Bruce Arthurs

@brucearthursaz.bsky.social

2659 Followers 237 Following

Long-time SF/F reader, occasional writer. Living in Arizona w/several housemates and a small mob of cats. Recently widowed; my wife Hilde passed away March 2026. I strive for posts that are amusing, informative, and/or wise. (The last one's the toughie.)

Poster for 1988 film ME AND HIM, wherein a man's penis develops its own personality and talks him into comedic situations.
Gif from "Cape Feare" episode of THE SIMPSONS. Sideshow Bob has strapped himself onto the chassis of a moving car, receiving a head blow at every bump in the road.
Rear hatch of a Kia Soul, where the owner has added a word under the "SOUL" emblem to make it read SOUL REAPER.
Two baking pans on top of a stove, containing freshly baked Nectarine-Pear Cobbler and Bananas Foster Blondies.
The Olive Tree of Vouves, one of the oldest still producing olive trees in the world, estimated between 2,000 to 4,000 years old. The massive twisted trunk is 15 feet in diameter.
A thick trade paperback of MISS DARKNESS, a 2012 collection of Fredric Brown's crime fiction. Cover painting shows a somber man in suit and tie, probably a private detective, standing on a city street at night, holding a lit cigarette and wearing a fedora. A lovely redhaired woman in a tight red dress showing significant cleavage stands beside him. City buildings and streetlights are visible behind the pair.
A partially used can of chili, with a black rubber device holding a piece of transparent plastic wrap snug in place over the open top.
Scene from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Indiana Jones, with a worried expression on his face, ponders how to safely remove the golden idol from its boobytrapped platform.
Michael Whelan's cover art to SWORDS AND ICE MAGIC by Fritz Leiber, depicting big red-haired barbarian Fafhrd and his friend and companion in adventure and crime The Gray Mouser ("Mouser"), standing on a snowy slope with jagged snow-covered mountain peaks in the distance behind them. Wind blows snow flurries in front of the two men. Fafhrd carries a long sword in one muscular hand and arm, while Mouser, clad in dark clothing and hood, carried his preferred rapier. Both men carry extra knives on their belts.
Cover to 1958 English publication of Nikos Kazantzakis' epic poem THE ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL, as translated by Kimon Friar. An orange background is dominated by a swirling "op-art" rendition of the Sun. Text: THE ODYSSEY A MODERN SEQUEL Nikos Kazantzakis translation into English verse, introduction, synopsis and notes by Kimon Friar
Gus, a short-haired grey & white domestic cat, poses atop the back of a faux leather office chair.
Skillet with a freshly cooked omelet (for a flexible value of "omelet") studded with bits of chopped hot dog.
Trade paperback cover for Cat Valente's THE HABITATION OF THE BLESSED, photographed at a sharp angle to show the deckled edges on the body of the book.
Dramatically foreshortened photo of Artemis, a mostly gray dilute calico cat, sleeping in a recliner's seat. Her front paws loom large in the foreground, with one set of claws on prominent display.
Two red & black patterned beetles mating hindquarters to hindquarters on a rough concrete surface.
Scene from the Apple TV series DICKINSON. Young Emily Dickinson nods off on the shoulder of Death while riding in his death coach.
Side by side photos of a man wearing a broad-billed baseball cap. In the first picture, the baseball cap is being worn normally. In the second, the right and left sections of the cap's bill are folded down to act as side blinders restricting the man's vision.
Some basic supplies to try my hand at watercolor: A set of color discs, some brushes, and a pad of art paper.
An illustration of the suave and villainous Dr. Nikola from Guy Boothby's 1895 novel A BID FOR FORTUNE. Nikola sits easily, wearing a short cloak over a long Victorian coat, accessorized by a tall black top hat. He holds a cigarette in his right hand.
An otherwise normal-looking mutant with tennis ball sized eyeballs. One of THE OUTER LIMITS "Monster of the Week" creations.
A scene from SERPICO (1973). Frank Serpico, still a young idealistic rookie NYPD officer, and his partner Peluce stop to eat at a NYC deli, where Serpico insists on paying for his food when the deli's counterman tries to provide it for free.
A wedge-shaped fist-sized chunk of rock, deeply striated in a wide variety of colors, cut on several sides to sit flat on a shelf and polished on one side.
Illustration from OWLET, THE ROBBER PRINCE or THE UNKNOWN HIGHWAYMAN, an 1871 dime novel by Septimus R. Urban. The "gentleman thief" highwayman known as Owlet, after the full-head owl-head disguise he wears, is shown in the midst of a swordfight with two more conventionally dressed gentlemen.
Vintage Christmas card, probably from around the 1930s. A curly-headed child in blue winter jacket and red mittens runs across a snowy field, a wrapped Christmas package held tightly under one arm. A red knit cap has blown off their head, flapping loosely in the air behind the child. In front of the child, another half-dozen Christmas packages, with stick-like arms and legs and with terrified faces, run across the snow in an attempt to elude the child's grasping hands.
Cover to THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM by Cixin Liu. A lone human figure stands before an immense pyramid. Huge boulders float in the air around the pyramid. They are all dwarfed by a titanic mechanical object filling the sky.
A small sculpture by Jim Humble of an impressively muscled bare chested archer in the moment of loosing a long arrow from a vintage recurved bow.
Eight local street cats and kittens of varying patterns and colors cluster eagerly around food dishes freshly loaded with kibble.
Nick Cravat and Burt Lancaster in 1952 swashbuckler THE CRIMSON PIRATE.
Arizona Cheese Crisp. A flour tortilla topped with grated cheese and run under a broiler until brown and bubbly. Often with extra toppings like strips of canned or roasted green chilis.
