I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE BOHEMIAN GROVE known as “TED”

MANY OF YOU WANT TO KNOW what sort of strange rituals go on there.

I AM HERE TO TELL YOU: there is no giant wooden owl called Moloch.

THERE IS ONLY GILBERT.

LIZ GILBERT IS, of course, the author of PILGRIMS and STERN MEN and the article that became the movie “Coyote Ugly,” and she is a dear and old friend. So dear and old that I often forget that she also wrote an amazing super bestseller that you may have read.

(SHE IS ALSO A VERY FINE SINGER. Listen to the end of this link for the EVIDENCE)

BUT WHILE SHE IS ADORED in this video, and I adore her as well, the magical thing you may not be able to get through this embedded video is how skeptical the audience initially was of her, and how masterfully she won over this bunch of jaded billionaire/genius TEDTOPIANS through simple, good storytelling.

That is all.

I HAVE BEEN TWITTERING more often than imitation blogging lately.

I AM SORRY to do this to you, but twittering is VERY EASY.

I THINK THE SOLUTION will have to be that I will write a post here if and when I have pictures or clips to post, and not just WORDS WORDS WORDS.

SO, FOR EXAMPLE, if you like amazing found images grouped into SUBJECTS AS OPAQUE AND DIVERSE as:

THOMAS NAST’S TAMMANY HALL

THE ACID-EATERS

THE ART OF HOCUS POCUS

STACKS O’ WAX

THE ART OF HOOCH

and

THE BLACK PANTHER COLORING BOOK

THEN BY ALL MEANS, go visit the admirably verbosely named blog IF CHARLIE PARKER WAS A GUNSLINGER, THERE’D BE A WHOLE LOT OF DEAD COPYCATS

IN OBSERVANCE of my retreat to the weird Utopian society known as the TED conference (which will also make for light imitation-blogging), I include the following image from the I.C.P.W.A.G.T.B.A.W.L.O.D.C’s

FUN AT BOHEMIAN GROVE collection.

I.C.P.W.A.G.T.B.A.W.L.O.D.C’s THOMAS SUTPEN REPORTS: “I’m not sure if it’s officially called Moloch, but it’s a 40 foot Owl made of stone that is the centerpiece of rituals conducted every Summer at Bohemian Grove. The Bohemians literally worship that thing; make sacrifices to it (burning a human in effigy, etc.) in these elaborate pageants they stage. I take them at their word that this is no more than a step above the kind of crypto-pagan hocus-pocus ceremonies college fraternities get up to (added to which I’ve never swallowed any of the conspiracy theories that place has generated over time), but the mere fact that those involved in this arrant foolishness are some of the most powerful people in the country . . . well, that can’t help but render the whole thing incredibly creepy by default.”

That is all.