The Flag of Equal Marriage

This would've been just in time for the 4th of July if I'd read my feeds this weekend. The flag of equal marriage is "an evolving protest flag for equal marriage rights in the United States." Stars on the US flag were added in the order of each state's admission to the union; those stars that stand for states that actively perform same-sex marriages will be added as more states decide in favor of equality for GLBTQ couples. Above, the January 2010 flag, with stars for Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

"Persepolis 2.0"

Payman and Sina have taken images from Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and remixed them with new captions and dialogue to illustrate the day before and the first few days after the election in Iran. Much attention is paid to social media's role in organizing and supporting protesters:



Persepolis 2.0

Can't help but think this would make a good subject

...for a great YA historical novel (or bad poem).

Via BoingBoing, an article in the July 2009 issue of The Psychologist on "dancing plagues" (and other forms of mass hysteria):

The year was 1374. In dozens of medieval towns scattered along the valley of the River Rhine hundreds of people were seized by an agonising compulsion to dance. Scarcely pausing to rest or eat, they danced for hours or even days in succession. They were victims of one of the strangest afflictions in Western history. Within weeks the mania had engulfed large areas of north-eastern France and the Netherlands, and only after several months did the epidemic subside. In the following century there were only a few isolated outbreaks of compulsive dancing. Then it reappeared, explosively, in the city of Strasbourg in 1518. Chronicles indicate that it then consumed about 400 men, women and children, causing dozens of deaths…

[click to read more of "Looking Back: Dancing Plagues and Mass Hysteria" by John Waller]

Godwin's Law, etc.

In looking for the definition of "teme" yesterday, I came across "Meme, Counter-meme", a great, short, older Wired article by Mike Godwin on the "Nazi-comparison meme" (and countering it):

It was back in 1990 that I set out on a project in memetic engineering. The Nazi-comparison meme, I'd decided, had gotten out of hand--in countless Usenet newsgroups, in many conferences on the Well, and on every BBS that I frequented, the labeling of posters or their ideas as "similar to the Nazis" or "Hitler-like" was a recurrent and often predictable event. It was the kind of thing that made you wonder how debates had ever occurred without having that handy rhetorical hammer...I developed Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one... (read whole article)

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Oprah.com's got a list of "Five Books Everyone Should Read at Least Once". Her choices (or Oprah.com writer Vince Passaro's choices?): Lolita, T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century, Waiting For Godot, and Things Fall Apart. Huh. I've tried to think of five books I think everyone should read and can't seem to do it. Everyone? Everyone? One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish floats to mind, or maybe Buber's I and Thou. You?

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A list of the top 100 classical hits based on their exposure in "today's pop culture". Also, on Metafilter, What is that song they always use when…?--a list of musical cliches.

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Brilliant idea, so-so execution until the last minute or so (which is worth waiting for): Buffy V. [the creepy] Edward Cullen, a video remix by Rebellious Pixels

My Little Zombie Pony

Oh, yes. Oh, yes, yes, yes:



Zombie Ponies by Flickr user dbx1 (via BoingBoing). We have ponies that could use a good makeover.

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version

Yes, there have been other literal music videos (click link below to see them), but this one outdoes the rest. At least treat yourself to the first 2 1/2 minutes:



--literal version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by dascottjr
--more literal music videos

Sex With Ducks

Riki "Garfunkel" Lindhome and Kate "Oates" Micucci sing a song in response to a Pat Robertson quote that legalizing gay marriage would lead to legalizing sex with ducks. Below or click to view.



See also: Garfunkel and Oates's "Pregnant Women Are Smug"

As soon as the lakes warm, I am playing nothing but "under-water duel" all summer.

From The Golden Book of Camping, 1959:



Via the ever-delightful Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

Thank you, Ann Hodgman,

for your book club discussion questions in this week's New Yorker, the most hysterical piece of book-related writing I've read since John Crace's digested read of Jodi Picoult's Handle with Care.

Letting the hoe handle suck

Last weekend I found a copy of Jeffrey Kacirk's Informal English: Curious Words & Phrases of North America for 2 bucks. Here are some highlights:

booklegger -- 1. a person who deals in forbidden books 2. a book dealer who follows unfair practices

get the mitten -- to be rejected or discarded by one's sweetheart [you reach for the hand...and get the mitten]

gosling patch -- the period in which a boy's voice is changing. Also: in the goslings: in the period of changing voice

hat of woods -- a low growth of trees on the top of a small hill

leg drama -- a ballet

let the hoe handle suck -- to loaf and talk while one is supposed to be working

long sugar/long sweetness -- molasses

sposh -- a mixture of mud and snow or water

strawberry friend -- a moocher ("Many city people visit their backwoods cousins only when strawberries are ripe to get enough free berries for a year's supply of jam. Ozarks")

tetnit -- a child born of elderly parents

Board Books for Babies of GLBTQ Parents

Though some of us might prefer to do it in wedlock, there's no law stopping queers from having babies. Looking for a good baby shower gift for GLBTQ parents-to-be, but want something a little more literary than the camp classic Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner onesie?

