Found objects
1. What the world eats. This is an amazing set of photos, not for the visual qualities of the photos themselves -- the composition, lighting, etc. is almost identical for all -- but for the information they offer when taken as a set. You notice the quantity of food per person, of course, but also the shocking ratio of fresh produce to packaged crap for the Americans and western Europeans. It's suddenly easy to see why Americans are overweight -- overabundance and taste buds deformed by industrial food manufacturing.
2. Still creepy after all these years... and now it's the hair and the cachexia, not the mascara:
Yep, that's Tammy Faye Bakker, ex-wife of the disgraced televangelist, gay icon and 65-pound end-stage cancer patient.
3. A recent favorite: Passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers. In my own experience (or actually that of two good friends of mine in college), the best was a note from their roommate that had nothing passive about it, scrawled wildly on cardboard taped over the sink: "KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF ANYTHING THAT'S MINE!" Okayyyyyy... And also this entry from Rantasaurus Rex. I snorted with laughter.
4. "X, I have a feeling we're not in Y anymore." "X is the new Y." "Friends don't let friends X." These are all snowclones. If there wasn't a word for that, someone would have had to invent it -- and someone did.
5. For no particular reason this morning, I mentally ran through my list of family members and friends and tried to tally up how many different foreign countries they were born in. For example, I know one person who was born in Cuba, a couple born in Holland, several born in England, etc. My rule was that I have to have had a friendly conversation with the person at least once within the last few years -- cab drivers, handshake acquaintances and childhood encounters don't count. My count was 18, though I'm sure I'm missing some. Try it at home! My roster of countries:
2. Still creepy after all these years... and now it's the hair and the cachexia, not the mascara:
Yep, that's Tammy Faye Bakker, ex-wife of the disgraced televangelist, gay icon and 65-pound end-stage cancer patient.
3. A recent favorite: Passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers. In my own experience (or actually that of two good friends of mine in college), the best was a note from their roommate that had nothing passive about it, scrawled wildly on cardboard taped over the sink: "KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF ANYTHING THAT'S MINE!" Okayyyyyy... And also this entry from Rantasaurus Rex. I snorted with laughter.
4. "X, I have a feeling we're not in Y anymore." "X is the new Y." "Friends don't let friends X." These are all snowclones. If there wasn't a word for that, someone would have had to invent it -- and someone did.
5. For no particular reason this morning, I mentally ran through my list of family members and friends and tried to tally up how many different foreign countries they were born in. For example, I know one person who was born in Cuba, a couple born in Holland, several born in England, etc. My rule was that I have to have had a friendly conversation with the person at least once within the last few years -- cab drivers, handshake acquaintances and childhood encounters don't count. My count was 18, though I'm sure I'm missing some. Try it at home! My roster of countries:
- Australia
- China
- Cuba
- Denmark
- England
- France
- Germany
- Guatemala
- Holland
- India
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Portugal
- Russia
- South Africa
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
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