That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for January 29, 2025

/// Two cartographers plan a projection

of the globe which preserves ship’s direction

on a flat atlas chart.

It’s part science, part art.

But Mercator’s map adds imperfection.

“What d’you mean you’ve lost the key??? I’m gagging for a whisky!”

’’Now show me on the map again…..where is underwater cable you want me to cut?"

“Here use the laptop, it’s much more accurate than that old thing.”

People find the darndest places to hide porn!

Honey, I know you have a lot of friends, but the guest list for our wedding is just too darn long.

Geographers, working in tandem./

( It’s easy to understand ‘em.)

Claimed for Europe the rights/

to far distant sites:/if they hadn’t, the king would have canned ’em.///

Keep in mind, when the king is your client/

That it’s wise to remain compliant/

For Kings have been known/

For whimsy alone/

To decapitate the defiant…

America’s butt’s in a sling:/

This President thinks he’s a King/

And aCongress supine/

Doesn’t seem to incline/

To show him he’s no such thing…

I can’t find Denali OR McKinley. And no America. This thing’s defective.

DeepSeek’s AI Cartographic programmers searching for the Land of the Lost Algorithm.

Google maps is taking you through the Gulf of America, traffic slows down there.

It seems like there ought to be more to say about this painting than I can find. Which man is which? Whence cometh the painter’s interest in this subject? It seems like there’s traditional Dutch painting influence; the light is rather Vermeer-ish. And above all, given the way our minds work around here, am I really the only one to notice that pretty phallic arm on the divider/compass hanging on the wall? (Our motto: if your mind’s not in the gutter, why not?)

Speaking of, the press is reporting that Google Maps is bending the knee to DJT and intends to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” on its maps, as per his (racist) wishes.

Obviously he forgot to factor in the flight speed of an unladen African swallow.

Since Google Maps says it’s less than an hour, my office requires him to make the trip three days a week.

I’ve heard that Trump wanted to own Greenland after seeing how big it was on a Mercator map.

Did he buy those maps on sail?

With the aid of Mercator and other map makers

Ortelius made one combined from all partakers

It was titled, ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’

(‘Theater of the World’ as known to some)

The Atlas was among the year’s top moneymakers

.

Crude by present standards but at the time a revelation

It was one impetus to increasing world exploration

We take for granted the Rand-McNally maps that anymore

Can be purchased in any book- or grocery store

And GPS and MapQuest are a great relative sensation

“yes I see where it says all men are created equal but thats not whats its talking about, now put your junk back in your pants before I stab it”

Don’t bother looking for the Gulf of Mexico. :-(

only took Columbus 5 weeks to sail from Spain to USA

I see the problem. He’s looking a a globe of the moon.

Mercator and Ortelius: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Gerardus Mercator" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, 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 3342, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (perhaps best viewed by the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this large painting. If your browser isn’t set up to handle .tiff images, to see an enlarged image there and avoid the 61.47 MB image download to your device, click a size under the image, rather than the image itself. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3452 (January 29, 2025) 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 to the sparse info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, first work by him used here.

“Mercator and Ortelius”

The expedition would require a man of bravery, of grit, and really big balls.

Does Google Maps have a ‘sailing in a wooden ship’ mode of travel option?

You’re looking at the bus route.

I give up – just can’t find a rhyme for “Mexico “.