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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Graffiti
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I was reading this article on medieval churches' graffiti, and it put me in mind of a few things:
The urge to draw, and also to caricature is ancient. Some cave art probably qualifies as the first graffiti. And in an age where people couldn't write, they drew. I once saw a Victorian photo of a street in London's East End where the wall was covered in graffiti - not a single written word, as presumably all those doing it were illiterate, but all drawings and cartoons, and some very well drawn.
Some ancient graffiti still survive. There are the rudenesses on the walls in Pompeii, and somewhere in Hertfordshire there's a carved inscription that says "At last the end of the Black Death."
And as per the article, if you look at the cloisters in Salisbury Cathedral, you'll find some bored churchgoer, centuries ago, carved the outline of a little dog into one of the stones.
So - any interesting old graffiti that you know of, in your church, or elsewhere?
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
For a few months in my hometown, early 90s, there was anti-Christian graffiti scrawled all over the downtown.
"There are billions of gods more powerful than Jesus."
"Billions of powerful gods shall burn out the eyes of Jesus."
And other variations on that theme. I also found a business card that someone had printed up, with a long paragraph stating the same general stuff in the same language.
A friend of mine figured it was suburban kids, but a local street preacher told me it was a dischargee from the psych hospital. The rambling nature of the business card inclines me toward the latter theory.
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I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Christianity's relationship with graffiti goes back a long way.
The most embarrassing was when a member of another congregation took it into his head to use graffiti as an evangelism tool. Full marks for bright ideas but the execution was as amateurish as to negate any usefulness at all. Normally these were done in chalk and the symbolism was so obscure I think most people who noticed them thought them the scribbles of a rather out of control toddler.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
At a construction site in Los Angeles several years ago, someone had painted JESUS SAVES FROM HELL in large letters on a temporary wall.
Someone else added O DOLLY REVIVALS to complete the sentence.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Reminds me of the election slogan: VOTE FOR DUFFY - AND IRELAND to which had been added 'S DEAD WILL RISE AND CURSE YOU.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
A few years ago the sign on entering Redruth in Cornwall had been changed from 'Welcome to Redruth' to 'You're Welcome to Redruth'.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
I love the graffito that says:
Things I hate:
1. Graffiti
2. Irony
3. Lists
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
My nephew told me of one. A pair of doors. One had that sign on it 'This door is alarmed'. Someone had written on the other, 'This one's just mildly irritated'.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
An old piece of graffiti found on the big advertising hoardings you see along roads, when Mars were using the slogan "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play" except this hoarding only had:
"A Mars a day helps ..."
and someone had helpfully added "teeth decay."
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
There are two stones with Viking inscriptions in Carlisle Cathedral. They seem to have put glass over the one next to the main door and stuck a notice above it; when we went to look at it (over 20 years ago now) it was hidden behind the postcard stand and the cathedral guide didn't know about it. He came over to find out why we were moving the postcard stand and peering at the wall behind it!
I expect it's in all the cathedral guidebooks now, but back then we only knew about it because we had a cathedral guidebook published in 1914.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
I am reliably informed that the Viking runes at Maes Howe contain the line, "Thora is a slag", which is kind of reassuringly predictable.
I was also told about a piece of navy graffiti from the old days, where underneath Wrens' Entrance, some wag had written, Indeed they do!
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Pyx_e
Quixotic Tilter
# 57
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Posted
I love witty graffiti and have a collection of JPEGs. However the best I ever saw myself was not witty or even clever but it was perfect.
Loads of work lorries were parking on a small piece of grass opposite a building development. One night some irate neighbour (I guess) wrote in green spray paint on the white plywood site hoardings:
"The piece of grass opposite is not a f**cking lorry park so stop parking your f**king lorries on it you f**cking c**ts."
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It is better to be Kind than right.
Posts: 9778 | From: The Dark Tower | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Near where I live there's a railway bridge that attracts a lot of graffiti "tagging". Frankly, it brightens the place up, but of course the council keep sending people to paint over it with dull grey paint.
As of last week, the only thing on the bridge was an indignant "STOP PAINTING OVER MY ART".
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
"The piece of grass opposite is not a f**cking lorry park so stop parking your f**king lorries on it you f**cking c**ts."
Not graffiti, but in the same general thematic vein...
On one of my trips back home, there was a guy who'd play the bagpipes every night in a park near a residential section of downtown(Canada has a substantial community of "stage Scots").
One night, the guy was marching around the park around 10:00 PM, and someone driving by in a car and screamed "SHUT THE **** UP YOU ****ING LOSER!!"
What I loved was that the heckler didn't even give the piper the honour of an ethnic or cultural slur, it was just an impersonal, no-frills string of obsecene insults.
[ 21. July 2014, 15:24: Message edited by: Stetson ]
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
30+ years ago, I worked at Old Windsor and occasionally went into London by bus. One of the flyovers had a piece of graffiti which seemed apt - "Good morning lemmings".
