Few bizarre photos

(June 2011) In St. Louis, MO, they have a City Museum storing architectural elements of the past. Here is a gryphon, and I with it.

(May 2008) As seen in Elicott City, MD.

(Halloween 2008, Halloween 2010, Christmas 2010) Again I just could not pass the opportunity - this time in Lexington, KY. You can also see the progression of time, from 2008 to 2010.

(Late Fall 2011) This Santa can be had for $129 (plus tax, of course.)

(June 2011) This photo shows that Summer may also have some pleasures.

(October 2012) I just wonder if there is something special about our subdivision.

(January 2013) This stuff becomes more and more elaborate... Also the winter is kind of nonexistent this year.

(July 2009) You can get it cheap in Lexington, KY.
(August 2010) I am happy to report that the inflation did not touch these prices. The ad is still the same.
(December 2019) As I drive, I see an advertisement of a lawyer that will file your bankruptcy for \$99.

(July 2009) As seen by my relatives in Berlin, Germany.

(September 2009) This one is strictly for computer scientists. If you look carefully, you will see that this one is about protocols, their syntax and semantics(!). Ah, if it were so simple.

(October 2009) A yoke in St. Mary City, MD, another opportunity not to be missed.

(October 2009) Another price list, this one from St. Mary City, MD. It is a copy of the hotel price list, 17th century (apparently the prices of hotel services were regulated). Given the current price of cigarettes, it was a very expensive town.

(November 2009) Those who know me must be aware that my greatest ambition was to become a "Customer of the Week" at Peet's Coffee in San Diego, CA. Unfortunately, I never realized that dream and, moreover, last I checked they do not have this honor anymore. Instead, during the recent visit in Ft. Collins, CO, in the local "Residence Inn" I was awarded a diploma(?) of "Guest of the Day". The additional prizes included lip balm and a bottle of low calorie drink.

(February 2010) We recently visited Clendenin, WV (the occasion was related to the level of gas in our car's tank). We found there a local free newspaper "The Country Times". It has a web page with the archives, see their site. Among many fascinating advertisements of local businesses (for instance you can get 14 tans for 14 dollars at Ultratan, 16 Elk St.), the writers dispensed some interesting jokes about blondes (an obvious discrimination). They also had an article with "The Laws of Ultimate Reality". Here are two:
Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.
Law of Logical Arguments - Anything is possible if you do not know what are you talking about.
I was genuinely surprised by their knowledge of my ways.
Read more (altogether there are 16 such laws) in their Issue 154, of February 5, 2010 (current issue at the time of this writing).

(April 2010) This one needs some explanation. During a recent visit to San Diego, CA, we went to the local Botanical Conservatory in Balboa Park. Among many exotic plants (beautiful orchids!) they had some carnivorous plants, and this admonition.

(June 2010) I went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC to see the exhibition on Human Evolution. They had a station where they would take a picture of your face and then morph it into the face of an ancient hominid. Two possibilities were offered: Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Heidelbergensis. Since I visited Heidelberg but not Neanderthal, I chose the second one. See the result. The museum emails it (!) to you.

(August 2010) A clown visited the summer camp where my granddaughter Natalia learns some lines from "Romeo and Juliet". He(?) left them prizes. She gave me one. Of course I had to try it for once. Here is the result. Enjoy!

(August 2011) For the readers who remember the movie "Ghostbusters", I am pleased to report that the ghostmobile is well and running in San Diego.

(August 2011) This is Lulu the goat. Lulu is associated with Bleugrass Chevre (this is not a typo!) and involved in part of their supply chain. The chevre is phenomenal.

(October 2014) This is Jessica the goat. Again, she is associated with Bleugrass Chevre. I like goats (maybe because my first two years I was fed goat milk). What a beauty!

(Christmas 2011) Santa (or is it "Grandfather Frost"?) in our subdivision.

