Artists Jason Freeny’s work showcases famous toy’s and cartoon character’s inner beauty . Photos from moistproduction.com
Inside the house of the mouse.
Internal plumbing.
Even the skull is smiling.
Terry Border uses wire to bring these classic paperback novels to life to reenact, with a literal take, their own plots.
Curl up by the fire with these quick tales about being an inadequate father, stalking your chemistry teacher, and generally feeling a great deal of despair.
Summary: A divorced father attempts to navigate the indignities of dating at middle-age while being a father to his increasingly estranged children all with a bleak winter backdrop rendered in the most Dubusian language.
Excerpt: "Kathi was six, had long red hair and a face that Peter had fallen in love with, a face that had once been pierced by glass the shape of a long dagger blade. In early spring a year ago: he still had not taken the storm windows off the screen doors; he was bringing his lunch to the patio, he did not know Kathi was following him, and holding his plate and mug he had pushed the door open with his shoulder, stepped outside, heard the crash and her scream, and turned to see her gripping then pulling the long shard from her cheek. She got it out before he reached her."
So cold it's like: Being unable to distinguish between the smoke from your cigarette and your breath in the air as you stand outside the bar after one too many.
Summary: In a surreally rendered community of people who grow limbs that physically reflect the nature of their love, this story is centered around school where children grow up wanting to have additional, fully formed arms that reflect a similar kind of love, but the teachers and adults know that love is much more complicated than that.
Excerpt: “Who is this hand for?” Jan asks, filing the first nails. “That’s Abe Lincoln and next to that is my father. Those were the first two. They grew when I was eighteen and I went to Washington for the summer. I sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and read his biographies. I watched the lump grow to a ball, and then a wrist. The fingers started the same way, lumps and then balls.” Jan massages a jewel of lotion in the palm. “My father called to tell me he was leaving to live in Kentucky with a new woman. ‘I love you even though I don’t love your mother,’ he told me, and right then, all at once, this hand erupted out of my chest.”
So cold it's like: Getting frostbite so badly you start hallucinating.
You can read the whole story here.
Summary: A man loses his ex-wife's cat before a week long rainstorm. The ensuing torrent of guilt and helplessness is captured perfectly in Barthelme's stoic prose.
Excerpt: "My clothes were drenched by this time, and the whole front of me was so filthy I felt like a kid. I rolled over in the water in the garden to get mud all over the back of me too. I was laughing, taking a mud bath. I sat up against the back wall of the house and shielded my eyes with my hand to look at my neighbor’s house. He has a better life than I have, I thought, and he’s a Republican. It’s not supposed to be that way. He even loves that fetishistic little dog. Think I’ll just sit here until my cat comes home. I tried to pick up some mud, but it drained through my fingers, so I dug down and got drier dirt, and brought it up and compressed it into a clod, and threw it at his house. Clods for clods, I thought. Cat’s dead. Life is stupid, most of it."
So cold it's like: Having to walk home in a cold rain after your car broke down, but you're so tired that you just accept it.
You can read it here.
Summary: A story of a boy and his aging parents set against the background of a world slowly growing cold written by a gone-too-young prodigal author.
Excerpt: In the faded morning the land looked scarred. The first snows had already come, melted, sealed the hills with a heavy frost the sun could not soften. Cold winds had peeled away the last clinging oak leaves, left the hills a quiet gray-brown that sloped into the valley on either side. He saw the old man’s hair bending in the wind. “Come on inside, you’ll catch cold.” “You going hunting like I asked?” “I’ll go hunting.”
So cold it's like: Being snowed inside a poorly insulated house with a lone space heater to keep you warm.
Read more about the story here.
The year: 1996. The bag: The mini-backpack.
2014 looks to be an AMAZING year for board games!
Why you should play it: If you want a truly complicated game, look no further than Sails of Glory. Set in the Napoleonic Wars, you pit yourself against an opponent on the open seas. The complications comes for its depth. You need to take into account rigging, wind and all sorts of nautical awesomeness if you want to win you own Trafalgar.
Is it available: Yes, successfully Kickstarted.
Play if you like: The wind in your hair, wearing an eyepatch and the Damnable French.
Via aresgames.eu
Why you should play it: Does this board look ancient? Well that's is because it is as Kremlin was initially released in the 1980s. Jolly Roger Games has decided to take it upon themselves to reprint this game where you backstab your way to the top of the Politburo. They have even updated the game so you can play as everyone's favorite badboy: Yeltsin
Is it available: Yes, successfully Kickstarted.
Play if you like: Onion domes, making new enemies or you long for the Cold War.
