February 2008 Archives

When I wrote about the passing of Steve Gerber, prolific comics writer and creator of Howard of Duck, I did so recalling the way the themes of God and fate reverberated through his work. What I didn't know: that he named the character after a high school friend who later became a rabbi.

Howard the Duck was reading the newspaper at a coffee shop in Dayton, Ohio, when he saw a wire service item that Steve had died. "I was shocked," Howard told me in a phone interview on Monday.

Howard — Howard Tockman, another U. City classmate — probably was Steve's closest friend through high school and college. "I used to do a Donald Duck voice," he recalled, "so when Steve came up with the character, kind of a combination of Donald Duck and Groucho Marx, he named him Howard the Duck."

In high school, "we were all kind of carefree and joked around," said Tock, as he was known. We put out a comedy magazine called 'Nerve' from Steve's basement. Some of what was in 'Nerve' was political and social, and some of it was just silly. Steve had a very sharp wit. He could reflect humorously about something in a very dark way."

Tock, now the rabbi at Congregation Sh'ma Yisrael in Dayton, knew Steve had had some health problems, but he, too, had lost touch with his old friend. "I know that at one time, he had hopes of writing more than comics," Tock told me. "I got the sense that he would have liked to write something of greater significance. He had a lot of talent, and he was sort of pigeonholed in the comic book field."

As Steve's friend, Tock said it saddened him to learn that Steve had been so unhappy. As Rabbi Tockman, he said he understood how it can feel "when you are by yourself a lot and creating fictional characters and you don't have a grounding in relationships and no real permanent base for yourself. When we were young, I didn't have a sense that he would have a lonely life, and I'm sorry to hear that."

From Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody's blog response to the supposed scandal of (partially) nude photos from her past. You can buy a variation of this and other "Twisted Religious Shirts" at FoulMouthShirts.com

Uwe Ommer, "Do It Yourself"

Matt Groening letter on Homer, Krusty and God, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

Back in 1990, when I was researching my Ph.D. dissertation in religious history, I found a Christian tract featuring Bart Simpson as the sinner and Homer as the angry God.

Simpsons counterfeit merch was ubiquitous, so I decided to send it to Matt Groening. I joking argued that since a Christian wouldn't steal someone else's intellectual property or falsely claim to have licensed it, he must have plagiarized the Simpsons from the tract.

As you can see, Groening copped to the charge but corrected the theology.

There's long been speculation that Dick Grayson is an evangelical Christian, but Batman? Graphic Novelties posts a tract portraying Batman as a caped crusading evangelist. The source? Verily, not DC Comics:

Decatur, Ala., City Councilman Ray Metzger, who owns a not-quite-authentic reproduction Batmobile, has been handing out come-to-Jesus pamphlets featuring everyone's favorite Dark Knight.

A 'prayer cafe' is being run by a local church in Croatia, to keep the kids coming in. At the Jedno cafe you pay for your food and drink with prayers. . . .

Parents and church leaders donate the food and drink. Three Our Fathers buy you a coffee (four for a cappuccino), a Coke is five Hail Marys and a Glory be.

A fascinating post from Drive Line:

The decoration of vehicles is a common practice in a number of countries in addition to Pakistan. Similar techniques and materials are employed in truck and (more frequently) bus decoration in the Philippines, Indonesia, and several countries in Central and South America; in South Asia itself, Indian trucks are painted, as are the scooter rickshaws, called "Baby Taxis", of Bangladesh. What makes the case of Pakistan unique, however, is the pervasiveness of vehicle decoration, since decoration is heavily utilized on virtually all privately and fleet-owned commercial vehicles, from the well known trucks and buses, to vans, share taxis, animal carts and even juice vendors' push carts.
The motifs on the trucks can be categorized in five groups:1. Idealized elements of life, such as the romanticized village, landscapes or beautiful women.2. Elements from modern life, such as pictures of political figures or patriotic symbols.3. Talismanic and fetish objects, such as horns, yak tails and items of clothing.4. Talismanically or religiously loaded symbols, such as eyes and fish.5. .Obvious religious symbols and images such as Buraq (a celestial horse that is believed to have carried the Prophet Muhammad on a spiritual journey to heaven).
However, by far the commonest religious symbols appearing on a truck are the Ka'ba and Prophets mosque, appearing on the left and right of the front of the truck somewhere towards the top.

jesus-on-a-chain, originally uploaded by jhfoto.

