September 01, 2007

• And this too shall pass.
• Wow. Cool find. MOFI project idea: We should all post 25 chronological photos of ourselves to... THE WIKI (one of which we apparently have.)
• No way, I'm too fuckin' ugly.
• Nah, see, what you do is this: post all the kid pictures as normal, but when you get to modern day Hank Mabuse, you post pix of yourself... ON A UNICYCLE! Then, people will be like "Oh, look, that kid turned out all right, he's on a unicycle!" And nobody will be concerned with your looks.
• .. in my orange prison jumpsuit, wearing my Fez, with my 80s robot sunglasses on, holding my celtic sword replica? Wearing Japanese tabi boots?
• .. and my knob hanging out?
• Goddamn it this was supposed to be a bitter-sweet reflective thread. I blame Nickdanger for mentioning my knob. He just won't shut up about it.
• How did we end up on Hank's knob?
• I dunno, but one of you needs a bikini wax
• There you have it, folks. In just ten comments, we have gone from an interesting and provocative post that MIGHT have generated valuable commentary, to utter and complete shite. I blame myself Hank.
• :(
• This is why we can't have nice things.
• .. I'll get me' coat.
• This is a great link. And I love you guys so much.
• That's fascinating, watching the hair and clothing styles change. (Until 1972, where she seems to have found a look that she liked rather too much.) Frantically avoiding Hank's knob
• Aside from the obvious age factor, she definitely looked better style and fashion-wise pre-1970's (that eye makeup!). My fave was the blurry ND after 1954. Fascinating link- thanks
• (Until 1972, where she seems to have found a look that she liked rather too much.) Isn't that how most of us go? Sometime in our 30s, we identify with a look and stick with it? Do monkeys my age find themselves, like me, going to the hair salon and saying "just do the same thing you did last time"? This post has made me determined not to do that. Also, it's a really cool find.
• I've been pawing through the other old photos for a while, and now I'm hooked on both the blog and the site. It's awesome!
• What a way to be remembered and honored even if probably posthumously! If only the rest of us garnered a moment of this attention IRL.
• How does this wind up at a flea market? That makes me somewhat sad. Was there no scrapbooker to intervene here?
• Here, true story. I own a house well over 100 years old. It had been a rental and god only knows what in the past. I decided to have the original soft wood floors upstairs redone (can't remember the type -- birch? elm?) At any rate, I ripped up enough of the carpet to see that there were multi-layers, and I decided to save money and rip all the flooring up myself. What unbelievable work. Under the carpet and padding, there were four layers of the ugliest linoleum you could imagine. But I began to feel odd as I ripped up each layer. I found all kind of coins, stamps, and personal notes as I tore up each layer. It was astounding; like people just abandoned their current lives and threw down another layer of flooring. Who knows. What I did find that amazed me was a perfectly preserved photo of a young girl, with dark eyes and hair. Beside her pic was a newspaper clipping of a "novena" -- a prayer to the Virgin Mary. I was surprised at how well-preserved they were, given their situation. I don't know what a "novena" is. I still have them. We think our old house is haunted, but not by a bad spirit. That's why looking at the pictures of that lady made me kind of sad. Somehow they were discarded, and now they have been found. Great post.
• A novena is a series of prayers over nine days, normally dedicated to Mary but not exclusively. I like the photos - interesting find.
• Cynnbad: It's always fascinating to find a small part of someone's life and wonder who they were and what their life might have been like. We tore down an old house on our property, and in one of the walls I found a silver locket with photos of an infant and an old itty, bitty French-English dictionary with tissue-thin pages and a red paper cover. The house had been built in three sections, and the section where I found the items had been built with handmade square-headed nails. I wished we could have salvaged the oldest part of the house, but the people before us had used it as a barn and kept livestock in it.
• The blogger has posted some more here and says that he will post even more photos in a couple of weeks. Maybe we will find out who she is?
• Oh, that's nice, we got a mention. I have the strong conviction she was a dancer.
• It's stuff like this that make Found magazine and Swapatorium so fascinating to me. Little peeks into the lives of other people, living or dead. As for this find, it was great to see how she blossomed from a gawky, kinda funny looking young girl into an absolutely gorgeous woman. And I too find the ND blurry street scene (after one dated 1954) fascinating.
