Ho Ho Ho!  May your gift buying budgets be blown by inflation!

Pun-E-Farm was started as a way for us to give creative and unique gifts to those we care about that came from the heart.  In this world it is easy to give a gift.  There are thousands of gift cards that come in a myriad of pricing options and uses.  Of course, there are always the retail giants with each section geared towards that perfect gift for that certain someone.

Spending many years on this ridiculous gift giving rollercoaster the same conclusion was had.  I was substantially less cash flush.  The gifts I spent countless hours searching for, and meticulously wrapping, were given the customary glance and thank you and set aside.  Like many of my readers you too may never have won the gift of the season prize. 

The day after hangover, when one’s stomach begins to rumble because you spent all your funds on gifts for the last month, reality sets in.  It looks like dinner will be cup-o-noodle until at least March while the creditors get their Season of Merry money. 

After decades in this carnival of horrors, I took command of my life.  I refrained from putting an orange in a pair of socks and calling it a day, as was common during the Great Depression.  Although from my wallet’s perspective we are there, instead I gave my talent and time.

From this Pun-E-Farm was created.  It all started with a simple gift for a baby shower.

New Art

We are sorry the website’s inventory does not quite match the stock on hand.  The creative part of the business is hot on new ideas.

There are some new series we will be adding. These are still created by the artists but will bear our company Logo, versus her signature.  In these new collections, there are magnets, sewing pin cushions, picture frames, and Christmas ornaments.

There are some other new ideas coming with unique flare.  A historical places series is in the works.  These are collages of historical monuments from the highlighted ancient culture.  Egypt is the first of this series, please watch for its posting.

Social Topic:

Humans bumble through life without much thought from one minute to the next.  This is a fact, as a person who has chosen to sit on the sidelines to watch this comedy of freakshows, can attest to. 

I would like to propose – thought before action.  Reflect on the words about to be spoken before one speaks.  Dissect the reason for the reaction before making the action.

Being human myself I have often not been able to live up to the above-referenced idea, but I do give it the ol’ college try.

Other than creating pretty work to appeal to the eyeball, dabbling with the written word is also a hobby.  Genre of preference – Toilet Bowl Socrates.  You would be correct in assuming this is not an actual genre, but one that strongly fits the writing generated.  Short essays, stories, or poetical prose highlighting human experience and its flushable foibles.

To highlight these notions, I prefer to draw on my catalogue of colorful life references.   This next one is a ride.

So, there is a peer group writing circle.  I write a small essay with the summation of the point being that adults need to stop acting like children and start adulting.  In this essay I wrote about an experience from my youth. 

Apparently, this was either the reason, or the cause, for another group member to go ballistic.  I was reamed as if I had personally stolen their cupcake and fed it to the dog.  I was told how my writing about the incident was psychologically damaging.  To further expound their point, it would have been ok if I had written a fictional story depicting them, and then the story in the essay would have been more palatable.

I took all this information and criticism with me to bed and lived with it for the course of a few rinse and repeat cycles.

The conclusion deduced.  The story was freaking amazing.  The problem was my critic was not referenced in the story.  The listeners were laughing and wanting more.  More of me and my story, which altered the spotlight from them to me.

So, the lesson taken from this, it is never wise to piss off the word smith.  One will never know when the words will reflect their truths on you.

Higher Thoughts

You judge, I judge, we judge.  This world is filled with judgement, everything from the way one sits to what is said.  But let’s reflect on who is judging and why.

Reflecting on a few lifelong adages ‘change the things you can and accept those you cannot.’  Interesting, the word judgement is not in that phrase. 

‘Leave it better than you found it.” Or “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

Incredible the word judgement refrains from making an appearance in those phrases either.   Was it just because people were simpler then, or was it because they were more enlightened than we are in this modern culture.

Judgement does nothing but generate wholesale misery for all those on the nasty end of it.

Infamous Adventures

If you are a one of my few followers, and hopefully fans, you may have noticed I live life full of accidents, and versus natural human reactions; quickly course correcting making sure no one saw thy ass.  I laugh out loud.  Then, when I am near tears and those near me are also laughing while weeping, I CELEBRATE.  Celebrate the mistake.  Celebrate the complete bum-cycle I have made of myself.  Celebrate the fact those around me have found mirth in the situation as well. 

It was nearly twenty years ago when my baby boy was getting the All “A” Honor Roll.  He was in the first grade, and I was over the moon with pride.  I could not wait to clap with bombastic glee while cheering his name when it is called.  Given his name started with a Y, I was sure I could get in the entire Arsenio Hall Raise the Roof. 

