More paintings found in Thrift Shops and at Garage sales in and around Lakewood, Colorado for your viewing pleasure.
Today I stumbled across a literary resource known as the Aarne-Thompsom-Uther Index.
It is a basically a listing of folktales and fairytales from every corner of the world, and the basic plots of such.
Initially assembled of European (both Western and Eastern) tales, the index has been expanded over the past 100 years or so to include tales (oral and written) from every corner of the globe.
What intrigues me about the index of tales is the commonality of not only characters and plot elements of stories that originated on the different continents and from the disparate cultures therein, but also the choice of villains.
For example, there are a lot of evil Stepmother and stepsister tales out there, and quite a few featuring clever animals that are intent on teaching stupid humans a sobering lesson or two.
Apparently, at one time there was a need for both warnings about the danger in one's father's choice of a second wife (and the kids that were added to the fold) and the need to be listening to animals for necessary life skills advice.
As per the expectations of his family he attended Law school and, after graduating, passed the Bar exam.
But the practice of law was not to his liking and soon he was spending most of his free time pursuing what he considered his true calling, his real passion.
Stand-up comedy...specializing in lawyer jokes, of course.
It started early.
Colin, half awake and bleary eyed, sat down to eat breakfast and Blamo! - someone had put a whoopee cushion on his chair, which nearly startled Colin right off it.
After tossing the rubber bladder aside, Colin proceeded with his usual routine of adding salt and pepper to his eggs and then digging in for a bite - which he promptly spit out, as someone evidently switched the salt with sugar and there is nothing quite as shocking as sugar and pepper seasoned eggs.
Colin poked at the bacon on his plate gingerly, until he was satisfied it was real bacon, then cut off a small corner of it to taste - it tasted like real bacon, so he lifted an entire piece to his mouth and took a full bite - only to discover that the lower half of the strip of bacon must have been marinated in hot sauce overnight, as his mouth was suddenly on fire.
He reached for the glass of milk to his right and then immediately pulled his hand back - no sense in pushing his luck with the milk - so he got up and went over to the sink.
Hurriedly taking a glass from the cupboard he turned on the cold tap and filled the glass, then gulped down about half of it before spitting out the hot water into the sink - apparently, someone had gone through the trouble of switching the hot and cold taps.
Hyper alert now to the possibility that everything in his home was potentially rigged to fool him, he carefully made his way to his bedroom and just as carefully dressed to go to the gym - he wasn't going to chance shaving and showering at home, lord knows what could happen to the water temperature or supply, so he decided he could get some morning exercise at the gym and also prepare to go to work there - much safer that way.
He tossed his gym bag into the backseat along with his work clothes and then sat down behind the wheel. Turning the ignition over resulted in a series of clicks. Colin instantly realized it was the ol' disengage-the-battery-cables trick, so he popped the hood and got out of the car to re-attach them.
Lifting the hood he discovered it was not the ol' disengage-the-battery-trick. It wasn't even the replace-the-battery-with-a-dead-battery trick. It was something a little more involved, a little more advanced.
The entire engine had been removed. Colin stood in front of his car with the hood open and stared at the large empty engine compartment and came to an undeniable realization.
It was going to be a long, long day.
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