From the February 2015 issue of OUT magazine, a piece by James McDonald on queer artist Gio Black Peter (as he’s now known). A moose-knuckle boy, posing seductively, by him:
Archive for January, 2015
Gio Black Peter
January 16, 2015Robert Deyber
January 16, 2015Visual play on formulaic language from artist Robert Deyber. A sample:
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Guess the caption…
Indian
January 16, 2015Today’s Bizarro:
A long-standing and often troublesome ambiguity, but rarely an issue in restaurants, since there are few restaurants specializing in Native American cuisine.
Norms
January 15, 2015In the news from L.A. today:
Yesterday, the LA Conservancy posted an alert on their website that a demolition permit had been approved for the iconic, Googie-style Norms restaurant on La Cienega at Rosewood Avenue. The Norms chain sold late last year. The eye-catching 1957 building was designed by Googie gods Louis Armet and Eldon Davis, and is both a textbook example of the endangered and whimsical Googie style — the Jetsony look emblematic of Southern California in the Jet Age — and the quintessential California coffeeshop. (link)
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Taboo time in Paris
January 15, 2015On the 13th in the NYT, a piece by Rachel Donaldo on the news from Paris: on-line, “Charlie Hebdo’s New Issue Features Muhammad on Cover”, in the print edition, “Still Mourning, but Printing a New Provocation: Muhammad on the Cover”, with a section on Gérard Biard, one of the satirical paper’s top editors:
As the newsroom sprang to life on Friday afternoon, Mr. Biard reflected. “They killed people who drew cartoon characters. That’s it. That’s all these guys do. If they’re afraid of that,” what’s their god?, he asked, inserting an expletive for emphasis.
Presumably the interview was in French, translated here for an American readership, so the inserted expletive would have been foutu and not fucking.
I tried to check how this was reported in the French press, and couldn’t find anything with a reference to the attackers’ god, with or without an expletive (though I did listen to a pretty long interview with Briard). But maybe I just missed it.
My puzzle about the NYT version is not the suppressed expletive — that’s just Timesian modesty, often commented on in this blog — but why the paper chose to mention the expletive at all, when it doesn’t seem to me to add anything to the story. So the paper ended up calling attention to the expletive they chose not to print.
Lexicographer, unchained
January 15, 2015From lexicographer Kory Stamper on her blog (“harm∙less drudg∙ery: life from inside the dictionary”) of December 19th: “Answers I Wish I Could Send: Etymology Edition”, with comments from readers (edited some for clarity) and sharp-tongued answers she wishes she could give. Making points on my blog, Language Log, Ben Zimmer’s blogs, etc. Hilarious stuff. Some highlights below.
Shed your inhibitions
January 15, 2015Part of the latest ad campaign for Equinox Fitness, a guy wielding a Manneken Pis:
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On its website, the company assures us that “Equinox isn’t just a fitness club, it’s a temple of well-being.” And the ad campaign tells us that the clubs can embolden you to shed your inhibitions.
rappers
January 15, 2015Today’s One Big Happy commits a pun:
Wrapping gifts, rapping on gifts. Well, rapping on gift wrapping. Ouch.
The French pastry revolution
January 15, 2015Yesterday it was the noirwhal; today on Rhymes With Orange, it’s the French pastry revolution:
A complex tissue of puns, portmanteaus, and cultural allusions.
Façade
January 15, 2015Following my posting on perilla and phonologically similar words, I was playing with Camilla Perilla and sashimi and that’s my spicy duchess hanging on the wall scooby dooby, and I caught an echo of
Daisy and Lily,
Lazy and silly,
Walk by the shore of the wan grassy sea
The “Valse” from Façade, which I seem not to have posted about before.