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* Here’s an artist from Brazil who has taken the flags of the world and converted them into charts representing something — some interesting fact about the country. The proportion of colors in the Chinese flag, for instance, represents the number of 14-year-olds at work vs. the number of 14-year-olds in school (the working kids are the red, the schooled kids are the gold). There’s an American flag, too. Check it out.
* New family developments requiring pictures (of which I have none yet):
- Neighbors have mysteriously given us a joy-bringing puppy. A basset hound. With papers. A noble beast. We’ve named her Lula-Mae (or is it something more like Lulumay?) after Holly Golightly’s real name.
- Metal intersects with children’s heads in unforeseen ways, but in professional hands. My Mercantile Spouse took the kids to the mall (AIIIEEE!), and brought
* Daughter back with pierced ears and
* son (son!) with a new haircut. He no longer looks like a young Jim Morrison. Instead, he looks… like Forrest Gump. Or a Romulan. (Let us not dwell on the cultural symbolism of the Romulans in the Cold War allegories of the original show, in which the Klingons were clearly stand-ins for the Cossack hordes of Russia, and the Romulans stood in for their enigmatic neighbors to the south. Please.)
However, I still see him and automatically hear that tremolo baritone guitar — DUNNnnn… DUN-DA-DUNNnnn… DUN-dun-dun-da-DUNNNnnnn. (For the culturally impaired, this would be the “alien” music used for every scene involving “Vulcan stuff” or “Romulan mystery” in the old Star Trek. Run, son (son!), run! I’m sorry your first time turned out so rough. - In the wake of Ernesto, all my orchids, almost, have decided to bloom at the same time. Some have sent out as many as three sprays at once. It’s wonderful, but a little eerie. I suppose only gardeners who have broken their heads on the mystery of what-orchids-really-want will appreciate how odd it is that they all decide the time is right. It’s raining purple on my front porch.
* Not really requiring a picture, but the new book co-edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Outsiders Within has arrived in the mail. Looking forward to reading it, but find the picture captions a little strange. Thinking like someone who works in a magazine, I know. (They’re in black-and-white, but the first one is labeled “color photo”. I think they mean the original work was in color.) Will report back once I’ve read a few of the essays.
Nice art concept on the flags. Still, I have to wonder if the displays are statistically accurate. Well, that and if Burkina is really a country. I think he might have just slipped that one in on us. (Okay, Burkina Faso is a real country but I’m still not sure I believe the stats.)
On the subject of flags, here is a dude that rates all the world’s flags based on their overall aesthetic value….
http://www.otago.ac.nz/philosophy/Staff/JoshParsons/flags/intro.html
For a couple years, my mother tried orchids. They were always in a state of dying or getting better. They never really stabilized and she eventually let them die. The benign neglect of the remaining weeks seemed to put the orchids in the best overall shape. At least until they all died.
Matt
I think the white stripes should be a bit larger now on the USA flag. Thanks for the link oh King of Links.
Oh, those letter grades are great (although I’ve always liked the Brazilian flag. Hmph.).