Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

More of my Christmas present from Poss. This is a wooden bottle holder plus a bottle of wine that it holds.

Thanks, Poss!

Satan's Sixes Sunday

A couple of weeks ago I said that I had posted all the 666 cartoons from my collection.

I lied.

As my father always told me, you go to hell for lying. As I've said before, I'm going to hell.

Here's one more (the rest of my collection of cartoons, I promise!):

Mixed Media by Jack Ohman

In August, 1987, Jerry and I took our first road trip to New Mexico. Jerry kindly let me take us a little out of our way in order to drive along U. S. Highway 666.

Here's a much younger me discovering the Sign of the Beast.

Me in terror at the sight of the Highway of the Beast:

Me searching for the Beast:

The highway from where it diverges from Arizona Highways 78 and 75 to Springerville is very pretty. You should drive it some time.

It turns out that we traveled along Arizona's stretch of the Devil's Highway just in time. Arizona gave the highway a new number in 1992. The rest of the highway got a new designation in 2003 thanks to a fulfilled campaign promise of Bill Richardson. Politicians!

From The New Mexican, Tuesday, June 3, 2003

There is no more U. S. Highway 666.

The Devil's Highway's fatality rate has gone down since the new designation went into effect. We have proof that the Devil did patrol the highway because of its number and has given up taking His toll simply because it no longer wears His number. Or maybe it's because it became a safer, four-lane highway. No, that's just secular thinking!

I wanted to ask the State of New Mexico if it were possible to get one of the obsolete signs but I never got around to it. After the highway was renumbered the highway signs were stolen in great numbers. I should have just stolen one from Arizona in 1987. They'd have been happy to be rid of it. I was sad.

Imagine my surprise and exhilaration when Peggy visited some time after the highway's redesignation and gave me my own U.S. 666 sign! It's hanging in the garage above the door into the house.

And I became happy!

I've got more newspaper clippings about the horrors of the highway and how they were solved by the number 491. Maybe I'll post some of those in the future.

This has never happened to me before

An orchid has survived and bloomed a second time!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Here's my birthday present from Jerry! Thanks, Pumkin!

It's a bowl by George Bucquet.

You might remember the other bowl of his that we got many years ago.

What the heck! Here are both so you can see the how they compare. The new one is very heavy.

Satan's Sixes Sunday

Today we see the start of my collection of "666" items.

Claim tickets.

Once upon a time, when you went to a fast food restaurant they would write the order on a pad with a serial number printed on the main part of the form and again on a tear-off tab. The kitchen would get the written up order and you would get the claim ticket with the matching serial number. When the food was ready they'd call your number. You'd turn in (or at least show) the ticket to get the chow.

I had heard that people avoided things associated with 666 and had noticed that things like claim tickets frequently show up with 666.

I would be thrilled when my claim ticket ended with "666." If getting a claim ticket with 666 in its serial number marked me as a servant of The Beast, then I was one of them many times over.

Of course, so was everyone else.

I started saving claim tickets to prove that it was silly to be afraid of things simply because they have the magic number in them.

Until now, I've never offered this proof except to a few friends and family. Now the worried of the world are learning how mistaken they are.

Here are some samples of the beginning of my hobby. They don't have dates (at least not the year) on them so I can't really know when this hobby began.

I can't be certain where these first three tickets came from. I'm guessing they're from El Indio. A bunch of us would take a long lunch hour every Thursday and go to El Indio. We went on Thursdays to get the San Diego Reader. That free weekly gave us investigative reporting, movie reviews, schedules of events,  comics ("Life in Hell," "Ernie Pook's Comeek"), etc. But mostly we went for the food.

Here's one from Naugles, a Mexican drive thru. Naugles merged with Del Taco in 1988 so this ticket comes from before then.

My favorite snack from Naugles was their "Macho Nachos." They were chips, beans, cheese and salsa. They weren't terribly macho. When you ordered them, the cashier would holler to the cooks "Nachos! Make 'em macho!" I loved that.

 The claim tickets at El Indio eventually got customized.

My favoritest claim ticket is this one. Our group was in line and I saw that the order pad was approaching "666." I was hoping that I would get it. Unfortunately, another in the group (Marshall, I think) got it and I ended up with 667. The amazing thing is that of all the sheets in the pad this one was misregistered and shows two extra digits.

It turns out that Marshall is the true Beast. But I convinced him that this belongs in my collection. Thanks, Marshall!

This last one is kind of lame. It's here simply because the restaurant's phone number ends with 666.

Apparently the restaurant doesn't exist anymore. They've gone to hell.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A turtle sculpture signed "©RSD" (I think the second letter is "S") on its tail. Peggy gave this to us.

Satan's Sixes Sunday

Time for some mirth.

Long ago, I clipped comic strips from the newspaper and posted them at my cubicle doorway. I posted "The Far Side" every day. Occasionally, the comics included some 666-ness. Of course, those also made an appearance.

Here are the comics I have in my 666 folder.

This first one is from March, 1986. This is the oldest item I've found in my collection that has a date on it. It's older than my oldest receipt by more than seven months.

Mother Goose & Grimm, 3-4-1986

I know that I had been saving 666 items before this strip was added to the collection. I remember that I kept it even though the "six, six, six" isn't a reference to the mark of the beast. It's just funny. And it helps to show how long I've had this hobby.

You can count on The Far Side to have a say.

The Far Side, 1-8-1993

I love the drips on the last "6."

Non Sequitur, 3-2-1993

In the Bleachers, 9-14-1993

Committed, 5-15-1994

That Jason Fox...

Fox Trot, 11-9-2002, 7-3-2003 (Happy Birthday, Mombert!)

A P. S. Mueller cartoon found in some collection.

Bizarro, 5-16-2011

This was from one of the days Dan Piraro was on vacation last month and Wayno took over. You can read about some hate mail that Dan got regarding this comic. This number sure does cause some people anguish!

It's just a number.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

We got this turtle at the Cilantro Gallery on our recent trip to Palm Desert. It's by Carlos Albert, a collaboration of two artists from Mexico and Holland.

Their turtles aren't terribly anatomically correct. They have two carapaces and no plastron. That's OK, they're terribly cute!

Satan's Sixes Sunday

June 6, 2006 (6/6/6) was a good day for the Beast. Colleen sent a card to commemorate the event.

Colleen's Card

The greeting

I don't have any newspaper articles in my collection that discuss that Evil Time. But the Internet comes to the rescue! You might want to read (or watch) some of these:

• Landover Baptist Church: If Your Child is Born on 06-06-06 (those Baptists!)
• The Sunday Times: Mothers expect Damien on 6/6/06 
• Los Angeles Times: Jumping on Beelzebub's bandwagon (We learn Ann Coulter released a book that day (but you don't want to read that)!)
• CBS News: Could it be...Satan?
• USA Today: 6/6/06 could be a devil of a day—or not
• Today Show (video): Mothers try to avoid 6/6/06 (starts with an ad)

Damien will be five tomorrow!