Good Morning Doggerland!

"So who's the face on the cover?" "That's Nevil Shute himself." "They have the author's face on the cover? How cheesy is that?" "Naw..it's..well it's his autobiography; 'Slide Rule'. More natural. Here's the same picture. Photo inside, right. Except with a pipe." "Oh. I see." "Yeah. He was really called Nevil Shute Norway, y'know. 'Mr. Norway' the engineer." "Yeah, you've told me before. Are there many people in Britain called 'Norway', then?" "I dunno. It's not a very usual name. I don't know how extraordinairy it would be, though...there are a lot of 'Holland's about." "Are there any 'Sweden's. Or 'Denmark's?" "What, like; 'Hi, I'm Johnny Sweden'." "Irelands, Scotlands..." "Yeah, Irelands, yeah. There's a Jill Ireland. I can'...

(In which the poet, his dark rougeish locks flowing in the cold wind because he hasn't the sense to wear a hat, is dragged through a suburban winter landscape by an eager wiener dog on a leash). All muscle those short legs, and through the snowy world we go. Rock hard dirty ice piled high. But my dachs is like a brook, a warbling brook of fresh springtime water, running happily along the parapets of piled up ice. Sniffing at the ground. Sniffing the frozen patches of wee-wee. Away we go, and round and round. A sort of halfway world with farms and fields on the one edge, half a million semi-detachds on the other, nestled in the snow. Clear, crisp, air. Anders Celsius says -2. Dog doesn't care. To meet another dog..they recognize kinship despite all their shapes and sizes. I often wonder how they feel about that; "Ohh, look, there's a fluffy one...". we don't like their barking much, but it's what they have to work with. Not...

From the Casà Mila , Barcelona. Designed by Antonio Gaudí. I took these pictures some years ago. The "knights" are chimneys and air vents.

Original sketch!

Dig the Michigan Rag!