Page 246 - The Grotesque Children's Book

heads, decapitated. Trad., Divine; a mind without need of a body; usually benevolent or even
angelic. Megl., We beg to disagree. A head without a body can’t accomplish anything,
now, can it? So you’ll see a lot of grinning heads, usually in flanking pairs, like andirons;
we mean these to be vacuous inconsequential human beings. Look near them to see
whether we mean them to be fatuous merchants (look for nearby food, money, flowers),
fraudulent academics (books, words, writing instruments), second-rate artists
(paintbrushes, pots of paints, see squirrels), or most likely civic leaders (pillars,
architecture, or abstractions).

hills, three. Trad., Three phases of man: birth, life, death. Megl., The rendezvous.

jumping through hoops. Trad., Man’s dominion over nature; bending animals and nature to do
our bidding; an individual in control of his fate; cycle of nature; the wheel. Megl., We’re
not so sure about the dominion; we see just a bunch of meaningless animal tricks. Take
away the hoop and, well, you’re just jumping, aren’t you?

knucklebones. Trad., A small semicircular molding, so called from its resemblance to a row of
knuckle-bones placed side by side. As it is decorated with beads, or berries of laurel or
olive, separated by discs, it is now commonly known as a chaplet. The Greek word for
the knucklebone is astragal. Astragals are placed at the top of a column, beneath the
capital, and divide the architrave into two or three parts. They are also used to decorate
any kind of base. Megl., We’ve surrounded every ceiling, every single one, with
variations of astragals...repeating shells or circles or arches; they’re everywhere. Why?
See Astragalus; we’re trying to warn you. Well, plus, we’re trying to call attention to the
pretty borders; we spent a lot of time on them, and you probably don’t look at them at all,
do you? Sigh.

landscapes, vague. Trad., Nature; outdoors; the viewer’s relationship to the universe. Megl.,
There are a number of reasons why our landscapes are vague and don't really represent
any particular place. First of all, who has the money to travel?, so we've not really ever
seen any place except Florence, which isn't exactly famous for its Matterhorns.
Secondly, do you know how long it takes to paint all the details in a hillock or grotto?
More time than we have; something must give; and I, for one, find less symbolic meaning
in a landscape than I do in a rousingly-bizarre figure. I mean, you've seen one tree,
you've seen them all, right? And lastly...well, we don't want to spoil the plot; but, hint,
look for three hills and four peaks.

liripipe. Trad., The tail of a hood; representing something to be remembered; variant
(derogatory): liripoop. Megl., If the tail is swinging freely in our depiction, we generally
mean that the person wearing the hood has remembered what he wanted to; if the tail is

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