The Observer's Blog

Goshen Anti-Semitism

Since I know I never want to read the vast amounts of text generated in the last 24 hours ever again, I will summarize the current Bigwhoop situation for my own reference (and also to steal any future Google hits for "Goshen anti-Semitism" searches).

Here Eric mentioned that H.I. had her bat mitzpha at the Hall of Fame of the Trotter. Bess mentioned that five Jewish families controlled Goshen. H.I. implied these posts were anti-Semitic, and I assumed she was a crazy hater like all those track people who find Furst's site. Matt chimed in, implying that that Goshen Jews would profit from his death. Two weeks later, H.I. published an article implying Bess and Matt's as well as the Furst family were possibly feeding their children anti-semitic propaganda during their formative years. Bigwhoop is abuzz with a flurry of posts from mostly Goshen readers and some Jewish folks. Bess first, then Furst apologizes for the insensitive and offensive nature of their comments. Neither admit the comments were in fact anti-Semitic, nor do they significantly empathize with the offended.

I would like to re-iterate that this is mostly a ploy to increase my readership and is only secondarily an attempt to accurately portray the events of and leading up to the last 24 hours with as little interpretation as possible.

Kormendy's Cave

This week I won an eBay auction of 50 Audubon prints (9" by 12") for $5, and I intend to use them to decorate my office which I share with two open-minded guys. If you know who Audubon is, you realize these are drawings of birds (and you may also realize he is from my home state of Louisiana, though I'm a little fuzzy on that). Anyway, this is oddly fitting, as my office was once the domain of the great John Kormendy, who now resides in a sweet chair at Texas. Among other things, Kormendy is well-known in the astronomical community for his interest in birds: photographing them, going on bird safaris in South America, that sort of thing.

Kormendy is an interesting character. In my time at Texas, I'd often be the only car in the lot when I'd get up to work around midnight, except for John Kormendy's Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer. He apparently has worked on a night schedule for many years, and while he was at Hawaii he specifically requested an office with no windows so that he wouldn't have any idea what time it was. Today the office is known as "Kormendy's Cave" for this reason, thought I doubt he called it this himself.

Other decorations are needed, though for now I have only the prints and some vinyl albums I picked up from Salvation Army. They are mostly just cool looking covers, though some are more like portraits of well-known and -liked artists (e.g., Neil Young). The coolest album cover by far is Debbie Harry's Kookoo (shown to the right). Maybe some sort of sign on the door that reads "Kormendy's Cave" with this picture would be appropriate.

Quest: Ani DiFranco Poster

Recent posts in Bigwhoop space have stirred something deep inside of me: the desire to have a large effigy the person who is for me archetypal of the female singer/songwriter, a genre close to my heart. However, not just any Ani poster will do. The image must come from one of a series of black and white photos (all presumably from the same session) in which I think Ms. DiFranco looks particularly hot and/or bitchin' (e.g., a headshot, a
weird pose, or a "Wanna start something?").

I've have now spent many hours, in vain, searching for such a poster, and have almost been convinced that such a thing doesn't exist. Except I would swear that I saw such a poster once in college at a poster sale, maybe even in a giant size. To track such a thing down, I feel like it would be helpful to know who the photographer was, but any information on where these images came from would be useful. Apparently people don't believe in crediting the images they post on their Ani fan site . . . Anyway, eBay has been of no help, and neither have the myriad poster-selling websites. Honestly, finding nothing of this sort on eBay was a killer blow, can anything exist if its not available on eBay. Even things some people don't believe exist (like souls) are on eBay!

Tho' it may take much time I am comitted to this quest: to strive, to search for (nay, find!) an Ani DiFranco poster suitable for a boy's room!