Quickies
Quickies: Giving Nyarlathotep a Chance, Worst Sex Writing of the Year, and the History of Double Dare
- How Alchemy Has Been Depicted in Art Through the Ages – “Some of the symbols shown relate to Venus (linked to copper), Mercury (linked to quicksilver), along with ‘primary catalysts’ like sulfur. Their design is almost mystical, akin to the hidden codes of a secret order. It’s a fascinating example of how alchemy has been depicted over the centuries, which is the subject of the new Getty Research Institute exhibition, The Art of Alchemy.”
- Look, All I’m Saying Is Let’s At Least Give Nyarlathotep a Chance – “Okay, so maybe we were a bit overconfident in our own candidate’s chances. But to be fair, Jerry, it’s not like anyone really expected the Crawling Chaos to make it all the way through the primary season, let alone the convention process. By the time the muckity-mucks up in Washington realized that an Outer God had a true shot at the White House, it was already too late for any kind of realistic comeback. Hell, I can’t even believe it myself. He isn’t even one of the true Elders, for christsakes.”
- The Nominees for the Worst Sex Writing of the Year Are Here to Make You Cringe – “As she talked Andret would make gentle, two-fingered tugs all the way around the hem of her dress to expose the lacy parts of her undersuit, like a child pulling candles from the rim of a birthday cake.”
- Post-Election, Overwhelmed Facebook Users Unfriend, Cut Back – “Garrity was one of more than 150 people who have shared their stories with NPR, recapping how they are recalibrating their attitude toward social media after this year’s election. Donald Trump’s surprise victory ended an emotional roller-coaster of a presidential race, which has left Facebook, Google and Twitter scrambling to rein in a proliferation of fake news and harassing behavior.”
- Watch the artistry and engineering that goes into making pop-up books – “By varying the angle of the v-folds behind each component, Reinhart can adjust when and how each piece will appear as the page is turned. Some of Reinhart’s pop-ups use as many as 20 v-folds, many of them building off of each other to make movement possible.”
- “It smelled like death”: An oral history of the Double Dare obstacle course – “Below, in oral history form, you’ll hear from the show’s creators and production staff, as well as from Summers, Russo, and Harvey themselves. The results are fascinating, a look back at a relatively undocumented time in television that viewers might remember but not know the stories behind. Slip on your big, white Reeboks; grab a set of kneepads; and get reading.”
Featured Image: Nickelodeon
Double Dare wasn’t as bad as later Nickelodeon shows in the same vein like Nick Arcade and Legends of the Hidden Temple.
And of course, those later ones, the final prize was…a trip to Universal Studios, where you already are. Yeah, it seems flokati rugs aren’t unique to adult game shows.
In the immortal words of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, “All we are saying is Give Nyarlathotep a Chance.”
(Bitter mockery is the 11th stage of grief, as proven by science. Right after Fear and Loathing.)
I’m more enjoying the self-styled “pragmatists” who are still on Denial and Anger. (Kos is apparently on Stage 2a: Antisemitic rants about Bernie Sanders on Twitter.) I could’ve told them this would happen. Tried to, in fact. Even the blue parts of red states weren’t as blue. In the county where I grew up, which is mostly Indian, it went from 93.4% for Obama to 86.5% for Clinton. Most of that broke for Johnson, but Drumpf outperformed Rmoney.
There are simple reasons. The Adoption and Safe Families Act, I know it did a lot of good for abused children, but it’s been a disaster for Indian country: States like South Dakota just classify all Indian kids as “special needs” to get more federal money. NAFTA was absolutely deplorable for Indians on both sides of the Rio Grande: Mexican peasant farmers moved north because they couldn’t compete with Big Ag, and then we had to compete with people who can be deported if they get uppity. Then there was her opinion on the Dakota Access Pipeline, and her supporters’ tendency to attack the pols who came out in support of us.
In the Rust Belt, NAFTA is a logical explanation. Being married to the man who pushed NAFTA through Congress, and advocating a newer, even more laissez-faire incarnation of NAFTA as Secretary of State, leaving it possible for Drumpf to attack her from the left? Really?
Or, you know, people who voted for Obama twice magically became too racist to vote for a white woman in the past four years. Yeah. That’s it.