In the July 2016 Funny Times, this punning cartoon by Australian cartoonist Judy Horacek:
Layered portmanteaus: frenemy (friend + enemy) + anemone. Frenemy from NOAD2: ‘a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry’.
Archive for June, 2016
Frenemones
June 21, 2016Frank Viva
June 21, 2016The cover of the latest (June 27th) New Yorker, by artist Frank Viva: “Love”, a defiant response to the Orlando Pulse massacre:
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We throw vibrant love — rainbow kisses — in the face of death
A quick sponge-bath
June 20, 2016… especially of the armpits and crotch / privates / genitals: a whore’s bath. I first noticed the usage in an episode of the tv series Supernatural (S9 E13 “The Purge”, first aired 2/6/14):
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The character Dean Winchester (played by Jensen Ackles), called to quick action on a case. Dean goes on, “I’ll be ready in five.”
Monday: attention, language stereotypes
June 20, 2016Among today’s cartoons: a Calvin and Hobbes on the paradoxes of attention, and a One Big Happy on Italians behaving stereotypically, and stereotypes of the Italian language:
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Language at the art galleries
June 19, 2016From the New York Times on the 11th, “Last Chance: Warhol, Basquiat and Other History Lessons” by Roberta Smith. I’ll be getting to Ruscha and Basquiat eventually, but first Smith’s background comments.
Morning name: at Carnival, with a trumpet, in a tricorn
June 19, 2016From some time ago: the morning name “Carnival of Venice”, referring to the virtuoso trumpet setting of the German folk song “Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken” by Allen Vizzutti. No doubt WQXR-FM in NYC played it during the night while I was sleeping. A name that will take us many places.
Constructing a Voice of Authority through Persona
June 19, 2016A highlight of Stanford’s graduation last Sunday for me was Andrea Lawson Kortenhoven’s “walking through” our departmental ceremony for her PhD in Linguistics, tentative title above. Something personal for me, since I had the pleasure of encouraging Angi when she was a BA student in Spanish at Ohio State (graduating 1995), before coming to Stanford. Her husband Matthew and their four kids were there to cheer her on; I wasn’t able to make it, but I was cheering.
First, a photo (courtesy of Lelia Glass) of Angi with her immediate academic family — her thesis advisers, sociolinguists Penny Eckert and John Rickford — then Penny’s summary of the dissertation, and then some remarks on Angi’s academic regalia in the photo (in black, green, gold, and red).
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Another offer (X-rated)
June 18, 2016Those of you who have visited Kirjasto Zwicky (my “library condo”) on Staunton Ct. in Palo Alto will probably remember the “X-rated bathroom” (the front bathroom upstairs), which was enlivened by mounted X-rated gay collages hanging on its walls; there were more mounted collages (not quite so racy) in the adjoining study/office. All of this is now being converted into a bedroom, which requires more divestment / divestiture. So another offer, this time of the mounted collages.
At the Head of the Wolf
June 18, 2016(Money, sex, and anthropophagy, plus killer abs and electric underwear.)
Today’s Daily Jocks ad, with a caption of mine:
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Catherine showered the boys with
Money, Sebastian traded the bounty of
His Electric jockstrap for the treasures in
Their ragged boardshorts, but the
Cash ran out — the slavering
Pack set upon the terrified Sebastian,
Ripped what lean flesh they could from
His beautiful body.
The caption sets the 2(X)IST Electric underwear ad in the Spanish beach town of Cabeza de Lobo, the location of the movie Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), in which Montgomery Clift succumbs to a pack of beach boys.
The avocado slicer
June 18, 2016In today’s postimgs on the bon appétit magazine’s website, “Why the Last Thing You’ll Ever Need Is an Avocado Slicer” (a 6/16/16 piece by Alex Beggs). An illustration:
We are now in the the large KITCHEN-DEVICE category, the conceptual domain of implements, devices, tools, appliances, utensils, instruments, apparatuses, contraptions, and gadgets for use in the kitchen.