Two Turkeys: the Gift Store Gambit

(Desperation in a gift shop.)

Have these turkeys tasted freedom at last, or is their goose cooked?

Is the gift store gambit a recipe for disaster, or will it pan out?

Will the shopkeeper make mincemeat of their plans and squash their hopes?

And will the Lemming ever tire of holiday puns?

Tracking two turkeys:

• "Channel Surfing With the Lemming"
  (December 24, 2013)
• "Revenge of the Turkey"
  (November 29, 2013)
• "Thanksgiving 2013: No Hiding Place?"
  (November 28, 2013)
• "Thanksgiving Day, 2012: Desperate Times..."
  (November 22, 2012)
• "Lemming Tracks: Thanksgiving, Cartoons, and a Look at the Lemming"
  (November 23, 2011)

Thanksgiving 2013: No Hiding Place?

Related posts:

• "Thanksgiving Day, 2012: Desperate Times..."
  (November 22, 2012)
• "Lemming Tracks: Thanksgiving, Cartoons, and a Look at the Lemming"
  (November 23, 2011)
• "Thanksgiving, 2010: Just Outside the Turkey Farm"
  (November 25, 2010)
• "The Strange Tale of the Paper Turkeys"
  (November 29, 2009)
• "Thanksgiving Food and the Agricultural-Industrial Complex"
  (November 28, 2009)

"...If There Were Intelligent Life Up There...."

(from XKCD, used w/o permission)

SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, almost always assumes that space aliens will use radio for communications.

It makes sense, sort of. People on Earth use radio for most long distance communications. Now.

Let's take a step back and look at people on Earth, technology, and time:

• 3,390,000 years ago - first (known) tool use
• 1,000,000 years ago - first (known) use of fire
• 151 years ago - Maxwell starts experimenting with electromagnetic waves
  • Including radio waves

Granted, people who used fire 1,000,000 years ago didn't look quite like the British Royal family: but folks who use tools and fire are, arguably, people. Even if they're obviously not British.

People have been using radio for a very long time, by American standards. Looking at the big picture, though? We've used radio for 151/1,000,000 the length of time we've been using fire.

1,000,000 years from now?

It took humans about

• 1,000,000 years to go
  • From using fire
  • To discovering radio waves
• 150 years to go
  • From knowing how radio waves work
  • To competition between cable and satellite television services

Maybe humans have stopped developing new technology.

Maybe there simply isn't anything about the universe that the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, CERN, and IISc, don't already know.

Then again, maybe not.

Vaguely related posts about people:

• On Earth
  • "Recovering from a Hurricane; Defending Freedom; Studying the Cosmos"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (November 23, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Of Points and People
  • "Lemming Tracks: Fire; 1,000,000 Years of Sizzling Steaks and Burned Fingers"
    (April 9, 2012)
  • "Growing Up Neanderthal: Another New Look"
    (November 15, 2010)
  • "Evidence of Human Compassion: 500,000 Years Ago"
    (October 13, 2010)
  • "Earliest Known Tool Use: 3,390,000 Years Ago"
    (August 12, 2010)
• Elsewhere
  • "Time, the Universe, and Space Aliens"
    (April 20, 2012)
  • "Beware Warmonger Imperialist Space Aliens!?"
    (January 11, 2011)
  • "Evolution, Space Aliens, and Two Millennia of Dealing With People"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (July 5, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Space Aliens
    • Footnote 7
  • "Gods, Demons, and Used Spaceship Dealers"
    Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (February 13, 2010)
  • "A Serious Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: A New Wrinkle in the Maxwell Equations"
    (January 31, 2008)

Thanksgiving Day, 2012: Desperate Times...

Related(?) posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Thanksgiving, Cartoons, and a Look at the Lemming"
  (November 23, 2011)
• "Thanksgiving, 2010: Just Outside the Turkey Farm"
  (November 25, 2010)
• "A Rabbit, Pumpkin, and Thanksgiving"
  (November 25, 2010)
• "The Strange Tale of the Paper Turkeys"
  (November 29, 2009)

A Cartoon Silhouette World Filled With - - - Stuff, Familiar and Otherwise

"Click and Drag"
xkcd (September 28, 2012)



"Click and drag" is what you do in the bottom panel of this particular xkcd comic. It's a huge piece of silhouette art, a landscape in profile that includes: a fountain; trees; radio towers; and a - giant flying jellyfish?! That last thing might be what the fellow who isn't looking at a yellow warbler sees.

