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Saturday, November 5, 2011

"Time is fun when you are having flies."

Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

Happy First Saturday of November, dear reader, from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where I live, and where extra preparations are still under way for the New York City Marathon, an annual world-famous event which takes place the first Sunday of November. It is an exciting time for many; however, it is a bittersweet time for Lucifer, my rhinestone frog, who is the little creature featured in the image posted above todays blog entry.

Lucifer "lives" in my succulent garden (that I have atop an armoire in my kitchen, something that you may recall from previous posts which you may refer to by clicking here as well as here and here). In fact, dear reader, you may recognize Lucifer, because he had the role of the "poster boy" for my mini-mini movie which served as an announcement that I had moved to Vimeo all of the movies (including garden related ones, memorials, and vow renewals; as well as slide presentations) which I have made for clients; and now call all of the aforementioned, Virtual Stories. If you'd like to refer to my blog post regarding this, please click here.

Unfortunately, Lucifer only stays here between the second Sunday in March up until the early morning of the first Sunday in November (which is tomorrow). 

This means Lucifer spends the entire period of day-light savings time (DLS) here, but since DLS ends at two o'clock tomorrow morning, he will be leaving soon for his annual hiatus. This is why today is bittersweet for him, and even though he is wrapped up with his own feelings about this circumstance, he wanted me to remind my readers who live in areas that are "ruled" by DLS to set all the clocks in their homes, as well as their watches and electronic devices, one hour back. "Time is fun when you are having flies," Lucifer conceded when asked about how he felt that it would soon be time for his annual leave of absence. Lucifer often says this but it is a quote that he "borrowed" from his comrade, the famous Kermit the Frog.

In fact, Lucifer recently mentioned this quote to me (in mid October) when I was concerned about the identity of an insect which had landed on one of the leaves of my Rubus calycinoides's  (Ornamental Raspberry). I had thought it was a beetle, but it turned out to be a "common horsefly", and, you may recall, I even posted my concern on nybg's (New York Botanical Gardens) tumblr as well as a previous post on this blog.If you'd like to refer to those posts, you may do so by clicking here and here respectively; however you will need to scroll a bit to read about the fly in the latter post.

Soon after the appearance of the "common horsefly" on my Rubus calycinoides's leaves, another variety of the aforementioned insect made itself comfotable on one of the shrubs of roses which I have in my terrace garden. This is evidenced in the photograph which is posted below:


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

It was this particular fly that prompted Lucifer to say,"Time is fun when you are having flies". He is quite a character, and, moreover, because of his rhinestones, he has an affinity for The Rhinestone Cowboy, and on occasion he has gone on the Internet to watch Glenn Cambell performing a song of the same name.

I concede that this song is a bit corny; moreover, I probably have a lot of nerve drawing attention to it, given what I said about the song My Favorite Things in a couple of previous blog entries that you may refer to by clicking here and here

However, Lucifer likes the song, The Rhinestone Cowboy, and I hear him humming the song all the time, resulting in my coping with "ohrwurms", a condition which I discussed in the latter of the two aforementioned blog posts. I think that Lucifer's favorite lyric line from The Rhinestone Cowboy is "But I'm gonna be where the lights are shining on me", because indeed, the lights are shining on Lucifer where he lives in my succulent garden. For, as you may recall, dear reader, this garden is located underneath a vast lighting system that stays on for at least twelve hours a day.

A partial view of the lighting system may be seen reflected in my "make-shift" window which has been hung behind some of my succulents and one of my Halloween figurines (who you may recognize from a prior post) as evidenced in the image posted below:


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

The image and details regarding my lighting system and figurines have been included in today's blog entry in the event that you, or someone near and dear to you, has a desire to create a small succulent garden indoors. In the photo above, Lucifer is off camera, as are many of my unusual succulents and Halloween figurines, including a couple of ones which may be seen in the following images:


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

I will be removing these Halloween figurines this afternoon since Halloween has passed and replacing them with figurines for Thanksgiving, and I want to do this before Lucifer leaves so he can see them. He knows that I change the surroundings of my succulent garden for the various seasons and holidays, and he has always enjoyed the company of the figurines.

2 comments:

  1. He's a gorgeous little devil, isn't he? Your clever heading reminds me of that other saying: 'Time flies like an arrow... fruit flies like a banana.'
    (I thank you... I'll be here all week!)

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  2. Yes, my friend, Lucifer is gorgeous indeed, Clare, and he knows it too!

    I thank you for reminding me of the quotation that I have recently discovered is usually attributed to Groucho Marx.

    Prior to associating it with the comedian, it stumped me in Structure of English graduate courses at college where I struggled with grammar rules as I had since childhood when I received a lot of "red ink" on my written work as well as many "See me after class!!!!" threats.

    In grad school, the quote was being analyzed by anyone and everyone in that academic environment as "they" concluded that "the sentence uses 'flies' as a verb and then 'flies' as a noun. It uses 'like' as a preposition and then 'like' as a verb. Because the structure of the two parts is identical, the reader stumbles over the second part. It is meant to demonstrate the confusion caused by structure and words with different meanings, and it does so in a humorous way."

    Whilst the powers of academia that be picked apart the fun quote, I liked it on its own terms, and I thought that their analysis took the spontaneity out of it, reminding me of another quote that Lucifer, my rhinestone amphibian friend told me, "Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it". Lucifer gives E.B. White the credit for the quote.

    And I give Lucifer the credit for sharing it with me, as I give you a nod, Clare, for bringing to my mind a quote that had been associated with linguistics professors.

    Thanks again for stopping by.

    P.S. It has also been brought to my attention that 'Time flies like an arrow... fruit flies like a banana.' is known as a "garden variety" quote as it leads folks down the garden path. Since I am gardener, I can also appreciate that association.

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