I Like To Draw Sandwiches, And People Gesturing With Sandwiches

But, honestly, it's like sometimes I take the reference photos just to ignore them.

Hot Dog In A Bun

[Via some Glass person]

MOVED A DAY (CUZ OF RAIN)!!!! THIS SUNDAY!!!!!! August 31th!!!!!!! 2:30pm!!!

THIS SUNDAY!!!!!! August 31th!!!!!!! 2:30pm!!!

I'm subletting my apt. to pursue cartooning (and general journalistic/historical/scientific weirdness) FULL TIME!

WHICH MEANS there is only one weekend left to throw an amazing BBQ STUNT* SPECTACULAR on my roof celebrating my 25 and 3/4's years of being alive!

Even though I haven't thrown my own birthday-related party since inviting my whole class to see "Back to the Future Part II" in the theater — I will attempt to have lots of delicious things for everyone! (but please bring Foods and Drinks, also, to meet demand.)

ALSO: There will be music, and a kids' pool on the roof. Does that cover everything?

IT DOESN'T: MESSAGE ME ON MYSPACE OR FACEBOOK FOR DETAILS.

*Due to a recent Park Slope Council ordinance, an area-wide moratorium on spectacular stunt permits is in effect until the next calendar year. In compliance with this there will be no stunts at Matthew Phelan's 25th and 3/4 Anniversary Stunt Spectacular.

THIS SATURDAY!!!!!! August 30th!!!!!!! 2:30pm!!!

I'm subletting my apt. to pursue cartooning (and general journalistic/historical/scientific weirdness) FULL TIME!

WHICH MEANS there is only one weekend left to throw an amazing BBQ STUNT* SPECTACULAR on my roof celebrating my 25 and 3/4's years of being alive!

Even though I haven't thrown my own birthday-related party since inviting my whole class to see "Back to the Future Part II" in the theater — I will attempt to have lots of delicious things for everyone! (but please bring Foods and Drinks, also, to meet demand.)

ALSO: There will be music, and a kids' pool on the roof. Does that cover everything?

IT DOESN'T: MESSAGE ME ON MYSPACE OR FACEBOOK FOR DETAILS.

*Due to a recent Park Slope Council ordinance, an area-wide moratorium on spectacular stunt permits is in effect until the next calendar year. In compliance with this there will be no stunts at Matthew Phelan's 25th and 3/4 Anniversary Stunt Spectacular.

Hey, Buddy? Ergonomic Cup Of Joe?

"The shape breaks free of a nearly universal design constraint of cups, the linear vertical axis."

Designed by award-winning artist David Pier, this ergonomic coffee mug has no funny sayings on it or anything. Plus, it looks weird. According to Pier, from the website:

By using a different approach to the design process I developed a revolutionary cup that is unusual and beautiful in appearance and superior in function. The form flows from the shape of hand and mouth, the weight and volume of the contained fluid, and the relations between these. The undulating rim fits the lips better and prevents spills on the side opposite the handle. A level rim would be easy for the factory but would lessen the user’sexperience. The design no longer is dictated by the manufacturing process. The oval body brings the center of gravity closer to the hand. The shape helps make the strong porcelain even more resistant to breakage. The shape is attractive and interesting from any angle. The handle and body can be held in several ways, all more comfortable than traditional mugs.

[Thanks, Jess! This is, excuse me, a damn fine cup of coffee.]

My Dorothy Gambrell Thursday Image Sampler

[Via a very small array. Click images to enlarge]

Snackspeare

This insignia, crest, whatever, for the University of Auckland looks like a Jacobian Pringles man. So, I did this:

Why is my diet so barren of new crisps,
So far from variation or quick stopping?
Why with the time do I not snack upon new wisps,
By new-found methods o'er this ceaseless popping?

Beet Pulp For Pet Food To Be Used For Bioplastics Instead

This Dog Says, "No Way."



Despite healthy suspicions that we in the developed world are robbing global food resources for the manufacture of "sustainable" bioplastics and biofuels, our research communities soldier on.

Chemists Victoria Finkenstadt and LinShu Liu of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have been working since 2004 on a method for transforming beet pulp into what Science Daily describes as a "specialized filler material for polylactic-acid-based plastics [PLA]"—and they seem to have had a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, the beet pulp, which is traditionally only marketable as a component in livestock feed or pet food, would be going to make exactly the bioplastic that releases methane (a potent greenhouse gas) while rotting in landfills, according to this report in the London Guardian. The PLA-based plastic containers further don't appear to decompose quite the way people expect them to in that, to fully biodegrade (a primary benefit they have over traditional petrol plastics), they have to be composted in anaerobic digesters of which there are precious few (in Britain) and which traditionally don't accept plastic containers.

SO: Without a better alternative (going back to regular plastics isn't exactly productive), maybe just getting more municipal anaerobic digesters is the solution. (How expensive are they, anyway?) With the beat pulp filler lowering the cost of PLA-based bioplastics, maybe it's worth still considering these. I feel slightly inhuman asking this, but why are we blaming food shortages on biofuels and bioplastics, when climate change-induced drought and exponentially increasing population growth deserve their fair share of the blame? This goes out to our domesticated pet populations too: Don't hate the bioplastic, dog. Hate the game.

[Link to the Science Daily article; Proposal for the USDA's research project "Valuable Polysaccharide-Based Products from Sugar Beet Pulp and Citrus Peel"]

Depressing Alert: Worldwide Food Shortage Leads To Riots

Australia's ABC (like the BBC) reports that in "the past week alone there have been violent, food-related riots in Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cameroon." Frankly, I've already read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, so I'd like to be exempt from this upcoming apocalypse. [Link]

Study: Blue M&Ms Not As Tough As Red Or Brown Ones

From the Best of Craigslist:

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.

I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theater of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.

[Link, Thanks to my housemate Jess]