More about the Knock Shrine & its related apparition here; the photographer's blog has a lot more pictures of cool stuff, including merch.

Paul's Damascus Road moment involved a personal encounter with the risen Christ.

Mine: realizing that biblical Hebrew and Greek is riddled with naughty language.

Really, this was a landmark moment for me, intensified in graduate school when I read Heiko Obermann on Luther's scatological writings & woodcuts.  

One of my favorite remnants of this rhetoric in English is the repeated reference in the King James Version of the Bible to anyone who "pisseth against the wall."  It's a colorful way of dehumanizing men targeted for death--by defining people in terms of their body functions, the (would be) leaders of a community reduce them to animals and thereby make slaughter more acceptible.

Of course, 2500 years later that tends to get lost in translation, especially among fundamentalist preachers who see this as a biblical mandate for men to pee standing up.  For more on Pastor Steven Anderson, check out the blogs of his wife and church.

Via Andrew Sullivan and Dan Savage

Congratulations to Mok & Paul at Eyeteeth, which has one of the most informative wedding blog write-ups I've seen, chock full of insight into the religious significance of Thai wedding traditions and a nice image of global spirituality.

Without, thankfully, the traditional Web 1.0 MIDI accompaniment.

But c'mon, if you'd sat through some of the sermons I've heard, you'd find it a bit difficult too.

And then, of course, there's this.

Via

Pockets of Resistance® Preacher Man Pulpit Clutch (In God We Trust), originally uploaded by Ramekon O'Arwisters "SuperART Hero".

Click through for the artist's explanation.

The Holy Trinity by Damien Hirst

Heavenly Tree., originally uploaded by commoner28th.

And so we learn the origin of Middle Earth's Ents, as Toyota's new environmental sustainability initiative hybridizes humans with trees. Just what everyone wants in a carmaker: a vegan Dr. Moreau.

blogged!, originally uploaded by Cbt's Closet.

Note the nod on the left to religious artist Howard Finster.

One of the fun things about Lost is thinking about all the philosophical, religious and literary references.

Not so much fun--discovering they come from Wikipedia searches:

EW: How about Matthew Abbaddon?

[Lost producer] LINDELOF: ''Abaddon,'' we dug that one out of Wikipedia. When we name people, we often do Web searches on certain verbiage or if we want to pull something out of Greek mythology or Native American mythology, like, ''Who was the god of wheat?''

It's been a weird 24 hours here at the BofG.  Every time I've tried tried to post, something crashed--and the crashes occurred only when trying to post on this site.  Flickr posts--didn't work.  Wireless--cut out, prompting repeated router reboots.  Desktop blogging software implodes.  Screen freezes.  And so on.

And so it came to pass that this site had become the web equivalent of the Garden of Eden's tree of the knowledge of good and evil--the day wherein I tried to access it, my post would surely die.  To mark the occasion I tracked down this vintage Adam & Eve at the Tree of Life brooch, replete with the serpent and the apple and the unhappy couple poised to doom us all--and wouldn't you know it, the post looks like it's going to go through.

Just doing my part to extend original sin to the web, if it wasn't there already . . .

Religious publisher Thomas Nelson has announced that it will adopt "environmentally conscious Bible bindings and practices." Practically, this means going from covers made of synthetic materials to leather.

From a carbon footprint standpoint, sounds like a twofer. Vegan Christians, however, will have to look elsewhere for Holy Writ.

Lebourget 1953 - nylon stockings, originally uploaded by garter_belt_17.

In my entrepreneurship class I cite stockings as one example of evolving innovation. This ad from 1953 provides a telling illustration how stockings are an extension of the human impulse to rise above nature.

Transparent as air; the dress billowing in the wind; the soaring jet, the arc to infinity; looking to the future with a smile--this isn't just a nylon ad. It's consumer propaganda for the soul.

From an online collection of condom envelopes of the 1930s & '40s, assembled from eBay listings.

Paper Moon captured one of the last century's trademark scams: scoping out the obituaries and selling widows an expensive gift Bible ostensibly ordered by her late husband as a special surprise just before he died.

Plus ca change, plus c'est (not quite) la meme chose.