There are also very deep wells, or mine shafts, or something. Those leads to things like thatch-roofed booths, a pyramid, and what might be one of Cthulhu's drinking buddies. Or maybe it's a snake plant that got out of hand.

If you decide to explore this not-so-little world, the Lemming suggests that you set aside at least 15 or 20 minutes. There a lot of detail there. Also gags, visual and otherwise. Some of the humor is dark.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Thanksgiving, Cartoons, and a Look at the Lemming"
  (November 23, 2011)
• " 'Cancer Causes Cell Phones!' - or, not"
  (July 18, 2011)
• "HDTV, LCD, xkcd, and the Lemming"
  (June 13, 2011)
• "Beauty, the Scientist, and Dog Vomit Slime Mold"
  (March 27, 2011)
• "A Good Dog: Not Bright, But a Good Dog"
  (December 3, 2010)

Lemming Tracks: A Change in Schedule

First, the good news: For the foreseeable future, the Lemming will keep on blogging.

Now, the maybe-not-entirely-good news: The Lemming's been getting frazzled. Also agitated, bothered, crazed, distracted, excited, flustered - all the way up to perturbed and pooped. Looking on the bright side, the Lemming's not bored. Actually, it may be impossible for the Lemming to get bored: this is a fascinating world, and that's almost another topic.



This is a slightly-serious post, so the Lemming will now drop the 'editorial we.' Or, in this case, the editorial Lemming.

I'm making another change in schedule for this blog, less than a year since the last one:

• "Lemming Tracks: Change in Schedule"
  (October 3, 2011)

This time, I'm cutting down to one post per week. Starting today, You can expect one post each Friday morning. The topic will be "whatever." Judging from my interests, that'll probably be science, technology, architecture, design, animals, art history, paleontology, or something else.

Why This Change?

I'm 60, and in pretty good health: apart from high blood pressure; diabetes; and a few other consequences of having survived this long.

I'm not complaining: particularly when I consider the alternative to having lived this long. But I also have to admit that I'm no longer a 40-year-old kid. I need sleep, regularly: and there are only so many hours in a day.

After taking a good look at my schedule, I decided that I can break out several days a week by cutting back on some of my routines. Which included the Monday and Wednesday posts for this blog.

Some fellows around my age might use those 'extra' days to go fishing, spend time kayaking on the Toulumne River, or meditate in a hammock. I've got some creative projects that have been collecting dust: for decades, in one case.

At the top of my to-do list is getting serious about comic strips. Maybe like the seven-panel thing I did in another blog:

"Narcissus-X: TRAPPED!"
Narcissus-X (February 11, 2011)















Or maybe something else.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Candles, Reports, Meetings, and a Busy Lemming"
  (December 7, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming Hits the Big Six-Oh"
  (October 1, 2011)
• "Google's 13th, and Where Did the Month Go?!"
  (September 27, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming's Back, and Pooped"
  (August 10, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming's Taking a Sabbatical, Sort Of"
  (July 26, 2011)

And Now, For Something Completely Different: Portable Buildings; and an Octopus Cartoon

"Athletic builds: the architecture of the London 2012 Olympics"
Steve Rose, Culture > Art and design > Architecture, theguardian (UK) (March 5, 2012)

"You've seen the pool, the stadium and the velodrome – now here's the octopus-tentacle shooting range and the multicoloured rubber bridge. Steve Rose looks at the hidden architectural highlights of London 2012


"Olympic octopus … Magma's shooting gallery. Photograph: J.L.Diehl
(via guardian.co.uk, used w/o permission)

"For the first half of the 20th century, architecture featured as an Olympic event. Medals in the 'culture games' were also awarded for sports-related endeavours in the fields of music, painting, literature and even town-planning. But the practice was abandoned after the 1948 games, when the last gold medals for architecture went to an Austrian ski-jump and an athletics centre in Finland...."

