That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for January 10, 2024

To many it appeared like another of Innocent Amusements, but there was a peacock who wanted the performer charged with animal cruelty and theft.

/// Drusa gathered the girls near to gloat.

“I can eat all I want and not bloat!

There is no need to diet.

After gorging, just try it.

Stick a feather deep back in your throat.”

“You look like a nice young couple. I could show you ways to keep is spicy, if you know what I mean.”

Eunice and her imaginary friend…

“and I swear they were almost too big to hold in this hand. Like a couple of oranges they were!”

[Or] “So once you have a hold of them, then you tell the patient to turn his head and cough.” the nursing instructor said.

“I was thinking about coming here everyday to feed the birds.. until that last one pooped on my hand! I’ll just wash it off in this fountain”.

“Hi, um, I sat here with no underwear on and somehow a vacuum was created. I’m stuck, can you help me up.”

C’mon guys. The three of us, the fountain, nobody else here but the birds … could be fun.

Three coins in the fountain….

Greatest member of the sales team, she could even convince peasants that their hovel needed a marble pool

The couple was disappointed. This was not the “female feather dancer” they were expecting.

I can levitate pigeons. Maybe I should go into show business.

In spite of a freshening breeze/

she can balance a feather with ease./

But the best of her talents/

does not involve balance:/

It’s a feat she performs on her knees..

The moment Rose Thompson Hovick decided to put her daughter into show business – the details came later, like the performance and the stage name Gypsy.

Look, quick, I’m balancing this feather, get a picture.

Giving her rival the biggest middle finger ever!

The painting is at Yale. Just search for “Godward” on the Yale Art Gallery website.

“My home insurer cancelled because the roof needs to be replaced.”

“Watch me feed another fish to the birds!”

For people having the same trouble I did with the relatively low-resolution image presented here, go the the Yale Art Gallery page (just search “Godward”) and click into the hi-res image there. The feather is much easier to see, with the tip of the feather silhouetted, as it were, against the chest of the statue in the background.

Young man, leave her and come with me, and I will show you how I make other things stand at attention.

See, use you fingers like this. Come here and I’ll show you two.

“The finger’s good but can she balance it on her nose?”

Flipping That Man-Stealing Hussy Appolita The Bird, 1891

“Tickle your a** with a feather?” (old joke)

Innocent amusements: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:1891 oil on canvas paintings" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia and Yandex 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 Innocent, 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 #3250 (January 10, 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 to the blog entry with my comment pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 12 works by him have been used here (12 times total, first strip had 4 works, which has been repeated twice, plus another repeat), the May 25, 2023, strip being the prior by him (a repeat). The May 24, 2023, strip has the prior non-repeat by him.

“Paint me now! People will think I’m holding the heavy statue in my hand!”

“Wingardium leviosa!”

WHAT! a roman bath with people with clothes on? must be the ugly ones.

She had eaten an ostrich for dinner/

but she knew she could still remain thinner/

if she simply arrested/

The mess she’d ingested/

And thereby still come out a winner ..

So she tickled her throat with a plume/

And spewed ostrich all over the room/

“Let the slaves clean the mess/

For I’ve got to go dress/

And a lady dare not touch a broom..”

Good thing Godward painted her right then, because she then lost her balance and fell in the fountain.

For my next trick, I will hold a piece of bread in my hand, and a seagull from Los Angeles will fly in and grab it!

May the forum be with you.

For tomorrow:

“The head of the House ofOrange”:

The paintings of Raphael Peale/

Can appear photographically real:/

Fruit’s a tedious topic/

But details microscopic/

Possess an intrinsic appeal.