More on the Bundy Bunch

January 9, 2016

Passed on by Gregory Ward yesterday, this clever mash-up (ultimate source not identified), representing the confluence of two very silly themes issuing from an utterly serious news story, about the armed occupation and ensuing standoff in Oregon led by rancher Ammon Bundy:

(#1)

The first theme, Occupy Me, is the homoerotic fanfic development I posted about two days ago. The second theme, Send Snacks, is the outgrowth of a Facebook posting by a Bundy Bunch member asking for, among other things, snacks for the group.

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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language of advertising, Movies and tv, Parody, Signs and symbols | 1 Comment »

Some favorite music

January 8, 2016

(About music rather than language.)

A few days ago I awoke twice during the night because of the music that was playing on my iTunes feed: two of my very favorite compositions: the wonderfully warm

Mendelssohn, String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20

and the fabulously joyous

Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (for solo piano), Op. 24

(surely one of the greatest variation pieces of all time).

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Two teases

January 8, 2016

(Not about language, but about hunky guys doing cock teases. Yes, it’s shallow.)

Two images passed on to me by Mike McKinley (with Chris Ambidge):

(#1)

(#2)

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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language and the body, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

Two New Yorker cartoons

January 8, 2016

A Mick Stevens from the December 21st/28th issue (illustrating some cartoon conventions) and a Ben Schwartz from the January 4th issue (showing, once again, just how much you might need to know to understand what’s going on in a cartoon):

(#1)

(#2)

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Posted in Comic conventions, Linguistics in the comics, Signs and symbols | 1 Comment »

John Holm

January 8, 2016

A very brief death notice for John Holm, a great pioneer in the study of pidgin and creole languages (and, incidentally, a very nice man). The NYT had a substantial obituary for him (by William Grimes) on the 4th, quoting linguist (and Language Logger) Sally Thomason on the significance of his work (and noting that John is survived by his husband, Michael Pye, and a brother).

Ben Zimmer posted a death notice on Language Log on the 4th (in “R.I.P. John Holm (1943-2015)”), based on the NYT piece.

John was resolute in treating pidgins and creoles as languages in their own right, not as debased versions of other languages — an attitude that is commonplace now but took considerable work to establish, a job that John did a lot of the heavy lifting on.

 

Posted in Death notices, Linguists, Pidgins and creoles | 1 Comment »

Morning name: The Duck Factory

January 8, 2016

Yesterday’s morning name: the title of a tv sitcom from 1984, The Duck Factory. About an animation firm, with a cartoonist as its central character.

Jim Carrey with Dippy Duck.

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Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Morning names, Movies and tv | Leave a Comment »

Ruthie and the radio doctor

January 7, 2016

The One Big Happy from the 5th, with Ruthie, characteristically, misunderstanding an unfamiliar medical term:

Clever of Ruthie’s grandfather to get to radiologist so quickly.

 

Posted in Errors, Linguistics in the comics | 1 Comment »

Bizarro groaner

January 7, 2016

Today’s Bizarro, with a major pun:

(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page.)

Groan: analogy – an allergy. Fairly distant pun for rhotic (r-ful) speakers like me, potentially perfect pun for non-rhotic (r-less) speakers in connected speech (where the indefinite article an is part of a phonological word with allergy, so that the [n] moves from a coda to an onset; then things depend on the vowels in the –ogy part of analogy and the –ergy part of allergy).

Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Phonetics, Puns | 1 Comment »

The linguists’ revenge

January 7, 2016

A cartoon from the Speculative Grammarian site, passed along on Facebook by John Lawler:

Linguists, wearied of being asked how many languages they speak, now get their revenge.

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Milestones in homoerotic fan fiction

January 7, 2016

Passed on to me by Nancy Friedman, who knows my interest in things homoerotic and things parodic, this piece from the site Joe. My. God. yesterday, “How About Some Oregon Militia Homoerotic Fan Fiction?”, reporting that

JMG reader Scott points us to the Twitter account of Colin Meloy, lead singer for The Decemberists, who has launched the hilarious hashtag #bundyeroticfanfic.

That’s Ammon Bundy in the photo. People tweet short passages with homoerotic episodes involving Bundy and his associates (and invented characters). My favorite so far:

Ammon!” cried Randy. “Take me! Take me like a rancher rightfully reclaiming a patch of public land!”

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