Tricycle Press recently released Daddy, Papa, and Me and Mommy, Mama, and Me, both board books by Lesléa Newman. Lucía Moreno Velo's Manu series books--published in Spain but available through a US distributor--are bilingual board books about a toddler with two moms.

Now, if only Fiona Watt of (also great board-books-as-gifts for babies/toddlers, whoever their parents love) That's Not My Dinosaur [Puppy/Truck/etc] fame would put out a That's Not My Mama title (That's not my mama...her dress is too frilly. That's not my mama...her lipstick is too shiny. THAT'S my mama...her mohawk is so spiky).

"And then I die. Because we all have to die."

They've been out for a while, but I only recently clicked through to view Isabella Rossellini's "Green Porno" short films hosted by the Sundance Channel. If you haven't seen them yet, I can report that oh, my, they are worth the click. Here's "Limpet":



See more from the Green Porno series here.

Three more lines

to add to my long-ago 7/10 of the 10 Lines Meme:

Urge and urge and urge,/Always the procreant urge of the world. (Whitman)

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. (Shakespeare)

The first gaming system was the domesticated flame. (Lerner)

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I wish there were (more?) poetry audiobooks. Not recordings of poetry readings. Not audio anthologies of 50 poets' 2 greatest hits, or 2 poets' 50 greatest hits. Books, in full, read aloud by readers who read aloud well. Harmonium. 77 Dream Songs. I've got The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets in audio, read by Ossie Davis, Kathleen Turner, Ruby Dee, etc., but that's it.

My hero.

Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school? Let me explain...

Bernard Pras: Portraits from Everyday Objects

French artist Bernard Pras (scroll for biography) arranges everyday objects, then photographs them at such an angle as to recreate iconic portraits and artworks.

Stuff...




...is Mao:










Great short video "tour" of a Pras assemblage:


links to more Pras works on the web

Our soon-to-be-outdated beliefs

Kottke points to a question posed on Reddit that has yielded some interesting answers:

So many of our grandparents were racist, and some of our parents are homophobes. Which of our own [time's] closely held beliefs will our own children and grandchildren be appalled by?

"That circumcision was once common," that some drugs are illegal while pharmaceuticals are practically pushed on us, that we smoked cigarettes, and that there was "religious overtolerance" are some of the answers posted to Reddit. I only skimmed but didn't see my number one on there: that we didn't [in most places] allow people--especially terminally ill people who feel they are being kept alive against their will and feel that they have no quality of life, but anyone, really--the right to die via assisted suicide.

Washington passed a "Death with Dignity" law this last election, and the new right to die there was recently exercised for the first time. Patient Linda Fleming, who had pancreatic cancer, said "The pain became unbearable, and it was only going to get worse. I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death." I am happy for her that she was able to choose to be so.

PUSH BUTTON RECEIVE BACON

"Spotted in a men's room at Hunter College in NYC." --Urban Prankster (photo via Noah Britton's cell phone)

handicraft instructor, inchoate eyes

RunPee tells you the optimal time to run and pee while you're watching a movie, boon to all who regularly choose the largest Diet Coke the concession stand offers. I remember once running to pee after about 10 minutes of Christ dragging the cross up the hill in Mel Gibson's Passion, then returning to my seat for another 20 minutes of Christ dragging the cross up the hill (Stroll.............Pee).

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From Dennis Cooper's blog: 69 Modern Classics Condensed via Amazon's SIPs (Statistically Improbable Phrases), a quiz. Many read nicely as is:

12. red hunting hat, tiny little kid

13. hands for the conch

19. pink hawthorn, little nucleus, little clan, little phrase

51. little china figures, judge stroked, judge nodded

57. black pickpocket, baize bag

61. handicraft instructor, inchoate eyes

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From Brave New World:

"Who said that the technology and digital revolution was only for the young? When Ivy Bean heard that a 97-year-old French woman was the oldest member of Facebook she decided to join. She soon attracted 5,000 friends and has 17,775 people waiting to be her friend. Unless you know someone older, Ivy from Bradford is now the oldest Facebook member at 103 years old and has now joined Twitter and already has 9500 followers!"

The story's a few days old. I'm @IvyBean104's 14,510th follower on Twitter.

Some sample tweets from her account:

"hello all spending the morning reading wont be able to use lap top much today other residents are using it be in touch later

i am so happy i have got all these followers its really good

had a very nice lunch going to watch a film this afternoon i think we are watching the sound of music

me and my friend mabel are going to have a game of connect 4

Deal or no deal in 4hrs

@adam_lambert good luck"

by Zachary Kanin (and from The New Yorker)

@Astro_Mike

One nice thing about Twitter is that you don't need an account or need to be "following" a user in order to view the user's tweets. Here's astronaut Mike Massimino's Twitter page, where you can read what he's tweeting from space. Some samples:

We see 16 sunrises and sunsets in 24 hrs, each one spectacular as the sun lights up the atmosphere in a spectrum of colors.

Just flew over the US, Baja to Miami in about 10 minutes! Beautiful Day!

Getting ready for bed, sleeping in space is cool, tie down your sleeping bag and float inside of it, very relaxing--

...and speaking of Twitter: is anyone (or everyone) you know Tweeting Too Hard?