My buddy, Denise, gave me this linen tea towel. She told me the kitty reminded her of our kitties. I agree. Plus I love that owl, the peeg and the birds in the tree. Written at the bottom is “The Owl and the Pussy Cat” and “100% Linen made in Ireland”. Nice! I thought, “Is this a story?”, googled it, and found a poem by Edward Lear – an English poet best known for his literary nonsense – literary nonsense? I love this guy! I think I need to research more about literary nonsense.
Here’s part of the first stanza…
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
What’s nonsensical about that? Anyway, the story goes on about the pig with the ring in his nose. It’s an excellent story. Click here for the whole story.
Tonight I had a idea for the teatowel! What if I tried using that trick where you use starch as temporary “glue” for attaching fabric to the wall? I heard about it on the Nate Berkus show a few months ago. Aha! I actually researched starch in Canada and it turns out we don’t sell it in buckets like they do in the States. Apparently it’s flammable (?) I’m not sure that’s correct, so don’t quote me on that. But I did find it in spray can form (see why I think I got that flammable thing wrong? Why put a flammable liquid in a pressurized can?) ANYWAY, I found spray starch in a can and tried that.
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I was very excited about getting this pin. I first heard about these pins from someone (who shall remain nameless, as requested) who knows someone who received one as a form of a thank you. And that person passed it on to me. Pins are just falling in my lap for some reason. They seem to be finding me. I didn’t think they’d be of interest to me after the Olympics, but I could not be more wrong. This is a cool one. This pin is a photo of a neon sign for an old dive bar in Vancouver – located in the Downtown East Side = skid road = a part of town with “character” or “history” or “rummies”. It looks like the sign was installed for the bar in 1953 and stayed up until the bar shut down in 1987. I think the sign now lives in the Museum of Vancouver. I should go over there and see it. Actually, I definitely have to get over there. They are having a display about Handmade Nation over there. I gotta get to that.
But back to the Smiling Buddha – the history of that place is pretty excellent. I am very sad I missed the experience, but I didn’t get to Vancouver until 1991. Some of my friends, however, who resided in Vancouver during this time filled me in on the place. Here are some of their stories about this seedy bar:
- There were go-go dancers in cages at that bar -Cathy Mechanic
- Alcohol wasn’t served, but people brought their own, and the establishment put tablecloths on the table so you could hide your bottles under the table. – Uh. Should I put the person’s name who divulged that? Maybe not.
- Now there was a dodgy place – Suzanne C.
- I know someone who was so drunk, she fell out of her car in front of that place, casually got up and asked the bouncer who witnessed the whole thing if he’d light her cigarette. – I think that person should remain nameless as well.
But the best comment left on my facebook profile about this raunchy place? It’s this one from Fiona:
Ha ha, I got spit on by Joey Shithead in that place. No lie. That was the end of my punk rock days – no random bodily fluids, ewwww!
What a glorious place the Smiling Buddha Cabaret was! I’m so sad I missed it.
If you’re interested in some other interesting facts about this place, there’s some info in this article. And if you’d like to be a fan of the Cabaret on Facebook like I am, you can do that right here.