There's more, partly about the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Velodrome, Zaha Hadid, and why London in 2012 won't look like Beijing in 2008. Also a refreshing bit of common sense labeled as "sustainable:" a basketball area and shooting venue that event organizers can move around the world. Or to Glasgow.

By far not the worst idea the Lemming's seen.

This Video has Nothing to do with the Olympics

And now, for something completely different: an animated cartoon about two octopuses. Octopi. Octopods. Oh, never mind.

"Octopus cartoon"

elgreco01, YouTube (November 25, 2008)
video, 2:26

Enjoy.Related (?) posts:

• Apocalypse, Olympics, architecture, and all that
  
  • "Mayan Apocalypse Transition: Book a Galactic Cruise; or Take the Cosmic Bike Tour"
    (February 3, 2012)
  • "Olympic Committee Rules for Social Media: Common Sense; or Signs of a Vast Conspiracy of Space Aliens?"
    (June 27, 2011)
  • "Wiggly Buildings and Other Weirdness"
    (September 13, 2010)
  • "Rogers Centre / SkyDome, Toronto, Canada"
    (July 16, 2010)
  • "China Olympics and Algae: Bad News, Good News, Bad News"
    (July 3, 2008)
• Octopi - octopuses - octopods - whatever
  • "A Somewhat Paranoid Look at Cute, Deadly, Animals"
    (February 5, 2010)
  • "Dumbo Octopus: Two Eyes, Eight Tentacles, and Wings"
    (February 1, 2010)
  • "And Now, for Something Completely Different: Animated Octopuses - Octopods - Octopi - More Than One Animated Octopus"
    (November 13, 2009)
  • "The Answer You've Been Waiting For: How Many Arms Does an Octopus Have?"
    (August 16, 2008)
  • "Forget Henry the Eighth: Meet Henry the Hexapus"
    (March 4, 2008)

Lemming Tracks: Thanksgiving, Cartoons, and a Look at the Lemming

If you're in America: Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving isn't until tomorrow: but odds are pretty good that you'll be doing something holiday-related tomorrow. So, the Lemming figured that getting holiday greetings in 24 hours early might be prudent.

Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving-Day: or, not

If you're not in America, that first paragraph may have been a complete waste of time.

With that in mind, the Lemming cobbled together a list of previous posts - some almost related to cartoon design, or something else. Actually, the Lemming wound up with three lists. A few about Thanksgiving and other holidays snuck in, too.

"Snuck in??" "Sneaked in?" Never mind.

The Lemming introduced two turkeys last year, in another blog:

• "Happy Thanksgiving! And a Little Dark Humor"
  Sauk Centre Journal Blog (November 25, 2010)

Somehow, they seem to have survived. And appear to be involved in a vast conspiracy to change America's eating habits. Particularly the habit of eating turkey around this time each year.

Beware the Gobblers?

Before someone stockpiles survival rations and cranberry sauce, and warns the neighbors that turkeys are controlling our minds - the Lemming categorically states that to the best of the Lemming's knowledge: no turkeys have conspired to make humans think eating meat is bad, or much of anything else. They're turkeys.

Come to think of it, that assurance, coming from an outsized, bipedal, flannel-wearing Lemming, may not be all that reassuring. After all, the Lemming may be part of the conspiracy!

Or, not. The Lemming's posted about this sort of thing before. If, for some unguessable reason, you're interested, check out the posts in "Conspiracy theories and how to not sound crazy," under "Vaguely-related posts."

One that didn't make the list is:

• "Verboten Numbers: The Lemming Snaps II"
  (January 5, 2009)

Art, Humor, and a Lemming With a Deadline

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
Douglas Adams (English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001))

Deadlines

Unlike Douglas Adams, the Lemming doesn't love deadlines. The Lemming doesn't even like deadlines. However, the Lemming thinks deadlines are a great help to the creative process.

There's nothing quite like seeing a clock inexorably changing its numbers: registering the hours, minutes, and seconds left before something absolutely must be ready for posting. There are quite a few things that are more pleasant: but not many that prod the imagination more effectively.

