Dracula's London

"I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London..."



"...to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity..."



"...to share its life..."



"...its change..."



"...its death..."



"...and all that makes it what it is."


- Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897, chapter 2. From dialog spoken by Count Dracula to Jonathan Harker, his real estate agent and soon-to-be victim.

Explanation of pictures, from top:

Pedestrians and busses flow down Regent Street.

The ubiquitous red double-decker busses "whirl and rush" down Oxford Street near Marble Arch.

Families have a day out in Hyde Park.

The iconic Big Ben looms behind The London Eye, a 2000 addition to the landscape.

This is London's Victorian Highgate Cemetery, east side. Bram Stoker noted that vampires could, in fact, move about in daylight although their powers would be diminished.

The Union Jack flies from the spires of the Houses of Parliament, as seen from the London Eye. Smokestacks of the Battersea power station are visible through the rain behind. Fans of Pink Floyd will remember the Battersea station from the cover of the album, Animals.



A vampiric jackalope keeps company with "Esmerelda", who haunts Hamley's Toy Store on Regent Street in London.


Halloween does not seem to be a major holiday in the UK. It is, however, noted by just the sector you'd expect: retailers.



Here's a fine window display for a store...I didn't note which one. I only noticed later the Halloween theme; I don't know how I could have missed that before.



A closer look, shall we?



There was a bit of Halloween Garland in the window display at Forbidden Planet, a big comics, toy and sci-fi store. Also seen are standees of Raquel Welch from "One Million Years BC", I believe, and British icon Chistopher Lee, from one of his Dracula films. Lee is on my top ten list of people I'd like to meet and put on this blog. By the way, a scene from one of his films, "Taste the Blood of Dracula", was filmed in the above-mentioned Highgate Cemetery.


Ace Jackalope wishes you a Happy Halloween!



This post is part of An American Jackalope In London:

More Easter Stuff - Easter Island moai (stone statue) in The British Museum
Good Friday - Crucifix tombstone in Highgate Cemetery and a crucifix at a church in London.
St Patrick's Day Megapost - Celtic crosses in London's Highgate Cemetery.
Red, Gold and Almost Gone - Includes photos of London's Chinatown.
He Belongs to the Ages (but you can still buy a souvenir) - We run into an Abraham Lincoln statue in, of course, London
Why Jackalopes Don't Play Soccer - Battered Buckyballs litter London.
Christmas Leftovers - An October shopping trip through Harrods, Selfridges and Hamley's, with lots of Christmas decor pictures.
Spamalot - We go to the Monty Python-based play and meet Tim Curry
London Trader Vic's - A visit to London's oldest tiki bar
Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 13) - The game is afoot!
Werelopes of London - Lycanthopic jackalopes stalk places mentioned in the Warren Zevon song, plus a few pictures of the London Underground.
Dracula's London - A Halloween tribute to Bram Stoker using London locales implied in "Dracula"
Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 9) - Mind the Gap

Something Sober This Way Comes

"He loves you and he just wants to save you from evil things" I hear the nice little old lady tell a nearby child who shrinks back from the jittery gaze of the mechanical man.




I don't blame the kid. Had I not been raised on "The Twilight Zone" I'd make myself scarce, too.




The days grow shorter and dusk spreads like an ink blot. Why, just last night, darkness came an hour earlier. The 2006 Kansas State Fair was over last month, but I've saved this for these days when spooky things are meant to come to the fore. Ladies and Gentleman, huddle close together for I present to you the dark jewel of the Kansas State Fair: the Women's Christian Temperance Union's mechanical man.




This is no static display model. In staccato motions, he turns his head, shifts his eyes, raises and lowers his eyebrows, moves one arm to ring a bell, the other to point to a book and most spookily of all, his cracked latex lip quivers. The lighting is terrible in the WCTU's location under the grandstands of the fairgrounds so I used a flashlight, which had the added bonus of enhancing the mood.




See him ring his bell in the above video.




The mechanical man is the property of the Kansas chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which refers to it as their "little man". They've brought it to the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson for 71 years as the attention-getter for their booth.




The WCTU was formed in 1874 to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society. They have lost a few battles, such as their attempt to counteract the campaign for repeal of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition), but they were influential in the fight for women's rights, a fact they really should play up more.




