Comic for Monday, February 8, 2010

Posted: 6:30 am, Monday, February 8

I like this one. I know guessing which parts of Ron are autobiographical is always a big game around here - this part is definitely not. We just tore through the first disc of Glee Friday night, I've got a lot of books I want to read both in the history and fantasy genres, and I'll never be done with the comics. So definitely more of the Jen part, without the freaking out, here. By the way, I can't believe Glee exists. It's like they let 51 create a TV show. Also, the main character has done several things no teacher worth his/her salt would ever do, re: crushing the kids' hopes and dreams.

Slate posted this last Friday, but there is this insane, tea party-ish "FCINO" ad with a dude dressed up like a sheep/the thing from the original Amityville Horror running in California that is just bonkers.

If you're not watching the full thing (and I can't blame you), FCINO is "fiscal conservative in name only." Also, I was listening to All Things Considered Friday afternoon, and they had a thing on the Tea Party convention. Holy mother of God, are those people racist. I'm pretty immune to news, just from a time angle (I try to keep up on the NewsHour), so I'm not totally up on these people, but there was a sound byte where this one dude was ranting about people voting who can't spell vote, or even say vote "in this language." Um, dude, sorry, I'm sure you rationalize that to not being racist, but that's racist. There was also a lot of yelling about Obama being a socialist idealogue. Not to start the great t-shirt argument of oh-ten, but if Obama was a socialist idealogue, Abrams tanks would roll through that convention and put an end to the Tea Party. It's kind of what idealogues in power do. By the way, quote from a Tea Partier:

“We don’t need Sarah Palin to be the face of our movement,” he said. “We don’t need Newt Gingrich or any of these other people, because these people are humans and they can fail. Our values will never fail us as long as we adhere to them.”

We're sure about declaring those two humans? I mean, look at what Palin was so afraid she'd forget that she had to WRITE ON HER HAND.

Assuming that this was in honor of James Cameron's 1998 win for Titanic, I believe this note/poster is possibly the last good thing that George Lucas ever did.

Free games!

Fun "I Before E" video from Merriam-Webster that I can't embed for some dopey reason.

So, speaking of the history books I want to read, 2.0 posted that letterheady link the other day, and I was enthralled by the Hitler letterhead. That one's pretty flashy, but his other one is pretty understated, and there's there some other Reich stuff, like Goering's hunting club letterhead, which is wild. After reading Rape of Europa and Nature of Blood (for my lit theory class last semester), I'm finding myself very interested in the Reich and WWII in general. I'm going to tackle the ginormous Nazi Germany and the Jews two-parter at some point, probably over the summer. My interest is so piqued right now that I'm even going to push back my aspiration to tackle Power Broker or Gotham in favor of this stuff. Part of it is that, just looking at the Reich letterhead on that site, there's a certain forbiddeness to it, isn't there? It's like, finding the Nazis interesting from an academic standpoint, it's still like you're dabbling in something occult or taboo. They're just so fucking fascinating to me. They came so close, with such an astoundingly wrong-headed worldview, to conquering all of Europe. I dunno, just something I've noticed lately.

Here's history of a totally different and awesome sort. A pub that's been open for fifteen sovereigns in England.

Here's how that awesome Dave-Oprah-Leno ad was shot. My favorite was the fiddlin' beaver. He was keeping time with his tail! And my mom called right after the final gun and said, "Wasn't that a well-coached game?!" That's me mum.

bullfrog

Miyaa -- Monday, February 8 2010, 09:24 am

And the beaver jokes start in 3, 2, 1...

What did Sarah Palin write on her hand? The picture's been taken down.

I think Titanic beat Star Wars as the number one grossing movie of all time, so that's what that poster was about. Now the number one is Avatar. There's a funny comment there about Boba Fett's erection. Ah, nerd humor.

Sarah Palin's hand notes:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stefan-sirucek/did-palin-use-crib-notes_b_452458.html

this looks pretty good:

http://www.brokelyn.com/introducing-the-brokelyn-beer-book/

CK, Ted's Head has the link. 51, good lookin'. That looks like how I'll spend my February break.

The kids are much more amenable to the ending of Rue Morgue than I would've thought. I kind of thought "the monkey did it" would send them into an outrage. They're OK with it. I'll never figure them out.

Ahem, i hate to say i told you so, regarding Poe, but you may want to check my previous comments...

http://www.fivebuckstofriday.com/2010/archive100129.html

I'm glad to see my reading preferences and reasoning are on par with inner city teenagers.

I gave up on Glee after a few episodes- the characters were just ridiculous, especially the fake pregnancy thing. I'm amazed that its such a hit.

That was me, above, with the 8th grade reading competency.

Oh, man, I didn't know it was a fake pregnancy! Stop talking!

School has been cancelled for TOMORROW. The DOE is ridiculous.

Maybe you should spend the day playing this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/arts/television/09inferno.html

Is Cleopatra in the Inferno? Really? Meh. (I'm editing an awesome novel about her daughter, so I've become very pro-Cleopatra.)

Cleopatra's in Lust, the second circle. It's really less of a judgment of her character and more a commentary on living through stories, and not accepting blame for yourself. The Inferno is mad deep, yo.

I tried the demo of the game; it sucked. I have had a couple of kids ask me for my copy of the Inferno, though, so maybe it's making them read, maybe.