With stuff like this to work with, Regretsy.com is never going to run out of material: zircon-encrusted underwear made out of beef jerky and called, I kid you not, “Brief Jerky”. The Etsy seller advises that this pair of underpants isn’t especially edible, so maybe instead you’d like to make your own. In which case, the Internet provides.

According to the blogger who shared this picture, only five of these coin-operated Pegasus rides were made for Mobil Oil gas stations. Must have been a pretty sweet ride for any kid lucky enough to have found one.

Once into a quiet village,
Without haste and without heed,
In the golden prime of morning,
Strayed the poet’s wingéd steed.

It was Autumn, and incessant
Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves,
And, like living coals, the apples
Burned among the withering leaves.

Loud the clamorous bell was ringing
From its belfry gaunt and grim;
‘T was the daily call to labor,
Not a triumph meant for him.

Not the less he saw the landscape,
In its gleaming vapor veiled;
Not the less he breathed the odors
That the dying leaves exhaled.

Thus, upon the village common,
By the school-boys he was found;
And the wise men, in their wisdom,
Put him straightway into pound.

Then the sombre village crier,
Ringing loud his brazen bell,
Wandered down the street proclaiming
There was an estray to sell.

And the curious country people,
Rich and poor, and young and old,
Came in haste to see this wondrous
Wingéd steed, with mane of gold.

Thus the day passed, and the evening
Fell, with vapors cold and dim;
But it brought no food nor shelter,
Brought no straw nor stall, for him.

Patiently, and still expectant,
Looked he through the wooden bars,
Saw the moon rise o’er the landscape,
Saw the tranquil, patient stars;

Till at length the bell at midnight
Sounded from its dark abode,
And, from out a neighboring farm-yard
Loud the cock Alectryon crowed.

Then, with nostrils wide distended,
Breaking from his iron chain,
And unfolding far his pinions,
To those stars he soared again.

On the morrow, when the village
Woke to all its toil and care,
Lo! the strange steed had departed,
And they knew not when nor where.

But they found, upon the greensward
Where his struggling hoofs had trod,
Pure and bright, a fountain flowing
From the hoof-marks in the sod.

From that hour, the fount unfailing
Gladdens the whole region round,
Strengthening all who drink its waters,
While it soothes them with its sound.

“Pegasus In Pound”, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you’re interested, the restaurant’s own website is here, and I’m pleased to see that it’s very reasonably priced, especially considering the location. There’s too many modest-to-poor joints in New York City that feel justified in charging prices and treating customers like they were in the Rainbow Room and not a coffee shop or burger joint. What’s evident, though, is that the sense of place borders on the eternal, which is a quality that has pervaded New York for a long time but is beginning to die out.

Wu and Usui have also produced other short films for clients ranging from the New York Times to MoMA to Pepsi, which you can view on the website for their production company Lost & Found Films.

And it’s FOR REAL.

Yesterday, I had an experience I hadn’t entirely anticipated having at this stage of my life: I got fingerprinted by the Cambridge Police Department.

The biotech company where I work part-time is planning to start selling products that require them to have a particularly lethal neurotoxin on premises, as well as some other chemicals that can be used in the creation of narcotics. Those substances will be kept in a secure area, but anyone who has to have access to said area has had to go through a security clearance process that includes having fingerprints on file with the FBI’s bioterrorism unit. As one of the IT guys, I will have to have access to the Chamber Of Death, so off I went to the Cambridge PD at lunchtime. There, in a small room, a young woman firmly took each of my fingers, rolled them on an inkpad, and pressed them onto a pair of cards to be sent to the Feds.

I remarked to her that I was surprised that the process had not gone digital. Digital fingerprinting is actually pretty common these days. She informed me that they do, in fact, have a digital system in the booking area where arrestees are processed because it’s faster and easier, which is key when dealing with uncooperative people, but the traditional ink print is still preferred. The room where she fingerprinted me was only just around the corner from the front entrance of what is a fairly large building, so it must be a common enough procedure to do non-arrest-related prints.

As I alluded to above, I also had to have a basic criminal background check, the result of which is that I now have some clearance number from the FBI that I can use if I go to another job that requires such things. I assume the same holds true of the prints — once they’re on file I doubt they ever have to be done again. Now that I’m marked man, though, whatever madcap crime spree I may or may not have been planning will be all that easier to foil. Curses!

Salon, of all places, had a wonderful article last week featuring a slew of gorgeous posters designed for the various passenger rail lines that serviced Chicago and the region surrounding the city, as well as the Chicago Transit Authority. The posters are mostly from the 1920s, and they feature many Chicago landmarks, some of which are gone but not all. There are also nature scenes and other travel poster style images of such “exotic” destinations as the Ogden Dunes in Indiana and Benton Harbor, Michigan. Toward the bottom of the article, there are even some photographs of the actual posters “in the wild” at “L” stops in Evanston and Wilmette. Though the posters pre-date the iconic art of the WPA, it’s clear where some of the aesthetics for WPA-period travel posters comes from when you look at these.

Thanks to my old Northwestern University grad school classmate Nina Berry for pointing me to this link.

Here’s a recent photo of Beijing from a Chinese blogger. It’s not quite as glamorous as some pictures of the city, but there’s no doubt that the Chinese government pushed through a huge amount of construction and urban renewal in the years leading up to the 2008 Olympics.

The blog “Poemas del Rio Wang” recently came across a cache of photos taken for LIFE magazine in 1946, just prior to the Chinese Revolution that may represent one of the few photographic records of what Beijing looked like for hundreds of years prior to its modernization. Almost nothing of Old Beijing remains other than the Forbidden City and other areas preserved as historical sites, which really isn’t all that uncommon for most major cities, except that there was a lot more photographic material from places like London or Paris or New York. There’s a lot of really wonderful things to see, so do visit the link.

It may be the end of January but we are just a week into the New Year according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Not only is it the Year of the Dragon, there is a second astrological system traditional in China that is based on the five elements of fire, earth, water, metal and wood that overlays the 12-year cycle so that children born this year will be “Water Dragons”: not just lucky, but smart and judicious as well.

I, and my fellow 1963 babies, am a “Water Rabbit”, as described here:

Delicate and docile, Water Rabbits will pretty well go with the flow to avoid any conflict or argument. These situations hurt them and bother them because they are such sensitive creatures. They are usually sociable and relaxed, although sometimes they get withdrawn and introspective. They are supportive with family and friends as well as business partners and display an empathy that makes people flock to them for friendly advice and comfort. Sometimes, they can easily be taken advantage of because they are so generous with themselves and their emotions. So they have to be careful not to let their guards down so quickly.

If you aren’t too distracted by the cartoons, this is an excellent distillation of the basic ideas Marx wrote in the Communist Maninfesto about the history of class struggle and the reductive nature of capitalism. Americans have been so thoroughly indoctrinated to immediately assume that communism is wrong, evil, or both that the simple truths of Marx’s analysis don’t even register with us. Maybe by explaining them with visual language that practically anyone can relate to, more people might grasp the seriousness of the death spiral capitalism has trapped us all in.