Elephant Talk

Everybody Look at the Moon

Posted Sun 31st Jan 2010 at 3:22 pm by sooty

The many faces (not phases) of the moon as we journey through time and space, to the world of The Mighty Boosh!

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Gnomery

Meditation On a Tiny Book

Posted Fri 15th Jan 2010 at 4:02 pm by sooty

Manny searches for the right passage

The Little Book of Calm, by meditation teacher, Paul Wilson, is quite little as books go, measuring 3.5 x 3.4 x 0.5 inches. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has not ruled on the safety of this type of product, but they’ve been advised to consult the debut episode of the TV comedy, Black Books, called Cooking the Books.

In the episode, Manny Bianco (as in white), an accountant under a great deal of stress, who hates his job, accidentally swallows his copy of The Little Book of Calm during an unpleasant exchange with his supervisor. He bought the book for £2.50 (decimalized British currency) from Bernard Black, the putative proprietor of the Black Books establishment located in some London High St area.

Whilst Bernard searches for distractions from doing his accounts for the Inland Revenue menace, engaging Johovah’s Witnesses in philosophical discussion and folding a huge pile of socks, Manny, now in hospital, is being advised by an NHS doctor, played brilliantly by Martin Freeman, that his chances of survival were 30% which was consider quite good by current standards. He reinforces this prognosis by reading a passage from the The Little Book of Calm visible on an X-Ray of Manny’s abdominal area. The surgery scheduled for Manny is abruptly canceled when it’s discovered the book once lodged in him has disappeared without a trace, apart from an odd transformation in his disposition. The doctor surmised that the book must have been assimilated.

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Elephant Talk

Microcar Moment: Smart Car vs. Goggomobil

Posted Sun 10th Jan 2010 at 8:28 am by sooty

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Shep supports self on 2-tone T-700 Goggomobil

We floo back in time to revisit Jean Shepherd’s WOR radio broadcasts on the Goggomobil, one of the earliest line of microcars of which the present day Smart Car is a descendant.

The wikipedia entry about Shep lists some of his favorite modes of transport: “At the time of the WOR radio show, Shepherd rode a Vespa motor scooter and parked it in the lobby of the WOR building, while at other periods during his WOR years, he drove a Morgan, a Rover, a Goggomobil*, a motorcycle, and a variety of other vehicles.” The picture above is from an advert in a 1959 issue of the literary magazine, Evergreen Review. Audio of his Goggomania phase will be available here, soon. Meanwhile take a look at how one 1957 model leaves the Smart Car in the dust.