That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for December 27, 2023

/// With long hair, these three, last week, looked nice.

Then the gentleman got some advice.

If they had it close cropped,

itchy scalps could be stopped.

He’d more easily find and kill lice.

Francisco decided to spend the entire weekend he had the girls sitting in a studio getting a portrait done.

It was the lice age.

“Papa, don’t preach, I’m keepin’ my baby..”

And his flair for ruffles.

The child on the right is a boy. In this period boys were around 4-6 before being dressed in pants.

and love of ruffled collars

The painter actually had wanted both boys to pose naked, but he settled for having them wear dresses instead.

They may change their minds about wearing some wigs, now.

He instantly regretted feeding the girls beans and cabbage before the portrait.

“I am sorry my children, we must shave our heads to be rid of these lice.”

“What about your beard, papa?”

“NO ONE’S TOUCHING MY BEARD !”

An excursion to Cheap-Hair-Cuts-R-Us was a family affair.

The Inquisiton suspected Alonzo used witchcraft to summon demons to act as his daughters. But his brilliant mind had actually developed early cloning techniques to give himself the progeny he had always desired. Naturally, he was burned alive for his presumption.

The Ninth Doctor visits the English court of James I and becomes tutor to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Charles.

Never trust a barber who gives out “three for the price of one” coupons.

Don’t you worry girls….I have ordered some darling wigs for you from Hollywood!

The children’s outfits are similar…stripes with piping on top…yellow with piping skirt for the girl…red with piping for the boy…must have had a sale on striped cloth and piping!

An expenditure his Lordship loathed/

Keeping daughters expensively clothed../

But it had to be done/

If he hoped either one/

Would ever become betrothed…

Not to mention his adult proportions.

It looks like he married his twin sister.

That unsightly white skin condition turned out to be hereditary.

Giuseppe vowed that the next hairdresser he sent his daughters to wouldn’t be a retired Marine.

Man, those Harkonnens are everywhere! :)

Portrait of a Gentleman and his two Children: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:16th-century oil on canvas paintings" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ecosia and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found and once there find the text string P253, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (might have to try the References link later; was working last night, but not when I posted this) about this painting. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3242 (December 27, 2023) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu. I have added a comment there pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. Only work by him used here so far.

Whenever the sisters meet/

With ferocity they compete/

They’re all hard to beat

They win by deceit/

But they win – because all of them cheat.

The bowls used for haircuts were more shallow back then.