Three Random Topics meme

Three random topics from oursin:

Calligraphy. An art form that I admire and occasionally dabble in but have never put enough time into to actually get good at. My regular handwriting is excrable (except on rare occasions where the neurons align and I spontaneously write legibly for a day or two, and then it's back to the usual scrawl), but writing calligraphy letters slows me down enough to write legibly and even attractively. One of my treasured pieces of art is a small calligraphy piece that I bought at a RenFaire, saying Hora Fugit Carpe Diem/the hours fly... seize the day.

Marquees. Apparently there is a usage of this word that means a big tent, like at a fairground, but my main association is the wordboard at a theater showing the name of the performance. There's a restaurant I sometimes pass on my way home that has a marquee board out front with a different message every day. (Some recent ones: "Beef jerky is just a cow raisin"; "Don't laugh at your wife's choices; you're one of them" (I'd have written that one as "spouse's" myself, but I still like the sentiment); "The man who invented Velcro has died -- RIP"; "Love over hate; queso over everything else"; etc.)

Polka. I am a fan of Weird Al and of Brave Combo (their song "At the Polka Fest" is one of the most cheerful songs on my iPod), and there's a lot of great Tex-Mex music that draws from German polka as one of its influences. It's a fun dance too.

If you want three random topics, let me know!