Without a deadline, the Lemming might have tinkered with that cartoon indefinitely: and might not have come up with anything better. With a deadline, at least there's something to show today.

Humor

Humor is nothing to laugh at. No, that's not what the Lemming meant. Try again: Humor is very serious. Wrong again. Time for a quote or two:

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."
Peter Ustinov (English actor & author (1921 - 2004))

"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself."
James Thurber (US author, cartoonist, humorist, & satirist (1894 - 1961))

Art

The Lemming takes art seriously, but not fanatically.

This is where the Lemming could start discussing the esoteric end of art.

Like the Golden:

• Ratio
• Rectangle
• Section
• Whatever

It's one of those interesting mathematical relationships that, like logarithmic spirals, crop up at a crazy range of scales. And that's another topic.

But that deadline is approaching, fast. There's time for a couple more quotes, a picture, and not much else.

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere."
G. K. Chesterton
(English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936))

There's a lot to that, in the Lemming's opinion: What gets left out of a picture is at least as important as what gets put in. Distractions - well, they distract.

The Lemming, trying to figure out what to do for this year's Thanksgiving cartoon. (November 22, 2011)

Finally:

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous."
Aristotle
(Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC))

Vaguely-related posts:

• Cartoons
  • "Cartoon Character Design: Six Steps"
    (October 26, 2011)
  • "Happy Thanksgiving! And a Little Dark Humor"
    Sauk Centre Journal Blog (November 25, 2010)
  • "New Yorker Cartoons: If You Don't Get the Magazine, or If You Do"
    (September 3, 2010)
  • "Santa's Workshop, Pip, and a Disturbing - or Disturbed - Image"
    (December 28, 2009)
  • "A One-Size-Fits All Consumer Warning"
    (April 9, 2009)
• Tofu turkey and other oddities
  • " 'Cancer Causes Cell Phones!' - or, not"
    (July 18, 2011)
  • "Cheeseburger Bill: Minnesota's Shocking Attack on Contemporary Values"
    (February 22, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Big Cheese is Victimizing You!
  • "Lemming Tracks: '8 x 8' Water Rule, Real Research; Beer and Pretzels"
    (November 27, 2010)
  • "Silly Season"
    (August 24, 2010)
  • "Tofu Turkeys, Genetically Altered Foods, and the Evil Eye"
    (November 14, 2009)
• Conspiracy theories and how to not sound crazy
  • "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
    (June 12, 2011)
  • "Nuclear Weapons, Space Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, and Getting a Grip"
    (September 24, 2010)
  • "Why is it So Hard to Find a Comprehensive History of Blotting Paper?"
    (March 2, 2010)
  • "Haiti's Earthquake Caused by - You Guessed it - Yankee Imperialists"
    (January 21, 2010)
  • "Want to be Paranoid, but Just Can't Find the Time?"
    (August 27, 2008)
• Living in a universe of marvels
  • "Earthquake Data Inspires Techie Art"
    (November 2, 2011)
  • "Beauty, the Scientist, and Dog Vomit Slime Mold"
    (March 27, 2011)
  • "African Art, Photos, and a Whacking Great Generalization"
    (June 21, 2010)
  • "The Aye-Aye: Very Strange Primates In Madagascar"
    (January 7, 2010)
  • "The Naked Mole Rat: Ugly, but Weird"
    (August 24, 2009)

Cartoon Character Design: Six Steps

"How to Design a Cartoon Character"
Ryn Gargulinski, eHow

"Designing a cartoon character is similar to giving birth, since you are creating a whole new being, but it’s different because you get to pick all the character’s traits, personality and looks. You also have complete control over what the character does and does not do. You can design a cartoon character with a dose of imagination and a few helpful tips...."

That "similar to giving birth" phrase just about cost this how-2 its credibility for the Lemming. This blogger was present for each birth: and it didn't take a brilliant observer to note that what the Lemming's wife experienced was significantly different from the process of creating a cartoon character.

That said, Ryn Gargulinski put together a pretty good - and mercifully brief - set of guidelines for creating a cartoon character. They're numbered, and the Lemming will get back to that:

1. Envision the being
2. Pick its personality
3. Sketch a rough draft with the personality in mind
4. Give your character a few obvious attributes that are easy to reproduce
5. Be unique
6. Name your character.