I get the entire family support group together.  The awards ceremony was to begin at 6:30. As usual tardy was the nemesis to the plan.  Hustling everyone including my prized award winner into the vehicles and driving for our lives the two blocks to the school.  Time waiting for everyone to put on their seatbelts would have cost an added sixteen seconds, not available. 

We make it to the school parking lot at 6:28. With two minutes to find the cafeteria and get our little genius to the proper location, shoes are sacrificed and carried, so I could get more speed.  I then hefted my Nobel prize winning kid over my shoulder and begin sprinting in the direction of where I hoped to find the cafeteria.  Surprised and embarrassed that I am cutting the timing so close I do not see any other children or parents.  Great, this is already going poorly.

Sprinting down an empty hallway, a custodian appears.  “Hi.  Where is the cafeteria?”  I know I must look crazed carrying my shoes and handbag in my left hand and my little Einstein greeting her, butt first, dangling over my right shoulder.

“Why are you looking for the cafeteria?”

Now this lady must have lost her mind or be playing with me. 

In my loftiest voice, I huff “We are here for the awards ceremony.”  I jiggle the 50lbs of human on my shoulder.  “He’s getting the “A” Honor Roll.”

She laughs.  Not really understand why she is laughing; it is quickly made clear.  “Honey the awards are not tonight.  The awards are tomorrow night?”

Crest fallen, I drop my non-genius, who could not tell me I was on the wrong day, like a useless sack on the floor.  “Oh, well then,” Putting on my sunniest smile. “I guess we can get dinner at home.” 

Turning to the family, “We will just call this a practice run.”

Thoughts From the Thinking Spot

Killing myself would only make the persons hurting me victorious.  I’d rather stay in the game and make them reap the whirlwinds.  LRC

Word of the Month

Foibles

Noun:   a weakness, peculiarity, vice or failing in character or mannerism.

Welcome to new visitors and to those brave or masochist souls who decided to return.

The Punny Corners

November 2023

Intro:

It has been quite a month.  Not just here on the nutty, oops pun-e-farm but well outside our little hamlet as well.  Being simple folks, not bent towards political aspirations, becoming financial moguls, or international stardom; we simply want to be decent, hard-working, honest people making it from day to day.

This being said, if you take a few moments to read this discourse, we wax philosophically about ideas; However, they are ideas, not rules meant to dictate the methods one employes to live their life; solely an alternative perspective.  We have no intention to stand on our little one-minute soapbox, and waste our spotlight, only to persuade one to toss over their lifelong beliefs.  Toss those notions out of thy mind.  Hello, you are reading a commerce newsletter, right?

All of this is done to reinforce the main thesis of our business name Pun-E-Farm.  This farm is stacked with ideas.  Ideas fill the hay loft to the rafters and each stall to maximum occupancy.  These ideas find their way into the art displayed and the words we have painstakingly strung into phonetic sounds marveling one’s ear.

Our resident farmer of ideas, LRC, as mentioned, is a touch off base.  Upon occasion, thoughts will sound amazing and worth their weight in gold, until you dissect each word and it’s actual meaning when placed in context.  This unique personality needed a place to shine.  For it is in times of great darkness and calamity that one needs to find levity in the truth.

Please stay tuned and enjoy the quirkiness of LRC.  We surely enjoy having the strange notions to share with all of you.

New Art being added:

In the last couple of months, LRC has been branching the stock available.  Some of the new art mediums being used by the artists include various wood staining products by Tattered Angels and Unicorn Spit.

Previously, works with color were created using only colored pencils from Prisma Art.  Now with these new stains, colors are becoming more vivid.  Admittedly the artist hopes that the colors will dim over time.

We are working on a way to capture the messy new methods on film to share with our legion of admirers.  Some days can be quite humorous.  After two showers the edges of LRC’s hands were still stained a lovely shade of blue.  Happy to report, the only object other than the artwork to be covered in paint is the artists.  All furniture, flooring and clothes are still pristine.

Hot Topic:

War in the Mid-East, Ex-President on Trial, America’s Mayor Broke, oh my.  As stated, there are beeves of items to pounce on with regards to hot topics or emotionally charged issues to discuss.  Why?  Why would I want to piss you folks off any more than the last few rants have…

Instead, can we discuss the common tactics used and how their progress is getting nowhere, excruciatingly slow!

Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.  Always there is the desire for revenge when one is wronged or victimized in some fashion.  From experience the factuality of this statement has been found to be abundantly clear.  Retaliation only begets more retaliation.  Not for the original offense, but for the victims created during the act of revenge.

