This is copy of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Louvre (inv. 775) which is dated to 1513-1516, at the end of the artist’s career. Scholars are now considering the possibility that the Walters’ version was actually executed at the same time, alongside the original. As in the original, the Baptist wears a leopard skin, usually considered an attribute of Bacchus.
My Great Grandmother used to indulge in ” wooden swearing ”
Instead of saying things like ” Bull$#@! ” or as we say nowadays, ” that is F&^%ED up ”
she would say:
“Fiddlesticks!”
My Great Grandmother was the tallest woman I have ever known, people were scared silly of her and when she got mad she’d give you the side eye, but the eye that she narrowed would be the one farthest from your face and that was just kind of creepy looking.
What I am getting at is, I have mastered the use of the word ” Fiddlesticks ” and I only use it when I am ready to fill the ozone with jet streams of profanity. Believe it or not that doesn’t happen a lot.
And then today happened.
Today as I was cruising around my homepage for wordpress news, I saw a promo for what WordPress called ” blaze ” and according to the promo for five dollars a day I could promote content from my blog across a bigger Universe.
I am already paying through the nose for WordPress’ ” Business Plan ” and I should say now, my blog doesn’t pay for itself. I pay for their Cadillac plan so I can store lots of media and have access to the old WordPress format. I don’t like the new format because it slows me down when I’m writing and I don’t want to slow down so that I can catch up with the new format.
So when I saw that ad, and for WordPresses’ pitch to get more money out of me I gave my computer screen Nan’s side eye. Then I gritted my teeth and said-
“FIDDLESTICKS.”