(Summer 2012) This is the price list of Ms. Elizabeth, a psychic, in Arundel Mills Mall, MD. I missed an opportunity to learn if P = NP is true. This, I believe, could be learned for $60, category "Reading Supreme."

(May, 2012) As seen by one of my relatives in "Silent Garden" in Shanghai, PRC.

We went to Cincinnati

(July, 2012) Lexington, KY has statues of horses, Chicago has cows, and Cincinnati has pigs. This is a flying pig, and Natalia Sr. and I enjoy its company.

(July 2012) This is a college pig of Cincinnati. Since I associate with colleges for almost 50 years, I had to be photographed with it.

Back in town

(Fall 2012) At a local apple orchard.

(September 2012) At a banquet in Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Their acronym shows that hash functions have sometimes collisions. To see that I am really at that place you need a bigger size of the picture.

(November 2012) Ah, espresso, in Ft. Collins, CO, Museum of Discovery.

(April 2013) Obviously we have Spring in Lexington, KY (actually, at Y),

Robins hatched on our windowsill. Mama robin left for lunch, the chicks are visible.

(May 2013) This is Rabbit Marek [according to Webster: any of a family (Leporidae) of long-eared short-tailed lagomorph mammals with long hind legs], grazing in our yard,

(May 2013) Again, hard to skip such excellent opportunity, esp. since the thing is in bronze (I believe). St. Louis, MO.

(May 2013) Mareks wear hoods (mine - courtesy of my colleague JWJ from our Department). St. Louis, MO.

(June 2013) In Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, the local Swedes celebrate the longest day of the year.

(June 2013) The truth about certain store in Solana Beach, CA. (If you have problems reading it: "This isn't a MUSEUM, this junk is for sale"). The photo was taken with a Google Glass device; this may have affected the quality.

(July 2013) An astute maxim on a poster used in UC Mall in San Diego to cover new construction.

(August 2013) As seen in "Little Italy" neighbourhood in San Diego.

(September 2013) As seen by our friend Janos on Facebook. There is some attribution, but it is unclear if this is the original author. Of course, the beginning is a kind of allusion to Ecclesiastes 9:5.

(November 2013) This is a sand sculpture at the University of Kentucky. Photo: courtesy of K. Calvert of our Department. The author of the sculpture unknown as yet.

(December 2013) The sculpture lasted a couple of days - till the next rain

(November 2013) Right after Thanksgiving - Winter of 2013.

(June 2014) Memories of Ocean City, MD.

(June 2014) Ah, Himalayan Minerals in St. Louis, MO.

(August 2014) I discovered one source of inflatable items in St. Louis, MO.

(August 2014) I visited Princeton, NJ. On the main drag, College Street, they had a cut-out of Albert Einstein (judging by the formula E = mc^2). There was a hole for the head. I could not pass (as before) the temptation.

(July 2015) Ah, the pleasures of Cincinnati! This one is at Cincinnati Arts Museum.

Here is one delicious curio. In the issue of Science magazine of January 16, 2015, on the page 216 (they apparently have numeration of pages in volumes, not issues) there is a note Flight of Fancy. They write about annual Indian Science Congress. Apparently, a retired pilot, a certain Anand Bodas, spoke about the existence of 7000-year-old airplane capable of both terrestrial and interplanetary flight. The device was described in an early 20th century Indian text. To quote: "One example, the Shakuna Vimana (pictured) was supposedly constructed of ammonium chloride, chickpeas, and mercury." A drawing of that device is reproduced in Science. Maybe someone can 3-D print it?

(September 2015) This is a picture of me in a "Docker Global Hack Day 3" T-shirt. Truly bizarre.

(October 2015) Companions of Pinocchio mysteriously moved to Columbia, MD, and so was I.

