At long last, pt. 2 of my wall-improvement series is ready. My plan had been to show just a couple of samples from the nature illustration print collection of the NY public library’s Digital Gallery, but, well, there were way too many that I adored.

and so BELOW are just an itty bitty smattering (apologies for the nautical prejudice - it’s just where my interest lies) of the vast collection of archived science/nature book pages scanned and available for purchase (for like $50 and up, depending on size):

Testudo polyphemus. from North American herpetology; or, A description of the reptiles inhabiting the United States. (1842) (omg, TURTLE BELLIES.)

Sixteen Varieties of Gooseberries, from A collection of the most esteemed fruits…with the blossoms and leaves… (1812) (who knew there were so many varieties of gooseberries? not me, that’s for damn sure.)

Himanthalia lorea, from Photographs of British algae: cyanotype impressions. (1843)

Fig. 1. Male Narwal, or Unicorn (15 Ft. in length); Fig. 2. Under side view of the same Narwal; Fig. 3. Lamantin. from American natural history. Part 1.–Mastology (1826)

Sea Anemones from Animate creation; popular edition of our living world, a natural history (1898)

Les Poissons: le Hareng, la Morue, la Baleine from Cabinet du petit naturaliste (1812) (Woodcut = yay)

Ctenophores. from The new natural history (189-?) (Just LOOK at that loverly shade of blue…)

1. Helix antiqua; 2. Helix Coreanica; 3. Helix leucostoma; 4. Helix orientalis; 5. Helix immaculata; 6. Helix caliginosa; 7. Helix decora; 8. Helix densa; 9. Helix plurizonata; 10. Helix canescens; 11. Helix conoidalis. from The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Samarang; under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher … during the years 1843-46 (1850)

Siren lacertina from North American herpetology; or, A description of the reptiles inhabiting the United States. (1842)

They also have cartography, russian civil war posters, fashion illustration (see below), industrial blueprints, architecture, menus… I just… it’s just so… overwhelming. Go forth, acquire.

from Ladies’ dress shoes of the nineteenth century (published 1900)

If pressed, I could certainly think of far worse blog-schticks to become mildly famous for than for all my slug-talk recently. and thus, here’s summore:

hug-a-slug!

darling plush nudibranches can be bought by you in the passive voice on weirdbuglady’s etsy shop here.

Surrealist Slugs

my wonderously wonderous newfie friend miss lisa has shared with me the following finalist for the National Film Theatre/Hayward Gallery’s 60-Second Surreal competition, “the room”: starring, obviously, a slug or, the shadow of a slug. (to watch, click here and select “the room”)

*at least it does in kafka on the shore. well, leeches. ok so leeches and slugs aren’t the same. blablabla who died and made you Captain Science?**

**it has been a long, long week.

I’ve been bookmarking affordable art stuffs over the last few months and it’s time to share! this may become a series. my love of the following burns with the fire of one thousand suns.

Cardinal & Deer by Berkeley Illustration, buy here for $7-$15. They are just so stately-looking.

if only we could wear pants & Up to no good, marc johns, buy his prints here: $16-$20.

antler girl and horse hostess by Ashley Alexander (or “I’m Smitten”), buy here for $40 each. adore. also, I appreciate another opportunity to use my cryptozoology tag.

and last, but in no way least… No one wants to play sega with Harrison Ford, Brandon Bird, buy here for $7.99 (unsigned). and if you aren’t into lime green, it comes in many alternate shades of awesome.

Dear The Internets:

DISCLAIMER: Prepare yourself for a somewhat-shameless ploy for your hard-earned-money. But this time, I’m not asking you to help me buy a pirate ship or a wax model of myself, it’s for The Good ™, I promise.

On May 31st, I will be participating in a Punch-A-Thon benefit for the Center for Anti-violence Education (CAE)* and I’m a-lookin’ for sponsors and fellow punchers.

