Archive for the ‘Play’ Category

Love and intrigue in the palace of cards

January 13, 2024

Encountered this morning on Pinterest, this remarkable artwork: a playing card showing the jack of hearts in the arms of the king of spades and holding hands with him:


(#1) A same-sex encounter in the palace of cards, the work of Iranian-born Mahdieh Farhadkiaei; according to the site of the publisher of this playing-card art, Black Dragon Press (“a family-run print publisher based in London, UK”), she’s “an illustrator and concept artist working in advertising and fashion”

MF’s first set of these cards shows same-sex romantic pairings (both female and male), mixed-sex romantic pairings, and scenes of palace intrigue, all involving the characters on the three face cards (king, queen, and jack), as well as some solo portraits; we can only hope that more depictions of palace life are on the way.

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Posted in Art, Homosexuality, Movies and tv, Play, Signs and symbols | Leave a Comment »

In the menswear ROJ

May 15, 2022

As in yesterday’s posting “Romper buddies”, about an ad for Romperjacks: not RAJ the land of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh, but ROJ the land of rompers, overalls, and jumpsuits. With a photo gallery. To whet your interest, two Romperjacks items:


(#1) The floridly beautiful Jungle Print romper


(#2) The elegant White Chateaux romper

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Posted in Categorization and Labeling, Clothing, Fashion, Gender and sexuality, Lexical semantics, Masculinity, Play, Social class, Sociocultural conventions | Leave a Comment »

Adventures in a balloon

January 2, 2022

In today’s (1/2/22) Bizarro, the Old Balloon Peddler hawks his wares in the park:


(#1) And thought balloons too! Take a word or thought ride in one of these sturdy inflatable delights (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 5 in this strip — see this Page.)

The Magical Adventure Balloon Ride
— a private basket adventure exclusively for thrill seekers

He gives the kids free samples
Because he knows full well
That today’s young innocent faces
Will be tomorrow’s clientele

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Posted in Comic conventions, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Play | 1 Comment »

bunny ears

May 21, 2018

It started with a candid photo of people at a social gathering, with one person making a V hand gesture behind the head of the person next to them, much as in this photo of pro tennis players:

(#1) Swiss jock jokery:  Stan Wawrinka doing the ‘bunny ears’ gesture behind Roger Federer

Bunny-earing someone is a prank (NOAD on the noun prank: ‘a practical joke or mischievous act’), pranks being a very culture-specific form of play + humor that deserve analytic attention that I’m not able to provide, but will just take as a cultural given here.

To come: a bit of the history of bunny-earing; senses of the expression bunny ears (illustrating (mostly metaphorical) sense developments in many directions); and uses of the V hand gesture (illustrating symbolic functions of many different kinds; the gesture itself is “just stuff”, without intrinsic meaning, which can be exploited for many different symbolic purposes). The act, the meanings of the linguistic expression for the act, the cultural significances (or “social meanings”) of the act.

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Posted in Art, Gender and sexuality, Gesture, Language and ethnicity, Language and plants, Language and religion, Metaphor, Music, Play, Pranks, Signs and symbols, Social life, Words and things | Leave a Comment »

Naked came the mammoth

September 25, 2017

Because mammoths, today’s Rhymes With Orange:

(#1) Advances in Mammoth Science: early scientists encountering Mammuthus primigenius var. nudus

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Posted in Books, Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics, Mammoths, Names, Play | 1 Comment »

Roly(-)Polies

May 5, 2015

Today’s Mother Goose and Grimm, featuring roly polies:

(#1)

Roly polies the fascinating creatures. Then there’s Jam Roly-Poly, the British sweet; the roly-poly toy; Roly Poly, the chain of sandwich shops; and the adjective roly-poly ‘having a round, plump appearance’, which leads us to the Australian film The Roly Poly Man. All are rooted in the verb roll, in various uses.

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Posted in Language and animals, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Play | 2 Comments »

Construction toys

March 25, 2015

Chatted yesterday with Ned Deily about Erector sets and Meccano, and he mentioned Girder and Panel construction toys, which I hadn’t heard of but which he had enjoyed as a kid; they came along a bit late for me, though I had played with earlier construction toys: Meccano, Tinkertoy, Erector, and Lego.

I’ll start with Girder and Panel and then go back to the beginning.

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Posted in Names, Play, Toys | Leave a Comment »