Dog billiards and fireflies
Posted by: Fats in: Fats, Vitamins & Minerals > Takaw at Sursur!In the house we are renting, there’s this printed “tapestry” (100% cotton) from Turkey, of dogs playing billiards. I have not seen this image for a long time now - the last I’ve seen one was as posters (others show dogs playing poker) in jeepneys many years ago, when I was still a child. Below is “The Hustler” by American artist Arthur Sarnoff (1912-2000).
According to the American Art Archives website, “Two subjects keep him famous: popular and tasteful pin-up girl calendars and the pool playing (and card playing and golfing) dogs, of which, “The Hustler” one was the best-selling print of the 1950s.” Below is “The Hustler” from Fabprints.
Trevor and I checked the two images and it seems that the one from Turkey is an artist’s rendition of the Sarnoff print to fit the 1.5 proportions of Turkish prayer mats which would be a standard in Turkey (as opposed to the 1.3 proportions of the prints).
It’s quite interesting to see that the artist has completed the ears of the dog standing on the rightmost side of the “mat” and extended the shelf and added more balls in the shelf found on the left side. There is also a very decorative border around the “mat.”
Anyway, on the way home today, I saw a tiny light in one of the large unoccupied lots near the house we are renting. Suddenly, we realized that the light was a firefly (or lightning bug)! It was so amazing and beautiful. We stayed for a while and soon saw a few more moving about the trees. Trevor has not seen a firefly in a long long time, and I’ve never seen a firefly before. On the Lightning Bugs website, the firefly larvae looks amazingly like those that I see around our apartment, which I always found rather mysterious - now I know that they are bug larvae, certainly not of fireflies, but a different bug.
Anyway, it’s really wonderful to see these fireflies here - so it seems that they are in Bohol too. According to the Department of Tourism, there are firefly watching tours in Donsol and Ogod rivers in Sorsogon - and they also claim that the Philippines is one of only three countries in Asia that offer firefly tours.
Well, tomorrow (Wednesday) is market day in Baclayon, so we should be up early! 
However, we are noticing some recent changes in the market now (an old market established during the Spanish colonial period, it is beside the Baclayon church and convento compound) - the local municipal council seem to be implementing new occupancy rules, which do seem to make the market busier on all days and not only on Wednesdays. Hopefully, it will be good news for most people here, although it has been difficult for some who had to dismantle their little makeshift shops around the market building.
