Monday, March 30, 2015

BugMeNot.com

BugMeNot.com

Find yourself following a news link to a newspaper site that wants you to log in? BugMeNot will do it for you.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The Thought For Today

"John McCain was on “The View.” And I thought, Good Lord — hasn’t this man endured enough torture?" - David Letterman

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival

And this is my take over the big brouha over the poster image for this year's Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival depicting two impressionistic black shapes of children in white clothing with red mouths and holding strawberry baskets: Seems that some folks see the painting exclusively as racist, reminiscent of early stereotypical depictions of African-American children as "pickaninnies." These same folks say it was an insensitive selection because the festival committee is primarily composed of white members and that's why they chose this image.

Well, I guess some hyper-sensitive folks could see it that way; the same folks who insist that having a Confederate flag automatically means you're a racist, that all black people are persecuted and profiled by police for no valid reason, that all early American folk art depicting African-Americans is stereotypical and must be labeled as such and never displayed, anyone who puts on blackface and plays a minstrel is a bigot, no matter the context.

I have a solution. Never paint any figure of a person as black unless they're in foreign or primitive clothing to show they're not African-AMERICAN. We need to follow the rules set by these masters of political correctness and pretend that African-Americans have no history in this country but one of discrimination and failure. Black human forms painted by anyone who isn't black are automatically to be deemed stereotypical and should have no place in American mainstream art. We can all just accept that hip-hop and gangsta rap, pants on the ground, and street-gang graffiti are the end-all and be-all of appropriate African-American contributions to art and let it go at that.

So for the next strawberry festival, make it a white figure in a black dress -- and then see if all these same super-sensitive critics scream that you're ignoring historical contributions by African-Americans. You're not going to please them no matter what you do, so scrape them off and move on.
 

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Thought For Today

"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde

Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Thought For Today

"[Charles Dickens was] the bravest man who ever lived. He fathered ten children before they became tax deductions." - W.C.Fields

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Thought For Today

"You should do your own car repairs. It's an easy way to save money and possibly maim yourself for life." - Dave Barry

Monday, March 16, 2015

The Thought For Today

"Muscles come and go; flab lasts." - Bill Vaughan

Friday, March 13, 2015

The Thought For Today

"Back in the old days, most families were close-knit. Grown children and their parents continued to live together, under the same roof, sometimes in the same small, crowded room, year in and year out, until they died, frequently by strangulation." - Dave Barry

Thursday, March 12, 2015

The Thought For Today

"Never moon a werewolf." - Mike Binder

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The Thought For Today

Sanders, who will be a senior at Waltrip High School in the fall, already has seen an improvement in his football skills. Before his surgery, Sanders could run fast and lifted weights to stay in shape. But his football coach, Anthony Zuccarini, said his football catching skills left much to be desired. "He couldn't catch a cold, buck naked in a snowstorm," Zuccarini said.

Monday, March 09, 2015

The Thought For Today

"I'm desperately trying to figure out why kamikaze pilots wore helmets." - Dave Edison

Sunday, March 08, 2015

Rare Book Room Includes British Library Works

Rare Book Room is a special site because these are digitized pictures of the actual pages of the books. Project Gutenberg also is wonderful, however only the texts are available there. Rare Book Room has so far scanned just 400 books but they include rare volumes from the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the University of Edinburgh Library, and the National Library of Scotland that we previously would have no way of seeing except in person. Great site!

Saturday, March 07, 2015

For Bibliophiles Everywhere

This nifty little video about printing visually shows the difference between hot type and cold type. We can design our own pages these days, but we can't make them look three-dimensional like this. Great stuff!

Friday, March 06, 2015

The Thought For Today

"With ignorance and arrogance, success is assured." - Mark Twain

Thursday, March 05, 2015

The Thought For Today

"Admit it, sport-utility-vehicle owners! It's shaped a little differently, but it's a station wagon! And you do not drive it across rivers! You drive it across the Wal-Mart parking lot!" - Dave Barry

Sunday, March 01, 2015

On the Evils of Girl Scout Cookies

Oldish but still funny, I know some of you are addicted, especially to Thin Mints. Herewith, writer Jennifer Weiner's sad tale of addiction. Read, learn.