The burning question I have today is:

70’s 80’s? era Katherine Kersten and a Van de Graaff generator

…separated at birth?

Posted: May 16th, 2008 under Katherine Kersten.
Comments: 2

Hello again, Tild fans! It is I, your humble ITTR (Imaginary Typical Tildology Reader) here for another foray into the hidden world of our eccentric, seldom-updating blogmistress Tild.

When we last checked in on the old coot Tild she was rambling on about something called a “day job” that seems to eat up most of her time and keeps her from posting more often. Talk about your lame excuses!

From the new headers, it looks like she’s back into crate labels again. No real surprises there; we learned a few years ago that Tildebunkport’s kitchen is decorated entirely in Early Crate Label,with a touch of Local Flour Sack.

Hey Tild! Whatcha up to? Inquiring minds (both real and imaginary) want to know!

Tild:   Well, first of all, back off, Snidely!   You’re crimping my snood. There. That’s better. Yeah, I’m spending a lot of my time messing with crate labels these days. I’ve always loved crate label art. I spent an entire day once on Cannery Row in Monterey just going through thousands of old original crate labels. Expect at least a few more crate label blog headers still to come. I’m even starting to design my own.

A new wrinkle is looking for Droste Effect crate labels. I just recently learned about Droste Effect packaging, and now I’m looking for it everywhere. Here’s the Droste cocoa package design from 1904 that the effect is named for:

Yes, that’s right, recursive picture mavens. It’s… to infinity and beyond!!

With only a little bit of searching I’ve found three Droste Effect crate labels so far:

(click on the thumbnails for the full size versions)

And last but not least, the extremely rare Triple Droste:

Find any more examples? Post a comment, please.

And a h/t to The Mississippifarian for pointing me to the Droste effect article. Thanks, TMiss!

