Who knew that the Hans Christian Andersen’sstory “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – a parable about a ruler so full of himself that he believes he’s wearing the finest raiments of the realm when in fact he’s naked – would be the inspiration for “exposing” Donald Trump for the blathering blowhard he is … in clay … NUDE!
Five cities – New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland – were the lucky locations for the display of the life-sized statues of a naked Trump titled “The Emperor Has No Balls” – a performance art installation created by the artist Joshua Monroe.
Monroe was commissioned by self-described “American Activist Collective” INDECLINE because of his skills at creating monsters for Halloween Haunted Houses as well as in movies. The irony of that fact doesn’t get much sweeter.
The artist, who goes by “Ginger”, said
“When the guys [INDECLINE] approached me, it was all because of my monster-making abilities. Trump is just yet another monster, so it was absolutely in my wheelhouse to be able to create these monstrosities.”
It took Monroe over 1,500 hours, working since April while also holding down a full-time job. He says he was only getting “three hours of sleep a night.”
Monroe explains the two phases to create his statue: He first sculpted the original in 700 pounds of a specialty modeling clay using a six-foot-two “hired model with similar proportions” to Trump. (We’ll let that one ride.) Then once the prototype was completed, he made a giant silicone mold so that he could create identical replicas.
The project ended up requiring 300 pounds of Monster Makers Oil Clay, 400 pounds of Concrete and Rebar, 400 pounds of Walter E. Disney Clay (for the mold), 1 gallon of smooth cast 300 (liquid resin), and ten gallons of Foam It, costing around $6,000.
While explaining that INDECLINE had very specific criteria set as to “what the statue would include – and what it would not,” he noted Trump’s “constipated scowl” was actually the hardest part to get right.
Each statue including the base weighs 80 pounds, and was secured to the ground with an industrial-strength epoxy glue that dries in minutes at 8 AM ET yesterday. INDECLINE reported that their so-called “Insult Teams” (they’ve done other projects) had no problems with the installations, explaining they all wore hardhats and neon-colored construction vests. And although they were all installed on public property, they also knew they wouldn’t be up for very long.
The New York installation in Union Square was removed not long after its installation. But at least the Parks Dept. provided a classic, cheeky explanation as to why:
“NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.”
… And sweeping up the remnants where the statue was glued down
Ginger says he did a great deal of online research to get the likeness correct, down to the lizard-like peach-colored skin, protruding belly and veins. But shares that he’s a bit concerned with his computer browsing history, because how many people are Googling “saggy old man butt”.
So enough with the teasing – I know you all are wanting "The Full Monty" …
Oh, and INDECLINE says they may very well do a similar type of “Exposé” involving Hillary – so stay tuned for more “EWWWWWs” to come.
This year the Mars Candy Company, maker of M&M’s, is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in a big way – with many different options available to “Celebrate With M”. But let’s take a look at its history and some fun facts.
It’s a fairly well known fact that M&M’s began their existence as an exclusive military ration – yep, ration – for soldiers during World War II at the government’s request. And that’s because, as their slogan goes, “They melt in your mouth – not in your hand!” Although that slogan actually wasn’t introduced until 1954 – the same year they introduced Peanut M&M’s. (Trivia Tidbit: Forrest Mars – M&M’s inventor – was allergic to peanuts, so he never got to taste one of his Peanut M&M’s.)
When the military contacted Mars about supplying the candy, they were originally packaged in cardboard tubes. They were easier to ship, more durable to carry around and easier to pour and reclose out in the battlefield.
The cardboard tubes gained a large and loyal following with the GIs, but Mars didn’t switch over to the familiar brown bag until 1948. And in celebration of their 75th, some stores now carry 12 different types of the retro-packaging (but I haven’t seen it).
But how did they actually come into being? It all started back in 1911 when Frank C. Mars made his first Mars confections in his Tacoma, Washington kitchen. Then in the 1920s his son, Forrest E. Mars, Sr., joined his father in business. But they had such a falling out that in 1932 Forrest moved to England to try going it alone. On a visit to Spain during that country’s civil war, he observed soldiers eating chocolate candies encased in a hard, sugary shell.
