I knew that beautiful weekend weather was too good to be true. We're headed for another cold snap, this one bringing near-freezing temperatures over the weekend. I know it's not as brutal as the cold many people are still facing elsewhere in the world but for me, in mid-March, that seems cold.
Dave is off to Belgium today for a four-day trip with his music students. They'll be performing in several locations on their annual "music tour" before coming back on Friday. So it will be just me and Olga this week holding down the fort. I'll probably be eating peanut butter and baked beans again.
(I really could cook, if I wanted to, but when it's just me I lack the motivation. OK, even when it's not just me, I lack the motivation.)
We're also due for a quiet week in the library because all the high school students are traveling -- if not for music tour then for what's called "Alternatives," which involves international travel with some sort of educational or adventure element. (Nearly all travel is educational, I suppose.) My boss, for example, is off to Spain with a group of kids and some other teachers. I am looking forward to some quiet time, though the middle schoolers are still around so it won't be completely quiet.
Here's a curious drawing I found in a returned book. What on earth could it mean? Any guesses? I see symbols for female, male and both genders combined, as well as flying birds with arrows, a person falling down the stairs and what looks like an angry ghost. I am truly perplexed. I even tried uploading it to Google image search, thinking it was perhaps some kind of psychological model -- an illustration of gender transitioning, or of how people adapt to change in general -- but that just produced a lot of unrelated drawings of stick figures. It definitely looks metaphorical, doesn't it?
When I uploaded the ghost by itself, Google AI told me confidently, "it is a sketch from Henry David Thoreau's journal."
Ummmm...no.
(Photo: Blossoms on our ornamental plum tree.)
We are very similar as far as cooking goes.
ReplyDeleteThe drawing is curious indeed, and one could spend hours trying to interpret it, without success.
There are so many curious elements.
DeleteThat is an intriguing drawing. I have studied it but cannot come up with much of an answer. Do you remember the book it was inside? Would that offer any clues?
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the book, or even if it was still in the book when I found it. It may have been loose in the book return box.
DeleteI thought that your " angry ghost" could be a " milestone". (Old carved stones by the side of the road marking distance to the next place) There seem to be sign posts at either side showing a direction. An intriguing drawing indeed.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a thought. It does look like a possible road marker.
DeleteMy son-in-law's father always claims that he cannot cook - which seems ridiculous to me. When Stewart's mother goes away, she leaves pre-prepared meals for his father in the fridge or freezer with attached labels advising microwave timings. If Dave was a more considerate husband, he would surely do the same for you.
ReplyDeleteThat would be fantastic. I must speak to Dave about that. I'll be sure to tell him the idea came from you.
DeleteKids say (and write) the darnedest things. I think that saying is from a show hosted by Art Linkletter.
ReplyDeleteYes! I once had an old book based on that TV show. It was quite funny.
DeletePeanut butter is one of my GO-TOs when Jerry’s away. But if anyone would dare open a can of baked beans in this house, I’d be tempted to kick them out. At minimum, the beans would have to go. Don’t you remember that sketch from Thoreau’s Walden diaries? It got creepy on that pond at night.
ReplyDeleteMust have been Halloween!
DeleteI'd put that drawing back before the Demon who lost it returns.
ReplyDeleteHa! Otherwise it might scratch me up in bed at night!
DeleteWhat is appealing when someone else is willing to cook and what is appealing when it is just me, are two totally opposite ends of the spectrum!
ReplyDeleteYour found artwork does appear to be some statement on genders but heck if I can interpret what they are saying. It looks like birds are being added to the male sign in the key below the stairs.
I think that's an ampersand. So it reads "female, male, female & male." That's how I see it, anyway.
DeleteI was interpreting the comma after the male on the top line of the key as a bird attached to the male symbol on the bottom line of the key. As you pointed out, it is probably just a comma.
DeleteEven *I* wouldn't eat peanut butter and baked beans - what a combo! Ha! Also, I cackled at Thoreau's journal - that's hilarious.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? The best part was how it was so definite. No hedging at all.
DeleteThat's the most baffling drawing. It's a bit like the comic during kamala's campaign showing women in line to vote, then kicking off the handmaid clothes. In a way.
ReplyDeleteIt really is very mysterious.
DeleteI wouldn't want to travel with a bunch of high school students as I imagine the "mischief" they could get into and I would be responsible for them. Hopefully, Dave has other teachers or chaperones along to help out.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Supervising a school trip is my idea of a nightmare. But he's been doing it so long it's like second nature to him.
DeleteI, too, thought of gender change. I would be SO interested to speak to the artist.
ReplyDeleteWhile Dave's gone, I think you should go crazy one night and get a frozen pizza! Every time he goes off on one of these student trips I think of how glad I am that I will never have to do that.
Ha! I'm not sure I've EVER bought a frozen pizza, to be honest. Not even in college.
DeleteThe drawing is a mystery to me. I'd check to see who had the book last and track them down and ask them. There's better ways to not cook than peanut butter and baked beans. Here at least, the grocery store has a wide variety of pre-prepared meals.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could remember what book it came from! I could do a ready meal but they're always so salty and fatty.
