Strangest thing I've seen all day

The Porcelain Pistols are replicas of James Bond’s Walther PPK and its contemporary sister, the P99,with friendly permission of Carl Walther Inc. The fragile weapon, hand-painted in the style of classic tableware motifs, lies next to your coffee and cake, asking to be picked up. Its coolness and comfortable grip increase the qualms of the user, leaving him in a quandary between the pleasure of luxury and violence.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over?

I have always been fond of the Blue Onion pattern, though. Must be because it has its origins in the 18th century.

My question for JayG is: “Are these on the approved roster (or would that be menu) for Massachusettes?”

H/T to BYG

Overheard in the office

So, I was sitting in a staff meeting with the Boss and various task leads, when Bitter Young Guy stated that he wouldn’t be at work on Friday – he’d be home getting his pipes cleaned. Without thinking I shot back with “I hope that isn’t a euphemism for something else.”

There was a brief silence before BYG started laughing and everyone else joined in. I’ve been with this company for almost 11 years. You’d think they’d be used to me by now.

And he was talking about tree roots in his sewer system. Really.

Random stuff

Banyan post, part 2, is mostly written but I can’t find it. I know you are all heaving a huge sigh of disappointment relief, but it will have to wait.

I’m getting ready for a reenactment near Wilmington, DE, this weekend. When Sweet Daughter comes with me (which is always, so far), I do as much of the food prep at home as I can so I’ve more time to spend with her at the event. I got home from work today and roasted two chickens, chopped over a gallon of vegetables, got a blister as a result, hard-boiled a dozen eggs, fried a pound of bacon, got the chowder started, and made dinner. I’m tired.

Place fresh rosemary under the skin, halved lemons in the cavity, roast, and you've got a lovely aromatic, lemon-rosemary chicken! Not a period recipe, but you know what? My only heat source this weekend will be a charcoal brazier, and I'm not going to try to roast over a brazier. Sue me.

School has been in session for 11 days. So far we’ve dropped money for the PTA fundraiser, a book sale, and don’t get me started on school supplies (does a kindergartener really need 30 glue sticks, or are we supplying the administrative offices, too?)

 Tommorow I'm going to see if I can get everything we need for the weekend in the car so I don't have to haul the trailer. I have a feeling I'm going to be loading 80% of what I need in the car, find out that I can'tget 40 pounds of mud in a 30 pound sack, and end up re-loading it all into the trailer anyway.

Another musical interlude

In lieu of actual content, I'm posting blackmail material for future reference. Whether it's against myself and that lovely circa 1970 bathroom, or Sweet Daughter for when she starts dating, I'm not sure. What I do know is that after a long morning of playing outside in the dirt, I threw her in the shower to wash off the grime. I went and got lunch started, and when I went back upstairs, I found she had plugged up the drain on the tub, was playing in the resulting bathwater, and was singing the same song, over and over at the top of her lungs, sounding like a rooster with the croup as the result of a head cold. I snuck in and caught this.

What if Facebook was around then?

B-17F Flight Log

A reader passed along the following:

Not sure if you are interested but I found a B17F flight log that was scanned and posted to the web. Cover says 8th Air Force, 385th Bomb Wing Great Ashfield, England. 5 SEP 1943-21 Feb 1944. It is in a PDF format and it was very interesting. It is hand written and covers the flight to England from the US, training conducted, and accounts of missions flown with names. It ends when the writer was himself wounded.

A note at the beginning reads:

“Finally go around to sending this log. It scares me to read it. I don’t understand how we got out alive a lot of the things happened I had completely forgotten about.”

Caution: Don't go unless you've got some time to spend. It's riveting.

Banyans (Part 1)

Shorter Half summarizes a banyan as casual dress for gentlemen. “Think 18th century Hugh Hefner in a smoking jacket, but more acceptable in public. They were worn by men to indicate refinement -- to show that they appreciated the wonders of the orient, had the wealth to afford expensive fabrics, and the leisure to not have to worry about ruining a garment with manual labor."

A banyan was considered “undress” wear, meaning it was worn for informal occasions. It was paired with a cap or turban-type head covering instead of a wig. (If you wore wigs a lot, you tended to keep your head shaved. It just made things easier.) Very generally speaking, banyans ranged from loose, flowing, T-shaped robes early in the century to more fitted, Asian-inspired garments later.

Benjamin Rush observed that:

Loose dresses contribute to the easy and vigorous exercise of the faculties of the mind. This remark is so obvious, and so generally known, that we find studious men are always painted in gowns, when they are seated in their libraries.

So, without further ado, I present to you the Gentlemen of the Detached Hospital, a.k.a. the Z.Z. Top of Colonial Williamsburg.

Presenting the ZZ Top of the Reenacting World

Everybody's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.

Michael W. eschews the negligee cap for something cooler with more protection from the sun. That silk brocade is heavy, and hot.

Mike's lovely wife made this banyan for him.

Shorter Half vamps for the camera. This is a hand-block printed cotton from India, and is patterned on  a banyan in the Sharon Ann Burnston book, "Fitting and Proper". More on the construction of this later.

Chris looks refined and relaxed while he coordinates beautifully with the crepe myrtle in bloom behind him. This is also a hand-block printed cotton from India, and uses a French pattern. The cap uses a pattern from Linda Baumgarten's "Costume Close Up". More on this later, as well.