Currently, the WCTU promotes abstinence from drugs and alcohol and the Kansas chapter employs their little man to give the message. He wants abstinence, and he makes his points by turning the laminated pages of a book, pieced together largely from pictures cut out of magazines. The effect is charmingly reminiscent of the old Reefer Madness genre of films.




Here's a movie of the book.




He was made by the Character Display Company of Chicago; according to the WCTU, they bought him in 1935 for $155 - no small sum back then. However, at 71 straight years of usage at the Kansas State Fair alone, I'd say they got their money's worth. They actually have two of the things; I've seen the other and it's recent-era replacement grey suit lacks the pizaz of the red suited regular "little man."




The WCTU exhibit at the Kansas State Fair challenges people to walk a straight line while wearing these distance-distorting glasses. Its pretty convincing and its fun to watch people wobble and hesitate as they try. It actually strikes me as a bit dangerous on a concrete floor, but I'm glad they ignore the prevailing wisdom of avoiding anything that could cause a lawsuit. Better that a kid stumbles a little under the grandstands at the age of ten than wraps his car around a tree at the age of 16. Oh my, listen to me; the mechanical man has won another convert.




Ace Jackalope has found something I'd never seen before at this particular booth - a person under 30.



While the "little man" works the Kansas beat, others of his kind proselytize in other states. Like tracking down the names and locations of the five wizards in Lord of the Rings, some are known and some aren't. "Charlie" or "Dr. Wise" he is called at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute in Indiana. They acquired him as a gift in 2001. That's right, there are more of them out there. Sleep well, my friends; and Happy Halloween Eve.

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 9)

Where has Ace Jackalope journeyed that he would have to "mind the gap" as his shirt suggests?

Answered - Cumbres wrote:
"You are in a "Tube" station in London, England. I guess this explains your long pause in posting! :)"

Jolly good, Cumbres; Ace had me take him for a quick trip across the pond on urgent business. It seems something was afoot in the damp streets of London, but there's nothing our antlered detective can't protect the women of England from. Stay tuned.


This post is part of An American Jackalope In London:

More Easter Stuff - Easter Island moai (stone statue) in The British Museum
Good Friday - Crucifix tombstone in Highgate Cemetery and a crucifix at a church in London.
St Patrick's Day Megapost - Celtic crosses in London's Highgate Cemetery.
Red, Gold and Almost Gone - Includes photos of London's Chinatown.
He Belongs to the Ages (but you can still buy a souvenir) - We run into an Abraham Lincoln statue in, of course, London
Why Jackalopes Don't Play Soccer - Battered Buckyballs litter London.
Christmas Leftovers - An October shopping trip through Harrods, Selfridges and Hamley's, with lots of Christmas decor pictures.
Spamalot - We go to the Monty Python-based play and meet Tim Curry
London Trader Vic's - A visit to London's oldest tiki bar
Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 13) - The game is afoot!
Werelopes of London - Lycanthopic jackalopes stalk places mentioned in the Warren Zevon song, plus a few pictures of the London Underground.
Dracula's London - A Halloween tribute to Bram Stoker using London locales implied in "Dracula"
Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 9) - Mind the Gap

Cardinals Win World Series!

Though jackalopes are not innately sports fans, Ace has enjoyed an occasional game of baseball. He understands it better than he does American football, which he thinks would go faster if one team would simply kill the other and retain permanent possession of the ball.

He was delighted that a baseball team from St. Louis - a Route 66 city - won the World Series. It was the St. Louis Cardinals' first series win since 1982.

Where Angels Breathe

"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? It is the same the angels breathe."

Mark Twain, "Roughing It" Chapter XXII, 1886



Ace Jackalope, a friend and I recently flew to Seattle from Kansas City, via Dallas. Smart people sleep on planes; I take pictures instead. I hope you enjoy some of them. This is the pre-dawn sky, somewhere over Kansas.



Ace awaits food service on this first leg, from Kansas City to Dallas.



Sunrise (over Oklahoma, I am guessing)



How much more of a stereotypical view can one have as one descends into Dallas?



I found a couple outfits for Ace for future trips to Texas in one of the Dallas/Fort Worth airport gift shops. It is my custom to give away whatever was wearing them on site, if possible. I have thus left a trail of naked bears over much of the US. This new grandmother was happy to receive one as she was going to see a new grandkid for the first time.



