The irregular middle finger roundup (Emmy Anderson, The Grateful Dead, Ben Affleck, Carrie Fisher, Grace Slick, Iggy Pop)

By Mona Goldwater, Signs and Gestures Ed.

The latest batch of middle fingers submitted by readers. Keep them coming!

Emmy Anderson

The Bride

Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox (on the right) sending a greeting to President Trump

Carrie Fisher

The Grateful Dead, 1967

Trump supporter at a rally gives the finger to the press pen

Grace Slick

Ben Affleck

Iggy Pop

Unknown sunbathers

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World Poetry Day, Part 2: The Day Lady Died by Frank O'Hara/Painting of O'Hara by Alice Neel

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday 

three days after Bastille day, yes 

it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine 

because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton   

at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner 

and I don’t know the people who will feed me 

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun   

and have a hamburger and a malted and buy 

an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets   

in Ghana are doing these days 

                                                        I go on to the bank 

and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)   

doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life   

and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine   

for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do   

think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or   

Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres 

of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine 

after practically going to sleep with quandariness 

and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE 

Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and   

then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue   

and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and   

casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton 

of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it 

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of 

leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT 

while she whispered a song along the keyboard 

to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

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Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady Died” from Lunch Poems. Copyright © 1964 by Frank O’Hara. City Lights Books. 

Alice Neel, portrait of Frank O'Hara

Fun with cattle prods

Happy World Poetry Day! "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley Reading by Bryan Cranston)

Ozymandias by Percy Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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Mr. Rushmore with Donald Trump

By Jack Brummet

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Updated: List of characters in The Beatle's songs

Eight years ago, I tried to write down the names of every character I remember appearing in songs by The Beatles. Since this was published in 2009, various readers have sent in some of the missing characters, and a lot came in from Facebook today. We're at least more complete; who else are we still missing?

A barber A boy A fireman A girl A girl like you A lucky man A pretty nurse A rich man Another girl Another lover Another man

Baby Bad boy Beautiful people Billy Shears Blackbird Boys Bulldog Bungalow Bill

Captain Marvel Chuck Crabalocker fishwife

Dan Dave Dennis O'Bell Desmond Doctor Robert Doris

Edgar Allen Poe Eleanor Rigby Expert Textpert Choking Smokers

Father Mackenzie

Georgia Gideon

Hari Krishna He Her Henry the horse Her Majesty Him His Mother His Wife Honey Pie

I

Joan John Johnny Jojo Jude Julia

Lady Madonna Lil Loretta Martin Loretta Martin’s mother Lovely Rita Lovers and friends Lucy Lucy in the sky

Maggie Mae Magill Martha Martha my dear Mary Mary Jane Maxwell Maxwell Edison Me Mean Mr. Mustard Messrs K and H Michelle Miss Lizzy Mister City Policeman Molly Mom Mother Mary Mother Nature's Son Mother Superior Mr.H Mr. Heath Mr. K Mr. Kite Mr. Moonlight Mr. Postman Mr. Wilson Mrs. Robinson My monkey

Nancy Nowhere Man

Old Flattop Other Lover

Pablo Fanque Paul People and friends Peter Piggies Piggie Wives Pigs Pigs in a sty Polythene Pam Pornographic priestess Prudence

Rita Rocky Raccoon Rose Rosie

Sergeant Pepper Semolina Pilchard Sexy Sadie She Sir Walter Raleigh Somebody

Taxman Teddy Boy The All-American bullet-headed Saxon mother's son The banker The Blue Meanies The Children The Doctor The Duchess of Kircaldy The Duke The Eggman The Eggmen The English Army The fool on the hill The Hendersons The Joker The King of Marigold The People The Queen The Taxman The Walrus This bird Two of us

Valerie Vera

We Wilson

Yoko You Your bird Your boy Your mother

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Thank you Chuck Berry

By Jack Brummet, American Music History Ed.

Thanks for the music, and rock and roll in general, Chuck.

I wonder what people at the other end of the line will think if they are able to play that record on the Voyager?

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Restless Books series "The Face"

By Jack Brummet, Mod Lit Ed.

I've thought a lot about faces the last few years. I've now read both the the Abani and Ozeki volumes of "The Face" series (Restless Books). Both are very fine books. So far, three have been released.

"It's a jazzy concept: Give hugely talented writers the same basic notes (their own faces), turn them loose and watch them riff seemingly endless melodic variations on the theme. The prompt is diabolically clever…. deep, intricate, often funny, and genuinely moving meditations on family, ancestry, race, ethnicity, culture, aging, past, present and future…. If Restless Books can sustain this level of quality throughout the series, I'm in for the long haul.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

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The German word Fremdschämen

Fremdschämen is used to describe someone who feels embarrassment for someone else. The corresponding noun for this feeling is Fremdscham. English equivalents include “vicarious embarrassment” and “empathetic embarrassment,” but neither are in common use like the German word fremdschämen.

