because customer service is my middle name

Earlier tonight, I posted something about the sign in front of my small town’s historical museum and how it had been vandalized (if you can really call the reshuffling of vinyl letters on a flimsy plastic board, vandalism). As I mentioned, given the adolescent reference to a certain bodily function in the sign (post-vandalism), I chose not to include a photo… But, as quick as you can say “RSS,” I started getting notes from readers after posting it, demanding that I stay true to the mission of this site (whatever that is) and get my ass out there with my camera to document the offense. So, I got the dog and hiked over to Huron Street, in the rain. And here’s the photo… I hope it brings you some pleasure. (I should point out that I did not contact the museum to make sure that there wasn’t in fact going to be a historical retrospective on local queefing. So, if you’re into such thiings, you might want to make a call, just in case. I’m 99% certain, however, that “queef” was meant to be “quilt” though.)

update: The following comment was just left by our friend Alicia. I didn’t think it possible, but she’s come up with a plausible explanation as to why the sign might be switching back and forth from “quilt” to “queef” (other than vandalism):

Actually quilts and queefs are related, which this exhibit may demonstrate.

Just as, I’m told, men sometimes pass gas in all-male company in a joking, male-bonding ritual, queefing (originally quilf, with a silent “L”) originated in quilting circles where performing this otherwise socially unacceptable act reinforced the group unity.

For further reading on this subject, see “Of Knickers and Needles: The Normative Function of Vaginal Gas in Colonial Female Communal Identity,” (more here and here.)

So, with this in mind, I’ve just formulated a new theory — Ypsi is home to a prank playing female ghost, who, in life, had been the member of a local quilting circle… Legend has it that she died from an embolism during a meeting of said quilting circle, after sucking in too much air for the purposes of delivering a humorous queef. To this day, people claim to be able to hear the faint call of her queef as they walk along the banks of the Huron at night.

Posted in Ypsilanti | 8 Comments

fossil fuel: will the fossil burnings will be televised

Richard Dawkins, the holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, was on Al Frankin’s show a few days ago, speaking about the deceptively fresher-tasting flavor of Creationism being marketed as “Intelligent Design.” (For the audio, visit our friends at One Good Move.) It’s good stuff.

And, here, in case you aren’t planning to follow that link, is a really brief clip from a December 2004 interview Dawkins did with journalist Bill Moyers:

“…But, among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know… Evolution has been observed. It’s just that it hasn’t been observed while it’s happening.”

Fortunately, it seems as though some American museums are beginning to fight back, using the work of Dawkins and others, to educate their employees as to how they should handle attacks from religious extremists who feel it necessary to push their anti-evolution agenda in front of other museum patrons.

While I don’t think that there have been instances of “fossil smashing” yet, I predict that will be the next phase of their attack on science… If you can’t disprove the science, eliminate the evidence.

Posted in Church and State | 4 Comments

trumpeting support

I have absolutely nothing that I want to write about tonight. Sorry. If it weren’t for Jim sending in this link to the ribbon-making machine, there wouldn’t have been anything at all… I’m tired… Oh, there was something. The sign in front of the Ypsi Historical Society was vandalized. Someone switched the letters around so that instead of saying “Quilt Exhibit,” it said “Queef Exhibit.” I came into the house to get my camera, and, in the process, mentioned to Linette what I was about to go out and document. She somehow convinced me that it was beneath me… The more I think about it, the more I’m certain that she was wrong. (And, for those of you who have never heard the Howard Stern Show, the definition of “queef” can be found here.)

(As for these ribbons, they’re not my best work. They’re just the first two ideas that popped into my head. So, if you’re new to this site, please don’t judge me based on them…. If you want an example of me at my best, scroll back to some of my “ball shaving” material.)

Posted in Found Objects | 4 Comments

introducing rupert pupkin maynard

You’ve seen The King of Comedy, right? So, you know who Rupert Pupkin is, and you know about the imaginary Tonight Show appearances that he’d make in his mother’s basement, in front of the fake set that he’d constructed, with a recorded laugh track rolling… Or, if that’s too obscure of a reference, how about the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer finds the old set for “The Merv Griffin Show” and moves it into his apartment, where he then proceeds to book guests and hold his own imaginary talk show? Well, it’s just come to my attention that there may be an opportunity to do something very similar here at MM.com. I’ve just learned that, as of this afternoon, several pieces of the old Daily Show set are going up for auction on Ebay. (Among the first pieces is this wall depicting North America.) If all goes according to plan, I could be broadcasting my delusional Daily Show from mom’s basement by Christmas.

Posted in Mark's Life | 7 Comments

heroin’s chic, coke isn’t

Kate Moss, the splinter-thin British model who burst onto the international fashion scene at the age of 14, popularizing the so-called “heroin chic” waif look that would come to define the early 90’s, was caught on film snorting coke a few days ago by a tabloid hell-bent on revenge… As she’s been in rehab before, and once claimed to have not been sober on a catwalk in over a decade, you’d think that people in the industry wouldn’t be too surprised, but, judging from their public statements, this is the single most shocking thing they could have ever imagined. And, as small as she is, Moss doesn’t seem to be able to wiggle free from the consequences.

She’s tried to play the “blame game,” claiming that it was all her boyfriend’s fault. To drive home the point, she even dumped said boyfriend. But, none of that seems to mattered to the companies that had her on contract, companies that I dare say probably supplied coke in the past, or at least tacitly endorsed the use of drugs that kept Moss “heroin chic.” They were all determined to stay on message once photos of the model bumping lines with a rolled-up five pound note hit newsstands, and their incredibly, if not too convincingly, self-righteous tone was consistent across the board. And neither her dropping the boyfriend, or her subsequent apology could change that. She’d crossed the line by getting caught, and she had to pay a price for it. (The last I heard was that she’d be losing over $7 million a year because of it.)

It would appear as though she’s now lost every contract she had. And, worse yet, Scotland Yard is investigating whether or not they can pursue charges based upon the photographic evidence… But, all is not lost. I’ve heard that the Church of Scientology has extended a hand in friendship, offering to help her through this difficult time… So, who knows, this could turn out to be a really good thing for her. (That, in case you were wondering, is what sarcasm sounds like.)

So, right now I’m sitting here at my desk wondering if perhaps she might be desperate enough to consider doing an Ypsipanty ad for Crimewave Inc., or maybe even being our official spokesmodel. I know it’s not high fashion, but we could probably come up with enough money so that she could score coke and laxatives for a few days… Actually, in all seriousness, I do have an idea as to how she might be able to pull herself out of this mess and salvage something of her career. (And I realize that by telling you this, I run the risk of looking even more pathetic…) She could take over the judging seat vacated by Janice Dickinson on the reality series “America’s Next Top Model.” As much as I like Twiggy (who’s filling in now), she’s just not a good replacement for the catty, plastic-faced bitch we so adored… (Now begins the arduous work of winning back your respect, if you ever had any for me to begin with.)

One last idea, and this is one that I’d been saving for Christy Turlington… but, since she’s in a jam, I’ll offer it to Moss…. For a long time, I’ve been wanting to collaborate with a supermodel on a record inspired by the classic work done by the Velvet Underground and the model Nico. The record, which would be called “The Monkey Power Trio and Kate Moss,” would have the image of a single piece of fruit on the cover, maybe a kumquat. That’s where my idea ends, but I think that’s enough, by itself, to sell a million copies… Now, who knows how I can get her number?

Posted in Art and Culture | 18 Comments

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