That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for December 23, 2024

/// Copley painted him, Gilbert DeBlois,

a rich merchant. (Not noble— bourgeois.)

They’d, in Boston, been neighbors.

Now, in London, John labors

to portray the friend Gilbert he saw.

/// Both these men backed the loyalist side,

and had never their King’s rule denied.

When the Yankees revolted,

back to London they bolted.

Chose their fellow Brits in that divide.

“Dear Santa; I’ve been good this year, I’ve only whipped my servants when it was needed.”

((“I actually do think I need to go to the toilet.”))

Thinking, “What Christmas gift does one get for a British king who has everything? Would he take it amiss if I bought him a subscription to ‘Mad Magazine’?”

“Let’s see, what rhymes with Nantucket?”

It was a bold gesture; staring down the teacher while he was clearly cheating on the test.

If you read Wikipedia, you learn that John loved Boston so much, “ After becoming well-established as a portrait painter of the wealthy in colonial New England, he moved to London in 1774, never returning to America.”

Paint your darn picture, this is my happy face.

It used to be three if by dirigible.

“You talkin’ to me?”

Portrait of the new Director of the Office of Budget & Management who’s forward-thinking has been hailed by President Musk.

Let’s take a look. $300 for my trade in. 29% interest. 18 year term. You think I’m nuts or something?

“The eighteenth of April, seventy-five/

Hardly a man is now alive…”/

What Longfellow wrote/

Was worthy of note/

But our drivel’s less likely to thrive.

He looks like Roger Allam.

And I on the Jersey shore shall be.

He wrote of the Old North Church/

You may learn from an online search/

But the poem’s unread:/

(We watch Taylor instead)/

While Longfellow’s left in the lurch..///

Rhyming verse is increasingly dated:/

(The sophisticates swiftly grew sated)/

It’s still being created/

Albeit belated:/

For the urge simply hasn’t abated..

From the Great Moments in Trans History Collection: ‘Gilberts first public appearance in drag.’

I wonder if it is worth writing to this Santa person….I need votes!

Gilbert DeBlois : 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Undated paintings" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Brave search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found and once there find the text string 1990, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3432 (December 23, 2024) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger, if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there pointing the blog entry with my comment and reply pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 17 works by him have been used here (19 times, including 2 repeats), the November 21, 2023, strip being the prior.

Just checking if the right eyebrow extension is going to slip uncomfortably forward as well as the left.

“Are we wealthy, mama ?” “”””Yes, my dears!../

We are wealthy- or so it appears../

Mother’s chokes back her tears/

For the rent’s in arrears/

They haven’t been wealthy for years..///

They WERE wealthy. Then Austria fought/

A war that they shouldn’t have ought/

Their presence disturbs/

The provokable Serbs/

And the “empire” soon came to naught..///