The Cellar - Weird News

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people say that, at this time, if you are heading eastbound on I-70 in Kansas or I-80 in Nebraska, and have out-of-state plates, the chances are outstanding that you will be pulled over for some minor unconfirmable infraction to see if you are hauling weed out of Colorado.

ordinary law-abidin' people say they were pulled over three times before they could get through Kansas

My parents, both in their 80's can confirm UT's post. They drive out every year to ski and have been pulled over multiple times
while driving back.

I-40 is a drug superhighway. I-10 is losing due to heavy enforcement. ANY E-W highway is a target nowadays.

I used to think all these political things were just a little weird with a mild interesting streak thrown in--at least it's not a viagra ad, right? Except now I see all of them as Russian tools to destabilize other countries' governments, and they make me nauseous.

Museum offers gold toilet to Trump instead of Van Gogh's work

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New York's Guggenheim museum has turned down a request from President Donald Trump to borrow Van Gogh's work for the White House - instead offering him a gold toilet, media reports say.

The museum apologised for not being able to furnish the White House with Van Gogh's Landscape With Snow, the Washington Post says.

But the Guggenheim suggested a "solid, 18-karat toilet" could be offered as an alternative.

The White House has made no comment.

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According to the Washington Post, museum curator Nancy Spector responded to the White House request last September.

"I am sorry... to inform you that we are unable to participate in this loan since the painting is part of the museum's Thannhauser Collection, which is prohibited from travel except for the rarest of occasions," she wrote in an email.

The 1888 Van Gogh painting, the email added, would be exhibited at the museum's sister institution with the permission of the owners.

However, the curator added that the gold toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was available to the White House "for a long-term loan".

"It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care," Ms Spector added.

The fully functional exhibit - titled America - is seen as a pointed satire on excessive wealth in the US

They should have offered something by Salvador Dali. Now that really is crap.
Sorry about the above indelicacy, but sometimes these things just have to be said.

Link

If not Dali, the largest fraud ever foisted on the art world, Jackson Pollock. :rolleyes:

You know I'm going to get on my Pollock soapbox.

His work near-perfectly reproduces what scientists have determined is the most pleasing visual distribution of an image--something found in nature, for example, as a dense forest canopy. This wasn't by accident. Computer analysis of the visual distribution of his work shows a clear, unmistakable trend--he was fairly close, in his earlier works, to the perfect distribution; he steadily, empirically, improved over time; and once he was able to produce his most "pleasing to the human eye" images, he never wavered and never fell back down in effectiveness--there were no statistical outliers in this trend, it was methodically consistent. This was a purpose-driven result. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and he achieved it through persistent effort.

Computer analysis of a Pollock work can accurately date at which period of his career he produced it, and determine with complete confidence if it is a forgery of a Pollock work--others are not able to produce the images he does, even when "copying" his work.

Taste is subjective, but appreciation of a craftsman's facility and technique isn't an evaluation of taste. I don't think "fraud" is the correct word to describe someone who is literally, scientifically verified to have achieved a very specific, measurable result.

I like Pollock's art. Draws you in. There's something primal about it, but also kind of delicate and organic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanaC (Post 1002912)

I like Pollock's art. Draws you in. There's something primal about it, but also kind of delicate and organic.

What does that have to do with a gold shit house? Maybe we should ask the Donald?

If you need a computer to tell you whether a painting is good or not, it's not art it's science.
The "experts" running around fawning about how great it is to drive up the prices(commissions) are fraudsters.

Not so much weird as eminently sensible. :)

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A volunteer dressed as Agnes Burns, Robert Burns’s mother, demonstrates how to hurl a haggis.
The World Haggis Hurling Championship, held to coincide with The Big Burns Supper festival, was later scrapped due to bad weather.

An enterprising catapult salesman could make a packet at that event.

Link.

More comfortable than eating and then hurling. :vomit:

Haggis is better tossed than eaten.

Haggis is best eaten. With tatties and neeps.

Ftw. Food of the fucking gods, man.

You can actually get some pretty decent vegetarian haggis these days too. Me, though, I prefer the real deal.

[eta] mind you, y'all are probably against black pudding too.