Faces 1918 - Six Sleeper Cells

Drawings by Jack Brummet

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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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