Ordered lists like that are really good for instructional material. In this case, though, the implication that steps one through six should be taken in that order are - in the Lemming's opinion - debatable.

Particularly since step six might precede step one. Sure, someone would probably decide that a character would be a child before deciding on the name "Baby Stubly." But in principle: a name might come first.

Nitpicking aside, it's a pretty good introduction to character design. The "Tips & Warnings" section, below most of the content, is worth reading too. In the Lemming's opinion.

Allegedly-related posts:

• ""Flail the Rude Fresco?!" - It's Not the Technology"
  (February 14, 2011)
• "Flintstone's 50th, Google Doodles, and All That"
  (September 30, 2010)
• "The Perils of Letting Your Kids Read Your Books"
  (May 17, 2010)
• "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People on Facebook"
  (January 30, 2010)
• "A One-Size-Fits All Consumer Warning"
  (April 9, 2009)

"Flail the Rude Fresco?!" - It's Not the Technology

"Dilbert"
Scott Adams, Dilbert.com (February 9, 2011)



It's anyone's guess, what Dilbert's clueless manager meant by "burped the grope plow armistice" and "flail the rude fresco."

It's the Lemming's opinion that it's not the technology that's at fault here: it's the folks who use it. Or, rather, the cartoon characters. Some folks have a gift for garbling communication: and it's not always a matter of not spelling or saying words correctly. The Lemming's had supervisors who - but that's another topic.

Texting is in the news and views today, by the way. Somewhat seriously:

• "Auto-corrected text leads to killing"
  Technically Incorrect, CNET News (February 14, 2011)
• "Driving while talking on a cell phone will put points on your license"
  WIVB TV (Buffalo, New York) (February 14, 2011)

It's the Lemming's opinion that texting, like anything else that folks do, can be misused. But the problem isn't the technology: It's us. In the Lemming's opinion.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: a Recovering English Teacher and the Dean's Spellchecker"
  (January 12, 2011)
• "FCC, the Internet, Regulations, Freedom of Speech, and a Ranting Lemming"
  (December 23, 2010)
• "'Manage - - - Like It's the 1800's!' "
  (December 5, 2010)

The Lemming modified the 'embed' code for today's strip. You're looking at a reduced-size copy of the original Dilbert strip, made to fit into this blog's format. The rest of the embed code is as-provided at Dilbert.com. Follow the link and you should see the original 640-pixel-wide graphic.

A Good Dog: Not Bright, But a Good Dog

"Dog"
Hyperbole and a Half (July 6, 2010)

"A lingering fear of mine was confirmed last night: My dog might be slightly retarded.

"I've wondered about her intelligence ever since I adopted her and subsequently discovered that she was unable to figure out how stairs worked.

"I blamed her ineptitude on the fact that she'd spent most of her life confined to a small kennel because her previous owners couldn't control her. I figured that maybe she just hadn't been exposed to stairs yet. Accepting the noble responsibility of educating this poor, underprivileged creature, I spent hours tenderly guiding her up and down the staircase - placing biscuits on each step to lure her and celebrating any sign of progress. When she still couldn't successfully navigate the stairs at the end of her first week with me, I blamed it on her extreme lack of motor control. This dog is uncoordinated in a way that would suggest her canine lineage is tainted with traces of a species with a different number of legs - like maybe a starfish or some sort of primitive snake...."

"...With so many years of experience behind me, I was sure that training this new dog would be a very simple task.

"I was wrong. Not only is training my dog outlandishly difficult, it is also heartbreaking. She wants so badly to please me. Every fiber of her being quivers with the desire to do a good job...."

Allie does a good job, with text and cartoons, of relating her struggle to train this lovable canine dimwit.

Another sample. She's been putting 'this dog' through a sort of intelligence test.

"...In the second test, I had to put a blanket over my dog and time her to see how long it took her to get out. I threw the blanket over her and started my stopwatch. She made some cursory attempts at freeing herself, but as the seconds ticked by, it became clear that she was not going to pass.

"Still, I gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed that she just enjoyed being under there and could get out if she wanted to. I added an extra couple points to her tally for faith's sake...."

