Courtesy of nacion.com

“I remember that one of my teachers hated one of my paintings so much that he took it off the easel during a crit and jumped up and down on it. For the next crit, I brought it back with the footprints carefully preserved, declaring it finished. I also wired a small bomb in it, and blew the sucker up. It was the first time I ever saw that professor smile.”

—Art Chantry, U&lc Winter 1997

A couple of weeks a go I wrote up my friend Hrvst’s report on an Estonian family. Yesterday, as the kids played on the Playstation and the squirrels whirled around the tree, fairly equivalent activities, there was a knock on the door, followed by a long pause. This is rare, as most of our friends are trained to barge in after knocking, or in Dylan’s friends’ case, clamber in through the window. When I answered the door there was an eager lanky type, not quite starched enough to be a Mormon on a mission, but put a short sleeve white button-up shirt on him and you’re on. He introduced himself as Markko (exotic spelling my personal affection), whose English should be excused as he’s from Europe.

Oh really, what part of Europe?

Estonia it turns out. He was surprised I’d heard of the place (and the internet blockade which took place there not too long ago). He also asked what country’s flag our neighbors were flying — I explained it was a pirate flag. He was going door-to-door selling educational books and software for some company in suburban summertime Florida. Poor Baltic kid.

Origami Sierpinski Tetrahedra Stage 4 (Modular Origami), originally uploaded by One Small Crease.

Chris Welsh’s Sierpinski Tetrahedron is Zen-like in its recursive intensity. Check out the Flickr photostream for the full effect.

First, there was Mint. Then Cinnamon. Then, not too long ago, Wild Berries. The flavors for floss won’t stop coming, but I believe this to be the ne plus ultra of dental care flavoring: Bacon. I’ll floss my teeth before, during and after meals with this stuff, propriety be damned. The seller, Archie McPhee has been around forever, and be prepared to lose yourself in this emporium of completely useless stuff, including Bacon Mints — for when you want to give your sweetheart an extra-special kiss.

Bacon Floss at Archie McPhee

More: Brickshelf Gallery

Just this Friday, my daughter (she’s 11) informed me that she had written a song. It’s pretty funny, and some might say disturbing, to wrap up some weird afterschool ritual into a Bo Diddley beat.

Well, Bo Diddley passed away earlier this morning. As always, everything is connected. Like fire and fritos, the Bo Diddley beat is obvious once sampled, but someone had to come up with it. In honor of the man, I present “Let’s Have a Slapping Contest”:

 Let’s Have a Slapping Contest

Let’s have a slapping contest (da da da … da da)
Let’s have a slapping contest (etc.)
Let’s have some rulers with holes so it will sting
Please do not knock off my rings

Spoons, forks, knives whatever
But never say there’s no slapping contest, ya ya

What the hell*, I don’t know how to spell
But let’s have a slapping contest
Let’s have some fun in the sunny sun
Sooo… let’s have a slapping contest

Spoons, forks, knives whatever
But never say there’s not a slapping contest

Let’s have some rulers with holes so it will sting
Please do not knock off my rings

Let’s have a slapping conteeeeest!

If you set it to music and sing it to Bo on your next gig, I wanna hear it.

* When she sings it, she says “heck,” ever mindful of that Wal-Mart shelf space.

This is such a tantalizingly brief item that I’m going to recommend you read it yourself and savor that last line.

Mobius, originally uploaded by HisCheapMoves.

Paper: Unknown 24lb. Flyer Paper (about 20″ x 8.5″)

A classic — the hard part is finding one-sided paper [rimshot].

This one is a bit old and battered. I folded the corrugations onto a couple different sheets of paper, then cut them into strips and reassembled them with some tape. The loop was made while the paper was flat, then the corrugations were put back in. It’s a bit tricky, especially at first.

Interlocking Concertina Towers, originally uploaded by HisCheapMoves.

Paper: Some dark-red metallic band bio (8.5″ x 11″)

When compressed, the profile looks like an exaggerated ‘S’. As it expands, the curves contract, eventually making a full circle. They interlock well.

This particular paper was colored the same on both sides; if I use something colored on one side only, each tower will be a different color.