Henry J. Tillman: “The world is my lobster.” [Quotes of the Day]

M. C. Escher: “He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.” [Quotes of the Day]

The Hartford Courant has an article about some of the stranger yard ornaments one can get these days, including headless, armless children.

The once-imagined lovely garden is occupied with huge, ugly, warty frogs; bears doing squat lifts; sobbing angels; and gnomes, gnomes and more gnomes, multiplying like nymphomaniac nymphets high on Scott’s Fertilizer.

And into this already strange and scary flower bed marches a parade of headless, armless children – boy figures in overalls and girl figures especially frightening in their short white socks and red Mary Janes.

They’re called “outdoor statuary” or “yard ornaments,” but to anyone who basks in the glow of a buttercup held under a child’s chin or smiles at the sight of a toddler picking daisies, these jardinieres are better suited to a gardening straight-to-video called “Night of the Living Deadheads.”

“It’s human nature to decorate one’s environment,” says Ellin Goetz, who runs a landscape architecture business in Naples, Fla. [The Hartford Courant]

I so would love to find some of the headless children planters and just put them around the yard for when my parents come home. I can just see them pulling in late at night after driving and finding them invading the yard. Another ornament mentioned is the Digger Dog, which is supposed to look like a dog with its head down a hole. According to the description it “barks, whines, stomps his back foot and (oops!) passes wind.” And you can set it to be motion activated to “get a good laugh from neighbors, guests, and passersby.”

This gives me a bunch of ideas. How about hands that look like a zombie trying to claw its way out of the ground (or maybe just a face peering out from the dirt)? It could be animated so passersby could hear the moans of the dead and maybe an occasional “brainsssss.”

Wow, what a long weekend. Since my parents are away, I invited some friends from Boston to come down here and hang out this weekend. It was pretty fun. I made dinner last night (mmmm, cajun meatloaf. I’ll post the recipe later) and people drank lots and we watched anime till some very late hour. Definitely lots of fun. I think the next time I invite folks down for anime I’m just going to show one show all night, I’m thinking One Piece, because pirates rock.

On the OW side of things I’ve been fighting a sinus headache for about 20 hours so far. Trying to keep myself hydrated to see if that helps some, but it’s driving me nuts.

I’m not a particularly religious person, so don’t really pay much attention to Easter unless I’m with my family. But I do wish I had gotten a chocolate bunny so that I can bites its ears off. Then its feet. Then its head (finally putting it out of its misery). And then the rest of the remains. And it better not be one of those hollow easter bunnies either. Solid chocolate is what it is all about.

Okay, we’ve got decapitated cats, a chicken who likes to be dominated, and now we have an ad for Nutrigrain Bars. They really make you feel GREAT! (Thanks for this one goes out to my friend Sean). (requires Quicktime)

Found via Boing Boing (and people I know who were talking about it), Burger King’s new marketing gimick: Subservient Chicken. You too can tell the chicken what to do. I’m really not sure what to think of this, is BK trying to go after that vast furry demographic?

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.” [Quotes of the Day]

From ellen:

Performers Whip Easter Bunny At Church Play

Minister Says Play Wasn’t Offensive

A church in western Pennsylvania trying to teach about the crucifixion of Jesus performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs, upsetting several parents and young children.

People who attended Saturday’s performance at Glassport’s memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, “There is no Easter bunny,” and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified.

Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children. “He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped,” Salzmann said.

Patty Bickerton, the youth minister at Glassport Assembly of God, said the performance wasn’t meant to be offensive. [NBC10.com]

No, not meant to be offensive, just to traumatize little kids.