Muse, Pennsylvania

Robert passed through it while driving home to Virginia after spending Christmas with his sister in Ohio. More photos inside.

Muse turned out to be a tiny place, one of those towns that people describe as “a wide spot in the road.” It’s not far off the beaten track, but you probably wouldn’t stumble across it if you weren’t looking for it.

It has a smattering of wooden houses,

two lodge halls (Kokonventioneers take note!), a church or two, a beauty salon, a day school that appears to double as a general store, a post office (see above), an elementary school,

and not much else.

Cell-phone photos taken on a gray, drizzly day in late December probably don’t do it justice. All the same, it’s probably never exactly picturesque.

In other words, it’s absolutely bursting with potential.

Alter Ego Thread, v. 2006.2

Same rules as before, but new identities. Shadowkat’s description:

…a thread where everyone posts under a different (new) name, and pretends to be their alter-ego. We could even take it a step further, and have everyone try to guess who each alter-ego-name actually is. Once somebody figured out who you were, if they ever did, you would post under your original other-thread name, and just keep talking and trying to guess who other people really are if that makes any sense

Happy Winter Solstice!

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, winter officially begins today (Thursday, December 21) at 6:22 p.m. MuseBlog time (U.S. Central time, the time at Muse headquarters in Chicago). That’s 4:22 p.m. Pacific time, 5:22 p.m. Mountain time, and 7:22 p.m. Eastern time. In Switzerland, it’s 1:22 a.m. on Friday, December 22. In New Zealand, it’s 1:22 on Friday afternoon.

Alter Ego Thread

Shadowkat’s idea. Here’s here description

…a thread where everyone posts under a different (new) name, and pretends to be their alter-ego. We could even take it a step further, and have everyone try to guess who each alter-ego-name actually isonce somebody figured out who you were, if they ever did, you would post under your original other-thread name, and just keep talking and trying to guess who other people really are if that makes any sense

Limited-Edition “MuseBlog Signature” Shirts

Some MBers have asked Rebecca and Robert to create CafePress shirts with their signatures on them. We think that’s a great idea. Send your signatures in electronic form (scanned or created with a tablet or a drawing program) to gapa@musefanpage.com, and we’ll compile them all into a big file and slap them on the backs of various items of Musewear. The deadline is blog closedown* on Wednesday, December 20. No last names on the signatures, please–blognames and/or first name plus last initial only.

(If you don’t know what “Musewear” is, you can see some examples at http://www.cafepress.com/musery .)

*No, the blog isn’t shutting down. That just means whenever the last Administrator goes to bed.

Happy 176th Birthday, Emily Dickinson!

It’s on Sunday the 10th. Ms. Dickinson wrote:

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

She also wrote:

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?

Poems and Songs, v. 2006.5

Elassë~Adael (currently calling herself “e~a the sock monkey”) humbly requests a new installment of the Poems and Songs thread. There’s plenty of room left on Poems and Songs, v. 2006.4. We’re all in favor of humility, however, so here’s one more P&S thread to round off the year.

“Musery Loves Company” Is Open For Business

The only Muse-themed online boutique in the known universe is ready to accept orders. Its instigators, blog moderators Robert Coontz and Rebecca Lasley, will be happy to answer questions.

One tip: we’ve found that shipments can take twice as long as CafePress says they do, so don’t wait until the last minute to order holiday presents.

Musery Loves Company

Robert writes:

Over the past few months I’ve mentioned a couple of mysterious Muse-related projects that I’ve been working on. One of them, a collaboration between me and my fellow moderator Rebecca Lasley (a.k.a. Lady Bunniful), has now reached the sneak-preview stage. It’s not up and running yet, so please don’t try to do anything with it. But if you’d care to visit www.cafepress.com/musery , we’d love to hear what you think.

Project number two will be unveiled in a few weeks.