The Five of Diamonds

It has been years since I logged a new card in my game of 52-Card Pick-Up. Early last week I found this Five of Diamonds:

The following cards have been found previously:

The Seven of Diamonds (August 9, 2017)

The Jack of Clubs (August 6, 2017)

The King of Clubs (July 25, 2010)

The Ace of Hearts (March 27, 2010)

The Five of Clubs (February 20, 2010)

The Two of Spades (August 17, 2009)

The Ten of Diamonds (July 2, 2009 - found June 1, 2009)

The Five of Spades (June 18, 2009)

The Eight of Spades (January 6, 2009)

The Eight of Diamonds (December 5, 2008)

The Two of Hearts and the Queen of Spades (November 1, 2008)

The King of Spades (October 26, 2008)

The Ace of Spades (September 22, 2008)

The Jack of Diamonds (September 18, 2008)

The Six of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, and Eight of Clubs (August 10, 2008)

The Six of Clubs (July 21, 2008)

The Seven of Hearts and The King of Diamonds (April 24, 2008)

The Three of Clubs (March 29, 2008)

The King of Hearts
and the Three of Spades (February 28 and March 25, 2008)

The Ace of Diamonds (July 7, 2008)

The Jack of Hearts and Five of Hearts (July 19, 2008)

View the whole set here.

And here's the scorecard with the latest addition:

Found Hearts: 2,5,6,7,Jack, Queen, King, Ace
Needed Hearts: 3,4,8,9,10

Found Diamonds: 5, 8, 7, 10, Jack, King, Ace
Needed Diamonds: 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, Queen

Found Clubs: 3,5,6,8, Jack, King
Needed Clubs: 2,4,7,9,10,Queen, Ace

Found Spades: 2,3,5,8,Queen, King, Ace
Needed Spades: 4,6,7,9,10, Jack

Hello, Cleveland!

Well, not Cleveland. No offense.

It has been five years, a month and thirteen days since I last posted on BillyBlog.

I noticed the second to last post is full of broken links. Welp.

Why am I here?

Yesterday, while on the bike - yes, I still do that - I ran over an Ace of Hearts, and it had me thinking of my 52-card pick-up game. I grabbed it. An Ace from Mount Airy Casino & Resort! Cool! But, alas, not as cool as the Pirate! card from 2010. Into the recycling it goes.

Will anyone even notice if I post here?

SEO for this page has long been in the crapper.

But, I'm still alive.

Mr. Bill And Me (Yet Another Production)

5 years ago today, I was about 5 months unemployed.

A couple of opportunities presented themselves between February and June of 2013, but it was a sad lonely time of daily repetition, sending out cover letters, emails, answering the occasional call, going on the less occasional interview. When July rolled around, I was near the end of my proverbial rope.

One day in late July, I walked into my bedroom and took the following picture:

I posted it on social media and people liked it. Mr. Bill became a welcome distraction. A month later I was offered a job and started in September. I'm not saying Mr. Bill changed my life, but the timing seems fortuitous.

I've long thought about compiling the adventures of Mr. Bill into a some coherent record, aside from the scattering of photos in my google albums.

Behold: the birth of yet another Bill Cohen blog, Mr. Bill and Me.

I will be posting and dating the posts as accurately as possible.

Mr. Bill got around.

Enjoy.

Poem Suggested By Autofill (10/4/2016)

The 

Raging 

I have been treated well 

by the time of day. 

I'm not going to be 

my last day of work. 

I'm not going to be 

out of town until Sunday morning. 

I'm sure that you can find 

the right thing to remember. 

Great! 

Sorry I missed your call. 

I'm not mad but hopefully I 

Will be at the shop on the bridge to the Free Clinic. 

I'll let you know when we get there. 

I will keep you updated on 

my phone and call you when I 

put the brown sugar in the morning. 

The Moons of Uranus the intended recipient of this information 

to help you with the two missing Russian women 

who have been working in the morning of the Lambs. 

I'll be able to come to the Free Clinic 

in the a.m. I'm not sure how to initiate the sender immediately and delete this message. 

T-Shirts I Have Known: That Metal Show

This is one of my favorite gifts from my older daughter, Jolee. Unprompted, she bought this shirt from me back when VH1 Classic was still airing episodes of That Metal Show.

The show has been "off the air" for almost three years now, but I really credit the show for my rebounding interest in metal.

I did wear this to the Iron Maiden show last summer.

This t-shirt is still in rotation in the closet.

Bookmark Graveyard, Chapter 2

More bookmarks getting deleted, saved on BillyBlog for posterity:

The New York Times 2015 "The Lives They Lived" feature here.

A Tumblr called "What Would We Call Poets" here.

"Curvaciously Yours" by Olga Gonzalez Ramos here and an article about Olga from NJ.com here.

My bike a 2003 Raleigh M20, from BikePedia, described here.

Post-War Jazz, An Arbitrary Road Map, from the Village Voice, here.

Bound Fast To Thee: Interviews From Times of Transition in 'Iolani's History here.

Bookmark Graveyard, Chapter 1

Wonder why you have so many pages bookmarked? I was wondering and was thinking, let me just delete this.

Then my cyberhoarder mentality kicked in. So I decided to drop these here. I don't know why. Just because, I guess.

The go-to list for Roberto Bolaño works: The Bolaño Syllabus: A Final Reckoning.

Boston Review's Top 20 Poems of 2015 here.

Rolling Stone's Top 550 Songs of All Time here.

Buzzfeeds's List of Posts about Tattoos here.

"F.A.Q.s," a story by Allegra Goodman on The New Yorker here.

50 Places Every Literary Fan Should Visit via Flavorwire here.

Good times.

Random Photo

Broadway between Park Place and Barclay, November 3, 2017

Women's March, Year 2

On January 20, 2018, I joined the family in New York City for the second annual women's march.

Last year I posted a bunch of photos, but this year I am posting fewer....

I had my own sign, which was fairly well-received:

My friend Teri took the following candid shot:

Snowflake

Spotted on my coat back on December 9, 2017:

Cool Shit My Aunt Sends Me: Fwd: INTERESTING PICTURES TO TAKE YOUR MIND OFF OF WHATEVER!

A flock of sheep pass through a gate The heavens open. Copenhagen , Denmark Totoro, the Owl, with his mushroom   Feeding the 'birds' in Ecuador A water spout in Genoa , Italy   So much emotion in just one photo! Life is good A cycling team from Rwanda sees snow for the first time, they were in first place until they stopped, now everyone passed them up! The photographer fell off a chair when he was taking the shot and ended up with this masterpiece of a wedding photo. Swans swim through the street after floods, UK A walrus becomes embarrassed when it's given a cake made of fish for its birthday, Norway I really want to know what they're looking at... A typical rainy day in Chicago, USA Police dogs in line for lunch In the African wilderness Marilyn hasn't aged well...

Cool Shit My Aunt Sends Me: Fwd: Perfectly Timed Photography....... NEW BATCH

Rainbow is my favorite. Not quite a pot of gold.

Timing Is Everything...