Question Mark and the Mysterians

Oh great mysteries of life. First, on this St. Patrick's Day I wonder if I will get my citizenship. The folks on the citizenship complainer board wonder, as well. I had my fixer check in with the office in Dublin, and the citizenship office responded thus: "Unfortunately, it is not possible at present to give you an indication of the timescale in which your application will be processed." Oh well.

Second mystery is truly weird. I was referred to a potential client for some possible consulting. I went to a location to hear more information. And none was really provided, even under an nda. What do you say to people who want to know if you can do the thing that they won't really describe to you? I wanted to help them but I simply wished them the very best, that's what. 

Live Better Electrically

For 11 years I have obsessed over a photo I took of the decorative cement brick facade of a local apartment house. The photo I took of the cement brick had a medallion in it. I wish I'd taken a closeup of the medallion. This, my friends, is what happens when you have too much time on your hands.

I knew that I'd taken the photo in the neighborhood of our car dealership, where I had an upcoming service appointment, so a few weeks back I used Google Street View to find the building. Took all of five minutes. After my service appointment I did a driveby and took better photos of the brick and the medallion. The brick is, as always, gorgeous.

I fully expected the medallion to refer to something about the external architecture, but it turns out that it's related to a post-war effort to use cleaner power in buildings. This was a Medallion Home, whose slogan at the time was "Live Better Electrically".

For more information, there is an entire website devoted to it.

Enjoy

King For A Day

I broke a daruma last month but this week I was invited by a friend to take a slice of King Cake, and I got the baby. 

Maybe that offsets the daruma. Actually what bothers me about the breaking the figure is that the shop keeper would not let me pay for it, and I felt awful about having deprived him of that income. He said "It was an accident. It cannot be helped," This is an expression in Japan that covers a lot of annoyances. At the moment I am not feeling as if I am at my most graceful or sharp.

But from the 3:30pm to midnight on Mardi Gras, I was king for a day.

I'll take it.