That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for March 18, 2022

“It say ‘You are here.’ "

The worst part was when the tourists would ask the excavators what kind of shovels they were using.

“If Potter gets hold of this Building and Loan, there’ll never be another decent house built in this town … He wants to keep you living in his slums and paying the kind of rent he decides. Joe, you had one of those Potter houses, didn’t you? Well, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken-down shack? Here, Ed. You know, you remember last year when things weren’t going so well, and you couldn’t make your payments? You didn’t lose your house, did you?“

“Yes, this is the very spot upon which Aeneas said to Dido, ’Wilt thou? And Dido wilted!”

Apologies to the millions of Latin students for whom that line ceased to be funny ages ago! It wasn’t Greek to them!

/// When he toured Excavations in Rome,

(though he’d written a scholarly tome

about Art he’d collected),

the Italians objected

to this Brit shipping anything home.

It appears we’re going to be here for some time. You chaps with the shovels, dig a latrine here.

Professor Riemann explains his theory that the ancient Etruscans worshipped protractors.

“I tell ya, folks, ruins just ain’t what they used to be..”

Said the Romans,“We think he’s a thief !”

’Twas a badly misguided belief../

Thus, the Romans stopped ragin’/

When he discoursed on Trajan../

Said the Romans “Well, that’s a relief !”

“While we’re waiting for the carriages to return, I’d like to entertain you with a little song and dance tune I know you’ll enjoy. This is called ‘Mister Bojangles’ and it’s a big hit in the States!”

as you can see ladies, we’ve come a long way since the days of this roman veg-o-matic…

Developer explaining how beautiful the new Starbucks will look here

So glad you enjoyed your tour of the original setting for many archeological treasures which you can go to the British Museum to actually see.

“Trust me, a Time Share is going to be how to have an affordable vacation in the future.”

I say, would you like to invest in an archaeological dig? It’s just like throwing money into a hole in the ground, but more productive.

He’s ruin the day he got this job.

We cleaned up the Surfside condominium collapse and will build another high rise right here.

“O.K., so putting in your centra AC turned out to be a little more involved than we expected. We’re still gonna have to charge for the extra work.”

George Vanderbilt, shopping for decorative facades for the Biltmore house.

" I must warn you ladies, and gentlemen, if any of you are caught stealing anything from this site, you’ll be severely prosecuted. The only one authorized to plunder precious artifacts and Roman heritage in the name of the British Museum is me! "

“So it’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but I will guarantee you this: The strip mall will never go out of style in America!”

“Please watch your step, there’s some ancient doo-doo right here.”

It’s just a jump to the left

And then a step to the right

With your hands on your hips

You bring your knees in tight

“And right here on this spot, little Cicero was squashed when one of the aqueduct’s supporting stones fell on him as this place was becoming the ruin you see before you”

Russian ruin tour, rush from one ruin to another.

The picture reminds me of when a friend and I went to Volubilis. “This is where the brothel was situated, and if you ladies stand up, you will see that you have been sitting on the lintel, showing the sign.” It wasn’t written in Latin. ;D

Excavations in Rome: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Paintings by Ferdinand Heilbuth" site=commons.wikimedia.org 

(this time, syntax supported by the Google, Yandex, Yahoo, Bing, Duckduckgo, and Ecosia search engines) in the address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines), click on the first Category: found, and if it isn’t titled Paintings by Ferdinand Heilbuth, click on that under Subcategories. There click on Ferdinand_Heilbuth_-_Excavations_in_Rome.jpg for info and links that point to more info about this painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2897 (March 18, 2022) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there (awaiting Mr. Melcher’s approval) pointing to the artist info I used to point to here. First work by this artist used here.

P.S. If you’re wondering why the instructions are more complicated, I just added that webpage today and it takes time for search engines to locate things (maybe in a month or so, I could just search directly for the webpage; but, probably just with Google or Yandex). That is also why more search engines now find the search string (it’s been around much longer and contains more than just the webpage).

The bronze statues all have handmarks in the same places.

yes! i know tearing down this wall was the wrong wall but it sounds good. any wall in a storm.

And here where we are standing is where they dug the hole last week in the wrong spot!

“And, if you’ll refer to the diagram, you’ll see that the Walmart will go here, with Starbucks here, here, and here…”

We follow the Roman Code of Retaliation here. If you take a relic, you must leave a relic. Like your spouse or child.

And now, with top hat and cane at the ready, senile Sir Henry sought to fulfill a lifelong ambition to bring his music hall act to the Coliseum…

“And right here on this spot, I sang “Rock and Roll never forgets”. Then the earthquakehit!