John Has All the Most Unusual Stuff

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a picture of something odd that you have in your house. And, no, don't take any pictures of your spouse. Really, that's just mean. No, I'm talking some object that when people see it in your house, they stop and say something like "Huh. You don't see that every day." - J.S.

I must have some odd or unusual things somewhere, but nothing of the sort really comes to mind at the moment.  It turns out that pretty much all the really oddball objects in our house are things that John brought into it.  Everything I will be featuring in this entry, except for the TV minibar and the EP Bunny, is in John's office.


Exhibit A:  E.P. Bunny.
We resisted buying this for perhaps a year at the Casa Des Los Niños Thrift Shop, but ultimately we had to get it.  It reminded us of the bunny drawings John's former supervisor, E.P., used to doodle at his old job back in Columbus.  I especially like this papier maché bunny's fierce teeth.  When I went to photograph the E.P. Bunny, I was taken with the way the upended vintage coffee table formed an accidental fence for the farmer bunny to stand behind.



Exhibit B:  The TV Minibar
 Inside this quaint and unconvincing representation of a color television is a set of bar supplies - shaker and glasses, mostly, if memory serves.  I didn't feel like opening it tonight to show you, but take my word for it.  We got it at the estate sale of someone who had a lot of alcohol-related memorabilia, plus multiple copies of the first five issues of National Lampoon.  John sold many of the Lampoons on eBay some years back, when we desperatively needed the cash to pay a tax bill.  That's all part of a story I really mustn't tell here. Too bad there's a knob missing. I think there's a shot glass missing, too. But what the heck. What did we expect for the $2.00 we probably paid for this 45-year-old curiosity?  Answer: precisely what we got.




Exhibit AB: A & B Together
This is so you can see the rest of the bunny, and get an idea of relative sizes.  It's also an excuse to show off part of John's framed Buckaroo Banzai poster.



Exhibit C:  Two Unusual Cans
Here are two definitely odd cans from John's office.  I thought I ought to show you how they really looked before I messed around with them with PhotoStudio 2000.





 

Exhibit C1:  Pocari Sweat Refreshment Water
This is a real Japanese product, which John got from his pen pal Kooichi.  We've never figured out why the English word "sweat" would have the right connotations in Japan for something you'd want to pour down your throat.  Maybe it's supposed to mean that it's a sports drink.  In any case, John drank at least part of the contents of this can.  No, it didn't taste like perspiration (not that John has tasted perspiration, particularly). I gather that it was a mildly sweetened soft drink, nothing exciting. Naturally, John kept the can.


Exhibit C2:  Genuine California Earth Quake in a Can
Judging from the sound and the heft when I pick this up and shake it, the can seems to have a rock in it. Maybe it's from the San Andreas Fault, but maybe not. Really, it's kind of a disappointment.  So was my attempt at special effects for this photo.






Exhibit D:  The Stuff on John's Office Wall
Clockwise from top left: 

1. Early Disneyland banner
This is probably from the 1950s, probably an eBay purchase.

2.Hand-painted MacIntosh Crest Tambourine
This was his mother's maiden name.  John's MacIntosh grandfather was a minor oil tycoon in Ohio,many years ago.

3. Basil Rathbone Life Mask
Or maybe death mask, I forget which.  Either way, it's supposedto have been cast from Rathbone's actual face.  This was another eBay purchase.

4. Persian Slipper
Sherlock Holmes kept his tobacco in a persian slipper.  John doesn't keep tobacco, but he has the slipper.

5.  John's First Christmas Stocking
I think this stocking goes back to when John was a baby.  Certainly there's a baby depicted on it.  We don't fill this at Christmas, because we don't want to wear it out.

6.  McKinley High School Banner
From John's high school in Canton, Ohio.

Sorry this wasn't big on words tonight.  I've been editing dozens of dramatic new monsoon pictures, some of which you'll see tomorrow night.  Now I've got to upload this and get to bed!

Karen