Forrest Mars was well aware that chocolate sales always drastically dropped in the heat of the summer months – for obvious reasons. And in addition to observing the Spanish Civil War soldiers enjoying their coated chocolates, when he got back to England he noted the British candy maker Rowntree’s of York had come out with Smarties, a similar hard-shelled chocolate candies. So borrowing both the inspiration and the actual product, Forrest Mars developed a manufacturing process for M&M's Chocolate Candies, moved back to the States, patented it, and in 1941 began making them in a factory in Newark, New Jersey.
So what does M&M actually stand for? Well, “Mars” would certainly be one of the Ms. And the other is for “Murrie”.
After Mars came up with his patent for M&M's, he approached Bruce Murrie who happened to be the son of Hershey’s Company president William Murrie, about a joint business venture. Not only was Murrie good for the money, but he was also a strategic partner for Mars since Hershey’s had major control for the production of rationed chocolate during World War II. And for the first few years M&M's were made using Hershey’s chocolate. But Forrest Mars, as with his father, had another falling out, and so in 1949 Mars bought out Murrie for $1 million and took control of the company.
Later, Mars moved his main manufacturing to its current site in Hackettstown, NJ in 1958 – and the plant is HUGE! It encompasses over 460,000 square feet and its 1,500 employees produce about half of all the M&M’s made in America. Two other plants (Cleveland, TN and Topeka, KS) make the rest.
The New Jersey factory – the company’s largest – produces 2 billion M&M’s every eight hours … or more than 4 million made every minute … or 69,000 every second. And it takes about 8 hours to make just one! Most of the time is spent tumbling in the shell-coating vat where they are constantly sprayed for 5-7 HOURS.
While plain M&M’s are the #1 selling candy in the world, the peanut variety are #2 in the US, behind Reese’s Pieces, with Snickers (also a Mars product) #3 and plain M&M’s #4. And M&M’s account for over $1 billion in sales of Mars’ $33 billion annual sales take. (Mars does make a lot of other things besides candy.)
And M&M’s might not be second to Reese’s Pieces if they hadn’t blown their chance for cinema placement stardom. While preparing to film his movie “E.T.”, Steven Spielberg first approached Mars to see if he could use M&M's in the scene where Elliott tries to lure the shy alien out from the forest with candy. For whatever reason (and it’s not clear exactly why), Mars turned down the offer. BIG MISTAKE! So Spielberg then went to Hershey’s, who pounced on the opportunity. But Spielberg had actually wanted to them use Hershey Kisses – but the Hershey’s insisted he use its new Reese’s Pieces candies. The result, as they say, is history.
But while Mars missed a major promotional opportunity with “E.T.”, they did recover a bit with “Candy the Cow” – an M&M cow made of 67,000 M&M's, all of which were painstakingly individually placed by hand. “Candy the Cow” made her debut at the 1990 Erie County Fair, and even appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.
The original M&M's colors were red, orange, yellow, green and violet. But the now-iconic signature “M” wasn’t stamped on the candies until 1950 – nine years after its inception. And originally it was in black rather than white – the change to white happened four years later, in 1954.
Forrest Mars demanded that the “M” appear perfectly in the center of each candy, and would go around buying bags to ensure his demand was carried out. His employees speculate that his split with Murrie just one year earlier is the reason why there is just one “M” on each piece.
Back in the early ‘70s, there was a Russian study that link the red food dye amaranth (popularly known as Red No. 2) to cancer in humans. Before subsequent testing showed the results to be erroneous, the Food and Drug Administration “out of an abundance of caution” decided to ban its use in America in 1976. And although red M&M's didn’t actually even use Red No. 2, the company pulled the color and replaced it with orange to avoid any confusion. For an entire decade the favored red M&M stayed on the bench, until reintroduced in 1986.
In the mid ‘90s, Mars concluded that there was no need to have both a tan and brown M&M. so the tan ones were eliminated. But to counter the disappointment, they decided to have a contest for its replacement with selection between pink, purple or blue where customers got to vote for the winner. It was a huge promotional success, and blue won.