Update: Found another one! Now, this is really embarrassing — this one’s been on my kitchen wall for NINE YEARS and I never noticed it was a recursive picture until 5 minutes ago. Sheesh…

~~~

Posted: May 2nd, 2008 under Crate Label Art, Droste Effect, Personal History.
Comments: none

Joining those of us who never turned towards Hillary in the first place…

LEVITTOWN, Pa. ” Like many women over 50, Paula Houwen was eager to vote for Hillary Clinton for president.

“I was impressed when she was first lady. She wasn’t the country’s trophy wife,” the 56-year-old suburban Philadelphia pharmacist recalled.

Today, though, Houwen’s no longer a Clinton fan.

“I do not like the way Hillary Clinton has run her campaign,” she said.

Clinton’s strongest core of support ”white women” is beginning to erode in Pennsylvania, the site of the critical April 22 Democratic presidential primary, and a loss here could effectively end her White House run.

A Quinnipiac University survey taken April 3-6 in Pennsylvania found that Clinton’s support fell 6 percentage points in a week among white women. Nationally, a Lifetime Networks poll of women found that 26 percent said they liked Clinton less now than in January, while only 15 percent said they liked her more.

“These are Democratic women who waited all their lives for a woman president, but Hillary is not turning them on,” said polling analyst Clay Richards.

The Clinton campaign is aware of the danger, and last week it began dispatching friends of Clinton from New York, Washington and elsewhere to key Pennsylvania communities to have “living room chats” with women.

“We thought this might happen,” senior Clinton adviser Ann Lewis said of the erosion. A key reason, she said, is rival Barack Obama’s ad barrage, notably his gentle but persistent reminders to TV viewers that he’s well-equipped to heal the ailing economy.

“I can’t overcome the media barrage, so we need to go back to talking to people about their personal concerns,” said Lewis, “and emphasizing her experience.”

Economic concerns are at the top of most women’s lists, and “Obama is coming across to more and more people as qualified on that issue,” Richards said.

Interviews in suburban Philadelphia, an area full of swing voters who are likely to determine the outcome of the primary, found other reasons for Clinton’s shaky support.

A lot of white women, and for that matter white men, want the race to end and increasingly consider Obama an acceptable nominee.

“There may be a general, reluctant acceptance that things just don’t look that good for Clinton,” said Susan Carroll, a professor of political science and women’s and gender studies at Rutgers University.

The most familiar echo among many Pennsylvania women when they discuss Clinton, however, is disappointment. Ask them when they became disillusioned with the woman who would be president, and they can cite almost the exact moment.

For Clare Howard, a meditation teacher from Southhampton, it was the night in January when Bill Clinton suggested that Obama did well in the South Carolina primary because of his race.

That went too far, said Howard, 60. “It was like they would do anything to win,” she said.

Joan Schmidt, 60, a school psychologist in Levittown, grew tired of hearing Clinton tout €” and exaggerate ” her experience.

Jane Dovel, 68, an artist in Doylestown, turned away from Clinton after hearing the New York senator’s reaction to Obama’s comments that Ronald Reagan had been a “transformative political figure.”

Clinton fired back that Republicans hadn’t had better ideas. “I don’t think it’s a better idea to privatize Social Security,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a better idea to eliminate the minimum wage.”

That’s not what Obama had said, recalled Dovel. “What Clinton said was a blatant lie,” she said. “From that moment on, she was history. She was not to be trusted.”

Obama’s increasing ability to convince these women that he’s on their side has contributed to their shift away from Clinton.

Most are old enough to remember John F. Kennedy, and it’s common to hear them say how much the Illinois senator reminds them of the young president. “He’s definitely someone who knows how to get everyone on board,” said Jill Saul, a Bristol teacher.

Howard was struck by how much her three children were impressed with Obama — much the way Democratic youngsters were taken with Kennedy.

“If I ever want to look my kids in the eye again,” she laughed, “I have to go with Obama.”

The Clinton forces realize that a new trend_ Clinton, after all, still leads Obama among white women by 28 points in the Quinnipiac poll ”could quickly become a tidal wave if left unchecked.

So they’re planning more living-room visits, closed to the media and not publicized, as a way of reminding people of Clinton’s personal qualities.

Clinton is getting to be a tougher sell, though, because a lot of women have thought long and hard about moving away from someone whom they’ve wanted for a long time.

“If elected, I’m sure she’ll do a good job,” said Michele Scarborough, a Quakertown borough councilwoman. “But I just don’t feel she’s one of us.”

To read the Lifetime Networks poll, go to:

www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/ewc/election-race-shifts-so-do-womens-opinions-candidates-perceptio

To read the Quinnipiac poll, go to:

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1327.xml?ReleaseID=1165

–David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers

Posted: April 14th, 2008 under 2008 Presidential campaigns, Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Comments: none

Aw jeez.  Here we go again…

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican presidential hopeful John McCain Monday warned that plans by his Democratic rivals to withdraw from Iraq were “reckless” as the US general running the war prepared to testify to Congress.

Oh yes.  Gosh darn those Dems.  So reckless!  Says the crotchety old git with the serious anger-management problem…

