“In early 2004 I was invited to create a new work for an exhibition at an art foundation in Holland. The subject of the exhibition was humor. I decided to depart from the field of new-media experiments, while remaining in the ‘digital’ realm, by having some fun with the great Dutch Masters — Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Eyck. My partner Andrea made all of the costumes and spent a long time crouched underneath a cardboard box while I carefully positioned and photographed her fingers. It was a new experience for me when the show’s curator refused to exhibit the work he had commissioned, even though it was already listed in the catalogue. The explanation he provided was that the photos “weren’t funny”. About a week later I received an even more puzzling request to exhibit the project in a Taiwanese digital art festival.” -Golan Levin
[Images & caption found here. Finger Spies available here.]
In October 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, overriding a veto by President Woodrow Wilson. And so began the so-called noble experiment of Prohibition.
Mark Levin, constitutional lawyer and radio host, presents his own concise argument against impeachment. It’s not just an attack on Donald Trump. It’s an attack on the Constitution of the United States of America.
Even if you don’t like our President and/or can’t tolerate Levin’s delivery, please listen to his words.
Arthur William Patrick Albert, aka Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, circa 1874.
That photo wasn’t good enough for him, so he upped the ante.
We Build The Wall is under attack by faux environmentalists.
[UPDATE: Commenter Stan noticed that the site’s link doesn’t link properly to the story. Here it is.]
Titania McGrath: One of the best satirical accounts that hasn’t been permanently banned from Twitter: “Heterosexuality was invented by patriarchs as a means to justify their subjugation of women.” 😀
[Top image: That’s one person’s approximation of the visual effect of a “visual migraine.” They are generally infrequent, usually benign, and last 20-30 minutes. Mine are similar, but look like a thin flashing jagged semicircle of neon white and sky blue shiny tinsel that starts small and gradually expands. No headaches, just temporary visual perception oddness.]
If socialism is such a great economic system, why have so many people died trying to escape it?
Risking imprisonment, torture and death, Klaus-Günter Jacobi modified a BMW Isetta to help his friend escape the oppression of East Germany in 1963. Nine others were able to escape using the same method.
“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
–Edward Winslow, December, 1621
Nearly all of what historians have learned about the first Thanksgiving comes from a single eyewitness report: a letter written in December 1621 by Edward Winslow, one of the 100 or so people who sailed from England aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
[…]
Just over 50 colonists are believed to have attended, including 22 men, four married women—including Edward Winslow’s wife—and more than 25 children and teenagers. These were the lucky ones who had made it through a rough entry into the New World, including a harsh winter during which an epidemic of disease swept through the colony, felling nearly half the original group. Some 78 percent of the women who had arrived on the Mayflower had died during the first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children.
“For the English, [the first Thanksgiving] was also celebrating the fact that they had survived their first year here in New England,” Tom Begley [of Plymoth Plantation] points out.
The Plymouth colonists were likely outnumbered more than two-to-one at the event by their Native American guests. Winslow’s account records “many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men.” Massasoit (who was actually named Ousemequin) was the sachem (leader) of the Pokanoket Wampanoag, a local Native American society that had begun dealings with the colonists earlier in 1621.
[Image from here, historical commentary from here.
Related posts here.]
