongside her sister Annie and brother Zeke in a family vaudeville act before moving into radio, Broadway and motion pictures. Behind the comic characterization was a singer with considerable range and a powerful voice.
Republic made her the star of musical comedies including SCATTERBRAIN (1940), SIS HOPKINS (1941) and JOAN OF OZARK (1942), giving her opportunities to combine singing with broad comedy. Her success extended beyond the screen: THE JUDY CANOVA SHOW debuted on radio in 1943, with a supporting cast that included Mel Blanc.
James Robert Parish later profiled her in THE SLAPSTICK QUEENS (1973), alongside Marjorie Main, Joan Davis, Martha Raye and Phyllis Diller, drawing in part on an interview with Canova herself. This October, we’re making room for her on the comic side of the macabre.
#movies #filmsinreview #horrorcomedy
#judyconova
Day 23: Cryptid
Today is a triple threat for our cryptid family portrait: a mermaid, a fur-bearing trout, and a deep-sea diver who is also a yeti under that helmet.
I imagine most people are aware of merfolk and squatch-kin, but the furry trout might be new to those who have not dipped more than a pinky toe into legend and lore.
The fur-bearing trout is a mythical creature from American and Icelandic folklore. According to legends dating back to the 17th century, these fish supposedly evolved a thick, luxurious coat of fur to maintain their body heat in freezing northern waters like the Great Lakes. Our trout here may be more of a fur-bearing catfish, given the model.
#mabsdrawlloweenclub2026 #doodle #cryptid #mdwc26d23 #roanokeva 🧜♀️ 🐈 👣
#mabsdrawlloweenclub2026, #doodle, #cryptid, #mdwc26d23, #roanokeva
Day 22: Ghoul
Today’s doodle features a ghoul – a sharp contrast to the peaceful mushroom myconid from back on Day 6.
In D&D lore, ghouls are the ultimate carrion feeders of the dark. Driven by a maddening hunger, specifically for dead human flesh, they actively haunt battlefields and cemeteries, using an acute sense of smell to track down rotting remains and frantically claw away the earth from fresh graves.
The dark irony of their existence is that they gain zero biological nourishment from the corpses they devour. Sustained entirely by necromantic energy, a ghoul can sit locked inside a sealed stone tomb for thousands of years without starving, but once a body drops, that eternal Abyssal hunger drives them into a feeding frenzy.
While the myconid mushroom folk gently uses decay as fertilizer to nurture new life, the ghoul exists purely to violate the dead, stripping the bones clean in the dark.
#mabsdrawlloweenclub2026, #doodle, #ghoul, #mdwc26d22, #roanokeva
Day 21,081
Drawlloween 2026, day 21: sinister shadow.
Meet Carl Sands, the Shadow Thief! He first crept into DC Comics in The Brave and the Bold #36 in July 1961, created by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert. His Dimensiometer lets him flatten into a living shadow, untouchable and able to slip through the slightest gap, and he wears ebony gloves so he can still carry off loot. Hawkman and his crew have been chasing him off and on ever since.
Mr. Nobody from Doom Patrol was my first thought for this one. Eric Morden is a living shadow too, flat as ink, but he is more of an absurdist, abstract sort of villain; I have a mild fondness for him and don’t view him as quite so sinister, given today’s political climate. Then I thought of Lamont Cranston, The Shadow, but I did him last time shadow was the prompt. Last other option was the Phantom Blot, but I think I’m a bit Disneyed out.
It’s weird to go from having very little to choose from (vicious viper) to too many options (sinister shadow). Ultimately, I figured some obscure-ish 60’s villain suits my primitive vibe well enough.
#mabsdrawlloweenclub2026 , #doodle , #sinistershadow , #mdwc26d21 , roanokeva
Joe Dator
Rediscovering “Columbo” in 2020
From newyorker.com on October 27, 2020.
Still solid.