austin_dern

So on my humor blog I restart one of my most humor blog things. Plus, I talk about three comic strips! You were looking for these, I bet:

• MiSTed: FX Down To Mobius, Part 7: The Gathering Storm
• And Now _Vintage Beetle Bailey_ Raises the Fox Question Again
• Statistics Saturday: Some Saved Daylight
• March Pairwise Brackety Contest Thing: Changing your Light Bulbs vs The Time Change
• March Pairwise Brackety Contest Thing: The New Work Laptop vs _Desk Set_ (1957)
• What's Going On In Gil Thorp? Why is _Dennis the Menace_ in reruns? December 2025 - March 2026
• March Pairwise Brackety Contest Thing: Pre-Approval vs Adventures
• MiSTed: FX Down To Mobius, Part 8: A Call To Arms

Now, as foretold, I bring you my last pictures of Glen Echo Park, and then some pictures of a park with a surprise for us ...

The Dentzel ostrich. I think ostriches and roosters may have been the only birds routinely carved in the classic era, and I think of roosters as more a British thing. Maybe it seems too absurd to ride other birds since we don't tend to think of others as running.

A deer with ... I don't really know what in their mouth, sorry.

Although the carousel has the mechanism for the grab-the-brass-ring game, and has the pay-per-ride status that would make a ring game make sense, they only have it for show.

Here's a view down the business end of the brass ring dispenser; think you could grab one from that? With a ride that's at speed?

And to close out, a last view of the ride and one of the interpretative plaques and a stand with all kinds of flyers about the park and the ride, some of which we picked up and might someday read. What's next?

We went to Watkins Regional Park, not far from Six Flags America, which has among other things this whole Wizard of Oz-themed section and it turns out to be not the only county park in Maryland with a Wizard of Oz-themed section, who knew?

The Tin Man, the Wizard's escape balloon, and on the left you can see one of the apple trees. In the distance, there's the Emerald City.

We were interested in this but we figured to get to it after we'd seen the main attraction, an antique Gutsav Dentzel carousel dating to sometime early 20th century and having --- can you believe this --- a kangaroo. A Kangaroo! With articulated legs and everything!

They also have a miniature train ride, although it wasn't running when we visited. Lot of information about the ride, though, on that plaque, I assume, since we didn't read it and I didn't take a photograph to read later.

They even had miniature golf, as if this weren't already a park we would beat people up to have anywhere near the Lansing area.

But then --- the most unpleasant of surprises! The carousel was closed! Was there any hope it might open before we had to leave the area?

No! The sign warned they are closed today ``due to weather conditions'', which were a little cooler and enormously less stormy than the day before. We were robbed!

Trivia: The first Owens Bottle Machine, for automated glass-bottle production, was ready in 1903, after five years and US$500,000 in development. Source: The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization, Vince Beiser.

Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 86: The Moon Glooph!, Ralph Stein, Bill Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.