out with 2010

goodbye

Aether

The god of air.
Thin, rarefied air.
Air to be inhaled only by gods.

Misha the Snake

Give him enough rope and he'll tie you to a chair.

leery

Sir Reginald Isthmus

Father of the land bridge.
Before him, there were only peninsulas.

Duke of Styria

some Habsburg or other

Yule pixie

Come the burning of the yule log,
thousands like him fly as embers.
Be of good cheer.

Christmas Krampus

Anti-Santa threatens to devour children
who don't fall into line and behave.

122310

your friendly host

And here he is, the man we've all been waiting for..

crinoid skull

Paleozoic crinoid vertebrae are fairly common,
but these are very rare.

malcontent

Subject requires constant supervision.

fast and bulbous

a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag
(for Don Van Vliet)

Ubie Owen

accountant

121710

last year's model

l'homme de l'aube

man of dawn

semblance

portrayal after the fact

anarchist badge

emblem worn by members of the Curious George Brigade

Loon Mulligan

His campfire slumgullion made of rats and pigeons
became known far and wide as Loon Stew.

darkling

It's not that darklings hide in the shadows.
It's that they hide in yours.

Uesugi Kenshin

February 18, 1530 – April 19, 1578
the daunting rival of Takeda Shingen
and a practitioner of Kuruma Gakari,
a churning cycle of warfare
where the wounded are shunted rearward
and replaced by fresh troops.

anxious

a little too

Moval Burston

His anti-antics cast a pall over the funny papers.

Takeda Shingen

December 1, 1521 – May 13, 1573
whose war flag read
風林火山
Fū-Rin-Ka-Zan

As Swift as,
as Silent as,
as Fierce as,
and as Immovable as

Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain.

- from Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'

12810

Mandate

Swozmongafopps chewed up the Narfex Nibblyites
and spit out their bones.

attritional subtraction

the geopsychic principle contrived by Atwill E. Road

Case Study No. 372

Subject was warned as a child not to, but he did anyway.

Joe Lieberman

extinct dinosaur bent on destroying free speech in the USA

Quench

spirit evoked to quell and staunch conflagrations

portalkeep

concierge at the end of the universe

their lead guitarist

Between acts he relaxes.

Know thy level, X-127

They tell him,
be happy here.
Be happy
in this community of self-pitying gadgets,
this hive of monsters.

Beats the upper world.

rocky start

Marsby Yannov

Black Friday plus Ritalin

The Floating Barista Statue

Simon Pinehurst, of Chippawa Falls, Wisconsin, rises in the night sky. What a macchiato he could conjure!

grateful

Thanks, everyone.

Yarber Quinisuch

Member of the Cole-Youngers
or the Dalton-Youngers,
can't remember which.

sand dune surfer dude

He's a legend, so don't tell him he's too old for the sport.

small cog

poise

Banshee (for Nancy)

There were nights on those bleak hills the wind would moan up death. It was the bean-sidhe's howl.

My older sister, nine at the time, dreaded the banshee that came at the end of the Disney movie, 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People.' She spirited me away from in front of the TV so I would hide with her under our father's desk, well away from the sound of its keening. She knew the banshee portends death and to hear it could mean she was coming for you.

I wonder if my sister heard the banshee again a few weeks ago when she died. It had been fifty years since we had been scrunched together under that desk. I'm sure living with cancer for two years would have, in the end, softened her fear. So I imagine when it came, the wail of the banshee might have sounded more like a siren's song.

dragon moult

We heard thrashing, but found only its skin.

111610

Cpt. Eli Sprig

Pioneer in escape velocity.
First to enter time warp.

Falco Brinsmeyer

tin medalist in the East Brunswick 2 yard dash

11910

Little Big Bang

Hadron Spokesman Claims No Discernible Effects

Carmichael