Hephaestus

@thinkingsideways.bsky.social

421 Followers 337 Following

Just a random stranger on the Internet trying hard to be the person who my dog thinks I am.

A frame from a comic book. Clark Kent has just walked through a door wearing a tuxedo. He asks "Ready to go, Lois?" Lois Lane is sitting on a workout bench. She's wearing a sexy red dress with insanely padded shoulders and red high-heeled shoes. She's also curling a heavy-looking dumbbell. She replies, "Whenever you like, Kent."
An ad from the 1960s for Naugahyde, a synthetic leather substitute. On the left is a photo of a cartoonish creature, mostly brown, but with a green mouth and yellow lips. It's been made out of the leather-like material. The text says "The Nauga is ugly". On the right is a side chair in 1960s style, covered with the brown material. The text says "but his vinyl hide is beautiful." The brand name "Naugahyde" is shown.
A Lego Minifig of Captain James T. Kirk. His expression is his trademark smirk.
A screenshot of part of the OP message that reads, "Precisely what of sanction the vessel and its captain will face isn't clear."
Polling data for the question: "In your view is the war in Iran worth the toll it has taken in American lives and the financial burden it places on the US government, or is the war not worth these costs? March 26-30, 2026 (the polling period) Yes, worth it: 29% No, not worth it: 70% No opinion: *
A young woman sits in front of a mirror while an older woman does her hair. Although the setting is obviously a modern makeup station, the arrangement and the woman's beautiful smile evokes a portrait by a Dutch Master.
A poor quality monochrome photo of a small fishing boat with two masts (not used for propulsion). The vessel is seen from just off the starboard bow. It is stationary and riding light in the water. It may be anchored. The bow and stern are high, with the bow appearing to be above the level of the boat's amidships bridge. There is a tall, narrow stack bearing a crest of some sort. The boat is numbered GY 506. It does not look like the sort of thing that you would want to go to war in.
A black & white photo of a small black ship with a white stack aft. The ship is about as far aground on a rocky coast as any vessel could ever hope to be. Unless it sprouts legs, it's not getting away from that.
A red and white propellor-powered airplane in a museum. The proportions make it look rather like it should have a string at the front so that it could be pulled around by the worlds largest toddler. There is an oversized engine and the body tapers back from that in a teardrop shape. The tail looks too small to have any effect upon the airplane's direction. There is a tiny canopy directly in front of the vertical stabilizer. The airplane has the number 11 painted on the side between two dice, one showing five pips and the other showing six. Despite this optimist numerology, upon seeing the plane the first impression is that the pilot is about to have the unluckiest day of their life. The original two GeeBee racers crashed five times, killing two pilots.
A large white sign mounted on a wooden sledge. The sign has the text "The New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme" in smaller letters and "Scott Base" in large letters. There are green buildings in the background. The ground is barren regolith.
The cover of Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal", with the older photo photo of Trump. Don't @ me. I'm not suggesting that anyone actually read it.
A women's soccer game at night in a large stadium.
A military board game map from the game Squad Leader. The map is rectangular with a maze of streets between buildings and trees. The entire map is covered with a hexagonal grid.
A baseball card for Mr. Shucks, the mascot of the C.R. Kernels. Mr. Shucks is a costumed person with an oversized baseball for a head and a grey vest that is supposed to look like the husk on an ear of corn. The overall effect appears to have been designed with the express intent of inflicting nightmares upon toddlers.
The cover of Pink Floyd's album "The Wall".
Four astronauts in a spacious and hypermodern Crew Dragon spacecraft.
A row of bleak buildings on Summer Street in Birmingham, UK, circa 1860. The buildings have mismatched windows and multiple chimneys.
The face of a sweaty, bedraggled, middle-aged man who looks like the sort of person who would be hiding the fact that he's in love with a hideous creature who might very well be killing various red-shirted Star Fleet officers.
