The Priest of Nothing 17

I've changed the title of this story from "Crosstalk" to "The Priest of Nothing", in keeping with its subject.
I may change the schedule a little, alternating this story with some simpler things that don't take up much time, as I'm also writing the prose version of this, along with a new novel.

Busy, busy, busy....

Truffles can Deceive

It's amazing how quickly an industrial forest can spread, once you plant the first seeds.

American Thanksgiving is approaching--happy Thanksgiving, and may the dessert be with you.

Here's one--a dessert, I mean--with an assortment of chocolate that will undoubtedly astonish you.  This is from the Mad Baker, who says that it can be made in one day, if you get up early.  Made in a day, eaten in an hour.

But wait; there's more! Here's a beautiful chocolate cake from Essential Chocolate Desserts. in Culver City, California. There are other pictures of desserts on this site, but this one caught my eye.

What was I talking about....

Ah yes, demolition equipment. Here is a wonderful picture of a demolition unit finishing off the complete demolition of an entire site. Don't try this at home, folks!

In this picture, by the way, you get an excellent view of the hydraulics and the shovel at the working end of the machine.

There can be no creation without destruction, so if you want a new garden and gazebo, you'll have to destroy your pesky neighbor's house.

Wagons ho!

Pickard Trilobite, for the Discerning Motorist.

Ducks everywhere rely on Pickard Trilobites to get them to work and to take them to far-away places with strange-sounding names.

For those who don't have a Pickard Trilobite, here is an assortment of chocolate bars by way of consolation.

Here are some pictures of dredging equipment from Ellicott Dredges. Wikipedia has an interesting article on what dredging is all about, in case you want to get started in the dredging business, or you want to replace your neighbor's house with a new harbour.

Dredging equipment is just as fascinating as heavy construction equipment, with the added bonus that you can actually live on some dredgers, should you choose this mission.

It's Tuesday morning. The cat is going berserk for some reason; the shower tap is broken and will require the attentions of a plumber, and someone, somewhere, is running a TV at the highest possible volume.

Here is a picture of a B-36 bomber.

Happy trails to you....

McBowel's Funtime Meal with Happy Axe

It's a healthy meal because it comes with a lettuce leaf, which qualifies as a salad (if you eat it), and besides, tomato ketchup has tomatoes in it.

During the night, while I was sleeping, time moved ahead for everyone else and left me behind, so when I woke up, I was an hour behind.

That's the only explanation I can think of for the world inexplicably being an hour ahead of me. Come back, world!

Here is a chocolate clock, meaning it dispenses chocolate instead of cuckoo birds on the hour. Choco, choco, choco. I wonder if you get twelve chocolates at 12 o'clock.

Here is a boat made out of chocolate. This proves you can do almost anything you want to do, if you set your mind to it, and hire a good chocolatier.

More importantly, here, from a company called Rock and Dirt,  is a picture of a large grinder for grinding large things, or large amounts of things. This place is Valhalla for anyone who likes heavy machinery; it features dozens of pictures and specs on every item, and you can buy or lease.

So much happiness in one compressed morning.

I'll be back....

We're Doomed--Oh, Look; Truffles!

Chocolate can solve a lot of problems.

How do we learning to distinguish chocolate from non-chocolate? There's been a fair amount of debate on this topic over the years. Academics, of course, have invented entire vocabularies to deal with it; they call it 'concept learning', or 'category learning', and they bash each other with learned tomes on the subject. You can read a summary of the issues here, on Wikipedia.

Most of us just eat the chocolate.

It is, however, an interesting debate, and the academics, when not busily bashing each other, have taken us a little further down the path to an understanding of how the mind works. We urgently need that understanding.

In my opinion, the ability to form concepts or categories is rooted in primitive neural structures that we share with animals. We can learn much about it by simply observing the way children learn.

Show a little girl a Sherman tank, for instance, and she will immediately grasp certain things--the tracks, the armor, the turret, etc. Show her a Tiger tank, and she will undoubtedly notice the heavier armor, and the 88 mm gun.

The question is, how will she get beyond the "Oh no; it's a Tiger tank--it will blow up my Sherman!" stage to, this is a TANK, and that Sherman is a TANK?

Eventually, she will understand the concept TANK, and when faced with an .88 mm flak gun, will understand that this is not a tank. This sort of concept formation will serve her well in the office-politics wars that plague our modern era.

Where was I? Ah yes, chocolate. Here is a chocolate duck from Harriet's Creations.

That's enough philosophizing. You will find some rather beautiful pictures of demolition machines smashing and crunching things on this page. Demolition machines don't categorize; they just do what they do.

Your horoscope for today has been encrypted.

Peace, order, and good government!

Watch for Falling Dragons, Next Ten Kilometres

Dragons are anarchists--what they want, they take; what they don't like, they flash roast. They're vulnerable to the common cold, however; it puts out their pilot lights.

Here is a German chocolate cream pie, posted on the ifood.tv site. Looking at this picture will help you to contemplate infinity; you'll feel harmonious and oceanic for the rest of the day.
There's a recipe, in case you want to engage in the full, Zen-like experience of making and eating it, and there are videos about food on the site.

That's enough about food. Here is an extraordinary picture of a long-necked demolition unit assaulting an apartment block. This is from the RM Penny demolition company, which works in the south of England. If you go to the site, you'll find on their home page a nice picture of some trucks and demolition equipment gathered together for a quiet chat.

I find pictures of heavy construction and demolition equipment very soothing.

That's enough about demolition.

Here's a splendid chocolate bunny from Lake Champlain Chocolates. Remember, he's watching you--he knows whether you've been bad or good.

Don't count your chickens until they've crossed the road....

Far-Out Audience for Vlod Ironbeak's Jazz Show

You never know who's listening when you host a graveyard-shift jazz show, but, without question, it's a different world.

People get upset about this Count Chocula cereal, with marshmallow bits, but it never attacked me, so I won't say anything nasty about it. I suppose it wouldn't have sold as well if it didn't feature such a handsome chap on the box.

For those of you considering purchasing a wrecking crane, here is an exciting picture featuring not one, but  TWO demolition units savagely attacking a building. Oh joy! My morning is complete.

Well, not quite; I haven't tried any of these chocolate whole-grain waffles yet. Next on the list!

It's important to have more than one interest in life.

Tie me kangaroo down, sport.....

Abandon Duck!

What can I say?
There's a reason cartoonists are not allowed to run the country.

Here are some orange and chocolate chip cookies from What's Cooking Mexico.

I think I may have linked to this one at some point in the distant past, but here it is again, a Varney model railroad dockside steam locomotive--one of the finest locomotives ever made.

That about sums up my philosophical system--cookies and steam locomotives. There's a precedent for this: Charlie Brown's Snoopy had cookies and WWI biplanes, and he did very well.

Here's a Leonidas chocolate shop in Belgium. There's one here in Toronto, on my way to wherever I'm going. If it moved, wherever I'm going would probably be somewhere else. It's important to understand the mysterious relationships that underpin our identities and help to make of us what we are.

Here is a site devoted to Jean-Paul Sartre.  He had no influence on me when I was a kid, because I couldn't make any sense out of his books at all. So I went back to Edgar Rice Burroughs and this book: 

I'll be back....