Three frogs gathered at the bottom of a globular water jar with a cylindrical neck. The legs of a fourth frog can be seen kicking as it enters the neck of the jar. An odd-looking pen (possibly a carving tool?) lays at one side. BOTTOM TEXT: "FROGS (Hyla caerulea) ENTERING A WATER JAR." Engraving in 1889 book AMONG CANNIBALS by Carl Lumholtz. Artist uncredited.
Grunewald's "Resurrection" from the Isinheim altarpiece. Christ rising from the tomb, shroud flowing around him like a superhero's cape, as Roman soldiers are struck prostrate upon the ground by the sight. Jesus is backlit by a wide yellow-orange sun-like disk.
Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh in the 1935 film version of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY.
Still from 1952 swashbuckler film THE CRIMSON PIRATE. Burt Lancaster as the eponymous pirate captain and Nick Cravat as his mute second officer pose on the deck of their ship.
Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Touché Turtle, an actual turtle who wore a white Musketeer hat with a pink feather and carried a rapier with a bent tip.
Still photo from 1974 film Dark Star. Lieutenant Doolittle consults the dead but frozen Commander Powell.
Tully, mostly black tuxedo cat with a thin white blaze down their face, in a lap.
Photo still from THE MUNSTERS television series. Grandpa Munster is driving a gold-colored coffin-shaped dragster. In background, Herman Munster is driving a more conventional hearse-shaped dragster.
Squeaky, a large striped cat with white paws, chest, and a very grumpy expression, sits on an empty shelf.
Editor David G. Hartwell, in a multi-colored shirt, the colors looking like they came off a black-light poster. (Photo from LOCUS.)
A blinding white firework explosion at the end of a residential street, lighting up the nighttime scene like a flash bulb.
Cut away illustration of Osama bin Laden's reputed multi-level fortress headquarters built into a mountain (later revealed as bullshit propaganda).
"A VIEW of the FIRE-WORKES and ILLUMINATIONS, at his GRACE the Duke of RICHMOND'S at WHITEHALL and on the River Thames, on Monday 15 May, 1749" Colored drawing of an upper class fireworks display in 1749, with fireworks being shot off from boats on the River Thames and from the grounds of a riverside mansion. Smaller illustrations showing types of individual fireworks border the left and right sides of the main drawing.
Baldura, a mostly white fluffy cat with dark patches. First found hanging around a TNR feeding station, one ear is tipped to show she'd been spayed, but proved so calm and mellow with people she was eventually taken in by a rescue org and put up for adoption. We took her into the household in 2017.
A solarized photo of a Siamese cat, rendering the image in tones of red, white and blue.
Five books arranged on a chair. THE ROYAL FIRST IRREGULARS and THE MYSTICAL MURDERS OF YIN MARA, two shorts in the Maradaine series by @mrmaresca.com AND WHAT CAN WE OFFER YOU TONIGHT, @premeemohamed.com 120 MURDERS, @nmamatas.bsky.social , ed. EVERYBODY'S PERFECT, @jowalton.bsky.social
Cover to 1878 novel THE GHOST OF GREYSTONE GRANGE, by Arthur William À Beckett. Artist: A.B. Frost An elderly man at the bottom of a short set of stairs, reacts in fright at the sight of an elderly woman's ghost in long pale nightgown and hood on the landing above him.
Aerial view of the Great American State Fair 2026 in Washington DC. Long lines of side-by-side pavilions divide the mostly empty expanses of lawn into large rectangular areas.
Photo of a startled-looking Mitch McConnell surrounded by several other members of Congress. Caption: "Suddenly, he was struck by the realization he was just a creepy old man deep in the pay of his corporate masters, absent of any sense of ethics, compassion or morality that he might have once had, and if he were to drop dead at this very moment, he would die unloved and unremembered, replaced instantly by the next willing sell-out. "But then he passed some gas, and the thought left him."
At the back of a set of grow bags holding tomato plants, a group of young feral kittens cluster around a frozen gallon bottle of water for relief from summer temperatures in Arizona.
Cover to an old TOMAHAWK comic. Tomahawk and his Rangers restraining a giant gorilla with numerous ropes. Tomahawk is carefully positioned to block any view of the gorilla's naughty bits.
Cover to 1964 novel THE YEAR OF THE ANGRY RABBIT by Australian author Russell Braddon. A cartoonish drawing of an angry-looking red-eyed giant rabbit holding the Earth between his paws. There is a large bite taken out of the planet.
A lonely blue ball pit the size of a wading pool sits in the middle of the concrete floor of a warehouse-like space.
Nectarine Cake in a round glass baking vessel. Golden cake with browned edges, and baked nectarine slices over the top. Tastes great, too.
Three feral kittens clustering around a large plastic bottle of frozen water, as local temperatures exceed 100 degrees on a daily basis during an Arizona summer.
DC superhero Iron Munro, in black t-shirt and white pants against a dark background, flex-bursting heavy chains wrapped around his chest and arms.
Illustration by Lancelot Speed from 1893 edition of ERIC BRIGHTEYES by H. Rider Haggard. Two tired-looking nights in chain mail by a rock formation, one sitting, one standing. The landscape is set among rocky cliffs. Standing before the knights is an apparition of a long-haired woman in white robes, with other, less distinct ghosts on the mountainside behind her. Caption: "Her white robe was rd with blood; a great sword was set in her heart."
Bob Denver as patch-bearded, bongo-playing beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on old tv series THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS (1959-1963).
Sally Kellerman as a distraught Hot Lips Houlihan in 1970 film M.A.S.H., shouting "I'M GOING TO RESIGN MY COMMISSION!"
A young gray kitten snoozes atop a plastic jug of partially-melted frozen water. Picture taken in Phoenix area of central Arizona, where summer temperatures routinely exceed a hundred degrees. Photo credit: @tabbicattduskwalker.bsky.social .