Archive for the ‘Toys’ Category
June 21, 2019
A week from today (on the 28th) is Stonewall Day, this year the 50th anniversary of the original event, which helped to catalyze a long tradition of homophile organizations and protests into annual Gay Pride events all over the world: events that are protests, defiant demonstrations, celebrations of community, and parties, all in one.
The occasion has presented the Disney companies with a public relations opportunity — if they play their cards right, they can be seen as celebrating diversity — and a business opportunity as well — they can sell Disney-identified products to the lgbt community (in special locations, for a limited time, not out in the public eye). Which brings us this carefully calculated Pride sale:
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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Idioms, Language of sex, Rainbow, Signs and symbols, Toys | 1 Comment »
June 11, 2019
Today’s Zippy has our playful Pinhead frolicking and cavorting in the surf, on a water trike:
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In no particular order: the Aqua-Cycle water trike, seen above churning through the surf (and, quite possibly, several holiday-goers); the verbs frolic and cavort, great favorites of Zippy’s, which tend to come with a sexual tinge; the social custom of pleasurable frolicking and cavorting in the water, easily bent to homoerotic purposes, in displays of the body and playful contact between men; and one particular artist of that scene (from a great many), Keith Vaughan.
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Posted in Art, Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Linguistics in the comics, Photography, Toys | Leave a Comment »
December 26, 2018
Small but entertaining little gifts for my Christmas, from Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky, Opal Armstrong Zwicky, Kim Darnell, and Maggie Ainsworth-Darnell — plus an excellent dim sum lunch at Tai Pan in Palo Alto for all of us, from Paul Armstrong.
Then: an out@in rainbow t-shirt from LinkedIn (where Kim works); a little plush wooly (spelling by the Douglas Cuddle Toy Co.) mammoth; a tote bag with an otter drawing by the artist rubyetc; and a bit of nearly indescribable Japanese kawaii that involves a little self-watering ceramic penguin that grows wild strawberry plants (Fragaria vesca) on its back, as here:
(#1) Chuppon self-watering animals and their plants: the Sea Friends dolphin/clover, penguin/wild strawberry, seal/basil, polar bear/mint
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Posted in Art, Flags, Gender and sexuality, Holidays, Language and animals, Language and plants, Linguistics in the comics, Logos, Mammoths, Penguins, Rainbow clothing, Signs and symbols, Toys | Leave a Comment »
May 4, 2018
(Cheap, meaningless mansex. Not for everyone.)
From Roger Klorese today, a commercial sign from his posting past (thanks to timehop, which provides photos from your history):
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The (innocent) reference is to making your own stuffed toy, but then there’s a sexual verb stuff ‘screw, fuck’ and furry available to refer to (gay) bears (as well as to people in the furry subculture), and when you have people standing in line for the event, it sounds like a gangbang. Let’s all screw JoeBear!
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Posted in Double entendres, Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Language of sex, Rainbow, Toys | 6 Comments »
November 21, 2017
Three news bulletins for penguins on the 19th, and now, as we sink into the commercial Christmas season (which in the US began the day after Halloween but is conventionally inaugurated by Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving, this Friday), a combination of penguin news and holiday news: the 2014 John Lewis Christmas commercial, featuring a young boy, Sam, and his pet penguin, Monty:
(#1) You can watch the advert here
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Posted in Holidays, Language in advertising, Movies and tv, Penguins, Toys | Leave a Comment »
September 28, 2017
From Bonnie and Ed Campbell, on the occasion of my cataract surgery yesterday, something for me to enjoy looking at: an animated greeting card from the Jacquie Lawson company, with kaleidoscopic autumnal images. A screen capture from it:
(#1) Leaves, berries, and acorns (in 6-part symmetry)
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Posted in Gender and sexuality, My life, Technology, Toys | Leave a Comment »
September 9, 2017
Back on the 6th, in “Birthday notes”:
From Benita Bendon Campbell (and Ed Campbell) a Jacquie Lawson animated card of Indian runner ducks in the rain, ending with a duck and a rainbow. In medias res: [image #1]
To come, in a separate posting, on Indian runner ducks and Indian (or scarlet) runner beans, which are not at all the same thing.
And then to add to those, India(n) rubber ducks, which aren’t ducks, though they are duck-simulacra (runner ducks are ducks, and runner beans are beans — that is, bean plants).
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Posted in Compounds, Language and animals, Language and plants, Parsing, Rainbow clothing, Subsectivity, Toys | Leave a Comment »
August 11, 2017
(The underwear and men’s bodies thing again, plus gaydolls and some homoerotic art. Outrageous enough that it won’t be to everyone’s taste.)
Daily Jocks sale on the 8th offering the Barcode Berlin Thermo Brief in white (it also comes in black), with a caption of mine:
(#1) 83% Cotton 17% Polyester. US$25. Model not included.
Billy the Berlin
Barboy
Works the room in his
Barcode Berlin
Pouch-panel
Briefs.
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Posted in Art, Captions, Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Language in advertising, Signs and symbols, Toys, Underwear | Leave a Comment »
February 18, 2017
Short, very common words tend to have a great many senses — more exactly, in such cases there tend to be a great many homophonous lexical items from the same historical source (thanks to semantic shifts and syntactic changes). So, in its main entry for the verb get, NOAD2 has 32 subentries (and then there are lots of idiomatic phrases with get and phrasal verbs with get). And we, um, get things like this scene in a recent One Big Happy:
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Posted in Ambiguity, Lexical semantics, Linguistics in the comics, Toys | Leave a Comment »
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