DeleteThat's a very intriguing drawing. It kept my attention trying to get some meaning out of it.
ReplyDeleteMine too!
DeleteYou can always order out ... food to go ... even get it delivered to your door! Peanut butter is good anytime! Canned baked beans ... maybe not so much!
ReplyDeleteI think 🤔 you are trying way too hard to make something of that picture!
It's funny how so many people seem to dislike canned baked beans. I've always liked them, though my favorite brand is Bush's and we don't have that here in the UK.
DeleteI am a big salad eater. I have a salad for supper virtually every night. I cook for Tim, but generally don't eat it. I have a salad of whatever I have in the fridge. Last night it was lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, small chunks of cheese, dried cranberries and fried tofu. If you are not into chopping every night, you could always make enough salad for two or three days.
ReplyDeleteI like a good salad but then I'd have to shop, which is also something I'm trying to avoid. I know: whine, whine, whine.
DeleteConsider a nice take-out meal. These meals usually amount to 2 meals.
ReplyDeletePeanut butter is always a good solution. Quick and easy.
The drawing shows someone is thinking about sexuality. The drawing suggests a lot is going on.
Yeah, there's definitely something about gender going on there. But what do the birds and their direction of travel have to do with it, I wonder?
Deleteoh...and your picture. This is what I thought. So many people seem to have this idea of living a life to get into heaven and then (I saw the little ghost as a tombstone), the men and women march up to heaven, pay their tolls, and discover they are descending into hell. No idea about the gender stuff unless it can be tied into the fact that the Evangelical Republicans are trying to portray that as ungodly and sinful, and demanding we all live a life approved by Evangelical Republicans.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you, I'd frame that scrap and display it at my desk. When the kids ask about it, I would say that I found it thought provoking, and quite an piece of artwork. I think it won't be long and you will have your answer, once the kids begin to discuss it.
That's an interesting interpretation. I didn't even think of the afterlife! Are there birds in heaven or hell, I wonder?!
DeleteI love the blooms! That is a strange but very interesting drawing. It really does beg to be deciphered.
ReplyDeleteSome mysteries are unknowable, I suppose, even in the age of Google.
DeleteWow! A Thoreau! So much for Google and AI! That sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Dave, for all the kids and others. And nice for you -- a little bit of downtime at work and one-on-one with Olga.
ReplyDeleteI should send it to the Smithsonian. They would like to know I have an undiscovered fragment of Thoreau's journal. (Of course, everyone there has probably been fired.)
DeleteNo idea on the drawing. Someone did spend some time on it. Really, beans and peanut butter? I'm pretty sure you could do a take away and it would feed you for two days. Before prepared food got so salty, this was in the mid-80s, my shopping consisted of 7 Lean Cuisines, and that was dinner every night. I hear you on unmotivated by cooking for one.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the problem with both takeaway and ready meals -- too much salt. And often, with takeaway, too much packaging.
DeleteI eat peanut butter every day. Nothing wrong with that! Enjoy your alone time. Does Dave enjoy the trips with students?
ReplyDeleteHe loves them, as much as he ever loves traveling. He's more of a stay-at-home type by nature.
DeleteWhat you saw as an angry ghost, I saw as a tombstone. It really is a curious drawing! It might warrant tracking down the person who checked out the book to find out about it!
ReplyDeleteIt could very well be a tombstone. Maybe it's something about the path our lives take?
DeleteAI is hilarious- I do appreciate an angry ghost nearly always. When alone it is so much easier to go to Marks and Spencer food shop- some of it is really GOOD! Not terribly expensive for one guy- I liked their chicken already cooked, enough for two meals and a snack-small packet of fresh peas or beans or some other veg- Grab a bun from the bun bin and you are set! Ready to watch all of the bad movies without annoying Dave.
ReplyDeleteWe do have an M&S near us but I rarely go there, only because I have to cross a busy road to get to it. Kind of silly, right?
DeleteA sketch from Thoreau's journal! That's a good one. I wish I knew what it meant. Peanut butter and baked beans? Ick. I can be lazy about cooking since I live alone but I would not stoop to P.B. and beans. Sometimes I long to join the girls in a nibble of their kibble because it would be convenient, but I won't stoop to that either. Besides, their kibble is pretty expensive.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Ha! I nibbled kibble as a kid, just to try it, and it's pretty disgusting. I remember it being very gritty. Maybe it's better now.
DeleteIt's a very curious drawing and I like it even without knowing its meaning.
ReplyDeleteI lack cooking motivation too when It's just me and it has been just me for 15 years now.
do you mix the peanut butter into the baked beans for more flavour or eat them separately? 😁
Yeah, I like the drawing even without understanding it, because of the questions it poses! I eat peanut butter toast with the beans in a bowl, but I have been known to dip the toast into the beans. :)
DeleteFascinating drawing...I've returned to view it several times. It wish there was some way to find out it's meaning...it reminds of thought experiments, like The Trolley Problem.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's something for a psychology class?
DeleteI don't make much effort to cook either; I'm not fussy about what I eat so a bagel and cheese or some scrambled eggs are plenty for me. That drawing does seem to mean something but I have no idea what!
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way. Just give me something to stop my stomach from growling!
Delete