BillyBlog Plays 52-Card Pick-Up: Five of Clubs in the Snow

It's been a while, but I spotted some cards this past Wednesday on 92nd Street, between 5th and 4th Avenues, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn:



That's the coldest card I've ever posted!

The following cards have been found previously:

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:

Hearts: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace
Diamonds: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace
Clubs: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace
Spades: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: 2010 Snow Day, Redux, Down Goes Frazier!

So check out this sequence of events:

Earlier tonight, I posted this photo of my favorite tree, snow-laden, here.

This was the photo:


That was from the front stoop.

A little after 10:00 PM, I took this eerie shot from the living-room window:


Five minutes later, Melanie looked out the window and gave a yell. This is what provoked the reaction:


That's a big branch down across 92nd Street.


We watched as the first car approached...


And the NYFD was right behind....and they got right to work...






Except now this huge branch is blocking the driveway...


But the cavalry arrives with a chainsaw...


Leaving behind a pile of kindling.....


I just hope my tree doesn't lose any more limbs overnight!

Great job NYFD! Thanks!!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: 2010 Snow Day Edition (Chapter 12)

This is my favorite, lovely tree across the street:


This is our old friend, the tree, in previous Billyblog posts here and here.

Train of Thought: Nicholas Black Elk

"Now that I can see it all as from a lonely hilltop, I know it was the story of a mighty vision given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered; and of a people's dream that died in bloody snow."

--Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) on the Battle at Wounded Knee

Not Poetry in Motion, but a new Train of Thought

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

--Robert Frost (1874-1963), "Dust of Snow"

First spotted on the D Train, January 7, 2010

Civilization by Marco Brambilla

One of my co-workers sent this to me back in June. Well worth a peek, these many months later.

The description on YouTube reads: "Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard hotel in New York City, depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage..."

Enjoy!

Divorce by Billy Collins

I am just finishing Ballistics by Billy Collins.

Toward the end of the book is this gem of a poem:

Divorce

Once, two spoons in bed,
now tined forks

across a granite table
and the knives they have hired.

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Public Performance Art

I'm a sap, I admit it. This is a wonderful video:



Thank to my Aunt Lee for sending this my way!

Arthur Schopenhauer's Train of Thought

The latest in the New York City MTA "Train of Thought" series:

"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits
of the world"

--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), "Studies in Pessimism"

First spotted by BillyBlog on the R train, 9/9/09

--
Sent from my mobile device

BillyBlog Plays 52-Card Pick-Up: The Pooh of Spades, A Card of Destiny

I found this tattered and beaten card on 4th Avenue, between 89th and 90th Streets, on Saturday, August 15:




It has certainly seen better days!

The following cards have been found previously:

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:

Hearts: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace
Diamonds: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace
Clubs: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace
Spades: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Ace

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Sheep Art

This is pretty cool:



Thanks to my Aunt Lee who sent this to me back in April!

An Update

A lot has happened since I last posted. But what hasn't happened is the composition of 32 additional 42-themed poems.

For what it's worth, I even took a week off from posting on Tattoosday as well.

So, thanks for checking back. BillyBlog is not dead in the water, just slouching along in the shadow of its spawn.

42 Days of 42: Day 10 - Adventures in Googling

Forty-Two (Adventures in Googling)

Forty-two is an abundant number,
the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything,
version one-point-six is the easiest way to convert a DVD into an AVI movie,
a bidding domino game,
scientific facts about the demise of forty-two have been largely exaggerated,
an Athenian software company,
Mr. Forty-Two Roads is back from his conference in Switzerland!
a fresh art gallery in Door County, Wisconsin,
another Apted film
a number in a George Bellows painting
forty-two pages in
(yes, I go that far)
I hit the goldmine:

Forty-Two new condos in the Old First Ward
Forty-two million iPods. Which is mine?
i am a forty-two year old female that had braces as a teen.

And there are forty-two reasons to stop this poem.

42 Days of 42: Day 9 - Beginnings

For tea to have a calming effect,
For teetotalers to quit their vice,
For thee to speaketh in a modern tongue,
One must have
Fortitude.

42 Days of 42: Day 8 - 42 Down

42 Down

The answer to 42 Down eludes me
and 42 Across is a scientific term
and I was never any good at science.
So I circle backwards, looking
at all the clues,
the witty puns masquerading
as answers
and I am having no luck.
I am blind to knowledge
and it is a grid
mocking me
calling me ignorant
and I pull my hair.
Is this the beginning
Of the end?
Oh, if only I had known
the answer
to 42 Down.
If only.

42 Days of 42: Day 7 - $1814 Per Square Foot

$1814 Per Square Foot

I drove forty-two miles
to 635 West 42nd Street,
Unit 42-A.
Approximately 1042 square feet,
I would have to work forty-two lifetimes
to afford the mortgage
but oh, what a view!
The sunset alone would make me forget
I'm forty-two.

42 Days of 42: Day 6 - Shall I Rest on the Seventh Day?

Six days in and I look at all that I have created.
Shall I rest on the seventh day?

By the time that the Lord had toiled for six full days,
would it be a stretch to say
that forty-two just-born species
went extinct?

Another one vanished since you started reading this poem.
Nothing big like the albino rhino or the pink skink,
but perhaps, the forty-second generation
of a tapeworm
or a fruit fly
or some rare fish
no one has ever seen,
forty-two thousand leagues under the sea.

42 Days of 42: Day 5 - Haiku 42

Un(fort)unatel(y)
my waste is expanding, (two),
that's just how it is.

42 Days of 42: Day 4 - Behind the (4x2)-Ball

I am trying to catch up but,
at forty-two,
I am not as fast
on my poetic feet.

42 Days of 42: Day 3 - An Acrostic

Fascination with one's age
outweighs any
reasonable attempt
to cling to
youth.
-
Tell me,
why do we have to get
old?