Cally

@callys

SFF reader, model rocketeer, tabletop gamer. She/her.

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Cally@callys· Jun 30

For those who can't read it, here it is with alt text:

A handwritten game with charming little sketches of a spider labeled CAPITAL who is wearing a top heat and saying "Ho Ho" and a fly labeled A JUICY FLY

The rules for the game are below, changed to mixed-case lettering and slightly reformatted for ascii.

MONEY SPIDER

A game by Oliver Darkshire for as many players as you can find on short notice

You are a group of Money Spiders, and you care about two things: DELICIOUS FLIES and THE INEXORABLE MARCH OF CAPITAL.

HOW TO PLAY

Each player starts with three coins

To start the game, each spider wagers at least 1 coin into the central pool. Then, each spider secretly writes down either

A JUICY FLY or CAPITAL

When all players have decided, reveal the choices.

- All spiders who chose CAPITAL split the pool between them
- Spiders who chose A JUICY FLY get nothing

HOWEVER

- If _all spiders chose CAPITAL_, one spider at random is cannibalized by the others, and their coins are added to the pool for the next round.

- If _all spiders or all spiders except one_ choose A JUICY FLY then the spider with the most coins is cannibalized and their coins are added to the pool. *

If more than one spider remains, start a new round. When only one spider remains, they win the game.

*If necessary, vote on it.

Cally@callys· Jun 11

This is a picture of a Texas Historical Commision marker headed BARBETTE. I've added the full text of the marker in the alt text.

BARBETTE

VANDER CLYDE BROADWAY, BORN IN TRICKHAM (COLEMAN CO) C. 1697, BECAME A WORLD-RENOWNED ENTERTAINER. HE LATER RECOUNTED THAT AS A BOY, HE ATTENDED AN AERIAL CIRCUS PERFORMANCE WITH HIS MOTHER IN AUSTIN AND SOON AFTER BEGAN TO PRACTICE TIGHTROPE WALKING ON HIS BACKYARD CLOTHESLINE IN ROUND ROCK. SOON AFTER GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL IN 1913, HE BECAME AN ACROBAT WITH A SAN ANTONIO CIRCUS TROUPE. LATER, HE JOINED AN AERIALIST GROUP, THE ALFERETTA SISTERS, UPON THE DEATH OF ONE OF THE MEMBERS, HIS NEW ROLE REQUIRED HIM TO DRESS IN WOMEN'S CLOTHING TO EMPHASIZE His DARING STUNTS, AND IT WAS FROM THIS EXPERIENCE HE CREATED THE STAGE PERSONA “BARBETTE." HIS 1919 SOLO DEBUT WAS AT THE HARLEM OPERA HOUSE IN NEW YORK CITY. SIGNING WITH THE WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY, HE HEADLINED ACTS AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH AMERICA AND SUCH EUROPEAN CITIES AS BERLIN, HAMBURG, BARCELONA AND PARIS. IN PARIS, HE FOUND SOLIDARITY IN A GROUP OF ARTISTS AND WRITERS THAT INCLUDED JEAN COCTEAU, MAN RAY AND PABLO PICASSO. COCTEAU'S 1924 ESSAY, “LE NUMERO BARBETTE,” HELPED BOLSTER BARBETTE'S FAME AND ALLOWED HIM ACCESS TO THE INNER CIRCLE OF THE PARISIAN ELITE. HE ALSO HAD A MINOR ROLE IN COCTEAU'S EXPERIMENTAL 1932 FILM, _LE SANG D'UN POETE_, WEARING COSTUMES DESIGNED BY COCO CHANEL.
HIS ACCLAIMED ACT INCLUDED STUNNING AERIAL AND TRAPEZE FEATS. HE WOULD PERFORM AS A WOMAN, COMPLETE WITH WIGS, LAVISH OUTFITS AND MAKEUP. AT THE END OF HIS SET, HE WOULD REMOVE HIS WIG AND STRUT ABOUT THE STAGE, FLEXING HIS BICEPS TO LEAVE NODOUBT HE WAS, IN FACT, A MAN, TO THE AMAZEMENT OF UNSUSPECTING AUDIENCES. CONTRACTING CRIPPLING PNEUMONIA IN 1938, HE RETIRED FROM AERIAL PERFORMING. THROUGH HIS ENTERTAINMENT CONNECTIONS, HE WAS A FILM ACTOR AND CONSULTANT IN LIVE PERFORMANCES AND MOVIES, INCLUDING OSCAR-WINNING _SOME LIKE IT HOT_ (1959). AFTER HE DROPPED OUT OF PUBLIC LIFE, HE LIVED WITH FAMILY IN ROUND ROCK UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1973.

MARKER IS PROPERTY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS

Cally@callys· Jan 8

Close. It's a jug of ice melt chemical pellets for your sidewalk.

A white jug with a very large white lid and a slanty molded in handle, with a label reading "Safe Step" and "ENVIRO BLEND POWER ICE MELTER" along with a lot of tiny text no doubt extolling its virtues and disclosing chemical content, but honestly, it's too small to read.

Behind the text on the label is a long sidewalk or driveway with no snow on it, surrounded on either side by a snowy landscape. In the far background is a house with a southern-style wraparound porch.

