An arm and a leg

Christopher Bright

I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately, but Momma was hospitalized three times last month which ultimated in Surgery and a Lengthy Convalescence.

However, I'm taking a quick nursing break to show you this photograph.

The Artificer of My Dreams has done it yet again.

I have long dreamed of having a replacement arm similar to Richard Castle's on ABC's Castle, Season 3, Episode 4: Punked.

As worn by actor Nathan Fillion, this has become quite possibly the most recognizable piece of steampunk costuming ever. 

ABC

(Castle primarily traces the lives of Richard Castle, a best-selling mystery novelist, and New York Police Department's Detective Kate Beckett as they solve various unusual crimes in New York City.)

A human-sized version of the Dr. Grimmelore Superior Replacement Arm can be yours for a mere $1,999.

Gulp.

I can only hope mine won't cost quite that much.

Artificer Christopher Bright says it's in its infancy and he has to let his mind "spin a bit" and come up with more "steamy goodness" for it.

Thanks again, Christopher!

Artificer Made the grade

Yes, the Artificer of my Dreams has done it again.

Inspired by Yours Truly, he has made yet another pair of awesome steampunk brass goggles.

And while I warned him not to make them more epic than mine, what did he do?

He made them even more epic than mine.

Sniff.

So run, don't walk, to Artificer Made's Etsy shop to get these epic Steampunk Goggles for your American Girl Doll.

Before I find the moolah and do so myself.

One can never have too many goggles, right?

Close, but no cigar

I have decided what to do with the lovely cigar box the Artificer of my Dreams packed my goggles and brass rose in.

It will become my writing desk.

My Dear Friend Betsy Ray stores her stories in a cigar box at the beginning of Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace.

"The perch in the maple tree was Betsy's private office. Here she thought out stories and poems and wrote them down. Here she kept what she had written in the cigar box that her mother had given her and Tacy had helped her nail to its present place."

She later uses her uncle's theatrical trunk for her desk, but she never forgets her humble cigar box.

I figure if Betsy can create stories with a cigar box and a theatrical trunk, I can do no less with my cigar box. After all, it's Illuminati which is the plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened."

(Plus, it's a handy place for this Perfectly Awful Girl to store my pipe, cuspidor, rum and absinthe.)

The goggle ogle defense

gog·gle noun, verb, adjective

noun
1. goggles,

• large spectacles equipped with special lenses, protective rims, etc., to prevent injury to the eyes fromstrong wind, flying objects, blinding light, etc.
• spectacles designed for a special purpose, as night-vision or stereoscopic goggles.
• Informal . glasses, or eyeglasses: I can't see a thing withoutmy goggles. Synonyms: specs, shades.

2. a bulging or wide-open look of the eyes; stare.

verb (used without object)
3. to stare with bulging or wide-open eyes. Synonyms: gape, ogle, gawk, gawp, glare.
4. (of the eyes) to bulge and be wide open in a stare.
5. to roll the eyes.
6. (of the eyes) to roll.
7. Informal. to spearfish.

verb (used with object)
8. to roll (the eyes).

adjective
9. (of the eyes) rolling, bulging, or staring.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English gogelen to look aside; compare agog

Related forms
un·gog·gled, adjective

Can be confused: goggle, Google, googol.

Thanks Artificer Made!

My wild American rose

Look at what the Artificer of my Dreams made for me!

An "American Beauty" is a hybrid perpetual rose, bred in France in 1875, and originally named "Madame Ferdinand Jamin." The cup-shaped flowers, which are deep pink and strongly scented, appear in flushes over a long period.

It was introduced in the United States in 1875 by George Valentine Nash. In 1888, Basset & Washburn first introduced the rose to other florists for purchase. It was the best selling variety of rose in the United States until 1920.

The flower makes repeated appearances in the 1999 film American Beauty.

It is also the official flower of the District of Columbia.

The shirtwaist off your back

Reading the penny-dreadful inspired by the Artificer of my Dreams steampunk goggles reminded me that Sunday was the 101st anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City and the second deadliest disaster in New York City – after the burning of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904 – until the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

(The PS General Slocum was a passenger steamboat that caught fire on June 15, 1904 and sank in New York's East River. At the time of the accident she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died.)

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged 16 to 23; the oldest victim was 48, the youngest were two 14-year-old girls.

Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks – many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped from the upper floors to the streets below.

Know what really steams me? The company's owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building's roof when the fire began, were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in mid-April.

The jury acquitted the two men, but they lost a subsequent civil suit in 1913 and fined about $100,000 in damages from the fire but were paid $160,000 by their insurance companies to recover it. (Blanck was arrested again in 1913 for locking his factory door during working hours. He was fined $20.)

The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

So please say a silent word of thanks the next time you put on a blouse made in a factory. People have died for the shirt on your back.

Good golly Miss Molly

photo courtesy of Artificer Made

I have found the Artificer* of my Dreams!

Imagine my delight when I spotted these steampunk goggles for American Girl dolls by Artificer Made.

After first making goggles for a cat Christopher Bright decided to try making some for a doll, and voila!

These are sized to fit an American Girl Doll and designed to be just as rugged as any original accessory. The goggles will, of course, fit any similarly sized doll as well as a cat or small dog. Fitting to anything other than an American Girl doll may involve a little more tweaking to get everything just right but there is an expansion spring on the back of the strap that allows for a little flexibility.

You can read more about these goggles, including a video and lurid penny-dreadful story, at his blog: http://artificermade.blogspot.com

And you thought I was crazy. Goggles for cats!

*An artificer is a skilled person who makes artifacts.