It’s like a walk-a-thon, except, instead of getting sponsored by the mile, you get sponsored by the punch (punching into the air, not at a person, and most assuredly nowhere even NEAR a gift donkey). And it will be in sunny prospect park AND there will be snacks AND face-painting AND most importantly of all, I may or may not be wearing a fancy new pair of Chuck Norris ACTION PANTS:

So here’s how it works:

• you can sponsor me by the punch (example: at 5 cents a punch, 500 punches would be $25)
• or you could do a flat sponsorship (even $10 or 15 would rock my socks, just donate online here and reference “meredith & punchathon”)
• or if you live locally and want to participate, download the flier/form here
• OR none-of-the-above, which is totally AOK.
  

Email me for more info.

* CAE is a 34-year-old nonprofit in brooklyn that offers free courses in self defense for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, of which I also happen to be on the board of directors. (oooo “board of directors”, faaaancy).

Rare moment of earnesty: I am a craptacular board member. We are supposed to fundraise- that is what a board does. But I am usually too mortified to directly ask my friends for support; I know that many of you are as paycheck-to-paycheck as I am. So anyway, I tossed and turned about whether or not to post this here. I promise that the next post will be whimsical and absurd!

1. Please, for the love of James Hong and everything else pure and good in this world, let’s pool our money together and purchase a robot-jellyfish and sell rides on it.

2. we will also need an apartment with ridiculously high ceilings.

3. and probably a good lawyer.

Watch the video and you will understand, it is beautiful:


learn more here about edgar gonzalez’ “airjelly”.

holy cephalopods! According to Science*, the first 6-footed octopus (hexapus) has been discovered!

now typically, I would be 100% entirely jazzed about this wonderous, cryptozoology-meets-actually-actual-zoology news, but the 1955 Film “It Came from Beneath the Sea“** prophecized that the city of san francisco would be destroyed by a giant hexapus and, frankly, I’m concerned for my left-coast friends.

SF’ers: MOVE INLAND!

And while we are on the topic, I’d like to encourage everyone ever, who reads my blog, to purchase their very own tentacle arm:

*let me be the first to commend the cnn.com copy-editors for properly pluralizing “hexapus” as “hexapuses” and not “hexapi”. also, this quote makes me giggle incessantly:

Octopuses are renowned for having three hearts, blue blood and the ability to alter their skin complexion in the blink of an eye.

heh “renowned”?

**see one of my first blog posts, “Cryptozoology: a film series“, in which this movie could easily fit.

if my apartment were just the teeniest bit bigger, I would most certainly get one of these*. Just THINK of all the money you could save on therapy bills:

* well, I’d probably get a wonderwheel or a set of twin timpanis first, but THEN I’d get one of these.

More info on “punch and cuddle” can be found here.
via swissmiss.

just in case you were wondering, here’s some of what’s been keeping me giggling over the past few days:

number 1: feltidermy

so so so beautiful-bizarre.

number 2: garfield-minus-garfield

basically, if you take out the annoying cat, this comic strip becomes pure, absurd hilarity.. and possibly poignant commentary on suburban isolation. (credit to taylor for sharing)

number 3: unrealized eye-wear fads

including but not limited to the monocle veil:

the nose-shield:

and sun visors:

(credit to -j. for sharing)

I am at once horrified and delighted…

“Frozen Smiles: not your grandfather’s ice tray”

via pan-dan.

I just, well, no. NO.

Kitty Wigs, from kittywigs.com:

If this is somehow an acceptable pet accessory, may I request from the pet-crap-producers of the world some dog monocles? I just think my puppy would look pretty darn swanky if she had a monocle.

Welcome to the very first Official NSTGD HGG*! In case you run out of gift-ideas for your loved ones, may I humbly recommend the following:

the vladmaster: thank you to my dear friend miss maggie, winner of the annual Miss Maggie Pageant, for sharing her vladmaster with me.