Cally@callys· Dec 25

@tkingfisher.com Happy Dies Natalis Solis Invicti!

A greeting card with the text
Have A Very Merry
Dies Natalis Solis Invict
May the night of cruelty be defeated by the light of kindness

In the center of the card is an image of a 2nd or 3rd century Roman bas-relief depicting Mithras killing the sacred bull. He's semi-kneeling on its back (his left leg is kneeling, the right leg stretched out along the bull's back legs) stabbing it in the neck with a long dagger or short sword, and looking really rather smug about it, as he gazes more or less towards the god Helios, depicted in the upper left corner. Luna is in the upper right corner, and is being comprehensively ignored. Mithras' cloak is being Very Dramatic.

In the foreground there's a scorpion being Rather Too Interested in the bull's private parts, a snake biting(?) the bull's front leg, and a dog chomping on the bull's shoulder. This is undoubtably Very Meaningful and Symbolic, but I've no idea why. Also, the bushy end of the bull's tail has been transformed into wheat stalks. Alas, since it was a Mystery Cult and they didn't write anything down, we'll never know precisely what the symbolism meant.

Cally@callys· Dec 20

I have it on good authority that she'll be ON THE WATER in March. The good news is: there will be cake, and most of it won't even be a lie. The bad news....

Photo by Beth Jordan of a dozen or so merfolk around and in a swimming pool on board the cruise ship "Nieuw Amsterdam" during the JoCo Cruise in 2024. Most of them are sitting on the pool deck with their tails in the water. In the background are a hot tub, some fancy cabanas, and a number of two-legged JoCoNauts.

Cally@callys· Dec 9

I love learning all the different linguistic quirks. Here in the Midwest US, a cellar door is one of these. Now I'm curious how wine tasting rooms got the name!

A white or cream colored clapboard house with a cellar door: a short, slanted triangular prism-shaped structure sticking maybe 4 or 5 feet (a meter and a half?) out from the foundation of the house, and perhaps a yard (meter) high. On the face of this outcropping is a door. If you opened the door, you'd find steps down to the basement, and another, more secure, door at the bottom leading into the actual basement. Some cellar doors have two doors that open out from the center, but the pictured cellar door has just the one.

There's a children's song lyric that includes the lines

Shout down my rain barrel,
Slide down my cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends
Forevermore.

Cally@callys· Sep 18

Long ago, when I was a small child, before Starbucks even, there were plastic cup holders for Solo cups that were a mainstay of church basements everywhere. They were cheap plastic zarfs. They held an inner cup, prevented burning your fingers, and provided a handle.

Cally@callys· Apr 27

It is a Robin, yes, So's this. The Robin found in the US's Latin name is Turdus migratorius (a name it deserves after waking me up night after night by yelling through my window), but its full English name is "American Robin". The European Robin, having been named first, gets to be just a Robin.

European Robin; a small roundish bird with an orange-red face and upper chest, tan belly, and light brown back and wings. It's sitting on a pale branch with its head cocked slightly to one side.

Cally@callys· Jan 6

I've no idea what the interior looks like, but I came across this Lego-like house in a wealthy suburb. It was so new the garage (not shown but you know EXACTLY what it looks like) hadn't been clad in marble yet.

A white marble (the stone, not the spheres!) clad house with a weird pergola that looks like it's made entirely of Lego.

Another view of a cubical white marble-clad house with a perfectly normal house in the background.

Cally@callys· Dec 21

@tkingfisher.com It's a bit early, but here's a Dies Natalis Solis Invicti card for you.

A holiday card with the text "Wishing You a Joyful Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" and "May the darkness be defeated!" with the image of a bronze plaque from the mid 2nd or early 3rd century depicting Mithras in the act of killing the sacred bull. Mithras is wearing his rather silly looking Phrygian cap, a short tunic, and a dramatically flapping cloak. He looks bored with the whole business. He's holding the bull by the nostrils with his left hand, and stabbing the bull in the side of his neck with a dagger in his right hand. The bull is, understandably, looking panicked. For some reason there's a scorpion that looks like it's about to sting the bull's back leg. A human Sun and Moon look benignly down on the scene from the top corners.

Cally@callys· Nov 20

Name a TV show you're positive no one remembers but you.

A promotional picture for the 1975 Mel Brooks written tv show "When Things Were Rotten" about Robin Hood

Cally@callys· Sep 17

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #154,804! I just missed the Hellthread, but was in time for Alf, Gandalf, and so many clockfaces.

Cally@callys· Aug 12

The bedposts are not entirely unlike these in knobbliness, but the details are all wrong. Funny how it's hard to find an image of a more than 100 year old bedpost online!

A four poster bed with knobbly tops of the posts, and additional knobbly bits about a foot down

Cally@callys· Dec 24

May I offer you a holiday card in this trying time? I remember on KUEC you used to bemoan the lack of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti cards, so I made you one.

A statue of Mithras sacrificing a bull with the text "Happy Dies Natalis Solis Invicti"

Cally@callys· Dec 14

Speaking as someone who also counts change up because my first job had a cash register that looked similar to this picture and which didn't make change, the only problem is if the customer gives you $10.16 on a $4.66 bill. Then I actually had to do the math to give them the $5.50 back they wanted.