Many of us are familiar with Van Halen demanding that there be lots of M&M’s available at their concert venue – but NO BROWN ONES! He’d check, and if he found a brown one, he’d cancel the concert. But I wasn’t aware of this tidbit, and no one know how or why, but a rumor began circulating that the green ones had aphrodisiac properties. Taking advantage of this apocryphal story, Mars launched a limited-edition run of all-green M&M’s for Valentine’s Day in 2008.
Interestingly, Google headquarters had a unique problem with M&M’s. Google provides LOTS of perks to their employees, and one of them was an unlimited and ubiquitous supply of M&M’s. And their employees were eating too many of them … costing them a fortune! So in true to Google-mode, they brought a team of PhDs in to look into the problem, and they concluded that it was all a matter of easy access. You could hardly travel anywhere in their offices without running into an attractively displayed bowl of M&M’s. So they cut back on the opportunity for easy-snacking, put them in opaque bowls and started offering fruit as an alternative. And amazingly enough 3.1 million fewer calories were consumed over a seven-week period among the New York office’s 2,000 employees!
It’s mind-boggling the variety of M&M products available. According to the M&M’s website the list includes: Peanut Butter, Crispy, Pretzel, Dark Chocolate, Almond, Dark Mint, and Dark Chocolate Peanut varieties, as well as an M&M’s Chocolate Bar and M&M’s Mega, marketed as “The World’s Biggest M&M’s” with three times more chocolate than usual. There are also the M&M’s Minis, White Chocolate, Triple Chocolate, Coconut, Orange Chocolate, Raspberry, White Chocolate Candy Corn, Wildly Cherry, Mocha, Cinnamon Milk Chocolate, Razzberry Chocolate, Strawberried Peanut Butter, and Raspberry Almond varieties, among others. And just last August, M&M’s unveiled Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Spice Latte M&M’s for the fall season.
But if you didn’t think there were enough combinations and permutations already available, to help “Celebrate the M” for its 75th, they had another consumer contest this spring that closed June 17 to select a new flavor between Chili Nut, Honey Nut and Coffee Nut. And Coffee Nut won. (Has anyone tried any of these?)
And as part of their “Celebrate With M” (and unlike Trump) Mars is honoring its origin as a military ration during World War II by actually donating $750,000 of products to Operation Gratitude that will be placed in military care packages throughout 2016.
So pop an M&M of your favorite variety and in one of its TWENTY-FIVE available colors, and “Celebrate With M”
Remember that Hillary ad back in 2008 about a 3 A.M. phone call coming into the White House? Well …
It’s rare that we citizens get a chance to visually compare and contrast how two candidates react in a real-life threatening crisis situation – but this year happens to be one of those rare times.
Both Trump and Hillary have had protestors actively and forcefully charge them while speaking at a rally – and both required their Secret Service guards to intervene. I think it’s illustrative of how one flinches and the other stays focused.
Here’s the GIFs of each:
Here’s a YouTube video comparing them:
And here’s a great Tweet that compares them side-by-side. (Unfortunately, I believe the Tweet graphic is formatted as Flash, and I haven’t figured out how to save it. So it comes w/ the Tweet)
Hillary Clinton: tested, steady, fearless. Donald Trump panicked, afraid & chaos. Compare Secret Service videos. pic.twitter.com/np0yyZZz9X
This one is for us hardcore political junkies who enjoy the nuts and bolts on getting things done at Conventions. And fortunately two of the Owners/Administrators – David Allen (Skinner) and David Allsopp (EarlG) at the blog DemocraticUnderground.com scored Press Passes to the DNC Convention! What a thrill!
They posted a daily gallery of their adventure, and what it’s actually like being in Philadelphia documented with LOTS of photos. [Links will be provided at the end for a more complete viewing, because I left a LOT out]. And while this will NOT be “National Geographic Photo Contest Winners” quality – I found them quite compelling. I’ve tried to narrow it down to the ones that were both representative and interesting.
But first, a bit of news. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a good guffaw yesterday when Ben Carson announced that Trump is simply “too humble” for “self-praise”. (Yeah, he actually said that – and with a straight face!)
