CAKE CRUMBS ... MISSING TEA CUPS ... AND THE RAVEN

Wilson, our wonderful Co-Host ... we insisted he head home early Sunday evening,
he'd done an amazing job, and all our guests enjoyed him.  He'd offered to clean-up the crumbs,
but he had his usual Monday Musings post to prepare, 

go check it out at Tails Around The Ranch, it's always worth visiting.

Missing tea cups?  It seems many guests took them home.

No matter, said the Mad Hatter.

It's quite nice, said some mice, that they chose them as keepsakes of the tea party.

And The Raven.  Well, that story follows way down below ...

The story of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party first appeared in Chapter 7 of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and continued to be featured in many of his subsequent novels.  The story itself became so popular over the next 150 plus years, it has been told now on Broadway and in community theaters.  And ... in Hollywood films, ballet productions, TV, video games, music and lyrics, books, poetry and comic strips, and with toys and dolls, and of course, as a well known ride at Disney theme parks.

For us, BOOLATRY has always been our month of October, mostly devoted to ghosts and monsters, though our pets were sometimes shown in currently popular costumes.  This year we wanted to try something more "fun and lighthearted, classic" and bring friends from the pet community in as part of it.  Somewhere, out of an "we're all mad here imagination" this tea party evolved and we thank all who joined and all who visited and commented.

And now ... about THE RAVEN

In Chapter 7, the Mad Hatter poses a riddle, "why is a raven like a writing desk?"  It has always been suggested that Carroll did not intend there to be an answer to this riddle.  Yet many have struggled to find answers ... offered answers ... and published on the topic over the years ... with speculations and solutions [none that we'll share here, sorry].  But, to revert to BOOLATRY and share from a favorite author of ours:

In his 1977 horror novel, The Shining, Stephen King writes:  " Snowbound and isolated in the Rocky Mountains, Danny Torrance hears the whispers of the malign 'voice of the [Overlook] Hotel' inside his head, including this bit of mockery, 'why is a raven like a writing desk?  The higher the fewer, of course!  Have another cup of tea!' "