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Paul Ryan's Freudian Slip

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Make America Great Again (GIF)

via GIPHY

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Drawing: Faces No. 1916 (The room with the layoff survivors]

By Jack Brummet

The room with the layoff survivors. [five minute drawing with Industrial Sharpie® on 18" x 24" fir plywood].

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Drawing: Faces 1893 — Danny

by Jack Brummet

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John Mayer's love letter (ad) to the Dead in Billboard today

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Charlie Mingus speaks out about bootlegs (and tries to sell a few records too).

[click to enlarge]

Detail:

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Drawing: Faces 1915 - The Vigil

By Jack Brummet

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"President Trump signs order to revoke Clean Water Rule"

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed. 

It's hard to find this out online, but I bet 1) Trump Tower; 2) The White House; and 3) Mar A Lago all have their own filtration systems. As long as The Chief is OK, we're OK. You have to figure that someone who enjoys golden showers is probably not all that worried about water quality.

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Drawing: Faces 1913 — An enhanced "ask" envelope

By Jack Brummet

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Map 12 — The Fennario Archipelago

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Maxine Waters has the goods on The President?

Maxine Waters says on MSNBC that sex allegations in Trump dossier are true (declines to provide evidence for how she knows)

[8:47 AM · Mar 9, 2017 - Sam Levine‏ @srlVia Twitter®]

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Another rough week in Donald Trump's White House

by Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces 1910 — The sum of my notes from the morning session

by Jack Brummet

[Sharpie® and #4B pencil on found paper].

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By Jack Brummet, American Music Ed.

I am reading Mezz Mezzrow's autobiography, "Really The Blues." This Jewish kid fell in love with black culture, and in particular, the music. What a crazy life (at one point Mezz was a common slang word for reefer), from the reformatory to playing with and managing people like Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong. It's a highly idiomatic book, filled with heartbreaking tales of facing down Jim Crow (de jure in the south and de facto in the north) and most of all, stories of the great blues and jazz they made despite the law and prevailing racism.
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The President greets the first tour group to visit the WH since the inauguration. Who's that over his shoulder?

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Another rough day at The White House

* quote from New York Times Monday March 6, 2017 *

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Drawing: Faces 1908 1908 — The 2016 White House wiretap team

by Jack Brummet

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A hilarious marriage mishap (30 second video)

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President Donald J. Trump's renewed tweetstorm

By Mona Goldwater, Twitter and Tweets Ed.

That Twitter discipline didn't last long. And when 45's Tweet-fast broke, all sorts of crazy followed. 

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Drawing: Faces No. 1907 — "The naming of parts"

By Jack Brummet

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AG Jeff Sessions recuses himself from Russian-Trump investigations

By Mona Goldwater, Justice Dept. Ed.
Illustration by Jack Brummet

In this instance, recusal is a half-measure. You know what they say about half measures. The President gave the AG a half-vote of confidence yesterday.  When asked if  he believed Attorney General Sessions had told the truth at his confirmation hearings, The President said “he probably did.”

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Ten years ago, Sean Spicer used to play the Easter Bunny at the annual WH egg-roll

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Kellyanne Conway makes herself comfortable

By Mona G., ATIT Social Mores Ed.

Well, he knew she wasn't housebroken when he took her in. 



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Drawing: Faces 1903-1905 (Three faces on 115 year old paper with Sharpie, 4B pencil, and markers)

By Jack Brummet

Detail:

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Speech to congress: A New Don/Dawn?

by Jack Brummet


Last night, for one of the first times, The President didn't sound completely off his rocker (except a couple moments). He stuck to the speech on the TelePrompTer, which seemed to have far less Steve Bannon in it. He threw out a lot of red meat on infrastructure, America first, and the usual themes and schemes.

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Drawings: Faces 1900/1901

By Jack Brummet

[Sharpie, markers, and 4B pencil on found 115 year old paper and book cover]

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POTUS 37 Richard Nixon hits back at the press

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Drawing: Faces 1899 — Ed and Charlie

By Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces 1898 — Old book cover

by Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces 1897 — Happy hour

By Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces 1881/82 — Pen on 115 year old, crumbling paper

By Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces 1857 — Where is Representative Dave Reichert?

By Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces 1860 (on 115 year old paper)

by Jack Brummet

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Where is Congressman Dave Reichert?

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