(July 2016) I traveled through West Virginia again and found on one of the stops a local monthly entitled "Two-Lane Livin'". A nice publication, mostly with announcements and reports pertaining to local matters. Nice photos, too. In their Classified Ads section, I found a "Notice", reproduced here almost verbatim, except some "personal identifiable information".
NOTICE
MARS NEWSLETTER- Ghosties, ghoulies, and long-legged beasties can be found in Mars. Self (sic!) a self-addressed stamped envelope to XXXXX XXXXX, Apartment XXX XXXXX XXXXXX, Parkersburg, WV, XXXXX. With extra postage I can send along more copies. Newsletter is largely about vampires, werewolves, fairies and other folklore.

(June 2017) In order to establish which (if any) mineral water should I drink, I asked my tablet "OK, Google, what mineral water drank His Imperial Highness, the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, Franz-Joseph the First". Quite surprisingly, the tablet listed several references to: "Borsec". Further enquiries indicated that indeed, in 1873, His Imperial Highness Franz-Joseph the First declared the mineral water "Borsec" the "Queen of Mineral Waters". I guess he knew something about queens I did not.

Further inquiries established that Borsec itself is a place in Transylvania which was (at various periods of time) belonging to Austrian/Hungarian Empire, Hungary, and at present to Rumania. An additional information can be found in Singapore (!), at this site.

(July 2017) Many wonder what happened to Noah Ark, and periodically one reads about expeditions to Turkey or Armenia that attempt to locate it. But all these efforts are needless. I went to Williamstown, KY, and there it was. A huge wooden ark! Supposedly it is a copy of the original Arc. Above, you see me in it. It is even more impressive from the outside, as it is an all-wood construction, larger than the building where I am right now.

(September 2018) The book "Hoax" refers to the same ark.

(August 2017) We went to Louisville to visit Speed Museum of Art. It is a decent art museum, with few good paintings (e.g. Chagall). In front of the building they had medieval metal renderings of heads of animals of Chinese Zodiac (see Wikipedia piece Chinese_zodiac). Since my both daughters and I were born in the Year of Goat (Ram, Sheep - apparently the goat and ram use the same character for presentation) I felt that I need a picture of that head (with me, of course).You can see it above. Each specific year has an additional attribute (in my case Water). All this is used in traditional divination.

(August 2017) We went to Danville, KY, to a theater called "Pioneer Playhouse" to see the piece "Elvis has left the building." The play was a bit strange. But before the play, the management let loose an Elvis impersonator. I could not pass the opportunity to have a picture with him.

(October 2017) Local arboretum provided a dinosaur. I could not pass the occasion.

(March 2018) Two rams (in Polish: Dwa barany).

(September 2018) During my recent travels I visited a zoo. The management of the place, clearly forewarned about my upcoming visit, decided to put the location under surveillance (see the small plaque) and warn the public about flying objects (the bigger one). Reputation is everything...

(October 2019) The beautiful Fall of 2019, and its pleasures ...

(October 2019)

Here is the most sensational news item from the Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2019, Section: U.S. Watch. This item consists of two separate statements.

After the shootings, Mr. Marek put the .40 caliber handgun on a coffee table in his apartment, walked outside and told police when they arrived, "I think you're looking for me. I did it."

Mr. Marek, who faces five counts of first-degree murder, was ordered held without bond.

(December 2019)

I recently flew to another time zone. The airline offered soft drinks and a piece of paper involving statement related to Boolean Logic. Here it is: In a world full of no, we're a plane full of yes.

(April 2020)

A title from Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2020>:
"Virus Changes Calculus in Battleground States".
I wonder if the derivative of the function f(x) := 3x + 5, is still constant 3 in North Carolina...

(April 2020)

Lexington, KY, claims to be "World Capital of the Horse". Here is a sign of times.

(September 2021)

During our travel to the South-West we saw many unusual views (including mesas, extinguished volcanos, and other geological attractions.) There was, also, an interesting zoological attraction, involving a rather large grizzly bear. Here is a picture of it - with me.

Last modified: September 2021