This is long—lots of images. There is an interesting coda at the end of the page. You're welcome to skip to that if you wish.

Also, I'm just back from my road trip mentioned in my last post make beauty. I traveled again to help a friend in Santa Fe, but doubled the miles to New Mexico in going by way of Marfa in the Big Bend Country to check on the damage done to a favorite place of mine. The story about that, and some others about the journey, will come—it will just take a bit of time to put it all together to give the story on the Prada Marfa store justice. 

As a prelude to this post, and sort of an oblique hint, here are the lyrics and video to one of my favorites—and imagine this: I was a junior in high school and still cute when this came out in 1968.

It's been a long time comin'

It's goin' to be a long time gone.

Appears to be a long time,

Yes, a long, long, log time

Before the dawn.

Turn, turn any corner.

Hear, you must hear what the people say,

You know there's something that's goin' on here,

That surely, surely, surely won't stand the light of day.

And it appears to be a long,

Such a long, long, long time before the dawn.

Speak out, you got to speak out against

The madness, you got to speak your mind,

If you dare.

But don't try to get yourself elected.

If you do you had better cut your hair.

'Cause it appears to be a long time,

Before the dawn.

It's been a long time comin',

It's been a long time gone.

But you know, the darkest hour,

Is always just before the dawn.

And it appears to be a long time,

Such a long, long, long time before the dawn.

—David Crosby

Now here begins the post. 

25

I know, this is weird, but it's one of the funnier posts I've done on OS. Well, this and the one done on Tequila are the funny ones.

Modified, a bit

107/168

101/168

6481

5191

334,060 

Well, for those of you that made it through this far, you might be wondering what's going on here. The first OS member that explains precisely what this post means, including defining the related ending cryptic numbers, gets to select one of the images as a gift. The image will be printed out on premium paper with archival inks and placed in an 8-ply museum white mat. Finished size will be 16" x 20" and mailed to the destination of your choice. It can be for you or sent as a gift to whomever you designate.

Send me a private message with your guess. I'll reveal the answer and the winner when that happens, or it goes to the closest guess after one week.  

Some of the images here really aren't worthy of distribution, but there are a few good ones. Also, the winner is not limited to what is shown, but can select any image I've posted on OS inside any of the blogs. For example, there is a You Tube video posted above—which is worth watching, but isn't printable. However, there are nice images within that post that could be selected, such as this or this.

If you as the winner choose an image other than what's shown above, just let me know and it will be so. Shipping is on me too, and I ship international.

Update: Two posts ago, in the one titled Give and Take, I presented some cryptic numbers at the end of the post. I said that the person who figured out what they meant, or the one that came the closest would receive an image of their choice from me. It's time to reveal the winner and to explain the meaning.

The winner is our very own Trilogy. She came closest to guessing what the different numbers meant.

The post was an anniversary post for me, signifying my three years on Open Salon, or more accurately, the third anniversary of my first post as I was a member before that appeared in April of 2008.

The numbers were these:

107/168

101/168

6481

5191

334,060

And what they mean (or meant at the time of posting) is this:

107/168 168 total posts/107 Editor Picks

101/168 168 total posts/101 Cover posts

6481 The number of collective comments

5191 The number of collective thumbs*

334,060 The collective number of page views

* Not counting what we used to have in the early days—negative thumbs!