From Tim Stewart on ADS-L, a posting linking to a 1/25/13 report on a project on his Dictionary of Christianese site (“The casual slang of the Christian church… authoritatively defined”), on “blended denominations”:
The church that the Simpsons attend is “The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism.” Presbylutherans are a product of Matt Groenig’s imagination, as far as I know. But fundagelicals, evangecostals, and presbycostals are totally not make-believe.
(Little about language, mostly about one actor and his body. Shirtless photos, but nothing racier than that.)
It started with a Facebook posting about the new comedy film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, with this very brief plot line, from Wikipedia:
After meeting Joe Manganiello, Pee-wee Herman leaves his hometown of Fairville and goes on the first vacation of his life to reach New York to celebrate Joe’s birthday party, before getting caught up in wacky hijinks and trouble across the country.
The movie pairs the big (6′ 5″ tall), famously muscular, and intensely masculine actor Joe Manganiello, as himself, with Paul Reubens (at 5′ 10″, and slim, even weedy) in his flamboyantly childlike character Pee-wee Herman, who becomes infatuated with the electrically attractive Manganiello at their first meeting:
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Los Angeles Times reviewer Rebecca Keegan, in a mixed notice, nevertheless praised “an adorably self-aware Joe Manganiello as the object of Pee-wee’s man-crush”.
JM has been through a series of roles in which he enthusiastically displays his body for the admiration of some of his audience (especially straight men, who would like to look like him and project his strength and easy assurance) and for objectification by much of his audience (women and gay men). He’s immensely proud of his body (achieved through considerable hard work) and revels in his viewers’ attentions — but all with self-aware good humor. A very entertaining presentation of himself.
It’s the Vernal Equinox today (and as sometimes happens on this day, snow is predicted in parts of the Eastern U.S.), and also Palm Sunday, one week before Easter, so Easter foods, especially candy, so we’re subjected to a barrage of candy ads. Among the strongly Easter-associated candies, at least in the U.S., where they’re made, are marshmallow Peeps (discussion on this blog in the posting “Peeps” of 3/18/13) — appallingly sweet but cute candies, classically in the shape of chicks.
And now, a mixture of food genres. Ellen Evans reports on Peeps specifically in rainbow, the colors of the Pride flag; rainbow food is something of a specialty on its own — there is a Page on this blog listing postings on such food — but I don’t think I’ve seen the flag colors deployed for Easter candy before:
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(Not much about language. Mostly about actors and the male body, focused on Chris Hemsworth.)
Caught last night, a Saturday Night Live re-run of the December 15th show (season 41, episode 8), with actor Chris Hemsworth as host, sometimes being charming, also doing a long bit as an aggressive practical joker (exposing the malicious display of dominance in much practical joking, which is not just playful “kidding around”); in a skit with a bunch of men hired as male strippers who instead do a Broadway show-tune revue, inciting the fury of the women who had come to see their ding-dongs (nice inventive euphemism); in another skit masquerading as a woman singing the praises of CH as Thor; and more. So: surely not by accident, a lot of material putting a spotlight on masculinity, gender displays, and gender politics.
(Yes, I’ll get to CH wielding his phallic hammer as Thor, and of course to a shirtless shot of a carefully developed, muscular CH.)
For the 19th, the affliction (part of a nasty cold also featuring paroxysmal coughing) and the name, reproducing bits of Ancient Greek spelling carried through to Latin, French, and then English. From NOAD2:
excessive discharge or buildup of mucus in the nose or throat, associated with inflammation of the mucous membrane. ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from French catarrhe, from late Latin catarrhus, from Greek katarrhous, from katarrhein ‘flow down,’ from kata– ‘down’ + rhein ‘flow.’
(The name catarrh obviously has nothing to do with the Gulf country name Qatar, though the latter is sometimes pronounced the same as the former, /kǝtár/.)
From Daily Jocks yesterday (with my caption):
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Joey Jockstrap was a cheap con man who
Preyed on gullible gay men, luring them through his
Intriguing slicked-back retro look and his
Intense, urgent sexual presence – but he couldn’t
Restrain himself from ripping off his clothes to
Parade the jutting package in the jockstrap.that
Gave him his alliterative street name.
Lift! Support! Enhance!
On the 14th on this blog, the posting “Unnerving Chicano art: Vincent Valdez”, which looked at Valdez’s powerful and sometimes unsettling art, with digressions into other artists and musicians, and a passing mention of Cheech Marin, who’s nurturing a Chicano art movement (one of Valdez’s works was featured in an exhibition set up by Marin).
As background, I note that both Valdez and Marin proudly identify themselves as Chicanos, from Chicano neighborhoods (for Valdez, in San Antonio TX; for Marin, in Los Angeles).
After a note on the label Chicano/chicano, I’ll turn to Cheech Marin, with a digression on that nickname Cheech.
Today’s Zippy, with one of his celebrated song burlesques:
Though the parody words are sometimes quite distant from the original, the accordion, the title “Cheese Barrel Polka”, and the meter and rhyme scheme of the song should work together to get you almost immediately to “Beer Barrel Polka”, with the verse
Roll out the barrel, we’ll have a barrel of fun
Roll out the barrel, we’ve got the blues on the run
Zing boom tararrel, ring out a song of good cheer
Now’s the time to roll the barrel, for the gang’s all here
Today’s Calvin and Hobbes (as usual, a re-play of a strip from some time ago):
Ah, the world of high-sugar breakfast cereals marketed to (sweets-loving) kids, visited here a week ago in a posting “Sweet nothings: candy, cereal, advertising”, with a One Big Happy cartoon on candy advertising to kids and a report on an Observer article “Selling Sweet Nothings”, about cereal advertisements to children and to their parents.
I doubt that any cereal company would market a product so blatantly named “Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs” (however appropriate that name might be). Maybe “Chocolate Frosted Fuzzies” (suggesting girlish cuteness) or “Chocolate Frosted Torpedoes” (suggesting boyish aggressiveness).
On Facebook recently, Robert Coren reported on a possible problem with the website for a Han Dynasty restaurant — handynasty — because it was subject to misparsing as handy + nasty.
And then the new issue (March 31st) of the New Yorker arrived, with a restaurant review (by Sylvia Killingsworth) of the Han Dynasty at 215 W. 85th St. in Manhattan — a review that even gets in a note about problems with its web address.