NOTE: Since there are quite a few photos, to save at least a little real estate I’ve made the rest smaller than full-size. To view them full-size either right-click and choose “Open in New Tab/Window” or scroll-click if your mouse has that feature.
If you just click on them they’ll also open in full-size – but it’ll be as a new window, so then you have to do the return feature to get back to the article. Sorry, but you can't format them to open separely like hyperlinks.
Let’s meet David Allen and David Allsopp as they head out. (Allen said he dug around and found a souvenir t-shirt from the 2008 campaign.)
They made it!
Of course not everything got a “Thumbs Up” from them
Here are their Press Passes
Like a lot of convention goers, their motel was quite a ways out in the ‘burbs. And so like a lot of convention goers they commuted in every day on buses … lots, and LOTS of buses.
They were surprised how smoothly and quickly the security checkpoints were run
Of course they ran into quite a few celebrities – like Dan Rather
And I did a double-take thinking that our own TomCat actually made it Philly
I thought they’d be assigned a designated seat for the entire time – but they only are given a general section to occupy … and it changes based on how crowded the arena would be.
If you got there early enough, you had the place pretty much to yourself
So before the crowds showed up they grabbed a couple of orienting photos
And of course the first night featured Sen. Bernie Sanders!
And Michelle Obama – who brought the house down!
With the Keynote Address by Sen. Elizabeth Warren
The signs that we all enjoyed seeing the crowd wave are actually handed out at appropriate times, so the crowd can more easily “stay on message” (something that’s very foreign to Herr Drumpf)
The second day they took in some tourist attractions and enjoyed some fun stuff
This is the NBC Today show set/stage – and it’s about as crowded here as it was during their morning broadcasts when I watched (Disclaimer: I loathe Matt Lauer)
The small "Today" show crowds were odd because it’s right across the Green from Independence Hall
So of course they had to stop to see the crack in the Liberty Bell
Then headed back to the Convention – with all those crazy hats. What is it with those hats?
And they even ran into Jill Stein of the Green Party
But things improved when they actually got to meet Civil Rights Icon Rep. John Lewis
They got good seats to enjoy Pres. Bill Clinton regale the crowd with his “In the springs of 1971, I met a girl” story introducing us to Hillary.
And they had a chance to chat w/ Sen. Ron Wyden(eat your heart out, TC)
As things kept picking up and ticket holders actually showed up, they got moved further and further into the rafters. But one of them snuck out just as Pres. Obama was winding up his speech, so they grabbed this shot
Things did not begin auspiciously on their fourth and final day: They had the terrible misfortune to run into (wish it had been literally)Andrea (nee Mitchell) Greenspan
I missed the "Card Stunt" on TV while visiting my Mom in Illinois because I had stayed up the night before (Wednesday) to watch Pres. Obama’s entire speech (probably a good call). So I went to bed before Hillary spoke. But prior to the finale with Hillary, the crowd was involved in a Card Stunt. Did anyone see it? How did it turn out?
They were given instructions on their handouts, so this is a series of how it was done
You can see they were in the rafter for the main event. That's Chelsea on their screen in the lower right introducing her Mom.
And the tension builds …
Before the Grand Entry …
And of course ending with the balloon drop
So we bid “Adieu” to two very lucky Davids. What a treat that would have been, to see history being made first-hand!
LINKS – with ALL the phots (and believe me, there were a LOT MORE!)
Before we leave the Trump Convention in the dustbin, and since he so prominetly displayed his family (no one else wanted to show up … well, other than Ted Cruz) I thought you might like to see the OTHER side of the Trumps.
When asked how he would react if Ivanka, a former teen model, posed for Playboy, Trump replied, "It would be really disappointing — not really — but it would depend on what's inside the magazine."
He added: "I don't think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."
During the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant, he sat in the audience as his teenage daughter, Ivanka, helped to host the event from onstage. He turned to Brook Antoinette Mahealani Lee, Miss Universe at the time, and asked for her opinion of his daughter’s body.
“ ‘Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?’ ” Ms. Lee recalled him saying. ‘I was like, ‘Really?’ That’s just weird. She was 16. That’s creepy.”
