Monday, March 14, 2011

The Cowmanthemum

In my last blog post I made a video (click here to see video) that made reference to what I thought to be an imaginary creature...the Cowmanthemum.  I have received a number of queries about this creature and have found out that it did in fact exist., although very rare. 

Here is one of the only photographs of the flowery bovine, taken in 1911 by a Zachariah B. Cribboltz of Fester's Butte Iowa:
He later stated:
"I 'member that day, sittin' by the river.  I smelled somethin'...unusual.  Not quite pleasant, not quite unpleasant.  It was like a bouquet of flowers in a cow pie.  Then I saw it... in glorious yella and black."

Cribboltz managed to capture what came to be know as the Cowmanthemum and later sold the beast to a French cheese maker, name Philippe Bourdon.     
The Cowmanthemum's floral scented cheese was quite the rave in elite Parisian circles.  Customers would frequent the likes of le Dome and nosh the freshly cut cheese.

Then tragedy struck...
  On May 12th 1912, aphids by the millions attacked vegetation throughout the French countryside.  This would be infamously known as "Aphid Tuesday".  
Millions of flowers dead by the end of the day...but there was yet another casualty...
The Cowmantheum.
Thousands attended the funeral....  
but only one flower was present...that of the floral bovine.
Believe it...
or 
Not

18 comments:

j-wo said...

Oh Michael...you're killing me! :)

audrey said...

HAHAHAHAHA OMG, Michael, your mind is a wheel of continuous creativity!
COWMANTHEMUM lovers all across the land will be ever grateful to you for bringing this profound information to our attention.
♥ audrey

Carolyn B said...

Oh, I BELIEVE, I BELIEVE! :D

Elena said...

OMG! You are hilarious!!!!

Kelli said...

Yesterday I saw a verbenalope. No camera. Damn.

Jen Crossley said...

OMG Your such a dag Mr Demeng
Jen

Luthien Thye said...

OMG!!!! YOUR CRAZY!!! BUT I LOVE YOU!!!!!

SharePoint Intranet said...

ROFL!! OMG!! Hilarious it is!!

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

OMG Michael....this is price less!!! I knew you would get something cooked up about the cowmanthemum before I could make it to the design table. Dang!!!
Well, I might do my own version of the floral bovine anyway.......Ghost 'Manthemums In The Sky......
Ah-hahahahahahaha!!!!

XXOO~~
Anne

Nancilyn (Fiberdabbler) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nancilyn (Fiberdabbler) said...

Georgia O'Keefe would be proud!

Nancilyn (Fiberdabbler) said...

http://www.lesfoodies.com/mazel/recette/boeuf-braise-a-la-mode

Boeuf a la mode, a more fitting end.

Jill Blevins said...

Love a man with imagination

Dr. Deb Petronio said...

Like the old Borden cow!

Carol said...

Great story, just hilarious, pity about the tragic ending. Michael, you're so clever, I hope a bit rubs off on this student. Can't wait now to see what Anne produces.

Stephanie Lee said...

"crazy, creative, imaginative, clever, witty"....all adjectives commonly used to describe you. I'll simplify and condense them all to just say that you are full of cowmanthemum pies.

Hey dude...everybody's s*%t stinks. Your's just happens to smell silly.

Love you for it. :)

Parabolic Muse said...

I love your blog. When I haven't been around for a long time I can't believe how I've lived without it.

But I'm here to ask you this: and I don't have your email address so I have to ask it here:

I forgot my question.

Oh, yeah! You took a photo while you were in Paris and you posted it to FB as a response to my love of Rodin's hands, and I saved it forever under my pillow. Now I have it on the sidebar of my blog and it occurs to me that it's not my photo. You took it! So now I'm asking if it's okay that I'm using it. Please give a brief yes or no at your ec (earliest convenience).

You can delete this comment if you want. It won't be the first time that's happened to me.

xo
chris

Parabolic Muse said...

I didn't know we were allowed to say 'I LOVE YOU' in your comments! It's nice to know, in case I need to say it.

Of course, it goes without saying, so forget I mentioned it.