You Can't Rollerskate There! - 06 November 2021 - Plague Journal Day 604

Micah 6:8
Genesis 47:1
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is National Bison Day. As a Belgian American, this holiday is near to my heart.
That, of course, is because in many parts of these United States, Belgians are known as Buffaloes. (While we all know that buffalo and bison are not really synonyms, they're used fairly interchangeably by most Americans, so that's how I'm taking it today.)

Here's one of my all-time most-read posts which actually directly addresses that topic:
Belgians and Buffaloes

and a link to another buffalo-related post:
A Cool Thing I Made Once

Don't forget to Fall Back tonight! (only once, don't keep moving it back every time it gets to 1:00AM!)

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Books and Bison - 07 November 2020 - Plague Journal Day 240

Micah 6:8
Job 19:23-27
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

  

Today has a happy collision of commemorations: National Bison Day and Book Lovers Day!
I cannot for the life of me imagine a better way to combine those two celebrations than to purchase a book from Grand Teuton Press.

As Bartles and James were wont to say, thank you for your support.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Belgians and Buffaloes

Well, after decades of painstaking research, the mystery of why Belgians are called Buffaloes may have been solved.
It seems that back around the turn of the century (from the 19th to the 20th), Buffalo Bill Cody took his Wild West Show to Belgium (among other European countries), where the people of Ghent took to him in a big way.
The football team there - K.A.A. Gent - took as its nickname the Buffaloes, and their logo is an Indian chief in profile.
It seems that many of the Belgians moving to the Detroit area came from that part of Flanders, and brought their team affiliation with them.
A mystery neatly solved.

A Cool Thing I Made Once

I don't really know what brought this to mind recently, but I think one of the cooler things I've ever made was a present for my Dad.
I can't even remember if it was a Christmas, Birthday, or even Father's Day present, but that doesn't matter a whole lot.

At any rate, Dad collects buffaloes of all descriptions. (I may explain why in another post, but the reason isn't all that important right now.)
If you want to be zoologically precise, they're really American Bison, but no one outside the zoological community ever really calls them bison, and a buffalo by any other name would still make chips ... but I digress.
He has stuffed buffaloes, stone buffaloes, a specially-commissioned bronze buffalo (which is quite spectacular), terracotta buffaloes, plastic, ... well, you get the idea, I hope.
Whenever this was, I decided that he needed a more formal herd of buffaloes to roam the open range. Of course, then he'd also need an open range, wouldn't he? Naturally.

Enter memories of childhood and those spectacular Electric Football sets. You may remember them - the little men sat on metal brush kinds of things, and you set them in formation on a metal football field. When the switch was thrown (assuming it was plugged in), the field would vibrate - with a very satisfyingly electric hum - and the men would move. They would move mostly in the direction they faced when you set them in formation, but as they bumped and jostled one another, the whole thing looked more like a rugby scrum than a proper football play. [I wonder if they ever sold these as Electric Rugby sets anywhere ....]

So - a little copy/paste action on the computer and I could print out a sheet of properly-sized buffaloes for the little football players. A bit of scissoring and gluing turned those teams of footballers into a herd of buffaloes, and now the milling, jostling action was actually appropriate.

[I'll see if I can find a photo to upload, but that's semi-doubtful.]

What's the coolest present you ever made for someone?