Snow Globe

The snow kinda caught all of us a little off balance.

Modern Yellow

Although much modern art leaves me cold, I have always liked the geometric works of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. Here, I have tried to effect a softer aesthetic by including curves and of course the Odd Onion.

Stranger Things

 The Odd Onion has not made an appearance for quite some time, but I haven't forgotten this "100 Possibilities" photo project. I always select my onions with an eye toward their photographic merits, but as you can see, this one was a little long in the tooth by the time I got around to making its portrait. Many of its predecessors have gone straight into the soup/stew without achieving the slightest fame. This one spoke to me while I was packing up my kayak gear for a fall survey of Lake St. Clair. "Take me with you," it said. I could hardly object. It had been patiently sitting on top of the dryer for over a month without being called to duty. Now I suppose you'll think it rather odd that someone would take an onion kayaking, but I can assure you there are stranger things going on in today's world. The Onion hopes we have made your day a little brighter, if no less surreal.

La Cebolla

Me gusta la cebolla. Ellas comen las cebollas. La cebolla no es un animale, es un vegetale. Yes, I am back practicing Spanish again. I have a decent vocabulary, but my grammar is appalling. The simplest things like "who," "which" and "how" trip me up. I can make my verbs agree with their subjects and my sentence structure is reasonably good, but those little words need a lot more practice, and to that end, I have signed on with DuoLingo. The site was recommended to me by a native speaker who teaches intermediate and advanced classes in the same building as Morris dance practice. When I arrived early a few weeks ago, I sat outside the door listening in. When I spoke with her afterwards, she suggested DuoLingo as a prerequisite for her intermediate class. Oh, how I would love to become fluent!

DuoLingo lets you go at your own pace, and allows you to return to earlier lessons for practice. The student is asked to type in responses. Sometimes, an unmistakable visual clue is given; other times, you are given a sentence and asked to translate it to or from Spanish. By typing in the words over and over, the spellings and tenses are drilled into your head without the need for painful memorization. I'm finding it quite an enjoyable way to learn a second language (or in my case, refine one I'd already begun to study). They offer courses in many other languages as well...and KLINGON is in the works! That will be my next project.

Entitled To An Op-Onion

Everyone is entitled to their own op-onion, and by gawd, here's mine. I've 'bout reached my limit on stress, and while I don't want to turn my back on what's going on in the political sphere for fear that it, like the proverbial alligator, will bite me on the behind, it's time for some Silly. Friends have often heard me voice one of my driving mottoes: "The world needs more silly." Like most mottoes, sometimes it's hard to maintain, but let's give it a try. There's nothing controversial about an onion, unless you want to debate Walla Walla Sweets over those watery things they grow in Georgia (bleccchhh!). Frankly, I prefer yellows for cooking and reds for salad. What's your op-onion?

Spectacled Onion

I had decided several days ago that I would go to see the Sunday matinee of "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them," and indeed that was my plan when I went to bed last night. I even left a note on my desk so I'd be sure not to forget. However, when I woke up this morning, I realized I hadn't let my supervisor know to pick me up on his way to work tomorrow so I could attend the Park's Tuesday turkey-feed. Then I remembered that I had to go to the post office to mail a package as well, but couldn't do so on a Sunday. Wait...is it Sunday or Monday today? It has to be Sunday because I'm going to the movie. Yesterday was Saturday. Today is Sunday. No, wait...

After several minutes of deliberation, I gave up and flipped open my cell phone. For several more minutes, I experienced a sensation not unlike having just come through a substantial, rolling earthquake, i.e., disorientation, nausea, dizziness. Saturday? SATURDAY? And then a brief moment of denial: "The phone is wrong" and illogically, "Must not have changed over from Daylight Time."

Nothing makes sense any more. Abstraction: A Spectacled Onion. The logic of the absurd.

At The Root Of It

It's not that I've forgotten about the Odd Onion. It's that I don't want to do what so many people do when they enter into a "100 Variations" project, i.e., rush through it putting their selected object in as many unlikely places as they can find. Oh, I'll probably add a few "Onion Rides the Bus" or "Onion Meets Orange" shots if only for lack of inspiration, but for the most part, I want to stretch my creativity to find unique ways of presenting my humble subject matter. Case in point: I recently purchased a macro lens/filter and put it to use here, presenting (as they say) the south end of a northbound Onion. That's getting to the root of it, no?