Matt McIrvin's Freaky Alternate Reality

I can now reveal what it is that's had me so busy that I couldn't keep up with the Plopsaland De Panne trip report or the rest of our European vacation, never mind turning my whole blog over to the late Robert Benchley, who'd be hard-pressed to get much later still.

For our anniversary bunnyhugger set off on a road trip, a big amusement park trip that took us to ... let me count this ... eight parks (not all amusement parks) in eight days, with a lot of driving involved. We got in at after 1 am last night, to the lingering smoke fumes of the fireworks attack on the Eastside, and I slept in until, uh, what time is it right this minute? Not quite that but pretty close to it.

Along the way we celebrated our anniversary, had some disappointments, met a relative, learned something mildly surprising about other relatives, and did the both of us reach notable numbers in our roller-coaster-riding histories? You'll see just as soon as I get out of Belgium, an event I hope to be done this week. But that's what we've been up to and is why I didn't have time to keep writing the past week.

I bring you now the final pictures from the Fairy Ball. You get to guess what's coming up next on the photo roll.

Boxes of the LED-stick glowing stuff they had set up.

The glowing box looks even better with blurry half-visible figures behind. Not snark; I like how it adds life to the scene.

Near the end of the night. Finally coaxed bunnyhugger into sitting on the moon throne!

She looks like a natural here.

Looking back out over the BMX grounds and the mushrooms and all.

And hey, transformation hoops just left tossed casually around! Those are dangerous!

Trivia: The Detroit Free Press of 7 August 1860 published an extremely detailed box score of the first defeat suffered by the Detroit Base Ball Club. It had a table listing outs and runs for each batter; another table breaking down the outs per batter into five categories; a third table listing the number and type of outs recorded by each fielder; and a fourth table with each inning's total of pitches throw by the pitcher, foul balls hit, and passed balls, and additional notes were included for details that did not fit on the table, including the one batter who struck out. The only statistic of apparent note not kept was the number of base hits. Source: A Game of Inches: The Story Behind The Innovations That Shaped Baseball, Peter Morris.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

I must once more beg off writing up the European Vacation in order to tend other matters of great importance. Please enjoy more pictures from the Fairy Ball, though.

We poked back around the woodland trail in full darkness.

Here's the sort of path we were following by night.

And here we emerged onto the Court of the Fae, illuminated only by the overhead lights.

The Moon Grove looks even more remote in portrait mode.

They had something or other going nearly all the time, with the drawback being you couldn't avoid missing a lot of stuff.

Fairy lights in the darkness doing a very good job of being the trail.

Moon Grove as the wedding dancing was going on and, you can see, they were bringing out the light sabers!

Meanwhile here's a woman demonstrating fire dancing moves.

That's an exciting event!

Swinging the flames around some.

Yes, there's fire-swallowing.

And some dancing with the fire.

Trivia: Two of the final projects of Terry Toons were Saturday morning cartoon pilots: The Ruby Eye of the Monkey God, a jungle-adventure cartoon, and Sally Sargent, about a 16-year-old secret agent girl. Source: Terry Toons: The Story of Paul Terry and his Classic Cartoon Factory, W Gerald Hamonic.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

My humor blog has been another week of Robert Benchley and some very slight other stuff. Also a joke based on a thing bunnyhugger has been facing. Want to read all about it? Here we go.

• MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 46
• Robert Benchley: Isn’t It Remarkable?
• Statistics Saturday: MacBook Computer Case Colors
• Robert Benchley: Do Dreams Go By Opposites?
• Robert Benchley: My White Suit
• What’s Going On In Gil Thorp? What’s the problem with Clambake? April – June 2025
• Robert Benchley: Wear-Out-A-Shoe Week
• MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 47

And now let me share a normal amount of pictures from the Fairy Ball last year.

Swordfighting at the Moon Grove! I don't know if this was merely a demonstration or if it was actually for some prize.

Much like a small convention they set up things like palm-reading booths and some vendor stations.

Some of the many signs made and not yet put up even as the event was under way.

This was a small circle very useful for navigating. The bike stand is on the right, with the Moon Grove below.

bunnyhugger examines the entry arch. Note the Christmas lights --- the fairy lights --- to line the path inside.

bunnyhugger composing an ode to the entryway.

Drum circle that was going on as we went to walk the path through the woods.

There's the drummers on the right; I can't tell what's going on in the background. Hidden behind the trees was a crepes truck, though.

And here's the walkway. Those probably aren't actual ghosts draped up in the woods.

This seems like an unproductive bridge until you remember it's probably a lot of fun to ride a bike over.

Following the fairy lights through the woods here.

And we came out the path near the Moon Grove where, it happens, the wedding ceremony was going on, with the exit right behind, like, everybody. So, we stayed back rather than intrude, and maybe appeared as blurry visions in the background of other people's pictures.

Trivia: Greenland ice core studies indicate that between atmospheric lead levels rose from 0.5 parts per trillion to 2 parts per trillion in the first century AD, reflecting Rome conquering Britain and mining the island's lead. Source: Molecules at an Exhibition: The Science of Everyday Life, John Emsley.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.