Polls are really good at one thing, creating jobs for people who like talking about polls:
And this is only but a teaser. Click for full chart.
Similarly, in things that do not matter:
Come on, New York Times, you too?
Related Post: Is it Election Day yet?
Related Post: My Lincoln obsession started early.
1. MOBAMA: Many folks (including me) roll their eyes at Michelle Obama’s self-labeling as “mom-in-chief,” but Tami Winfrey Harris at Clutch explains why a black mom-in-chief is an entirely different story.
2. INK: Yesss, Mental Floss has compiled a gallery of library-themed tattoos, and I want them all.
3. COMICS: This cartoon from Explosm says it all. Gender rolls, lol.
4. HISTORY: What is the GOP position on the Revolutionary War? On slavery? On McCarthy? Jack Hitt at the New Yorker has helpfully assembled a conservative history of America.
5. WORDS: Man, English is the coolest and makes no frickin sense. I love it so much, and so does Ted McCagg, who created a bracketed contest seeking the best word ever.
6. LOVELY: Normally, xkcd is just plain clever, but last week they knocked it out of the park with this delightful, surprising, sweet exploration of everything.
Related Post: Sunday 74: Trans respect posters, Junot Diaz, Emily Dickinson photos!
Related Post: Sunday 73: My new favorite NFL player, Philip Roth vs. wikipedia, Joy of Sex illustrations
1. PROTECTION: A love story, told from the point of view of a condom (The New Yorker).
2. GUNS: In the wake of Aurora, comedian Jason Alexander lets loose on our gun policies. Handgun for protection? Okay fine. Rifle for hunting? Okay fine. Assault rifle? Cop killer? What’s wrong with us? (Salon).
3. POLITICS: GQ reporter Jason Zengerle undergoes the extensive vice presidential vetting process just to see what it’s like. What I learned: I will never be vice president.
4. SOCCER: Hope Solo, Olympic golden girl, has a complicated history. She’s brash, blunt, and funny in this Daily Beast profile. I’m sold.
5. ECONOMICS: John Scalzi writes on Whatever about everything he’s built, how he got there, and who helped him along the way. I believe that we all have these stories.
6. TWENTIES: Blogger Emma Koenig just signed a book deal for her comic Tumblr, Fuck I’m in my 20s. Warning: May hit close to home.
Related Post: Sunday 67 – The Wire in Legos, models without make-up, hyphen boy meets hyphen girl
Related Post: Sunday 66 – Nancy Pelosi, dying languages, 5-year-old hairdressers
1. NPR: The voices of NPR as artist Gaelen Kelly assumes they look. Not too far off, eh?
2. PHOTO: Buzzfeed has a collection of the most powerful photos from the year.
3. BELLY: From xojane comes the Real Belly Project. Dozens of pictures of real women’s actual tummies. Some are flat, some are not. Some are smooth, some are not.
4. DANCE: Skip to 1:10 to watch the most bad-ass pole-dancing video you’ve ever seen. Safe for work, unless the fact that “pole dancing” is in the title is a problem in your office.
5. WWII: Life Magazine‘s archive of photos of women during WWII, like these ladies putting out a fire at Pearl Harbor.
6. DAUGHTERS: Louis CK writes for Fast Company about why he’s glad to have daughters, and how he thinks the next Steve Jobs will most definitely be a chick.
Related Post: Last Sunday, Siri caused a fit, the Republican candidates rose and fell, and look, it’s an upside down Christmas tree!
Related Post: Two Sundays ago, everything got pepper-sprayed, Time Magazine showed us why Americans suck, and Emily Nussbaum explained the problem with Whitney.
Filed under Art, Body Image, Gender, Hollywood, Media
My dad spends a lot of time with maps. He highlights the bejeezus out of them, marks hypothetical shortcuts for hypothetical emergencies, and sharpies from edge to edge. To my dad, maps are grown-up coloring books. Maybe his obvious delights in anything with a scale and a legend is what led to my aesthetic appreciation of maps. I just adore them. The funny part is that I don’t really like using them. I’m more of a wanderer; eventually I’ll find my way where I’m going.
1. xkcd strikes again:
And oh, there are so, so many more. Don’t even think Gall-Peters.
