That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for May 02, 2023

While Wilhelm contemplated doing a trick shot, outside the stars were doing amazing things that night.

/// Five drunks slump in van Gogh’s Night Café

for the world’s saddest mini-soirée.

Under bright hellish light

stands the owner (in white)

but his lower left leg’s gone astray.

The lamps are watching you.

Why is Beaker (from the Muppet show) sleeping on the pool table?

Stick only appears so big because of the small table.

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

I suddenly have an urge to play Snooker. Where is she?

Reminds of a joke I heard about 60 years ago.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Fred, disguised as a pool table was racking his balls..

Is this why he really cut off his ear?

That feeling you get when you know you’ve had one too many absinthe.

But the online picture looked like a buffet table

Ishmael….If you are still out there, I know of a way for you to still make comments and have them read. You can make comments in your profile, and those that know how to get to your profile page can read them.

‘stick’ caulk and bawls

The next day in 6th-grade art class students would work on putting faces on people.

Vincent remembered what his brother Theo always told him, " Keep your stick straight, your balls on the table, and your hands out of your pockets! "

They had all tried to beat him, but he was the only one who could make the up hill shots.

He asked to see her rack, but was disappointed when she took him to it.

Cue the genitalia jokes!

You wish, Steve…

He: I wonder if I should have asked my date to meet me here?

Lend me your ear, and I’ll paint you a song, I’ll try not to cut too much…

gay Larry, just dreaming about what could have been, seeing cue/ball arrangement.

The Night Café: 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_caf%C3%A9_de_nuit_(The_Night_Caf%C3%A9)_by_Vincent_van_Gogh.jpeg 

has info and links that point to more info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3124 (May 2, 2023) 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 info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 8 works by this artist have been used here (5 times total, the first had 4), the February 6, 2014, strip being the prior. GoComics has deactivated the hyperlinks and removed the new lines in my comment there; but, perhaps the text remains informative. That was the 4th strip to use a work by him; but, correcting that comment, the 7th of the 9 works (not the 4th of the 4 works) by him in the blog.

The overhead, oblique view of this painting reminds me of the summer nights I spent years ago operating large runway cranes from operating cabs about 40 feet above the floor. It was in a weld shop, and the smoke rose to disperse along the ceiling a further 20 feet above me.

I wasn’t the fastest operator, but at least had no accidents. I sat up in the control cab waiting the calls to lift something; and that occurred several dozen times a night. I lost fear of heights and learned to use the controls efficiently and simultaneously in 3 dimensions from my positions above and to the sides.

Bright lights hung in cones from the ceiling every 50 feet or so. They attracted moths, and these swirled around underneath, became dazzled, and fell downward in perfect spirals about 10 feet in diameter. It was fascinating to watch. The moths would fall down within 10 feet of the floor, then recover to go back upward to repeat the process over and over to exhaustion.

It was fascinating to watch, but strangely sad. Too bad van Gogh didn’t see to paint in this detail of doomed insects. He apparently had larger existential concerns.

Bit of a cock-up I’d say…