Kurt Russell in "Guardians of the Galaxy 2"
A post from the NasaSpaceflight forum. One poster writes "The possibility of internal sabotage by one or more employees must also be run down and ruled out." Another person responds, "Been thinking about this for a while. SpaceX staff are probably overwhelmingly… of a particular political leaning… It’s a small probability but definitely needs looking in to. Flame at will, smart guys."
The seven Mercury astronauts are standing in their space suits under the title "The Right Stuff".
A large black dog is sitting and looking very intently at at the camera with her head cocked.
Rocket J. Squirrel is standing in a dinghy. He's holding up a piece of paper so that we, the viewers, can see it. It's covered with meaningless scribbles.
A miserable little dickhead in a cheap tie explaining to a campaign crowd of MAGA that school shootings are a fact of life.
A smiley-face beachball is floating upon open water. There is overlaid text: "Tell us a true, one-sentence story from your life that absolutely opens more questions than it answers and demands further context."
Two boxed games. One is Wizard and the other is Melee.
A Soviet science ship floating in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. February, 1983. The pack ice has broken out and the water is just starting to freeze over for the winter.
A movie credits splash reading "Golan-Globus Productions Ltd. Presents".
Looking across the West Basin marina at downtown San Diego. There are hundreds of boats at the piers and the Sun is rising behind some clouds.
The album cover for the 29 Juli 1951 live recording of Beethoven's Symphonie No. 9, by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. The cover has a red stripe down the left side and a black and white photograph of Furtwängler conducting on the right.
The newsman, Les Nessman, from the TV show "WKRP in Cincinnati".
A scruffy-looking young male wearing a brown wool pullover. He's standing in his sleeping quarters, a room that you couldn't wave a dead shrew in without causing damage. The man is holding an SLR camera at his chest and taking a self portrait in the room's mirror. He looks remarkably serious for no obvious reason.
Barack Obama speaking on an outdoor stage. He is wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a blue-striped tie, and no jacket. The lectern in front of him has the campaign sign "Change We Need". His hands and face are displaying passion. The weather is absolutely beautiful. It is a good day.
A bottle of 40% hydrofluoric acid. (Very nasty stuff!)
Two smiling men, sitting in front of a Christmas tree and other decorations, each holding an infant. They look friendly.
The moment when the Chinese stand-off in the alley breaks into a fight between the Chang Sing and Wing Kong in the movie "Big Trouble in Little China".
The movie poster for "A Mighty Wind".
Three glass jars filled with homemade pickle slices and one with jalapeños.
Wile E. Coyote after running into a cliff face painted to look like a tunnel and then falling off the top of the same cliff.
Marie LePen, crying after learning that France has been taking lessons from Batman in how to beat the Nazi.
Looking forward at the dash for a Caterham Super Seven that has been made to look like a classic aircraft cockpit with black paint, military-style toggle switches and gauges, and colored control toggles.
Players in front of the Wave FC goal waiting for a corner kick.
The South Pole, ca. 1982. Amundsen-Scott Base is visible behind several flags of Antarctic Treaty nations. A sign reads: Geographic South Pole 9,190' Elevation Ave. Temp. -56°F Ice Thickness in Excess of 9000'
A number of well-dressed men and women are looking at a steam locomotive that has crashed through the wall of a building.
Giant bed-sized maternity pillow
Snake Pliskin and Maggie from the movie "Escape from New York"
Rocket contrail above a fading sunset with palm trees silhouetted against the sky.
Brian Dennehy as Cobb in the movie "Silverado".
The cover of Bernard Fall's "Street Without Joy", subtitled "The French Debacle in Indochina". A small number of disheveled French soldiers walk on a path with elephant grass on the sides.
Sting, playing Feyd Rautha in the 1984 version of Dune, naked except for a blue winged codpiece.
An astronaut kneeling alone on the surface of Mars.
A Google Search result and directly under the Wikipedia entry for Alex Trebek is the "People also ask" section. The first question is "What was Alex Trebek when he died?"