I went to the pastry store and the grocery store yesterday, and in both places my total was $11.34. The same price twice in a day feels out of the ordinary but this number?? So close to Halloween???? "HELL" I said to the chatty clerk at the grocery store. "Look at it upside down and it says 'he.ll'". She told me that back in the pager era her personal pager code was 663. "EGG" I said immediately, and she smiled. I don't think she was trying to protect me from evil influence by using a protective spell, but that's how I felt, like it was a blessing, or a benediction. We were both laughing.

"Alas, Hell..."

"Yes, but on the other hand, Egg."

[both smile]

-- excerpt from a play

Egg is a great spell, a great image for anyone that needs one. The High Priestess of the Tarot of Marseilles sits on one, that's one of my favorite little details. Though in the Rider Waite they moved the egg to her Egyptian hat:

I didn't say anything about any of this to the guy at the pastry store-- that encounter happened after the events of the grocery store and I was already armed with the power of the image of the egg. "This is no problem" I thought when the screen flashed HELL, though I want to be absolutely clear that I did not say this out loud. Me and the pastry person had a completely normal brief conversation about something else, completely within reason. I believe we discussed pastries.

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Egg is kind of a Halloween symbol, in that you huck them at people on the night of (or in some cultures the night before). Am I right in thinking it's not about hitting someone you don't like with an egg, but just about the devilish act of throwing one? Like you'd egg a friend or a stranger, a nerd or a jock, a babe, hunk, grom, toad, prep, metalhead, meatball, family, punk rock, the business man...? Am I way off in thinking this is an expression of joie de vivre? Or anyway that it's more Old Testament than New?

I'm going to stop short of saying that getting egged is a blessing, but-- if you're feeling haunted this Halloween, moreso than usual, or in a way you don't appreciate; or someone mentions Hell and it makes you feel unbalanced, here's a number spell for you:

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Egg Gallery

painting by Tadanori Yokoo, via a scanned book from Internet Archive, with a folded page

one from beloved artist and counterfeiter Rene Magritte

I do this sometimes, an "Amber Moon".

I do this too. Cut the beets with a mandolin if you have one but for God's sake be careful!

detail from Bosch

detail from the first paragraph of Don Quixote:

I tore my house apart looking for this footnote to the Quixote. Luckily I've been thinking about "tripe and trouble" / "grace of God" / "chocolate de la Mancha" since I was 14 years old and I of course still have the copy I read at that time, which seems to be the only edition with this footnote. The version freely available online omits this part, leaving it completely unclear what he ate on Saturday or if he even ever had an egg at all.

????

If your version says something else (or if you have a favorite DQ translation) please let me know! Mine is the Walter Starkie but only because of this one footnote.

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Links / Misc

• I've got a couple crafts fairs coming up in December but I'll be putting some stuffed animals (including new designs) up on the website starting NEXT WEEK so look for that next Tuesday! The drop's going to be 11am so set an alarm if you want a chance to grab rare colorways.
• If you have a favorite movie with a huge or otherwise extraordinary egg, and it ISN'T Howard The Duck, please let me know in the comments.
• I might post more eggs next week, get your complaints lined up...

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