Walmart's Asshole

I guess the marketing geniuses over in Bentonville, Ark., home of the world's most hated retailer, Walmart, don't read much Vonnegut. Right now, up in heaven, Kurt Vonnegut is laughing his ass off. Or maybe it's his asshole.

Seems Walmart needs a new look, so after having ruined the smiley face for us, they've decided to screw up the good ol' asterisk. What they didn't know was KV was years ahead of them and had abused the asterisk so well I still giggle a bit everytime I see one.

Here's a quote from KV's Breakfast of Champions followed by the appropriate illustration:

I am programmed at 50 to perform childishly--to insult 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' to scrawl pictures of a Nazi flag and an asshole and a lot of other things with a felt-tipped pen. To give an idea of the maturity of my illustrations for this book, here is my picture of an asshole:

Oops! Sorry, that's not Kurt's asshole, that's Walmart's asshole, er, new corporate logo. And, I hope they spent a fortune on it! This is the asshole Kurt drew:

Notice the resemblance? I sure did. Kurt, even up in heaven you're still making me laugh, and you've taken the edge off my Walmart hate. I still won't shop there, though.

You have to admire this kind of crazy

Barry Bonds

Age of Wonders -- Robotic chairs

This is too cool!

Dumb Design

Porn commentary

I've heard a lot of people have their say about pornography. Here's Penn Jillette of the magic due Penn and Teller giving probably the best explanation I've ever heard of why so many "normal" people do porn.

Meet a Black Guy

I see a lot of fear these days in the United States. It seems to be on the decline as it slowly sinks into the heads of the citizens that we don't have much of anything to be afraid of, despite what our president might tell us.

Fear, it seems to me, comes from ignorance, and while familiarity might breed contempt, and I'm not sure about that, it also breeds comfort. Hence I think this guy has a great idea and a wonderful sense of humor.

Jeff Oliver, a 21-year-old black man living in Oregon, set up a booth at the local farmers market called "Meet a Black Guy" in order to relieve some of that existential terror of dark skin some lighter-hued individuals indulge in.

The guy looks like a natural born prankster, and his approach to race relations is a stroke of genius.