Of course, during acts of revenge there are inadvertent mistakes made during actions taken in the haze of emotion in which lies are created.  These lies can be more dangerous to the foundation of both parties than actual physical violence.  The one lying must always stay ahead of the con of the moment.  While the one being victimized has the gargantuan task of proving the liar a fraud.

Both of the above outlined ideas are at work and in common practice today.  Obviously, there is no change to come and never will be.

There is one tactic that has yet to be deployed in our world.  Radical truth, understanding, acceptance and eventually love.  Why must these tactics be used only in acts during the crescendo of fictional works?  Perhaps because both can be painful.  Painful to both sides, thus leaving no side the clear victor.  Leaving no one side to declare themselves sanctimonious when hoarding their treasures during pillages committed during acts of aggression.

Thou the process of truth and acceptance can be tremendously painful hurtles to overcome in our mortal lifetime; would we not be better served as individuals, and a culture, to at minimum, in some small way, admit to all duplicitous nature and actions from all sides which had to combine to make the great atrocity we now need to face as a society?  No one side is as truly innocent as a new borne babe. In what we face as a world today.  In order to fix it, humanity needs to first find humility, and admit to its erroneous and duplicitous actions.

As a matter of judging our actions many have looked to biblical cannon, there is one story that seems to fit the crisis we find ourselves in: the story of Cain and Able.  Being from a household with siblings one can never really know what causes a fight, but without appropriate intervention or levelheaded thinking, these engagements could quickly result to the use of handheld objects – my personal favorite was Barbie.  She was highly flexible.  Her hair smacked my brother in his eyeballs creating the appropriate cry reaction I was looking for, and I always got the juvenile satisfaction of laughing that he was hit by a girl.

The point of that brief foray into youthful mischievous actions, is to point out, just that.  How juvenile my retaliatory actions were and that these actions have only transgressed to more life altering and potentially ending actions as age and personal grievances have begun to cloud sensible judgement.

Social Curiosity

We like to pose to our readers a philosophical question to make one ponder the greater questions our society, and we, as individuals, face.

This month please think of every angle of the following hypothetical situation.

Humanity can agree on one premise, we are different, based on our skin tone.  However, science is proving everyday this singular difference may only be skin deep.

In the years to come when science shows there are different species of humans currently walking this earth.

How do you portend we will know the difference if the difference is based on a genome?  If a person of a different species cannot be denoted by their ethnic race, or the color of their skin; how then will racist and racist ideas know if someone is different?

This person would not have been known as different, if not for a difference in an invisible uniqueness, imperceptible to the human eye.  What then will need to be invented for racism and hatred to thrive?

Infamous Adventure

Everyone has those moments where they wish the universe would open a single blackhole, to swallow us up.  Apparently, our resident acorn was born with a special character flaw making these moments not especially out-of-place or bizarre, nope this poor soul seems to have found the avenue of life riddled with potholes of this nature.

The idea of living truth, acceptance, and understanding, are not only part of our moral fiber, but it is also part of our way of life, here on the farm.  These passions combine for many interesting party topics.

It is Steve’s sister, Tammy’s son’s birthday party.  The entire family and some friends have been invited over to celebrate at a not-to-often held event, hosted by Tammy herself.  Normally all events are hosted at Dee’s house, the family matriarch.  But this one event was at her house.

Unfortunately, Steve was unwell, and we needed to make a speedy exit.  All was fine, as we said our goodbyes.  As the family is waving goodbye and closing the front door…

Thump, crunch, whack.

Yup, if you thought there was a hitting sound of one car, on another perfectly parked car, YOU would be correct.

Here is where it gets good.  Apparently, the owner of the car was someone at the party.  No, this car could not have belonged to the person visiting someone in the house across the very compact and crowded street.

NO!  Absolutely not.  This person had to be at the same party we had just so gracefully exited.  The graceful exit was a fait accompli on its very own and very out of character.

With absolute resolve and no pride left, I push the front door open.  To the surprise and shocked faces of all of those who had just witnessed our leaving.

Without further ado “I’m very sorry to ruin your respectable part-teee; but I have just ruined someone’s legally parked car on the street.   Would you mind pointing me in the direction of the owner of 2010 Black Nissan Altima?”  announced as plainly and matter-a-factly as a ‘blue light special toilet paper aisle 2.’

Thoughts from the Thinking Spot

Fact and logic combine, in order for one to act.  Emotions and theses combine, only to make feces.  – LRC