That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for May 13, 2022

“Because of this painter, I’m going to have to find another place to dump the body.”

Garden Ninja strikes again!

Mary, on her way to dig up her Holier-Than-Thou neighbors’ garden.

Her business card reads; “Have shovel, will travel.”

My dog? No, this shovel is for me – my plumbing is broken again.

/// Her nose filtered by layers of cotton,

Gertrude hoped “Out of sight, soon forgotten.”

Ignoring the stench,

her spade dug a trench

where she buried the Dane’s “something rotten.”

A young Danish damsel named Polly/

Was told she must wax melancholy/

She failed at the task/

And was doomed to a mask:/

She was simply incurably jolly.

She’d been born in the humblest hovel

And was further required to grovel/

In the presence of “betters”/

(Men of letters, in sweaters)/

While she toiled in the fields with her shovel..///

She lived in a world of manure/

So we (sadly) can never be sure/

That behind that head, wrapped/

Lay reserves, still untapped,/

Of a truly astounding allure…

Don’t look at me. You try digging ditches with a pandemic going on.

she’ll need a bigger shovel…

Can you dig it? https://youtu.be/nNI27KOQoF4

Kirsten’s use of her head scarf as a dust mask was a groundbreaking idea.

Well, let’s just say the new dinner recipe wasn’t quite what I hoped it would be

“Are you sure they don’t make anything larger than those measly 30-gallon things?”

Wherever there is a hole crime and humanity is in peril, The Masked Shoveler will be there

“Our president said, ‘With enough shovels….,’ so I’m doing my part.”

Ah, I see the yearly “Guerrilla Fighters” edition of Better Homes and Gardens has arrived.

It ain’t easy growing green….

I’m thinking: Two Mules for Sister Sara.

Portrait of Gerta the Grave Robber – a woman who really dug her work and made no bones about it!

It’s certain that using that short spade (I believe it’s a spade, not a shovel), would require being bent over, indeed almost doubled over. Using it all day would be very hard work indeed.

actually, Great Danes take their owners for walks… or runs

My mother-in-law has a soft spot for me… in the garden.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

The jails are made of tin

And you can walk right out again

As soon as you are in

There ain’t no short-handled shovels

No axes, saws nor picks

I’m a-goin’ to stay where you sleep all day

Where they hung the jerk that invented work

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Boy, the struggle is real, as any Dane owner will tell you.

Can someone help me with these two Russians I’ve just despatched?

Læssøe peasant girl in everyday clothes: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Paintings by P.C. Skovgaard in Statens Museum for Kunst" site=commons.wikimedia.org 

(syntax supported by the Google, Yandex, Duckduckgo, and Ecosia search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and chose the first Category: link found, and once there, find the Læssøe text on that webpage, and click the link for info and links that point to more info (best viewed using Google Chrome, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this roughly postcard size painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2925 (May 12, 2022) 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 (awaiting Mr. Melcher’s approval) pointing to some artist info. First work by him used here.

planting MJ. is new to maria. just dig a hole and plop some seeds in it, soon you’ll be very happy. but it takes a few weeks.

The moment before you find out that the Tinder date your on is . . .

. . . with your own sister!

Elephantiasis was once so prevalent in Denmark that an entire market of giant-legged pants was developed to accommodate sufferers’ swollen legs.

You better pay up for me being a model! I’m now 6 bodies behind!

Some historical org. put interesting explainers on YouTube, including one regarding the people of humble means who made a living in 18th-cent. England collecting dog waste from city streets—they’d stake out individual territories and establish daily routes, then deliver to fulling mills at the end of the day.

“I will bury you!” Nikita Khrushchev, 1961.