“Vladmasters are handmade View-Master™ reels designed, photographed, and hand-assembled by Vladimir. They make use of toys, neglected household objects, and odd ephemera to tell 28-picture tales of train chases, missing steam shovels, disastrous dinner parties, and overly adventurous cockroaches”.

For under $25, you receive a viewmaster, a mini-cd soundtrack and bizarre-and-beautifully-photographed 3-d stories. I seriously can not recommend this more.

letterpress BEAR ATTACK xmas cards: because not everyone gets a real present and because everyone likes bears.

stainless steel wrenchware: it’s both practical AND practical, in ONE.

buy art!: encourage your friends to take down their college movie-posters and put up some non-vangogh art. for affordable prints by not-yet-so-famous artists/illustrators, I recommend thumbtackpress, etsy, redprairiepress, tinyshowcase, poppytalkhandmade or keepcalm. some favorites:

chris silas neal: (i have this one on my wall, I call it “oh thank heavens I remembered to wear my scarf”)

alyson fox. i love the cape so so so much:

ashley goldberg: bring on the whimsy!

rachel bone, the harbingers, or little-treeladies-talking-on-the-telephone = happiness:

DONATE SOMEWHERE RAD: I know, I know… some folks get all-sorts-of-disappointed when they get one of those “a donation was made in your name” cards instead of the 52-inch dual-core flat-screen low-fat iFrappucino-maker that they wanted… but really, if they are the sort of people who would feel that way, they didn’t deserve a present in the first place. I tend to lean towards donating to local, community-based organizations, instead of the giant-ones, and since I am on the board of a local nonprofit, I am going to pimp them out to you right here and now: the center for anti-violence education (CAE). I was on the staff for 2 years and have been on the board for over 3, and no words can adequately describe the depth of positive change this organization has instilled in the thousands of participating violence survivors, teens, and children both as individuals and as a community. even $15 means something. that’s like one takeout lunch in soho, if you tip well. anyway, donate here. < / earnesty >.

a ship in a bottle: it’s possible that only I would want this. search for them on ebay, you will not be disappointed.

MORE to come later this week….

* YCNHTMA!**

** you can never have too many acronyms.

as I have this week become a disgusting snot-monster, I would like to send many infinite thanks to my dearling friend mia for forwarding me these adorable plush viruses, that make this wretched cold seem not-so-icky-afterall:

(streptococcus pyogenes - flesh-eating virus)

(ebola)

(mad cow)

buy them at giantmicrobes.com

“Manually deployed similar to a parachute, the 150-liter shield inflates in less than three seconds and deflates after 90 seconds. Should you get buried, when the bag deflates you’ll at least have a small air pocket to breathe, scream and hope to be found.”

you know, just in case. I’d feel mighty bad if one of you died in an avalanche and I had decided *not* to post about this.

buy here.

via coolhunting

1) to achieve that ephemeral “instant-haunted-house” effect.

2) to quickly hide a dirty floor when you have surprise guests.

3) as a theft-deterrent:

burglar 1: “see anything worth stealing?”
burglar 2: “naaah, just a bunch of fog in there.”

4) humidity does wonders for the respiratory system.

5) it would be endlessly amusing to watch my puppy navigate the apartment… imagine a body-less tail rising from the fog… hiLARious.

6) no more wrinkles on linens.

7) to get out of bad dates:

baddateguy: “sooo how do you like your eggs in the morning… heh heh.”
me-after-secretly-switching-on-the-fog: “ohhh no! my house is filling up with fog! I have to call my landlord! time for you to go.”

8.) my grandmother always used to say “keep halloween with you, all through the year”.

9) to set the mood during my monthly daughters-of-the-vietman-war meetings.

10) well, if I don’t buy the fog machine, I will probably have to return my in-home-lighthouse.

buy at target:

dear friends with wombs,

I would like submit the following evidence in favor of breeding:

thank you,

meredith

(via rarebirdfinds)