Book cover comedy - dinosaur edition

Here are a couple of book covers I spotted in a charity shop today that are crying out for humorous captions. 

This demure dinosaur is clearly saying "Who, me? Be the cover star?"

Meanwhile, this suggestive guy is saying "Hey, baby, do you like therapods? Yeah, you do!"

Neither book came home with me despite making me chuckle.

Add your own caption by leaving a comment!

Wolverhampton graffiti Jedi wisdom

Star Wars graffiti spotted in Wolverhampton. Poor old Artoo getting clamped!

Yoda's advice was very timely as we were on our way to a gig!

When it went down in Abertillery

At the end of last month Cathy and I went to a gig in Abertillery. It was in the Metropole Theatre, an historic venue dating back well over a century. It even had Charlie Chaplin perform there back in the early years of the twentieth century. 

There's a series of information boards charting the history of the building in the corridor by the conveniences. I was waiting there and this reproduced newspaper clipping caught my eye. It was in a section about how the Metropole was built as the town's Market Hall was no longer considered a suitable venue for public events, following scenes like this:

I have so many questions... who was Dr Price? In what way was he "eccentric"? What was he lecturing about? Why did it result in the "unwashed" reacting violently? 

But hey, the "hooting" and object throwing helped drive forward plans to build a theatre so maybe it worked out for the best. 

Recap of the Month - January 2024

The first month of 2024 was very busy. I had two trips to Shrewsbury and two days in London, where I made the most of an evening to myself and visited the new Lego Shop in Battersea Power Station.

But first, a couple of "train" photos. 

New Lego minifigures released!

New silly photo opportunities in Asda!

The first trip to Shrewsbury was to see Shrewsbury play Wrexham in the FA Cup. More details to follow on my football recap thread. The second trip was for a combined birthday weekend, that included my youngest nephew's birthday party at a soft play centre, my brother's actual birthday. and seeing my mum on her birthday eve! So there was lots of present-opening and other fun. 

Mum and Dave shared a cake 

And Fred willingly got wrapped up in a blanket!

There has been some other sporting action as well, with two Blood Bowl games. You can read up on how the orcs lost to the lizardmen here, and how the humans beat the dwarfs here. I also managed to read a hefty science-fiction book (over 500 pages) which was my book of the month. 

On the final weekend of the month the Friends of Grange Gardens supported an activity morning as part the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. It was well attended as kids built bird feeders and learned about nests.

I was on bird wrangling duties, looking after Terry Dactil, the orange hoopoe from Newport. (He had a complicated back story.)

Thankfully I survived my encounter! So, here comes February. Let's see how quickly it flies past. 

Cheerful electric box

Seeing "faces" in inanimate objects is a common human bias, a natural heuristic fallacy that fools us. But on the other hand this electrical box I saw on the wall of a hotel looked really pleased to see me!

More fun with wings

Last month I posed with some wall-art that gave me angel wings. Then last week I found some different wings. (And Cathy was willing to stop and take photos of me again!)

If you want to pose with these dragon wings yourself, they are in the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay. Get there quick though, before the centre gets bulldozed to make way for the new Cardiff Bay Arena.  

In Porthcawl even the bins are dapper

I spotted this in Porthcawl while on the hunt for Snoopy statues as part of the Dog's Trail created for the Dogs Trust. Someone had lost a hat and a helpful passer-by had put it somewhere noticeable. Mr Bin looks very dapper now!

There will be some photos of the Snoopy statues on a future blogpost. In the meantime, here's a picture of us with the Snoopy statue situated outside the surf shack in Rest Bay. It was a sunny Easter Sunday when we visited this one.

Artful juxtaposition of photo and sponsor

I've been sorting through my late dad's accumulation of football programmes. (If anyone wants a few hundred Shrewsbury programmes, just get in touch!) As I went through them, I spotted this one where the choice of photo on the front aligns comically with the name of the match sponsor!

I would have thought the Shrewsbury Town Away Travel Club would use a coach, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did go by mower.

I'm sure it tastes delicious

Well, actually I'm not sure.

(Spotted in Morrison's, Cardiff Bay)

Dinosaur versus Jesus Fish! Fight!

Despite being a regular church-goer, occasional preacher, and self-declared freelance theologian, I've never had the urge to badge up my car with a Jesus fish.

Partly this is because I don't want to be a bad witness and occasionally I get in the wrong lane and have to cut up a random stranger and in those moments I'd rather not have them thinking "not only is he a hoon, he's a Christian hoon!" I base this on my own tendency to think people with Jesus fish should drive better than they often do - and I don't want to be judged by my own high standards.

However, I don't have any issues if people want to adorn their cars with Jesus fish. And I quite like some of the other fish that have appeared in response. Cathy spotted a car near our house recently with two such responses stuck on the back.

Now this one, I've seen before and I think is quite funny - it's the good old Darwin fish, complete with legs.

This one on the other hand was new.

Yes, that's right. It's a dinosaur eating a Jesus fish.

I guess the point is that the existence of dinosaurs is awkward if you're the kind of person who believes in a six day creation about 6,000 years ago. Dinosaurs really do eat that theory alive. And it's a small step from that to dismissing any religious story as nonsense disproved by science.

But who's to blame for that erroneous step? The only reason people make that step is because there are some Christians who claim that unless you believe the six day creation version of events you can't believe the rest of it either. So when someone can't believe that, they assume the rest of it is nonsense.

Yummy soup!

"This soup tastes like wee!"

"What did you expect?"

Move over Optimus

I'd like to see this character in the proposed Transformers 4!

All aboard the Satan Bus

Think twice before going for a ride in this...

Thomas the Tank Engine gets off his face

I saw this from the window of a train on a tourist steam railway. I really don't know how parents would explain this to their kids.

I know what you mean, but...

...this notice could have done with some editing.

Cake packaging with added potential rudeness

Spotted this in Tesco. It made me laugh.

"Did you get the 4 King Cakes, dear?"

"Yes, I 4 King did!"

Asda staff humour makes Hallowe'en less horrible

Personally I don't know why you would want to fill your house with creepy-looking fake crows for any reason, let alone Hallowe'en, but I do admire the Asda employee who labelled these guys.

(I think they meant Sheryl Crow not Cheryl Crow, but stil 10/10 for effort!)

I heart potatoes

And sometimes they heart me!

Theologically insecure Christians

There's a little part of me that is concerned for the person who felt the need to doctor this piece of graffiti with gaffer tape, just to make it theologically correct.

Vehicle crime sinks to a new low

I spotted this on the pavement opposite my office.

You know times are hard when people are jacking wheels off buggies...