Design Spillover

No Fool's Joke

My dear and dearly talented husband, JT Lindroos, was just nominated (on April 1, 2026) to receive a Kannes Award for the book cover design shown above. If you are an author with a book needing a jacket design, I highly recommend you check out and contact JT, all bias aside.

A significant chorus of Americans have long thought the U.S. national anthem should be "America the Beautiful" over the madly difficult singing range of Smith's "Star-Spangled Banner" music. In the matter of anthem lyrics, my midnight Muse recently reappeared to suggest a slight rework of "AtB's"words, which are also superior to those of Francis Scott Key's poem IMO. My changes match the moment we are mired in and maybe resonate for you as well, dear readers. Do please compare what I've done below to Katharine Lee Bates' four-stanza poem in switching up the order of some verses and choruses along with several words. You'll note that the familiar chorus for my first and final verse below stands as originally written, and my fourth verse also remains the same as Bates' third verse. So pitiful, the specious lies That ambush hopes of gain And perpetrated tragedies Creating needless pain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! O beautiful for self-controls That fight against the fears In cities ICEd by armed patrols Unmoved by human tears! America! America! God mend our every flaw! Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! O beautiful for migrant feet Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat And toil so all progress´! America! America! May God thy good refine Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine! O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

SHANGHAIED [March 30, 2025]

When JT "Shanghaied" me early on to cue up his birthday gift the other morning [view here: https://youtu.be/fUwG7Z2bHyc], our twin tabby cats immediately took an unusual interest in the sights and sounds on our set. Zimi [L] and Iggi [R] are often rapt if we're viewing a nature program with birds and squirrels of course, but this was the first time to show interest in a regular animated music video. Perhaps they recognized the voice singing out to them as that of their "mom," and maybe Iggi was trying to climb into the screen to reach me? 🤷‍♂️ Whatever the cause, it certainly provided a birthday bonus to further make me beam! 😁 (Kiitos, sweetos!)

Listen/purchase: I’m Friday’s Child by Kathleen Martin

Happy New Year 2025! Been a minute since I composed a new piece—over 6 years in fact—but here finally is a set of three tracks for you, dear readers and listeners!

My highly unique and last surviving uncle passed away yesterday, July 18, 2024. Charles ("Charlie" to many) was six months shy of his 102nd birthday in December. For his 100th birthday in 2022, I wrote him a poem. The photos below comprised the front and back of a card designed by JT, for which I recorded a 90-second .mp3 of me reciting the printed verse, uploading it to a tiny disk attached inside the card. The photos above are Charles with his Gretsch "New Yorker" in 1956, and then with the "Kat330" cigar box guitar JT made for my birthday in 2015.

The background music behind my recitation is from a lovely day in 2011 spent with my uncle on the grounds of the restored West Baden Springs Hotel resort in southern Indiana. We stumbled upon a stone domed "chapel" (probably an empty gardening shed) with phenomenal acoustics. Instinctively I began singing "Amazing Grace," and then I began the round "O, How Lovely Is the Evening" after Charles had joined in humming harmony on the hymn. When we were back home that day, I found out JT had surreptitiously recorded our private moment of joy in song, and that "Amazing Grace" recording was ideal to set behind this tribute poem.

Hymn to Him

Back in nineteen twenty and two Upon the 13th day December, There was born a blessèd man This day we honor and remember.

Born as Charles Henry Boonshot, Sometimes shortened to Charlie B., His name passed down by dad, the Sr. His mother's known as Anna Marie.

A farmboy raised in Indiana, And I might also make a note he Always lived in Martin County Near or in the town, Loogootee.

His sister and my mother, Margaret, His elder 18 months and plus, Did dearly love her baby brother Who is, as well, beloved by us!

He thrived upon the family farm Amid the usual barnyard cluster -- Chickens, pigs, a horse, a cow -- And trusty dog by name of Buster.

The Boonshot family loved to sing With Charlie's purest tenor tone Lifting high their gospel hymns In lovely harmonies home-grown.

He let his singing speak for him, Remained a quiet, gentle man, But never were his words more clear Than when he had guitar in hand.

And now my unc of so few words Arriving at a major milestone, Hears us praise in many words: The light a 100 years he's shone!

--Kathleen Martin, November 2022

SWEET

Zimi Marlin, 5½ months old, namesake “Robert Zimmerman.” Around the Martin-Lindroos home, a.k.a. Zimi Longstockings, Zimi Half-Stache, Zimi Zimmerman, Zimi White Nose, Pretty Boy Zimmerman, Zimi Big Eyes, Meister Zimmerman, and The Zimster.

SOUR

Sep 19, 2022

A few weeks ago while combing through my back pages here at Under a Bushel, I suddenly got the following result on my Page 10:

You’d think there would be a link associated with the wording of this error message, but there was nothing. I immediately wrote to support explaining the issue and, of course, waited days for any reply. What arrived was some nonsense boilerplate directing me to a FAQ.

