The viper dragon, lil dragon lizard, and lizardbro just chilling in the sun

Today I was thinking about The True Song of Wandering Aengus and trying to imagine what the content of that poem might be. One of the few details I have is that both stanzas contain the phrase "viper dragon," so I was thinking about that, wondering if it might be related to "snake eyes, paradise" in the Background Brethren's song or to Bill's "I Like Ling" dream. The sync fairies have a well-documented penchant for puns, and I had thought of that old joke where the punchline is "I am the viper! I have come to vipe your vindows!" This is how Bill described the way I translated the message "I Like Ling" from a computer screen:

You ran the device up and down the screen like one would wipe an eraser on a chalkboard. The words and letters were drawn to the device like a magnet, almost like they were being vacuumed up into the device.

After all the words had been collected or "wiped", you looked at the translator-device to get the interpretation. My vision zoomed in over your shoulder so I could see as well. On the screen were three words: "I Like Ling".

It seems like I had a "viper" and was "draggin'" it across the screen -- possibly even a screen running a "Vindows" operating system? (I was just thinking of Windows 95 last night in connection with "buddy holly," but that's a subject for another post.)

Later in the day I wanted to check something on archive.org, and -- you know the drill -- autocomplete gave me archive.4plebs.org/x/random/, and I clicked. I got this Astrology General thread. The main image was a series of esoteric-looking pictures depicting the 12 signs (check out Gemini, Bill). The first comment noted that the signs were out of order -- Aries and Capricorn had been swapped -- and the next two were about a minor detail from the Aries painting:

"Dragon lizard" caught my eye as being somewhat similar to "viper dragon," and the follow-up -- "Lizardbro just chilling in the sun" -- struck me as being literally nonsensical. Lizards bask in the sun to warm up, which is the opposite of "chilling." How do you chill in the sun?

That particular form of nonsense seemed familiar, though, and after I second I realized what it reminded me of: James Strang's Voree plates, the text of which begins thus:

My people are no more. The mighty are fallen, and the young slain in battle. Their bones bleached on the plain by the noonday shadow. The houses are leveled to the dust, and in the moat are the walls. They shall be inhabited.

Noonday is notable for bright sunlight, not shadow; and it is sunlight, not shadow, that bleaches bones. Thus, "bleached on the plain by the noonday shadow" seems a close cousin to "chilling in the sun." In vain produced, all rays return; evil will bless, and ice will burn.

Bill has been bringing up Strang a lot lately, so here's another Strang thing for you, Bill.