Category: Art

Lend Me Your Ear*

Well, we now have a new theory on the fate artist Vincent Van Gogh’s ear, that rather than having cut it off himself, that it was as a result of a fight with fellow artist, and friend Paul Gaugin:

According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.

But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists’ letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.

This is a definition of friendship of which I was previously unaware.

*You really didn’t think that I could pass up this pun.

Essential for Any Parent

My Liary, “A journal to record all my fibs, white lies, and larger distortions of the truth.”

It is for recording those times when one stretches the truth, along with turn of the last century (c 1900) cartoons, which appeals to me, since I grew up with the original illustrations of A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, and so they feel comforting.

I got a copy from a reader, and as a parent, it proves useful.

Between the tooth fairy and Keith Olbermann, I have to keep what I say to the kids straight.

It’s available for purchase at the link.

Pictures of interior below:

Mad Magazine Still Has it Now and Again

You know, I just got the news that Mad Magazine is going quarterly from monthly, which unfortunately means that it’s circulating the drain.

Still, it appears that they still have comedic chops:

This is just as funny, in a Mad Magazine kind of way, as when the Onion says, “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job“.

It’s also a reason why I shouldn’t be President. I’d be mainlining bat guano right now.

Click pic to go to Mad.