Serious with Confidentiality and Quick

This little flyer came through the door of our previous house, about 6 years ago. Why did I keep it? Well, not because I thought I might use the services of Mr Dal, that's for sure.

I certainly admired his enterprise - most of the flyers we received were for plumbers or builders, and I can see people might not think this was an appropriately spiritual marketing method. But Mr Dal scoffs at such naysayers.

He is determined to get his message out there so that he can help you using his OCCULT SCIENCES. (I'm not sure why being so spiritual causes people to use RANDOM CAPITALS, but apparently it DOES.)

I would certainly like to be helped with my 'Energy Weakness' and 'BAD OBSTACLES', and it says 'Results Guaranteed', so that seems ideal. But, do you know what? I think he over-sells it. I mean, is there anything this man can't tackle?

And that takes us to something that I find fascinating about things like this - the enormous gulf between what it promises and the way it's presented. Like the 'individual' horoscopes you get out of a machine on the pier, or tacky plastic religious kitsch, I have to wonder how anyone can have faith in such unpreposessing objects.

So, Mr Dal, if you can really guarantee success, why are you trudging round the streets putting flyers through letterboxes?

Friday Postcard - Animal Magic

The thing that makes this postcard unnecessarily disturbing is the cringeing posture of these poor creatures. I suppose you would cringe if you had to make a living dressed up like this. Only the bird looks unabashed. In fact, he looks positively cocky. I think it's the feet.

Anyway, the back of the card tells us these are The Thorpe Park 'Animals'. It also tells us that Thorpe Park is 'A 400 acre magic wonderland of fun, pleasure and relaxation.' I've never been there, so I'll have take their word for it.

Storykins

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time there was a toy maker called Mr Hasbro in a big, far-off country called America. Mr Hasbro was very jealous of another toy maker called Mr Mattel, because Mr Mattel had made some very small dollies called Liddle Kiddles, which all the girls and boys loved to play with.
'I'm going to make some very small dollies too,' he said, 'and to avoid copyright issues, my dollies will be based on fairytale characters.'

So he made his dollies. Can you see them in the picture at the top? Look, there's Cinderella with her pumpkin coach, and Sleeping Beauty with a bed, and Goldilocks with some empty porridge bowls, and a weird, amorphous lump pretending to be a bear.

And let's see who else, Mr Hasbro brought from Fairytale Land.

 Oh yes, Prince Charming, well strictly speaking, he should been with Cinderella, but okay, he's got a horse. And Rumpelstiltskin? With his spinning wheel. Ugly little fella, isn't he? And then there's Mother Hubbard.

Now, we all know her as Old Mother Hubbard, don't we? But maybe Mr Hasbro was just being polite. Although, if we're going to be strictly accurate, she comes from the Land of Nursery Rhymes, not the Land of Fairytales. And quite frankly, the rhyme is mainly about her dog, who goes on to smoke a pipe and various unlikely activities. But Mr Hasbro just decided to focus on the first verse, which tells of her empty cupboard and her starving dog, and is not really very happy, is it, boys and girls?

But Mr Hasbro went on to create My Little Pony and Transformers, and made lots of money, so he lived very happily ever after.

The End

Curious Creatures from a Curious Friend

 Is it Wednesday again already? Time for a curious offering from another lovely blog-friend. These superbly odd creatures belong to Cathy from Menopausal Musing. Or, to be more acurate, they belong to her husband. "He always refers to them as "cats", but I think they are bunnies!"she tells me.

Hmmm... Cat or bunny? Or scary donkey-girafffe hybrid? Seriously, I have NO idea of what these animals are really meant to be. Anyone else got a clue?

Oh well, it doesn't really matter, as whatever they are, they are wonderfully jolly, playing their instruments and having a grand old sing-song!

Whipped Cream and The Lonely Bull

A bit late posting today, so this one is short and sweet. An album with the irresistible title, 'Whipped Cream and The Lonely Bull'. Add in The Mexicali Brass, and a glamour model with backcombed helmet hair and a poncho, and you have a recipe for success! (See what I did there?)

More prosaically, they are both tracks made famous by Herb Alpert, which The Mexicali Brass have decided to cash in on.

Good Fortune Toothpicks

Phew! It is 'Good Fortune' indeed, to find that these toothpicks have been sterilized with 'Non-poisonous' disinfectant. I hate it when they use that other kind. You know, the poisonous kind...

Friday Postcard - I'm Hammy, Fly Me

Do you remember the inexplicable hamster postcard? Imagine my unbounded joy at finding another! This time, there appears to be a coherent narrative to the whole scene. Clearly the photographer was developing his powers as a story-teller, by putting the hamster in a scene of everyday Fisher Price life. Possibly an echo of the Beatles arriving at JFK in 1964?