The Venture Bros. Season Three
"Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny"
"The Doctor Is Sin"
"The Invisible Hand of Fate"
"Home Is Where the Hate Is"
"The Buddy System"
"Doctor Quymn, Medicine Woman"
"What Goes Down, Must Come Up"
"Tears of a Sea Cow"
"Now Museum, Now You Don't"
"The Lepidopterists"
"ORB"
"The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together" Part One
(to be concluded)

Project TROIKA
The Sturm und Drang has passed, and I think the endeavour is stronger for the catharsis.

Man vs. Nature: The Road to Victory
Twice this summer I've been stung by black and yellow flying insects, though the first was clearly not a bee but instead some manner of wasp. The second? I never saw the bugger, no pun intended, he stung me when I was trimming the front bushes on Saturday, striking at my inner left thigh as I leaned forward to cleave a far-back cane. I'd always intended to remove my shorts and don jeans before climbing behind the bushes, which is the only way to trim directly under the front windows. After the sting, I immediately repaired to my room for the change of wardrobe. I'd been wearing safety glasses (as the hedge clippers are electric), but suddenly finding myself also dressed in my standard work boots, denim jeans, a long sleeve T-shirt, and gloves, I felt nigh-well invincible.

I returned to my hedge trimming and finished without further incident, but the whole time I could not deny that wearing jeans felt somehow right. It should of course be noted that Saturday's weather sported both moderate temperatures and low humidity, thus permitting the wearing of jeans in a relative degree of comfort; in fact, I remarked to my mother that the day felt rather autumnal. But even making allowance for those happy circumstances, I could not shake the feeling that a man is meant to wear long pants. This was a damned odd opinion for me, an inveterate booster of short pants, but there it was, bubbling up to the surface from somewhere deep inside. I felt armored in jeans, long sleeves, boots, and gloves, like I could take on the whole Empire myself. 'Twas a heady feeling, made all the more ridiculous since I was raking hedge clippings off the top of freshly trimmed bushes.

Of course, it's been that kind of summer. In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Mutt dons gloves before riding his motorcyle, and he wears them again in the graveyard where he and Indy find the mortal remains of Orellana, the men of his expedition, and the titular crystal skull. In an archetypal rocker jacket, he looks like a a kid with a chip on his shoulder; in the same jacket and a pair of sturdy gloves, he looks like a man ready to face peril without blinking.

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
--Mark Twain

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Pogues, "A Pair of Brown Eyes" from The Best of The Pogues (T.L.A.M.)

I.O.U.
"The Explorers Club"
"Perchance to Dream"