• What an incredibly sad thing this is, Hank. Made me feel terrifyingly mortal. Great post, in spite of the naughty monkeys flingin' poo. Our house was built in 1873. I still occasionally find things. When redoing a closet, a small portrait of two children fell out, a boy and a girl, both about five or six. They looked very serious. The studio photo appeared to be from around 1900 and had no identification, though it was commercially matted and was clearly taken because someone at some time cared for the kids. Since the house has had 28 owners, there's no way of knowing who they are or if they even lived in the house. To this day the nameless kids make me feel sad, as they are a reminder of how transient our lives really are, and how rapidly we are overwhelmed by the tsunami of time. On the more upbeat side, I found it interesting that the lady in the photos went from being a little goofy-looking to being drop-dead gorgeous, at least for a few photos anyway. Some folks are late bloomers. Should give you hope, Hank, as it should all of us.
• Do monkeys my age find themselves, like me, going to the hair salon and saying "just do the same thing you did last time"? Not really. More like, "Cut out all the grey and get rid of the damn wrinkles, will ya?" When my hair is short, I yearn for long, long, sit-upon, as it used to be. When it gets shoulder-length, I can't stand it. It's about 5" and going to get wacked this weekend. Have to make a decision about the grey. Haven't bothered dyeing it all summer (no job, don't go anywhere, and was sick of the "dead" feel) But now that I'm subbing school again, those high schoolers make me feel O L D. ... in spite of the naughty monkeys flingin' poo. ...in spite of the Hank, the naughty monkeys flingin' poo ALL OVER HIS OWN POST! There, fixed that for you. Quit wallowing around in it, Hanky. Oh, heck, just might as well do the tagline: MonkeyFilter: naughty monkeys flingin' poo. I like the idea of posting photos--especially baby pics! Wouldn't that be FUN!! I really really really do want one of baby Hank on a unicycle. Add the orange prison jumpsuit, Fez, with 80s robot sunglasses, holding a celtic sword replica and wearing Japanese tabi boots and it sounds scrumptious. But that's ALL (unless you want your Mr. T gold jewelry, Hank, that's ok.) Does anybody besides me think it's fun to tease Hank? I just love it when I pinch his chubby little cheeks and he squeals and says, "Top ith, GwamMa!"
• On Monkeyfilter, all are fabulously young with limitless potential, awesome bodies and great skin and hair. At least in my head, that is.
• MonkeyFilter: On Monkeyfilter, all are fabulously young with limitless potential, awesome bodies and great skin and hair. Of course. That was just hyperbole about the grey hairs and all.
• ...and of course I know that all Monkeys are just wealthy, bejewelled celebrities who secretly want to be loved for their minds, and are doubtless blogging incognito on their laptops as they relax beneath palm trees next to their enormous swimming pools. *adjusts Rolex, waves to butler for fresh flute of Cristal*
• I guess this would be the time to admit that I'm really Tom Cruise. And I love you guys even though the mean things you say make me cry a little bit.
• I knew it all along.
• I'm tired of being loved for my mind. Can't somebody see me as a sex object already? *smirks hopefully
• This is very odd indeed, but i think i know this lady. I've sent her the two url's that have the pics and should hear back from her soon. She has shown me similar pics of her taken in the 60's and 70's. She had a face-lift about 15 years ago. She is 70yrs of age, has been married 6 times and was an Airport Traffic Controller for many years. She worked all over USA, and one of those places was Chicago - where she still has a friend with whom she is in regular contact. Her friend in Chicago was also an ATC. Her favorite colour is green. She had one daughter who was, tragically, killed in New York in the early 1980's.
• Our house was built in 1873. I still occasionally find things. When redoing a closet, a small portrait of two children fell out, a boy and a girl, both about five or six. They looked very serious. The studio photo appeared to be from around 1900 and had no identification, though it was commercially matted and was clearly taken because someone at some time cared for the kids. Since the house has had 28 owners, there's no way of knowing who they are or if they even lived in the house. To this day the nameless kids make me feel sad, as they are a reminder of how transient our lives really are, and how rapidly we are overwhelmed by the tsunami of time. Hey, cheer up! Maybe nobody cared for the kids at all! maybe they had the picture taken to keep up with the neighbors, who had gorgeous pictures of their kids all over the parlour. Or maybe it was part of some scheme to bilk the kids of their inheritance!
• Thanks, TUM. I needed that. (Made even the parrot laugh.)
• Are you woofin' me, rotate?
• rotate, if it is her, that's the most amazing coincidence ever. Please update.