2. Remember this?
Africa is fourteen times larger than Greenland. Goddamn Mercator.
3. Note’s for a People’s Atlas: This is a cool community-sourced project where residents map their cities according to their rules. For example:
Looks about right to me.
Related Post: More stellar (well, sad and problematic, but well-told) Chicago history, this time from The Reader.
Related Post: What does your flickr stream say about your level of tourism vs. local?
1.TECH: A comic at Funny Junk demonstrates why we spend so much time on line in a few quick frames.
2. KARDASHIAN: I love This is Indexed for this very concise explanation of the Kardashians’ effect on society.
3. TODDLER: I think the title captures the essence: “Approximately 3 Minutes Inside the Head of my 2-Year-Old”, from Jason Good 365.
4. SENDAK: Remember Maurice Sendak? Where the Wild Things Are? He has a new story out about a pig named Bumble-Ardy. Here’s an interview he did with the Paris Review.
5. BOOKS: A visual history of how we consume the written word, from the New York Times.
6. RISK!: Ever wonder what it means when scientific studies talk about your “risk!!!!!” for certain diseases? The Boston Globe breaks down the lingo and explains how eating chocolate “lowers your risk” for heart disease.
Related Post: Sunday 26 = high heels, lesbians, reality TV, community college placement testing
Related Post: Sunday 25 = presidential venn diagrams, people as canvases, “slut” and yoga.
Filed under Books, Hollywood, Media, Really Good Writing by Other People
I can’t decide which advertising comic I like more:
From graphic designer Kimberly at The Secret Housewife
Or this one, in the model of Chutes and Ladders:
From Munna on the Run
Or that joke someone told me my first week at the ad agency:
How many ad men does it take to change a lightbulb? Depends on who you ask:
The copywriter will say “What the hell are you changing it for, it’s perfect.”
The account manager will say, “Have you we told the client we’re changing it?”
The creative director will say, “Our we really sure it has to be a lightbulb in the first place?”
The producer will say, “Goddammit, you should have told me we were changing it a week ago.”
and the media planner will say, “How many people are even going to see it?”
Related Post: Back when I worked in advertising…
Related Post: Here’s a campaign I wish I’d been paying attention to.
Filed under Advertising, Art
Note: Nothing is really special about this Sunday Scraps edition except that I’m writing it from the Hamptons… because I’m cool like that. More accurately, because I have cool friends who are willing to share.
1. COMICS: Artist Megan Rosalarian Gedris is examining gender in comic books with a neat little illustrator trick. She’s keeping the ridiculous costumes, but replacing the bodies of the sexed-up female superheroes with male counterparts just to see what happens.
2. LANGUAGE/BASEBALL: Letters of Note has this excellent memo from 1898 instructing players on inappropriate language. On the no-no list “you prick eating bastard.”
3. BOOKS: The Guardian has a list of the hundred best non-fiction books. I have read a mere five. Pathetic.
4. SEX: My adoration for Ariel Levy knows few bounds. I very much enjoyed her essay in Guernica about her two first times. It’s a meditation on the meaning of virginity and intimacy in this day and age.
5. BODY WORDS: Great post by Virginia at Never Say Diet about the word “fat” and its many connotations. When did an adjective that describes a figure become such a derogatory term for all things horrible?
6. GAY: From the NYT, fascinating account of an “ex-gay” who went from editing a gay magazine in San Francisco to Bible school in Wyoming.
Related Post: So few posts since last Sunday (secretaries, Biggest Loser, Detroit demolition etc), but such is life! Vacation trumps blogging!
Filed under Art, Body Image, Books, Gender, Media, Really Good Writing by Other People, Sex
The Library on Facebook
The Chicago Public Library is getting hip to Facebook. Here’s what they posted:
Just when you think it’s all books and smiles, this commenter jumps in:
Libraries are worthless wastes of taxpayer money. Buy a Kindle, you lazy fuck. Of course, I might feel differently if a librarian hadn’t torn out my heart, burned it, shit upon the ashes and offered it to everyone for two weeks with no late fees.
Related Post: Five senses of history geekhood.
Related Post: The library is crucial to offset the summer slide.
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Filed under Books, Chicago, Media
Tagged as cartoon, Chicago, Chicago Public LIbrary, comics, commenters, Facebook, library