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
There was a famous one at Ladbroke Grove in the 60s, which was like that. It ran for a long distance along the tube track, on a low wall, and read something like, 'Work, eat, sleep, don't you ever get tired of this meaningless hamster wheel that you are treading, so that a brutal capitalism can sustain itself?' Actually, it was even longer than that.
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Somewhere in Sarf Lun'non, on the wall of a school. "MANKIND SHALL BECOME EXSINCT"
And the Vikings did Hagia Sophia as well. On the lines of "Guthrum was here". Somehow one doesn't imagine them having that level of literacy.
Double meaning intentional.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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OddJob
Shipmate
# 17591
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Posted
For a long while (probably a couple of years or more) in the 1980s a high, prominent wall close to the exit from King's Cross Station displayed the slogan in letters about two feet high: 'JESUS IS COMING SOON'. I wonder if it was written by a trespassing Christian in those days of more gung-ho evangelism, or alternatively by somebody despairing of secular politics of the day and of no particular religious persuasion. Maybe it was written lawfully by the wall's owner.
Posts: 97 | From: West Midlands | Registered: Mar 2013
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marzipan
Shipmate
# 9442
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Posted
there's a random piece of advice/graffiti on a road near me - all is says is 'BRUSH YOUR TEETH'
[ 22. July 2014, 11:50: Message edited by: cheesymarzipan ]
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formerly cheesymarzipan.
Now containing 50% less cheese
Posts: 917 | From: nowhere in particular | Registered: May 2005
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
There used to be a double graffito on The Ffestiniog railway just outside Blaenau Ffestiniog.
"Free Wales" to which was added "with every 5 gallons."
But Graffiti is old, even the Egyptians did it.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The Vikings also got as far as Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and some were bored enough during one of the services to carve "Olaf the Viking woz 'ere" or the equivalent into one of the marble balconies, which you can still see today.
I can only think it must have been an exceptionally dull service.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
My current favourite is on a discontinued block (conversion or new build) of flats in Poplar and apparently a Banksy (it's on his website). I must go back and take a better picture, because there's another amazing piece of graffiti around the corner from there, too.
[ 22. July 2014, 14:44: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Both of these are great! I'm having a double chuckle just now. Thanks.
quote:
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
my current fav
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
My current favourite is on a discontinued block (conversion or new build) of flats in Poplar and apparently a Banksy (it's on his website). I must go back and take a better picture, because there's another amazing piece of graffiti around the corner from there, too.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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BessLane
Shipmate
# 15176
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Posted
Locally, someone has been putting graffiti on stop signs on the back roads. My 2 favorites are: STOP being ugly and STOP drop and roll.
but then I'm easily amused ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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It's all on me and I won't tell it.
formerly BessHiggs
Posts: 1388 | From: Yorkville, TN | Registered: Sep 2009
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
In the 1960s someone with a stencil left the message STAMP OUT BAD KARMA on all the sidewalks in the area of Harvard Square.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
A friend of mine is a very good graffiti artist. Only images though, no text.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
On a "Do not pass" sign I've seen added underneath "Go. Do not collect $200."
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
An old piece of graffiti near the Scots/Irish area in Derby read "GOURANGA" but before long someone crossed it out and sprayed "GOU CELTIC" over the top.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Earwig
Pincered Beastie
# 12057
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Posted
A famous, if rather odd, bit of graffiti in York is the sign that reads "Ah good the sea". It's been there in a lane by the University for at least the last 15 years, repainted fresh at times.
Posts: 3120 | From: Yorkshire | Registered: Nov 2006
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Signaller
Shipmate
# 17495
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Posted
Back in the 70s "NICHOLAS PARSONS IS THE NEO-OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE" appeared on a wall on a roundabout near Harrow. It stayed there undisturbed for decades until it just faded away.
Unlike its subject, who just goes on and on...
Posts: 113 | From: Metroland | Registered: Jan 2013
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
A famous, if rather odd, bit of graffiti in York is the sign that reads "Ah good the sea". It's been there in a lane by the University for at least the last 15 years, repainted fresh at times.
There's something vaguely similar in a side street in Oxford behind one of the colleges, with the outline of a stegosaurus and "Remember what happened to the dinosaur!". Nobody knows who drew it there, or why, but it's repainted periodically, and has been, for at least 35-40 years. (Intriguingly, there's also a blue stegosaurus behind it with the legend "I did, and look what happened to me".)
In recent years the college wall it was on was rebuilt to put a gate in, and the dinosaur was temporarily decapitated. The college had the head repainted.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
I've always liked this one on a wall in Oxford. Apparently it's been there for forty-plus years, and it's very noticeable that someone repainted it when the new doorway was put through the wall a few years ago!
AG
ETA - Ha! How's that for a cross-post?
[ 23. July 2014, 13:20: Message edited by: Sandemaniac ]
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
I've always liked this one on a wall in Oxford. Apparently it's been there for forty-plus years, and it's very noticeable that someone repainted it when the new doorway was put through the wall a few years ago!
Gosh, it's still there.
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
This has been making the rounds...
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
That guy rocks, whoever he is. A crown awaits him in Heaven.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
My favorite (though sadly fictional) graffiti would have to be the lovely Romanes Eunt Domus
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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