That picture is the last in a series, about the blanket test.

Then there was the time 'this dog' was told to find a treat - that Allie had shown him, when she put it under a cup. He couldn't - or, anyway, he didn't.

The post has over a dozen drawings in it - the Lemming thinks Allie has a good dog. Not a bright dog, but a good dog.

---

A tip of the hat to , on Twitter, for the heads-up on that post.

Flintstone's 50th, Google Doodles, and All That

"Google Celebrates 50 Years of The Flintstones: A Doodle Flashback"
Ian Paul, PCWorld (September 30, 2010)

"Yabba Dabba Doodle! Google is celebrating the 50th anniversary of "The Flintstones" Thursday with a special Google Doodle featuring Fred, Wilma and the rest of the Bedrock crew. Long before "The Flintstones" were a lunchtime and afterschool favorite for kids across North America, the show debuted as a prime time comedy series on ABC on September 30, 1960. It lasted six seasons on television, and the franchise has been featured in theme parks, two live-action movies, and assorted merchandise including chewable children's vitamins...."


(Google Doodle, via PCWorld, used w/o permission)

Then there's that phrase from The Flintstones (1960-1966) theme that only a select number of folks can decipher:

"...Let's ride with the family down the street
"Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet...."
(karaoke-lyrics.net)

That was a fun series - that, and the (original/early) The Jetsons (1962–1988). In the Lemming's opinion.

Speaking of "select number," the PCWorld article displays a number of other Google Doodles of the 21st century, some of which appeared around the world: and some which didn't.

• Global
  • Claude Monet
    • November 14, 2001
  • Sputnik
    • October 4, 2007
  • TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
    • January 1, 2008
  • Large Hadron Collider
    • September 10, 2008
  • E.C. Segar
    • December 8, 2009
• Selected countries
  • NASA Moon Landing
    • July 20, 2009
  • Sesame Street 40th
    • November 10, 2009
  • Akira Kurosawa
    • March 23, 2010
• Germany
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall
    • November 9, 2009
• United States
  • Martin Luther King Jr.
    • January 19, 2009

Some of the regional selections made sense, like Martin Luther King's birthday: noteworthy to the dominant culture here in the United States, not so much elsewhere.

Others I'm not so sure about. Sputnik as a global celebration, the Yankee moon landing commemoration restricted to "selected countries," followed an all-too-familiar pattern: but Germany's Doodle about the fall of the Berlin Wall included this phrase: "Soviet oppression." That isn't politically correct, so there's probably some other reason for keeping the commemoration of humanity's first steps on another world out of some countries.

Then there's Elzie Crisler "Popeye" Segar - which was a global Doodle. and Akira "Seven Samurai" Kurosawa, which wasn't.

Google probably had a system for deciding which countries saw which doodles: but knowing that factoid isn't necessary. The Doodles are fun, by themselves - more so with the PCWorld descriptions.

New Yorker Cartoons: If You Don't Get the Magazine, or If You Do

The Cartoon Bank
"New Yorker Cartoon & Cover Prints. Gifts and More!"

The Lemming likes New Yorker cartoons: not enough to buy the magazine, but enough to visit this website from time to time.

The caption for one of today's featured cartoons is " 'We spent the summer on the Côte de Jersey.' "

The idea is that you'll visit the website and buy their stuff: everything from New Yorker covers to a jigsaw puzzle. Even neckties.

They've got a blog, too: Cartoon of the Day, which is just what the name says.

Enjoy.

Saul Steinberg's View from New York City

"A View of the World from 9th Avenue (Map)"
scott, via mappery.com (February 5, 2008)

"Famous Saul Steinberg New Yorker Magazine cover from 1976 depicts a New Yorker's egocentric view of world geography. Looking west from 9th Ave."

That was the March 29, 1976 New Yorker cover. There's a 1252 × 1691 pixel version of the image on mappery.com. And yes, it's available as a poster.

The Lemming could get very serious at this point about ethnocentrism and other five-dollar words: but even after seeing that cover off and on for decades - I still think it's funny.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Reset

"Toy Story 3 - Spanish Buzz"

DisneyPixar, YouTube (June 22, 2010)
video 2:10

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Spanish dance. Dancing with the Stars. Pixar.