The doddering fool who “mis-speaks” on a daily basis regarding Iraq, the economy, health care, lobbyists, what-have-you… 

The out of control rage-aholic who lashed out at (trophy wife  and heiress) Cindy during the 1992 Senate campaign,  calling her  a “cunt” and a “trollop” in front of reporters when she had the gall to play with his hair and say he  was  getting “a little thin on top”…

Oh my, yes.  Compared to those reckless Dems, THIS guy’s abso-frickin’-lutely presidential.

*

The presumptive Republican nominee then added:

You goddamn kids, get off my lawn! And where’s my onion belt, goddammit! Grrrr…

*Tild sez:  About the picture –if it fit for Gonzo, it sure as hell fits for McCaintankerous.

~

Posted: April 10th, 2008 under 2008 Presidential campaigns, Democrats, George W Bush, Iraq, John McCain, Republicans, War.
Comments: none

Pretty funny:

h/t the Fruit Fly

~

Posted: April 8th, 2008 under 2008 Presidential campaigns, Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Comments: none

From the Department of Nifty Stuff I Wish I’d Thought Of: 

 

 

Now go thank Needlenose for this great animated gif, and get the code to embed it in your own site. 

Spread the word:   McCain = four more years of Bush. 

~

Posted: March 27th, 2008 under 2008 Presidential campaigns, George W Bush, John McCain.
Comments: none

Disbursement Item A on page 808, Year End 2007 Norm Coleman FEC report:

“Nordstrom, 10/1/07, $73.59 for makeup.”

Update: OK folks, I just got a gentle rebuke from Bruce, who was nice enough to do his chiding in an email instead of in the comments. He took me to task for not giving a tip o the hat to this gentleman today when I posted my Norm Coleman Clown picture.

You’re right, Bruce. I should have given the estimable driftglass a h/t, so here it is along with my apology. Not that I haven’t been a drifty fan for years, as evidenced here, here, and here, to point out just a few examples. I worship him like a god: the man has formidable photoshop skills as well as the ability to produce the most exquisite rants on earth, bar none.

Earlier this week he happened to post a brilliant photoshop job based on one of the most perfect of all possible clown photos, and yeah, damn right I based my picture on that photo too. It wasn’t the first time somebody’s used that photo as a jumping off point, either. Still, my timing could have been better. The important thing to understand about this is: just as drifty did all the work on his Bill Kristol version, I did all the work on Pennywise Norm’s face. So there. Oh, and one more thing:

Love ya, drifty. *sigh* Some things never change.

 

Posted: March 12th, 2008 under Buffoons, Norm Coleman, Republicans.
Comments: 2

Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy interview.
Well, maybe not so much bumpy as meandering. Wayward? Erratic? Not your straightforward point A to point B, that’s for certain.

Greetings, Tild fans! I am an imaginary interviewer, a hypothetical composite of the typical readership of Tild’s blog, aka Tild~, or tildology.com to be exact. I’m a mashup of all the folks who tend to show up here:

…The woman in Georgia with a cold who’s looking for information about nose washing;
…The guy in Dubai who wants to read about bad girls who don’t keep their tape sticky;

…The She-Blogger fan in Toronto;

…The folks in the UK who can’t get enough of Laurel & Hardy’s “Way Out West” dance;

…One of the hapless clods who keep trying to hotlink to the wily strawman picture so that they can add it to their comments and thereby look totally super-bitchin’ in those endless flame war threads at FARK or the Something Awful forums; .

…The many admirers of Easter Jesus’ chocolatey goodness;

And the people who come here looking for Meerkat Manor family trees

or for a bit of Minnesota-specific political snark , be it about prominent local prig Katherine Kersten , Minuteman-wannabe Dick “Rambo” Day, or notorious now ex-MnDOT commissioner and fandancer Carol Molnau,

…or maybe just for a little cheesecake.

Whatever you’ve come here for, you’ve no doubt noticed that it’s been pretty quiet around here for quite a while now. We’re lucky to get one new post a week. What’s the deal with that?

Look! There’s Tild now. Let’s ask her.

Imaginary Typical Tildology Reader: Hey! Tild! It’s 4:30 in the morning. What are you doing up?

Tild: Oh, hi. Hey, if you’re one of those idiots looking for the strawman picture, goddammit will you PLEASE learn how to save images to your own server?! Use your own bandwidth for a change, asshole!

ITTR: Umm, excuse me Miz Tild, but I am most certainly not one of those idiots. What I am, in fact, is an Imaginary Typical Reader of your blog, come to interview you and find out what’s next in the exciting ongoing history of tildology.com.

Tild: You are? Hmm. Do you mean to tell me that the typical reader of my blog is the disembodied head of Agnes Moorhead’s even snider younger sister inexplicably floating in the stratosphere next to a “flying wing” airplane?

ITTR: You tell me. You picked this image to be the ITTR avatar.

Tild: Oh. Yeah. Well, alrighty then. Never mind! What was the question again? Why am I awake at 4:30 AM? Well, my youngest kid the high school senior is in the high school’s Concert Choir which is going to Washington DC for four days, and they needed to be at the high school at 4 this morning to board the buses to the airport. I’ll never get back to sleep now, so I guess I’m up for the duration.

ITTR: Aha. So then. Please tell us: What have you been up to lately? Sure hasn’t been blogging.

Tild: Well, you do know that I have a full time day job, right?

ITTR: Yes, I’ve gotten that impression over the years, but you’ve never really described what it is that you do. So, what exactly is it that you do?

