Isn't life strange

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad.  (I'm not quite sure why my cousin is covering his face.  He's not in the witness protection plan. Or at least I don't believe that he is.) My dad was dead a little more than a year after this picture was taken.

Today is the 25th anniversary of his death; my father, not my cousin, (he is happily still alive.) And I am a year older than he was when he died.

Miss you dad.

Meet our staff (cont'd):

And now we come to the head of our Human Resources Department, Herr Karl Juckende Hintern, an old school chum of mine (just don't mention the war.) Herr Juckende Hintern's door is always open for any problem you may have.  In fact, Karl will have already heard about any problem you may have, (just don't go see him after 4 PM; he has a mimeograph ink huffing problem, but we don't like to talk about it.)  New employees should remember that they will need to submit their request for suicide pills in triplicate into the HR office within the first 30 days of the start of your employment.

A fun fact: the Oxford Dictionary credits Karl with originated the phrase, 'the beatings will continue until morale improves', except in the more encouraging original German - 'das dchlagen fährt fort, bis moral verbessert!'

Meet our Staff (cont'd):

Here we see Mrs. Bexley Cerumen planning a luncheon menu at Dr. Caligari's. Mrs.Cerumen is a graduate of the CIA cooking school (not the Culinary Institute of America but the actual CIA.)  Her graduating thesis, "Maximum use, minimum fuss: the effective uses of untraceable toxins" has found it's way into the standard operative field guide.

There is no truth to the rumor that she is the actual model for Dr. Hannibal Lector - although we have had to take the Thursday blue plate special of Liver and Fava beans off the menu.

Never before seen

Here's a rare shot of the interior of the home office of the ACME Corp.

This department was built specifically to handle the voluminous orders from one of their main customers - a Mr. Wile E. Coyote

Meet our Staff (continued):

Ms. Ida Mae Clotilde, Ms. Loretta Martin and Ms. Lucasta Snodgrass, all work in the Research department of Dr. Caligari's. Ida once beat a man to death with a paperback edition of Roget's Thesaurus for the incorrect use of the Oxford comma; (she is currently on probation.)

Loretta (nee Laurence) can speak fluent Esperanto (but with a lisp.) Loretta ran away from the St. Aloysius Home for Listless Children at 14 and won a Cha Cha competition with her dancing partner, Bebe Ribozo. Lucasta Snodgrass (seating in the rear of the photo, holding the phone) was the youngest winner of the All-England Summarize Proust Competition in 1971. Legally, she's had to register her elbows as deadly weapons.

Meet the Staff

Mrs. Edna Terwilliger, head of Dr. Caligari's IT department.

Mrs. Terwilliger used to work for the CIA during the Cold War.  She's killed over 37 East German spies in her day; but she doesn't like to talk about it.  Edna makes a mean Vodka Sunstroke.

Central Park, 1932, on this date

A Hooverville 'Mansion', near the recently drained, at the time, reservoir (now, part of the Great Lawn.)