And a cartoon hat that was too wide.

DisneyPixar's YouTube video is definitely a promotional piece for "Toy Story 3:" and fun to watch. My opinion. One thing I appreciate about it is the quick glimpses at the production process for the film.

The Perils of Letting Your Kids Read Your Books

"Chapter 10, Page 17 Language hazard"
Mary Quite Contrary (May 7, 2010)


(from Mary Quite Contrary, used with permission)

"Well, Dad certainly does have good lungs.

"Yiddish is a very, ah, colorful language."

A bit of transparency may be in order. The Lemming is this cartoonist's father. My oldest daughter has been creating the Mary Quite Contrary series as a way of giving folks a (slightly fictionalized) look at this family's life. I think she's doing a great job - but I'm a little biased.

Enjoy.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People on Facebook

"How to Suck at Facebook"
The Oatmeal (undated: you'll see why in a moment)

This page is mostly a series of pictures, illustrating how you, too, can be one of the worst people to meet on Facebook. Or any other online community, for that matter.

For example:


(from The Oatmeal, used w/o permission)

Then, there's:


(from The Oatmeal, used w/o permission)

My favorite may be this pungent commentary on Facebook quizzes, and the people who post about their results:


(from The Oatmeal, used w/o permission)

This page may not be for everyone. Some of the gags are a trifle off-color. I picked a comparatively tame selection.

On the other hand, The Oatmeal has distilled and displayed some of the more - colorful? - sorts of people you meet online. Like the Passive Aggressor.

---

A tip of the hat to Twitter_Tips, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this page.

Santa's Workshop, Pip, and a Disturbing - or Disturbed - Image

Santa's Warehouse, 2009 by ~Norski on deviantART

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the shop
Nothing was stirring, you could hear a pin drop.'

"When I created this scene, I wasn't sure how to use it. The poem, "Pip" - that's the first two lines - tells the picture's story. Normally, I wouldn't do a cheap parody of a beloved poem like Clement Clarke Moore's: but I was facing a deadline, had no better ideas, and was getting desperate.

"The poem, and a (much) smaller version of this picture is on one of my blogs: 'Not Your Usual Fluffy Christmas Rhyme', Loonfoot Falls Chronicle-Gazette."

On Deviant Art's website, and a few other places online, I'm Norski. Yep: I'm plugging one of my prints.

Yes! You, too, can have "Santa's Workshop, 2009" as a handsome 8 x 10 to hang on your wall! Or, as a fine 4 x 5 print. Just follow the links.

You'll never forget that image. No matter how hard you try, I suspect.

The Lemming will be back, a little later, with a post about fine art, or gerbils, or magnetohydrodynamics, or something.

Crazy Frog, Trapped Santa, Daft Factory: the Video

"Merry Christmas- Crazy frog"

floral123, YouTube (December 25, 2007)
video, 3:09

"Crazy frog"

That's it, in the "info" section. I've no idea who created this animation, the music, and merged the two. A Wikipedia article credits Erik Wernquist with creating Crazy Frog, AKA The Annoying Thing.

This animation has quite a few iterations on YouTube - and elsewhere. This appears to be more complete than most, and has pretty good video and sound quality.

The story line - I'll let you figure that out. Very briefly, Crazy Frog drops in (literally) to a sort of tech noir Santa's workshop: where the jolly old elf is inexplicably locked in some sort of cell. No other elves are obviously present: the whole place seems to be automated and under the control of an AI that really needs to be debugged. My opinion.

I thought it was funny, but your experience may vary.

More:

• "- - - Videos of Christmas Lights, Holiday Lights, and Music"

Two Snow-People, a Rabbit, and a Hairdryer

"Tee Hee"
Sprouseart: The Official Blog of Professional Visual Artist Michael Sprouse
December, 2007, archive (posted December 27, 2007)

"Winter humor..."



A dark metaphor of life in a decadent society? Or one really funny - and strange - cartoon?

I'll go with "cartoon."

Which is, in my opinion, a art form which requires no small amount of talent.