Tild: I work for a large corporation; a big player in an industry that’s run for profit but really shouldn’t be. The mitigating factor for me is that the particular division that I work in is more or less a watchdog unit. We investigate the billing habits of the purveyors of our industry’s services. Our work is to keep those purveyors honest — or, you could say that in an ethically challenged industry we try to make sure that its practitioners adhere to the laws, such as they are, and to industry standards, imperfect tho they may be. That fact helps me sleep at night, I gotta admit. You know, because I feel like in my little corner of the industry I’m more a part of the solution and not so much a part of the problem.

ITTR: Wow, that’s quite discreetly phrased, I must say. Can you describe what you do there?

Tild: Sure. I gather data from various sources, convert the data into the formats used by several databases, and upload that data. One might say that I’m a data wrangler.
Yeehaw!

ITTR: Gosh! Sounds fascinating!

Tild: Uh huh. You said it, not me. I’ve also been working part time at a book store since last fall. The end result of all this toil and trouble is that I haven’t had huge amounts of free time to devote to blogging. Or when I do have some time, I often don’t have any energy for it.

[TO BE CONTINUED...]

Posted: March 10th, 2008 under Blogistan, Chez Tild, Meta, Personal History.
Comments: 1

The George W Bush Presidential Library is in the final planning stages. Allen L Roland via Op Ed News gives us the details about some of the library’s proposed features:

1. The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

2. The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you can’t remember anything.

3. The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don’t have to even show up.

4. The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don’t let you in.

5. The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don’t let you out.

6. The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room (which no one has been able to find).

7. The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.

8. The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shooting gallery.

9. Plans also include: The K-Street Project Gift Shop - where you can buy (or just steal) an election.

10. The Airport Men’s Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.

11. Last, but not least, there will be an entire floor devoted to a 7/8 scale model of the President’s ego.

Of course, there will be an autographed copy of “My Pet Goat”, which is in a climate-controlled, laser-beam protected, heat-proof, shatter-proof case.

To highlight the President’s only positive accomplishments, the museum will have an electron microscope available to help you locate them. Good luck ~

~

Posted: March 8th, 2008 under Buffoons, George W Bush, Republicans.
Comments: 2

I’m really not a joiner, to begin with. Plus, with my paltry disposable income there aren’t too many organizations that I’m unequivocally willing to support. The very short list includes the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and Americans United.

The imprecatory prayer story has gotten a lot of play in the past week, but in actuality it’s been months — since last August — since this Wiley Drake character first started beseeching his holy hitman to rub out AU staffers. Hmmm… How’s that working out for you, Wiley?

From the AU press release:

IRS Target Wiley Drake Asks Followers To Engage In Imprecatory Prayers Against Americans United Staff Members

Controversial Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake has again urged his followers to pray for the deaths of staff members at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Last August, Americans United filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service about Drake’s use of church letterhead and a church-based radio program to endorse presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Federal tax law forbids tax-exempt groups from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office.

In a Feb. 5 letter, the IRS notified Drake that his First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park is being investigated.

In response, Drake issued a Feb. 14 e-mail appeal to followers to engage in “imprecatory prayers” (curses) against Americans United and three of its staff members.

Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, “We deplore Pastor Drake’s reckless and repugnant antics. Introducing this kind of religious extremism into American life is reprehensible.

“We have asked the IRS to investigate what we believe to be Drake’s violation of federal tax law,” Lynn continued. “If Drake thinks he is innocent, he has more than adequate legal representation, and there is ample opportunity to make his case.

“Trying to turn God into some sort of heavenly hit man is repugnant,” Lynn concluded. “There is more than a whiff of the Taliban in this action”

Wrote Drake, “In light of the recent attack from the enemies of God I ask the children of God to go into action with Imprecatory Prayer. Especially against Americans United for Separation of Church and State…. Specifically target Joe Conn or Jeremy Learing [sic] and their leader Rev. Barry Lynn. They are those who lead the attack.”

Drake directed his followers to Psalms 109 (as well as Psalms 55, 58, 68, 69 and 83) for examples of imprecatory prayers.

Verses from those texts ask God to bring death and destruction to those targeted.

“Let his days be few; and let another take his office,” says one passage. “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg.”

Another passage says, “Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell.”

Drake waged a similar campaign last year after Americans United filed its complaint against him with the IRS. Religious leaders from a wide variety of faiths repudiated the pastor’s tactic.

Drake is a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. He recently completed a term as second vice president of the group, its third highest post. He currently is running for president of the denomination, which became increasingly political after a fundamentalist takeover in the 1980s.

~~~

Oh, and about that graphic… A mashup of Michelangelo and some video game; thanks for asking.

~

Posted: February 19th, 2008 under Religious Right, Separation of Church and State.
Comments: none