Beast Sighted Outside Betty Ford Clinic

It has been a long, hard three months for the Dutch Beast. You can laugh, but you are partly to blame. We all saw the warning signs. Monkeys riding bicycles were not the least. For Pete's sake, it might has well been pink elephants. And Mr. Aren't We So Cool In Buffalo Plaid- you knew what he was carrying, but did anybody intervene? Did anybody say, "Hey Buddy, I think you have had enough." It was only after what happened to that poor Chihuahua that the media attention and, later, the authorities uncovered this...

(Oh, sorry - you haven't seen what happens to the Chihuahua yet)

The Mystic Moonshine Still:

Three months of intensive rehab and I think we can put this episode in our history behind us. And with a new set of resolutions for the new year, let's all hope that our beastly friend does not drop out of sight again. And thank goodness that this moonshine was not tainted with methanol, which could have resulted in blindness, which is very disabling for cross-stitchers!

As for the history of this motif, the frame is an arbitrary assemblage of my Dutch-looking geometric motifs. On the antique samplers occasionally the frame was to contain more arbitrary Dutch-looking geometric motifs, but sometimes similar devices were used to highlight certain spot motifs such as the "mystic winepress" motif. I'm not sure where the "mystic" part comes in, but the winepress is a old religious symbol. If Jesus was equated to the grapes, then his blood became the wine. If you read to much of that, it makes it difficult to enjoy a nice cabernet.

Above is a modern day winepress (picture used from Wikipedia, citing their creative commons license.) The winepress motif on the antique samplers looked similar - a box or barrel, with one or more handwheels for squeezing down the contents. Oh yeah, and a heart in the box, just in case you thought they were going to juice some grapes. A fine example can be see on the Josuah and Caleb sampler (all things grapes) by Gigi shown at the right. Like most of these motifs, if you know what you are looking for, you start seeing it all over. Ewww.

Some folks say that moonshine was its own religion. At least there, those seeking proof, find it (in excess of 100 proof).