I am cooling my heels in the U.S.-segregated part of the Calgary Airport, which fortuitously has a Tim Hortons. I have time for one post after my donut.
From reader Stephen Q. Muth, half of Butter’s staff, we have this item from KOAA5, sent with the note, “Too cute not to pass on.” I suppose it is:
An unnamed clouded leopard cub has made the trip from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute to the Denver Zoo; all for the sake of keeping the species alive.
The cub traveled on a Frontier Airlines flight to DIA over the weekend. It will be paired up with two other clouded leopard cubs, Pi and Rhu, at the zoo. The cubs will soon appear in the Toyota Elephant Passage.
Clouded leopards returned as a species to Denver Zoo in 2011 after a four year absence.
I expect Butter to weigh in below.
And, as lagniappe, a slide from Seth (“The Thinking Atheist”) Andrews’s talk yesterday, which was a lavishly illustrated disquisition about how Christianity blatantly copies and co-opts parts of popular culture, thereby preventing its young adherents from any need to leave their own culture. They’ve ripped off the Starbucks logo!
The reason they don’t get sued (we saw many similar ripoffs) is that no big corporation wants to be seen suing “faith”.
Wait until you see the Testamints!
Not sure Starbucks would even have a case if they did sue – their trademark icon is the mermaid, which is not duplicated. AFAIK they do not own the copyright for putting icons in circles with words around the edges, which is an extremely common practice.
So when they morally rip off (analogous motive), companies can’t morally sue?
There are no gods.
They wouldn’t have a case. Satire and parody are protected forms of speech that copyright can’t touch under the fair use doctrine.
Seems they could claim that it’s a bearded lady.
Triple blended with whip?
Yes! And the cup cozi is a crown of thorns – keeps your fingers from burning, but still allows you to suffer for your faith.
I HAS SEEN CUTR. 4 EXAMPLE, TEH NOSE IZ KIND OV HOOJ 4 MAH TASTEZ.
This message has been sent from my Blackberry!
That’s because noses are for smelling, not tasting, silly!
b&
The best rip offs are the Christian hair bands.
I hope you chose your donut wisely. I saw some gross looking Stanley Cup playoff ones last week.
Are Christian hair bands things to keep your hair neat and chaste, or Motley Crue without the fun stuff?
The latter.
One good thing about Christian rock bands is they really give you the experience of being sent to hell.
😉
Get thee behind me, Stryper.
Do NOT mention that name – I remember the 80s.
“The yellow & black attack”.
My word.
Strip, so that thou mayest get striped.
Is that shirt about the zombie apocalypse, or about xianity? Oh, I keep forgetting. Nevermind.
I like the holes in the hands.
http://i.imgur.com/neGbC.jpg
Nice!
I own a pack of Testamints gum. I have no idea what it tastes like, I just use it as a visual gag. It must be 10 years old by now.
From their product page: “Testamints (R) Sugar Free Gum is available in Spearmint or Peppermint flavors.”
What, no saviour flesh flavor?
Must be old testamints…
Well done.
Living in the bible belt, and having worked at Starbucks or a number of years, i have seen my fair share of these shirts. One particular guy, who had gone to Liberty University and was doing something ‘theological’ (i.e. nothing at all) would always crack jokes about it. The number of similar shirts and products at Mardel is appalling. As an atheist, but more importantly, as an artist and a graphic designer, this really chaps my ass. It’s a cheap idea, totally unoriginal, and from my perspective, its almost the secular sheepskin of the fundies. I see it frequently in the pentecostals around these parts who have a pretty strict and uniform dress code (jean skirt, hair down to the tailbone, for example). I get the feeling many of them realize how ‘on the outside’ of popular culture they are and want to be part of the bigger in-group identity. Of course, they wouldn’t think twice to demonize the majority of American culture. It’s really jarring to see hordes of women dressed all alike (honestly, to the point where it looks genetic; you can wade in the depth of the breeding pool), furnishing antiquated clothing items and beliefs, and at the same time using their iPhones to pay for Starbucks. Talk about a cultural buffet!
Perhaps someone should create a similar motif involving the FSM, its noodles arranged in a woven circle with bugaboo eyes in the center.
Tom Waits used to introduce “Chocolate Jesus” in concert with a little spiel about “Testamints”:
“My father-in-law was trying to get me interested in this business venture—these things called Testamints. They’re these little lozenges with little crosses on them. If you’re on the road, or something, and you can’t worship in the way you’re accustomed to, or it’s during the week, you can have one of these little testamints, and it kind of gets you right in touch with your higher power.” Q: Body of Christ? TW: “Body of Christ. Exactly. So we just kind of took it a step further. You got your Testamints. What about your Chocolate Jesus? Melts in your mouth, not your hand. It is kind of direct. Drink this in remembrance of me. Someone might think it’s blasphemous, but it’s actually kind of a grassroots spirituality.”
You might also check out Godinterest — it’s Pinterest for Jesus.
I am disappointed – I expected more mochary.
“The cubs will soon appear in the Toyota Elephant Passage.”
Can an employee/the zoo be sued if s/he refers to it as “The Elephant Passage,” leaving out “Toyota”? 😉