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.

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 .

Obviously.

From the topic of the conversation, though, I hoped it was clear that I was referring to the Jewish population of what later became the state of Israel, which had been at least an order of magnitude smaller than what it became after even those first waves of immigration, which the whole post was about.

On my mom's side, I am Old-Money-Except-Poor. Her family HAD money--with everyone college educated and in the DAR and the girls making the Grand Tour before marriage, etc. up until the Depression, when they lost it all. My Dad's parents were textbook poor. His dad was one of 12 kids born to a Jewish shopkeeper and his French-Canadian wife and his mom was a Finish immigrant who grew up in an orphanage.

I think there is a distinct class the author did not mention which I would call the Academic class. Professors, people in publishing, Scientists (hell, most Buffistas)--all these people don't have money but do have their own distinct set of values. The love of knowledge and culture and disinterest in the trappings of wealth is common in this group, no matter what class they started from. I grew up with people who would spend money on a season ticket for the Ballet, but not on a new couch.

My Mother's side of the family were largely clergy and teachers -- so educated and with a certain status but no money to speak of.

My Father's side were farmers (maternal) and upper class (paternal) who lost their cash (twice, actually -- American branch of the family in '29, Cuban branch in '59).

I grew up financially lower class but socially middle class. In some ways it gives me perspective, in others I never quite fit in.

I think the material in the original article is most useful for people with no sense of any life experience but their own or people with a very narrow and firm defintion of "normal".