This was shortly after leaving Dallas for Seattle. It reminded me of an elk, but I suppose that's just interpretation.



NW of Dallas: I'm afraid I have only the most general idea of where most of the following shots were taken, although they are presented in chronological order.



NW of Dallas



NW of Dallas and SE of Amarillo. The circles are the result of fields watered by revolving irrigation rigs.



All of the raw images were pretty low in contrast, a condition mostly caused by grime on the windows, glare, etc. Here is the scene above, unaltered. I heightened the contrast on all of these frames, for obvious reasons.



Erosion from streams has been eating into this plane for quit some time.



I think this might be Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, TX.



Someday, if the person next to me is really dumb, really annoying and inexperienced at seeing the earth from the sky, I'm going to act panicked and tell them these circles are the result of an alien invasion happening right then. The aliens, I will explain, are leaving "how to cook humans" instructions via their crop circle language.



Our pretty flight attenant brings Ace a Canada Dry. He thought it appropriate for his general destination.



Ah hah! Finally, something I could identify! This is Capulin Volcano National Monument in the NE corner of New Mexico.



This isn't the first time we've encountered evidence of volcanoes in the Southwest. Ace remembers the Malpais along Route 66 in New Mexico as well as Amboy Crater along 66 in California.



A town at the base of a huge plateau.



The beginning of many satisfying views of what I assume to be the Rocky Mountains.



Isn't it neat what tectonic plates can do when they crash into each other?



Crop circles dot the field at the base of a mountain.















The mountains gave way to more of a badlands appearance.



A nice river



I'm wondering if this can be a glacier.




This was near Salt Lake City.



The pilot had just announced that, on the left, we were passing the Great Salt Lake. I was seated on the right, so I asked a flight attendant if I could shoot from the galley window, and she let me.



This one and the one below remind me of mat paintings for a movie. I can only speculate as to what the orange stuff is....rock, vegetation?









That little narrow line is a railroad track with a train on it.



Now, here's a groovy mystery. What is this? Impact crater...dead volcano...nuclear test site? You tell me. It looks like the surface of the moon.



Here is the mystery site in context with it's surroundings.






Mount Rainier was visible on the left side of the plane, and again, I was on the right. The "fasten seat belt" sign was already lit for descent, so this is the best I could do. Obviously, we're in Washington by now.



I think the unnatural geometry displayed here may be the result of boundary lines for timber harvest.






"You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky." - Amelia Earhart



You can see stray logs that have most likely escaped a raft of timber.






We're in the Seattle area, about ready to set down. I'll have more from Seattle, Portland, etc., when I can get to it. Of late, life has been too busy being lived to be blogged, not that I'm complaining, mind you.


Part of Ace's Northwest Passage series
Ace's Northwest Passage (Oregon, Washington, Canada) posts (so far):

Everybody Loves the Monkey Neon monkey rules!

Northwest Tiki - Tiki bars times three...and tiki art, too!

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 11) - Big brown jug with interesting contents

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 10) - Royal Mounted Canadian Jackalope

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 7) - I saw a pink elephant at a car wash

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 6) - Always talk to a giant bunny.

Where Angels Breathe - Looking down from on high.

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 8)

What New Mexico geological formation does Ace spy from the airplane window?

See comments for the answer.

October

Every year at about this time, I seem to like to attend some sort of function which is virtually steeped in Fall - the decor, the clothing, the crisp air - all of the sensory dressing of Autumn. This past weekend, it was the annual Bethel College Fall Festival in Newton, Kansas. I had also attended the event last year; it coincides with their football homecoming and features entertainment, food, art displays and the usual festival stuff. This particular little tableau is part of a display by Harvest Greenhouse of Newton.



The Kauffman Museum is affiliated with Bethel College and features a tallgrass prairie reconstruction outside. It's essentially the lawn from hell to any suburban code enforcement officer, but unlike a Hank Hill cropped green lawn, it's real and I love it.


Dwight Platt, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Bethel College, conducted a tour called "prairie pollinators", an examination of wildflowers and insects.



This is Heath Aster, a popular plant utilized by many butterflies.



This particular customer is a Dainty Sulphur; it is helping to pollinate the Heath Aster.


