Archive for March, 2020

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The smoulder

March 31, 2020

(A diversion in difficult times.)

Back on the 15th, Tim Evanson recognized the 3/16 birthday of Ares, um, actor Kevin Smith, writing on Facebook, “We miss you” (Smith died, at age 38, in 2002, from an accidental fall). A (female) reader commented on FB:

I miss that smouldering look.

Referring to this smouldering look, which KS was a grand master of:


(#1) “Kevin Smith as the studly Ares” (the Greek god of war, in tv’s Xena: Warrior Princess), as I put it in my 6/23/17 posting “Typo time”: the smouldering look, plus (among other things)  a masculine plunging neckline, muscular arms, a confrontational stance, a huge phallic dagger, and a well-filled crotch dramatically displayed in leather

As I said on FB:

Oh my, yes. Steamy, studly Kevin Smith (especially as Ares in Xena). Is there a term for that look when directed at a woman? (I have often thought Smith deserved an Emmy for Best Cruise of Death from a Straight Man.)

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Posted in Facial expressions, Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Movies and tv | 1 Comment »

St. Martin des Poires

March 29, 2020

(Nothing actually crude, but a lot of mostly high-falutin’ sextalk that might give some people the fantods.)

In yesterday’s mail, a postcard from Ryan Tamares (a Stanford friend who is now socially but not postally distant from me) with this crate label from the 1920s and 1930s, featuring a character I’ll call the Bartlett Pear Kid:


(#1) We’ve been here before, in my 2/14/12 posting “Suggestive”, where I wrote: “The newsboy is hustling pears, but to modern eyes the label suggests something more salacious.”

I pursued this example further in a 6/14/16 posting “Crate labels”, which I’ll take up in a little while. But first the literally fabulous history of the Bartlett Pear Kid, who eventually became St. Martin des Poires, B.P.I.

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Posted in Art, Language and food, Language and plants, Language and religion, Phallicity, Signs and symbols | Leave a Comment »

Reading faces

March 28, 2020

(There will be mansex, talked about in blunt language and with racy (though not actually X-rated) images; not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)

From The Economist‘s 2/20/20 issue on-line, in the Science and Technology section, “Do not rely on facial expressions for how people are feeling: A smile does not always mean someone is happy” (in print on 2/22, as “Face blind: Facial expressions are not usually a reliable guide to how people feel”):


(#1) Michael Haddad illustration for the piece; interpret this!

(I have a long-standing interest in facial expressions in two contexts: during mansex, and in cruising for sex beween men. In both, I’ve noted how difficult it is to interpret the emotional content of facial expressions — whether as emotional state of the source or as emotional state perceived by an audience. Meanwhile, the expression itself just is; it’s a gesture, and that’s all. It’s just stuff, as I’m fond of saying.)

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Posted in Facial expressions, Gay porn, Gender and sexuality, It's Just Stuff, Technology | 2 Comments »

Chez Le Fourmilier II

March 27, 2020

The Wayno/Piraro Bizarro of 3/25 returns us to Restaurant Row in Anteaterville:


(#1) The chef of Chez Le Fourmilier brings an ant farm to the table for the delectation of an enthusiastic diner wearing an ant bib (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page.)

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Posted in Comic conventions, Etymology, Language and animals, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Understanding comics | Leave a Comment »

Three men

March 25, 2020

More News for Penises. About three men who make a living by “bodywork”: Jack Vidra, Seth Fornea, Hayden Clark. About their penises as the driving elements of their livelihoods; their penises as cultural and aesthetic objects; and especially about their penises as elements in their presentations of self.

It’s a lot of dick, all of the time, and thoroughly unsuitable for kids and the sexually modest. Most of this material appeared first in my AZBlogX posting earlier today, “Vidra Fornea Clark” (though actual dicks don’t appear here, to satisfy WordPress modesty).

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Posted in Facial expression, Gay porn, Gender and sexuality, Language and the body, Phallicity | 1 Comment »

The predictable blend error

March 24, 2020

It was bound to happen: the parts of

COVID-19 and coronavirus

were going to get mixed, to yield

CORVID-19

And, yes, then we see ravens, ravens of death.

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Posted in Blends, Errors, Language and animals, Language and medicine | 4 Comments »

Mexican dicks with super-spiny nipples

March 24, 2020

(The penises (and nipples) are all symbolic, but if that troubles you, the title should be a warning.)

Yes, the News for Penises is back in business, with a bulletin from our floral department, beginning with the truly stunning image of plants of what was described as the Mammillaria cactus species pilcayensis:


(#1) A collection of what are variously referred to as sock, finger, thumb, or penis cactuses — the last especially because of the color-marked analogue of the glans penis, complete with a purple analogue of the corona of the glans penis (alternatively, those could be finger tips, or toes)

(On the corona as bodypart, see my 3/6/20 posting “Tragedies of the pandemic”.)

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Posted in Language and plants, Phallicity | 4 Comments »

On Vadim Temkin’s surname

March 24, 2020

(A guest posting from Vadim Temkin, reproducing (without editing, so I can hear Vadim’s actual voice in all of this) a note in his Facebook notes yesterday about a section in my posting “Mourning Son” on  that same day)


Portrait of a thoughtful Vadim, by Sergey Zhupanov

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Posted in Language and religion, Movies and tv, Names, Spelling | 3 Comments »

Mourning Son

March 23, 2020

… or Social Distancing. More art of the pandemic: a CGI homage to Edward Hopper’s Morning Sun (1952) by Vadim Temkin:

(#1)

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Posted in Art, Names, Russian, Spelling | Leave a Comment »

coronteaus

March 22, 2020

… that is, coronovirus portmanteaus (where the underlined n is the overlap shared by the two contributing words). A modest collection from recent days.

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Posted in Homosexuality, Language and medicine, Movies and tv, Portmanteaus | 2 Comments »

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