Today’s Zippy:
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One in a long series of Zippy strips about Tod Browning’s film Freaks, the characters in it, and the actors who played them (only some of them posted about here). Also one in a long series of strips referring to the Magrittean disavowal, a contradiction between text and image: in this case, the title of this comic strip, This is not a comic strip.
In the past few days, some tidbits from Facebook friends: from Margalit Fox, another demented p.r. pitch in her mail; from Jean Berko Gleason, an unfortunately ambiguous headline.
Four language-related strips in my comics feed on Sunday the 4th, which this year was Pentecost,
the Christian festival celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus after his Ascension, held on the seventh Sunday after Easter. (NOAD2)
KJV Acts 2:3: And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them
The word came down. In One Big Happy, Rhymes Wth Orange, Zits, and xkcd.
… brings gay porn sales for the occasion. (Warning: this will be about gay porn, with frank discussion of men’s bodies and mansex, so it’s not for kids or the sexually modest.) The cover photo (technically not X-rated) for the C1R sale:
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#1 focuses on one theme of the sale offerings: daddy-boy relationships. Then there’s a trio of Cocky Boys videos (featuring young, impertinent, highly sexed characters) depicted in an AZBlogX posting, “Cocky Boys for Pride”. And finally, an ad section offering Brawn sex toys in the O-M-GLOW line: soft touch silicone that glows blue or orange in the dark.
The One Big Happy in today’s comics feed:
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Ouch: Creighton Barrel / Crate & Barrel.
There’s quite a path in the history of Creighton as a first name. This will take us to probably the most famous person with first name Creighton, US Army General Creighton W. Abrams — and his son Creighton W. Abrams, a classmate of mine at Princeton.
(The title tells the story. Racy topic, unquestionably alluding to hard-core mansex, but indirectly and playfully. Use your judgment.)
The Steam Room Stories video that came by me yesterday morning: “Trophy Boys”, in which two good-looking, ripped gay men complain about being treated as pieces of meat, as just their bulging muscles and big dicks. There are several twists in this short scene (which you can watch here), but here I’m going to focus on the title and on one of the men’s complaints about the men who pick him up as their trophy boy:
It’s dinner, drinks, and back to their place to park the beef bus in tuches town.
(referring to insertive anal intercourse). Playful alliteration in beef bus and tuches town, — the characters in SRS are given to fanciful indirect references to all matters sexual — and then there are the specific items beef, tuches, and of course trophy in trophy boy.
(Not for kids or the sexually modest, unless they/you have a high tolerance for weirdness and obscene allusion. No naughty bits will be on view, no acts of penetration will be detailed in print, it will all be in your mind’s eye. But that might be quite enough.)
Today’s morning name: the verb blat, which led me through a thicket of associations (largely phonological) having to do with beer, bars, baseball bats (real ones, of ash wood, and metaphorical ones, of manmeat), the Platte River in Nebraska, and then (by thematic association) to chiropterans, Die Fledermaus, Bruce Wayne and his boy wonder, vampires, and a lot of mansex — oh, those damn superheroes and bloodsuckers, it comes with the capes, they’re always sliding into Fagotopia, the fuckin’ flits. Along the way there will be two episodes of deranged free verse, none of it in the least bit wholesome, and some disastrous spraying by the Demon Dr. of Whoville.
(Mostly about food, but there’s a mansex interlude, so be warned.)
A couple days ago it was (thanks to Margalit Fox) the hologram-bunny (a hollusion) that comes to life to decorate homes and parties. I’m not quite sure why the idea struck so many people (including Margalit and me) as disturbing, but it was. Now comes an edible counterpart, but this time I think I understand the source of the unease that it arouses.
Reported by Kim Darnell, this is Delighted By (sometimes: delighted by) dessert hummus. On the grocery shelf:
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It comes in four flavors: Brownie Batter, Snickerdoodle, Orange Dreamsickle, Vanilla Bean.
Thing is, hummus is a savory food, and these flavors are all sweet (apparently, achingly so).
More remarkable p.r. pitched to the NYT obituarist (among other things) Margalit Fox (reported by her on Facebook today):
Hello Margalit
I wanted to make sure you had the story about ‘Hoppy The Easter Bunny,’ the first-ever hologram-bunny who comes to life to decorate homes and parties.
The full story is below. You are welcome to review Hoppy and other _____ products, share the story, etc, so long as _____ is cited as the source and when possible, linked to. If you would like to interview the _____ founders and leadership about the new trend in digital decorating, please let me know.
- What Does Hoppy the Easter Bunny Do?
He hops, paints eggs, grows flowers, and even preforms magic tricks. …
- How Does Hoppy Come To Life?
Hoppy’s animated loop-able scenes can be projected onto walls, screens, and special hollusion material that makes it look like Hoppy is standing anywhere in your home…
From a posting by Randy Murray to the Facebook page “THE ERRORIST MOVEMENT – Correct grammar, with humour”, where he comments, “apostrophes mean so much”:
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At first glance, this ad would seem to fall into four big topic areas on this blog: dubious commercial names; It’s All Grammar; vulgar slang; and phallic play (in particular, word play). To which I add: the conventions on the form of hashtags, e-mail addresses, and web addresses (URLs). But first, I have to tell you that this particular Dick’s Pizza is a fabrication.