I then noted which posts were at the bottom of Page 9 and atop Page 11 trying to figure out the problem source in-between. When I am logged into my account, however, I am not allowed to see any of my posts further back than March 9, 2014, which were all posted well after my Page 10 problem. :/

So without even archived access to the problem area, there clearly is nothing possible to even try on my end to fix the page, and this was noted to “Daniel N.” of Tumblr support on August 26th. Finally a reply to my Catch-22 arrived Sep 15, but now from “Alfredo,” who wrote: “Given our large number of users, we just don’t have the resources. Sorry about that.”

My first experience with digital taglines was when I joined conferences on such computer relay systems as Fidonet and Wildnet in the mid-1980s. Users would add them to the bottom of a conference post, and they were mostly well-known aphorisms and sentiments circulating in the culture as a whole. An example of one I saw repeated often, to paraphrase: “Sure I’m in shape! Round is a shape isn’t it?”

With my penchant for wordplay and limerick writing, I took it as a personal challenge to compose several unique tags to cap off my own posts at various user groups. Some of you dear readers may even have come across a few of my personal tags as they bounced around the globe. Below is a partial list of my original aphorisms written between 1986-1998. Hope something below brings you a smile today!

Beware of geeks bearing .GIFs! Never surf faster than your guardian geek can type. Freudian slips are the underwear of ideas. I seized the day, but it struggled free and slapped me in the face. When finally their minds’ eyes met, ‘twas love at second sight. Packing MIND.QWK with PKDICK Sheesh, Bokonon, not another pain in the karass?! Stop scrapin’ the scab off my healin’ heart, honey –Twavis Twit So he says to the Shapeshifter waitress, “Keep the change.” We bought the whole nine yards from bolts of whole cloth. If you persevere in fanning lame flame, you only make ash of yourself. A balanced perspective is the one most often attacked. Earthworm movement against grass-roots organizations is underfoot! Her bad timing was bottled and sold in Zürich as a novelty item. Like lemmings happy to Rush out on a Limbaugh…humbug! He merchandised his issue-waffling, and it sold like hotcakes. Weird how a lot of its usage becomes “wierd how alot of it’s” usage. Grammar Moses adds her to sense. I want to live with a synonym ghoul. Has subjunctive, as it were, become a passé case? Had one bad rap too many, so they seized my poetic license. Alternative Music: More Offbeat But Still on the Money Wouldn’t feel like a pincushion if the world weren’t so full of pricks. I heard it through divine grape / Not much longer would you be ape I’d rather be a recluse than a loose wreck. Ask not for whom the drummer drums; he beats off for thee. The angels wanna wear my blue suede shoes. I’ll be baksheesh! –Sheik Yerbouti I’m Friday’s Child in a Wednesday World Flamenco dancer, castanet round my heart! Content in proper context is magic in the making. In a universe of games, she who refuses to play is the true winner. Computer not responding to boot? Try flattery instead. Now paying for a lifetime of integrity. Filled with angst and wondering why my ex is tense. Who me? I’m just the observer observing the observer. She was a painting in search of a frame. a) prophet b) priest c) saint d) monk e) nun of the above I could see the “loco” motives in their trains of thought. I’m hardheaded against hard hearts. “This is the best of all possible worlds – NOT.” Wayne Candide That an Uzi in your pocket or some horribly grotesque mutation? _The Story of Disk-O_: A Hot Keys Tutorial However far I lower my sights, it’s never enough to keep up. Ever feel like an experiment gone awry? A joke of cosmic proportion / A punchline from the gutter Individuation on ethereal waves over the astral plane You need a checkbook for a chick, a personality for a woman. Concoction: A very big shell sale Fantasy can take you everywhere and leave you nowhere. Best Blues Chip Stock: Kimberly-Clark Corp. Even at wit’s end, I still can muster appreciation of true wit.

Putin may reside at Finland’s doorstep, but there certainly is no “tervetuloa” welcome mat here! Far from it, as demonstrated in demonstrations around Suomi this weekend, and Vlad dares not set foot here.

The above images are the result of a Finnish tradition at New Year’s: A small tin horseshoe is melted in a ladle over a heat source and then tossed into a bucket of cold water. The shape formed suggests a theme or something in store for you personally in the coming year.

JT saw a cornucopia basket in mine (nice!), and I did, too, but I saw a calla lily shaped flower as well.

I saw a frilled lizard/dinosaur in his tin image, but he is convinced it is a kitten (also nice!), which may indeed be a household addition (x 2) in 2022. 😁

Noël 2013: All instrumental parts, vocals, production and arranging (unless otherwise noted) by Kathleen Martin

A Night of Joy on a Planet of Pain

August 28, 2020