National Emoticon Appreciation Month, Part 3

Enter the circle of emoticons and follow the path of randomness. The journey begins anew on our monthly Random Thread.

Enter the circle of emoticons and follow the path of randomness. The journey begins anew on our monthly Random Thread.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

“Happy” 200th Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

Born January 19, 1809; died October 7, 1849; never very happy for very long.

Born January 19, 1809; died October 7, 1849; never very happy for very long.

No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently–
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free–
Up domes–up spires–up kingly halls–
Up fanes–up Babylon-like walls–
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers–
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathèd friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

–The City in the Sea

Happy 303rd Birthday, Benjamin Franklin!

In 1783 he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society:

Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.

We’re sure he would have been even happier to see what had been discovered 200 years thence, and would have felt right at home in the Hare & Hedgepig.

National Emoticon Appreciation Month, Part 2

The monthly Random Thread continues its smiley celebration (in the picture, anyway; the words you post no doubt will remain as random as ever). Emoticons pop up in the strangest places.

The monthly Random Thread continues its smiley celebration (in the picture, anyway; the words you post no doubt will remain as random as ever). Emoticons pop up in the strangest places.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

Alter Ego Thread, v. 2009.1

An inexplicably popular MuseBlog perennial: Post under a false name, and try to guess who other posters are.

Continued from v. 2008.8.

NOTE: Check your posts before sending them. The Administrators will not rescue you if you accidentally submit one under your “real” blogname. Many an alter ego has fallen victim to a careless “submit” click.

National Emoticon Appreciation Month

Our first Random Thread of 2009 kicks off our Year of Random Celebrations with a salute to that stalwart factotum, the emoticon. They signal our moods, speak for us when words don’t do, provide work for Smiley Gnomes, and illuminate stupid senseless stories that would otherwise be simply stupid senseless text stories.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

Our first Random Thread of 2009 kicks off our Year of Random Celebrations with a salute to that stalwart factotum, the emoticon. They signal our moods, speak for us when words don’t do, provide work for Smiley Gnomes, and illuminate stupid senseless stories that would otherwise be simply stupid senseless text stories.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)