Thursday, January 8, 2009

Kuckuck



According to this Bremerton Patriot report, Allen Kuckuck of Poulsbo, Washington, bought a handful of “novelty rocks” before Christmas and when he got them home and examined them “one rock spun around, revealing a new perspective on the crisscross pattern of its surface . . . depicting Jesus toting a cross on his back.”

Sure, the photograph doesn’t reveal much, if anything, about the image, but haven’t we learned after all of these visual manifestations that the actual image is less important than the story created around it?

In the story, Kuckuck jokes about selling the rock on eBay, though he doesn’t own a computer: “I’m going to sell it if I can get $20 million.” Kuckuck identifies himself as religious, and as a painter, so he has an eye for these things, and apparently a decent sense of humor about them.



How about the surname? I’m pretty sure it is of German heritage. Some Googling around also suggests that it is what Germans call the bird cuculus canorus, otherwise known as the cuckoo. What a great onomatopoeia! Apparently, the kuckucks that migrate to Germany have the bad reputation of laying eggs in preexisting nests. The female will lay her egg, eat one of the eggs already in the nest and then fly off, leaving her egg to be cared for by the other female bird. I discovered this tidbit here, but be warned, the writer uses this example of nature’s ways to present a screed on human morality. Kuckuck, kuckuck, kuckuck.

1 comment:

Robot Boy said...

I gotta say, my man, your blog is a joke that keeps getting funnier every time you hear it.
Sorry I missed you in NYC. My time there was a shit sandwich seven miles long - and I had to eat every bite.