NOR was it the last time. I noticed what can only be charitably called "CREEPY" interaction after Ivanka's speech on Thuirsday introducing her father:
For a while, I didn’t think there was going to be any eye-catching nuggets today – but the Trumps proved me wrong!
The story that Herr Drumpf’s campaign has FINALLYfabricated … settled on WRT Melania’s plagiarizing Michelle Obama is that an in-house staff writer, Meredith McIver, at Trump Organization is the guilty party. Well, at least Meredith is the sacrificial lamb being offered up on the golden altar.
But it turns out that this is NOT the first time Melania has stolen … plagiarized … “borrowed” a quote, unattributed, from another accomplished black woman. Back a few years it was Marva Collins, an educator and civil rights activist that Melania plagiarized.
“Always trust yourself, think for yourself, act for yourself, speak for yourself. Be yourself! Imitation is suicide.”
I have no doubt Melania’s eliding the last sentence from her Tweet was purposeful.
I’m starting to think that Melania WAS the guilty party for plagiarizing Michelle Obama. It just took the “Keystone Kops” Drumpf camp this long to put a passably plausible story together and select their sacrificial lamb.
My feeling that Melania is the guilty party is buttressed by some candid photos that (once again courtesy of Google) I have been able to uncover.
But apparently it doesn’t seem to bother The Donald one least little bit.
Oh, well – at least Melania chose strong, accomplished women to admire and steal from.
(I didn’t want to steal anyone’s thunder, so I waited. But I think I can go ahead with this post now.)
Since I probably won’t be putting together a dedicated “Friday Fun” (although I’m feeling much better), I thought I might do some quickie “Fun” observations if and when they become available, courtesy of the GOP Circus … Clown Show … Convention.
Of course the focus today has been on Melania Trump plagiarizing the true sentiments and actual words of Michelle Obama. Although probably everyone has seen it, I wouldn’t want anyone to miss the front page headline of today’s “New York Daily News”
While it’s still not clear who is actually to blame for this major Trumpism snafu of stealing from FLOTUS, but thanks to Google I was able to find a photo of Melania’s speechwriters:
And while surfing the inner tubes, courtesy of Mother Jones, I came across another t-shirt that’s being sold just blocks away from the Convention center that I’m tempted to get for TC:
It’s a little hard to make out, and sadly the only one I can find online is in charcoal gray. But at least you can make out the graphic graphics much easier on this one. (Should I have given this a “Barf Bag Alert” – or maybe a “NSFW” warning – or maybe both?)
I think I’ll hold out for the neon chartreuse green one. It’s so much more reflective of Trump’s … hmmm … “class”.
Well, since I’m heading up to Illinois Monday morning (which is why I’ve been absent more that I’d like while getting ready) for a week at Mom’s (routine paperwork/restocking), and it’s just too hard to post from my phone, I’ll strike a compromise.
Despite my “immunity” to shaming, I’ll (finally) post some pictures of the critter and my much beloved and daily-used “Big Mouth Coffee Mug”.
Since it wasn’t the easiest undertaking with the cat, you’re going to get both of them. The first is of Nike (so named because he has white sneaker-like feet and loves to jump, with his hallmark two-legged “Heigh-Ho, Silver” bounding down the hall) at his “Scouting Perch”. Being not the friendliest of critters, he likes his scouting spot because he can keep an eye on the living room, the entry foyer, the dining room and the family room.
Nike’s second favorite spot is his “Catbird Seat” where he literally likes to keep an eye on the birds in the tree just outside. He’s an indoor cat, so he can only dream …
To actually add a little “Fun” – how about that fiasco of the “Trump-PenceLogo" rollout? After being widely mocked and ridiculed for their X-rated graphic, they sadly decided to entirely dump it.
But since the Twitter world had a frequent meme that their logo looked like Trump was doing to Pence what he would do to the entire country, I think we can elaborate on that theme …
Of course now that they’ve ditched it, out of the goodness of my heart I’m offering an alternative Logo to Trump-Pence using just their initials – AND at absolutely NO COST to them:
