That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for January 19, 2023

“I believe the reason you have such a long walking stick is because you’re compensating for something.”

/// At The Meeting, two men stopped to say,

to Gustave, “Bonjour, Monsieur Corbet.”

They had watched him approach,

round the bend, their stopped coach.

Now they tried to make Gus turn away.

/// Wealthy Bruyas, with servant and hound,

blocked the way, asking, “Where are you bound?”

Gus replied, “What I seek

is a view that’s unique.”

Bruyas answered, “In that case, turn ‘round.”

/// Corbet’s paintings are what Bruyas buys.

In the backpack are painter’s supplies,

so Gus backtracked to draw

scenes his rich patron saw,

(and avoided a tragic surprise).

/// In that coach, which was parked up ahead,

was a girl Bruyas said he would wed.

She’d been cruelly misled;

since last night, hopes had fled.

(Courbet’s sister had shared Bruyas’ bed.)

“My dog is pointier than your beard!”

There was no escape – John had been walking with his friend the Philosophy professor when they ran into a Philosopher from a rival school. They would be here for hours, and John was too well mannered to just leave his friend behind.

Pardoon me my good man We seek a barber, oh never mind.

Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?

Take a sharp right in about two feet, then you’ll see it in front of you…honestly, you can’t miss it.

“Hey, where are your backpacks?”

Love those shoes (the guy on the right).

“Yes. I understand why your beard is at full mast. Those women are very skilled at naughty limericks.”

The Beard Club for Men was forced to meet on obscure back roads … for obvious reasons.

—)The Non-Native Species Police (NNSP) were early-on formed to stop jokesters from spreading plants and animals that might complete with or obliterate American native species. They have had merely limited success over the years …

The relatively benign character, Johnny Appleseed was briefly detained and then released under their efforts. Others like Danny Dandelion, Kenny Kudzu, and Sam Starling escaped capture until it was too late.

In this painting, we see such a potential offender being stopped by agents. Does he have an insect pest in his backpack, such as an emerald ash borer, or a Dutch Elm Disease wannabe? An amphibian pest like the Cane Toad? Or insidious reptiles like the Burmese Python whose eggs he plans to distribute thither and yon?

Such Bioterrorism must be stopped. Funding for the NNSP must be increased. Write your congressman to suspend investigations of Hunter Biden’s laptop and Woke-ism and Critical Race Theory. They can spread bogus conspiracies later. These illegal plant and animal immigrants are dangerous NOW! (—

I am sorry sir, we cannot possibly leave this lane to get out of your way, that is the dog’s lane and he is very territorial.

Your beard is weird.

Excuse me – the compass in my beard tells me that direction is north.

“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” — sage Lin Chi, 9th centuary

Well, the priest, minister and rabbi have finally met, but they’re miles away from any bar.

“I’m the famous Good Samaritan. My friend here is going to beat you senseless so I can do a good deed and save you. Do your thing, SAUL!”

“To get a beard like mine you need a good amount of fertilizer.”

Where are you going Fred? I am going to the land of prosperity California!

Nobody appreciates how long Gustave had to wait by that back road for somebody to come along to be painted.

Humiliated – challenge to duel is immenent…

Many think that I’m going on vacation,

when I go thru hiking,

backpacking where the deer and the antelope roam,

but I am not at all going on vacation,

by any stretch of the imagination.

The truth is I’m going home.Copyright © Billy TheKidster …

The Meeting or Bonjour Monsieur Courbet:

Paste (including the quote marks)

"Category:The Meeting - Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet (Gustave Courbet - Musée Fabre)" site=commons.wikimedia.org

(syntax supported by the Google, Yahoo, Bing, Duckduckgo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and click the first Category: found, and once there, search for the Fabre.jpg text string, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (perhaps best viewed using Google Chrome, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by merely clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #259 (12/31/10) (January 18, 2023) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment. I have added a comment there pointing to the blog enty with my comment pointing to the artist info I used to point to here. So far, 9 works by this artist have been used here (10 times total, including this Throwback Thursday repeat), the January 7, 2012, strip being its first use. The March 10, 2022, strip is the prior non-repeat by him (though it has Throwback Thursday, it isn’t a strip repeat; it’s a blog entry repeat).

Jonas felt ashamed. All he had was a lousy mustache.

From: Call me Ishmael

https://www.gocomics.com/profile/2288699

~

What gives my beard its allure?/

To be honest, I’m not really sure..

But I mingle with peasants/

So it may be the presence/

Of goodly amount of manure .

…

All three are attending the meeting/

The encounter will be more than fleeting/

But when they arrive/

Will all three be alive?

And will there be adequate seating?

black beard man: my beard is more pointy than yours and your friend’s beard is not coming in well, has he gotten his pubes yet?

King Thrushbeard’s attempts to mingle with the peasants in disguise always seemed to fail for some reason.

Why insult? Perhaps praise would be more appropriate.

The Meeting (Bonjour Monsieur Courbet), 1854

You would make more money buy holding your hat out in the middle of town than holding it out here.

It’s the ever enticing crevasse/

Through which each of us has to pass/

to take his own place/

In the ultimate race:/

But you cannot go back- alas!

FooFriday:

She wept as she stood on the stoop/

and observed the galloping group/

She thought it absurd/

That she’d not got the word:/

It was clear she was out of the loop..///