I found both spellings - "sulfur and "sulphur" - in many online insect guides published by governments and universities. Apparently this is related to a difference in US and international spellings of the word, usually relating to the element.




The Male members of the Dainty Sulphur's close relative, the Orange Sulphur, contain pigments which are only visible under ultraviolet light, which other sulphurs can see. I suppose this helps avoid post-mating awkwardness.



These purple flowers belong to the Gay Feather.



The Showy Partridge Pea.



This is a Compass Plant. The name comes from the tendency of most of the plant's leaves to orient themselves on a north-south axis.



This allows maximum solar energy absorption while sheltering the leaves from the hot sun of mid-day, a time during which the plants photosynthesis process would be shut down anyway. The compass key chain was a freebie from the Mennonite Mutual Aid booth over at the Fall festival across the street...serendipitous, huh?



These familiar airborne seeds come from the pod of Sullivan's Milkweed. Monarch butterfly caterpillars feed on milkweed and absorb toxins present in the plant. This makes the larva and resulting adult butterflies toxic to most predators.



Back over at Bethel's main campus, I saw a couple migrating Monarchs in a garden outside the student union building, just where I'd seem some last year.






Juggler Greg Schmittgens was part of the entertainment.



Ace teamed with him briefly.



It was long enough to conclude that going on the road as a juggler's partner is not an idea worthy of further research.








At first, I thought the guy on the right was supposed to be Abraham Lincoln. Nope. These are two members of the Free Staters, Tom James (left) and Jonathon Goering. The group specializes in the music of the 1850's.



Ace enjoyed meeting Gina Neill, a Bethel grad who collects "My Little Pony" toys. She told us that sometimes people customize the plastic ponies...how silly is that?



Having remembered the political mood of the campus from last year's visit, Ace dressed appropriately. Mennonites are traditionally pacifists and some of the students on this campus are refreshingly politically active. Booths promoting awareness of various causes dotted the green, and we drank some Fair Trade coffee...kind of surprising for a red state.



These aren't your parents' Mennonites; "Everyone Loves a Mennonite Girl" was a popular t-shirt.



The campus boasts a few bits of nice mid-20th century architecture.



Frequent jackalope driver Mia Denman of Magpie Designs peddled her wares.



She calls these "caterpillar bracelets."



I can see why.



After the festival, We hit the road.



The October moon was a nice treat along the way.

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 7)

Part of the Ace's Northwest Passage series


In what state and what metropolitan area is Ace hanging out?

See comments for the answer.

Debra Jane Seltzer of the essential travel research site, agilitynut.com, also answered correctly, via email.

And, yes, Gina; Ace says you can have some candy.

Ace's Northwest Passage (Oregon, Washington, Canada) posts (so far):

Everybody Loves the Monkey Neon monkey rules!

Northwest Tiki - Tiki bars times three...and tiki art, too!

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 11) - Big brown jug with interesting contents

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 10) - Royal Mounted Canadian Jackalope

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 7) - I saw a pink elephant at a car wash

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 6) - Always talk to a giant bunny.

Where Angels Breathe - Looking down from on high.

'Tis the Season

Some people say my neighbor has gone overboard. I don't think so (and I bet Wal-Mart doesn't either).

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 6)

Part of the Ace's Northwest Passage series


Ace is conversing with his new friend, Harvey. One hint as to his location: Ace is wearing an "aloha" shirt but there is nothing like a tiki bar anywhere close. Why would he do that?

Update: Toltec said...
"Ace is visiting Harvey, the giant rabbit, in Aloha, Oregon. A bit of a family reunion with the rabbit side of Ace's family."

Toltec is correct. Being aficionados of roadside giants, we just had to visit Harvey at Harvey's Marine during a recent trip to nearby Portland...more to come.

Ace's Northwest Passage (Oregon, Washington, Canada) posts (so far):

Everybody Loves the Monkey Neon monkey rules!

Northwest Tiki - Tiki bars times three...and tiki art, too!

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 11) - Big brown jug with interesting contents

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 10) - Royal Mounted Canadian Jackalope

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 7) - I saw a pink elephant at a car wash

Where is Ace Jackalope? (episode 6) - Always talk to a giant bunny.

Where Angels Breathe - Looking down from on high.