Via amazon.com
Why you should play it: Besides the beautiful board, Cornish Smuggler takes on incredibly difficult subject matter and makes it highly entertaining for even the casual play. Bribe customs agents, run the narrows and see what it was like to make a dishonest coin in Merry Olde England.
It it available: Yes, successfully Kickstarted
Play if you like: Breaking the law, tri-corner hats and slipping into the shallows and midnight.
Why you should play it: For fans of Strat-O-Matic, Masters of the Gridiron is a welcome reprieve from number crunching and hours long game play. At 15 minutes a game, you get a fast paced game with some actual strategy thrown in. It is rare to find speed and whimsy thrown into a sports game, but Masters of the Gridiron appeals to hardcore fans and casual gamers alike.
It is available: Currently in Kickstarter.
Play if you like: Freezing your butt off in NJ, Magic: The Gathering without the mockery and reminding your friends that you are better at sports.
“[W]e have nothing new on this,” a senior advisor says.
Molly Riley, File / AP
WASHINGTON — A senior adviser to Labor Secretary Tom Perez refused Friday to answer a longstanding question about whether the department is protecting transgender employees of federal contractors from discrimination.
In April 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII's sex discrimination ban includes gender identity-based discrimination against transgender people. Under the policies of the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), it was expected that office would enforce an executive order that bans federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sex, among other factors, to include a ban on gender identity-based discrimination.
For the past 20 months, however, Labor Department officials — including former Secretary Hilda Solis and OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu — have refused to say whether the department is including transgender workers in its enforcement of the existing executive order.
On Friday, Labor Department spokesman Carl Fillichio told BuzzFeed that Perez would not speak with BuzzFeed about a series of questions relating to LGBT rights, including a question about Executive Order 11246, at this time. Asked if the department would instead provide answers in writing to the questions, previously submitted to Fillichio, he responded Friday afternoon, "Thanks. [W]ill decline that too, as we have nothing new on this."
Beginning on May 4, 2012, Metro Weekly reported:
Since April 27, Metro Weekly has been asking the Department of Labor to detail the implications for OFCCP of the Apr. 20 EEOC decision and has not received any information from Labor as of this report.
In July 2012, BuzzFeed reported:
Further conversations with Labor Department officials ... resulted in no response as to whether the federal contract compliance office was, for example, advising federal contractors — like the three major contractors awarded new contracts recently — that they could be violating Executive Order 11246 if they discriminate against an employee based on gender identity, which would be the case if the executive order is interpreted in alignment with the EEOC's ruling in [Mia] Macy's case.
More than a year later, a month after Perez took over as secretary of the Labor Department, BuzzFeed reported in August 2013:
The Labor Department, however, has issued no public guidance about the issue, and officials have refused repeated requests for comment on the issue. ... As recently as Tuesday afternoon, however, Labor Department representatives could not immediately provide an answer about whether its enforcement of the executive order includes anti-transgender discrimination and did not respond with an answer, as a spokesman said would be provided. ... As recently as last week, though, a department spokeswoman, Laura McGinnis, told BuzzFeed, "I don't have anything on that, I'm afraid, but I'll let you know if anything changes."
Most recently, in December 2012, BuzzFeed reported:
Patricia Shiu, the director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, would not say Wednesday whether her office includes transgender workers in its enforcement of Executive Order 11246, which bans federal contractors from discriminating in employment.
‘Cause friends are forever.
Why: This friend writes on your Facebook wall, tweets you, AND sends you a text on your birthday. You may not talk everyday any more, but when you do see them, everything's just perfect.
Bonus Points: They save you from awkward family gatherings when you're visiting your hometown because, well, you “have to go get drinks with them since you only see them once a year.”
Nickelodeon / Via drakeand-josh.tumblr.com
Why: This friend has the psychic power to tell when you need a good, stiff drink after a long day. You need them in your life to help justify a second glass of chardonnay on a Tuesday night.
Bonus Points: These friends make the best “Saturday night in your late 20’s” friends… usually those nights consist of throwing major shade at everyone who's younger than you in the bar.
NBC / Via headoverfeels.com
Why: They complain to you, and you complain to them. There is nothing too big or too small, and they totally get it (or at least they pretend to, which is just as fine). It's the world’s most perfect symbiotic relationship.
Bonus Points: Neither one of you complain about the other one who's complaining about complaining. Yeah.
Paramount Pictures / Via groupthink.jezebel.com
Why: Though this friend isn't part of your inner circle, they're a friend who knows all the major players and can give advice that is oddly spot on. They are like your friendship cootie catcher. They are imperative for sanity.
Bonus Points: They’re really fun to bring around said “inner” circle and watch them interact.
Fox / Via socialanxietysupport.com
