Brain Flotsam V2.007

Mutant Chicken and more art cars from this year's Art Car Parade in Houston at my Art Car Parade photoset.

Mom and I decided at the last minute to go, and we found parking in a really cute older neighborhood where we chatted with some residents when we parked and then when we returned. It was a relatively short event, only an hour and a half or so for all 270-odd cars to drive by.

Some cars were kind of lame, some were hilarious, some were gorgeous, and some were amazing like this chicken towering over the crowd. There was lots of live music courtesy of bands on trailers or cars, and so many roller-skaters, skateboarders, and fantastic bikers.

Fun times all around, really, and a great way to spend an afternoon.

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation, written in 1870.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.