I was just thinking about Hummers yesterday (about the auto, not the action). Not as trendy as they used to be, huh? I wonder how much of a punch in the gut gassing one of those up for daily use is these days.

GM is supposedly considering selling or shutting down the Hummer line.

Not large enough for some people: [link]

Maybe I can go punch 'em myself.

I get kind of nauseated by the talk of the right and proper way to spend money (having grown up with none in a fairly wealthy area, and having Huge Honkin' Issues where I'm often afraid that those who Have are sneering at my tacky, tacky, classless self), but I think most people can agree that Hummers are tacky, no matter where you stand on where the TV stand goes.

I think I'm too tired - I can't decide if this is cool or not:

Famous historical beheadings recreated with mantises

Artist Judith G. Klausner (a.k.a. Rogue Entomologist) has used mantises (infamous for the females' habit of biting off the heads of their mates) to stage several well-known scenes of women beheading men. Right now, she has the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (also viewable in 3D!) and the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. The costumes in particular are incredible -- lots of great detail work at a very small scale.

The queen mantis does have a pretty dress....

Ashkenazi immigrants (from the various European and Eastern European areas) were always (and by "always" I mean, of course, the last 100-and-a-bit years, because there was hardly anybody here before that)

Ummm there were actually a fair number of people there before that - just mostly Arab .

The last photo here is freaking amazing!

I come from dirty city Irish on my dad's side and rural hick French-Lithuanian on my mom's side. We are SO not WASPS.

I come from poor Irish and genteely poor French. Also SO not WASPs. I had to explain this to my BF from HS, who is East Indian and married into WASPs. She was like, "Why didn't you explain to me about WASPs?" I was like, "They're a mystery to me, too."

I love that top picture of the corset, ita, but are all those top three pictures of the same outfit? I can't quite tell...and then I can't decide quite how I feel about it. Or if I would like it quite as well on someone who wasn't quite as prettily shaped as the girl modeling it. :)

Am avoiding work for a moment, after a small victory. I almost had to stay near the airport, just because they have some ridiculous rate negotiated with a hotel there. Um, seriously, just because you can stay at a hotel for $150 there does NOT mean I can get $150 rate anywhere ELSE in LA. What kind of crack are you people smoking?? NOR does it mean I should have to stay at the airport and DRIVE CROSS TOWN every day!!!! cracksmokers. Luckily, they relented. Phew.

I'm really lucky I grew up without serious class issues. Both of my folks were from the same dirt poor county in Eastern Kentucky and DH's folks were in the same economic class, for the most part. We had very similar upbringings: One generation away from genuine poverty.

We were proud, though, and never felt inferior in any social setting because my mom reinforced good manners and education was stressed as the key to rising above our origins so that was cool.

I find the discussion fascinating, though.