"Bible Handkerchief", originally uploaded by sharon918.

Turns out it's made of paper. Click the pic for the whole story, including the hidden truth about a sealed prophecy!

Oshun-Yemanya, afro-brasilian goddess, originally uploaded by lotusfee.

"When she possesses her followers she dances, flirts and then weeps- because no one can love her enough and the world is not as beautiful as she knows it could be."

By Turkish designer Soner Ozenc:

The lighted designs brighten the closer the rug is to the direction of Mecca, so the faithful can always be sure they're pointing to the right location, and the soft glow is said to provide a soothing environment in which to fully focus on the prayer.

Well... OK then., originally uploaded by orderedlist.

Explanation:

Saw this in my Facebook update feed and just thought somebody might enjoy it.

Power of Three, originally uploaded by hale_popoki.

Official Charmed triquetra merchandise. I haven't seen enough episodes to know if the following is a line from the show, but in some small towns in Texas it's enough to get you burned at the stake:

Hmmm, we need to cast a spell on the rest of my classroom!

Sheila Smith's husband, Bob, had to go away on business and couldn't make the Valentine's Day recommitment service at Grove City United Methodist Church. So friends brought a life-size inflatable doll to serve as a stand-in.

They dressed Blow-up Bob in dress pants, a shirt and tie, and taped on a head-shot photo of the real Bob Smith.

His wife was blown away, because she thought she'd only be serving as matron of honor for four of her friends. After Sheila Smith phoned her husband to tell him about his air-filled alter ego, she wiped away tears as she told how he laughed so hard he couldn't speak.

NPR's Bryant Park Project is running a discussion thread prompted by its feature story on Book22.com, a Christian online shop of "Intimacy Products for Married Couples." Among the various interesting comments this one in particular caught my eye:

Now I've heard everything. You need to go on to the website listed and see what this is really all about: as usual, making money. What about those moneychangers in the temple?

Holy Coffee, originally uploaded by troismarteaux.

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

Via

The church at the Sweden's Icehotel, via AndrewSullivan.com and BLDGBLOG.

Orpheus went down to Hades in a doomed attempt to rescue his beloved Eurydice. Now we come on down to challenge fate at Plinko. Quoth new Price is Right host Drew Carey in today's New York Times:

"[F]or every single person that makes it onstage, it’s like a Joseph Campbell journey, an everyman plucked from obscurity to attempt a journey, with obstacles placed in their way. And I just want to be a good guy for them, so they can win money. I’m there to help them on their journey."

Of course, the show hasn't always had such a benign view of its mythic significance. When I went there back in the Bob Barker days, Rod Roddy tried to cut off my hand.

Anyway, as the Times article explains, Carey's spiritual reference isn't facetious:

Mr. Carey, 49, said that in the past two years he has undergone a “huge spurt of spiritual growth,” having immersed himself in texts from the Bible to books by Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson. The result is a changed attitude about comedy, show business and himself.

“I’ve thought about changing my name, I’ve changed so much,” he said, “If Drew Carey now met Drew Carey from 5 or 10 years ago, I wouldn’t recognize him.”

BLDGBLOG has the scoop on this innovative project: "Jeffrey Inaba and C-LAB have created this mandala of consumption, refuse, and plastic waste, with one side dedicated to the "hydration compulsion" that helps puts millions of one-use bottles in places bottles aren't meant to be."

It's fair-trade, which means the more Divine Chocolate you eat, the more you help save the world.

LOST Dharma Initiative Bag, originally uploaded by TomorrowGirl.

They're not bad--they're eco-friendly!

Joanna Sugden has the scoop, complete with this social-enterprisey analysis from a moderate Muslim blog:

Newspapers are featuring ads for flowers and articles on various Muslims worldwide with their panties in a bunch about any holiday not explicitly mentioned in Sahih Bukhari. But in all the conspicuous consumption and harrumphing, the ones that Muslims should really be focused on get lost in the shuffle as usual. Many of the trappings of Valentine’s Day have ugly and sometimes bloody pasts that no amount of red satin can hide. The items we exchange as gifts are often produced by workers who are paid little or nothing, live in wretched conditions, and face cruelty and danger in their work. Yet in the denouncing of this holiday, even the holier than thou forgot the poor and the oppressed.

The first picture below is "DJ Lea Luna - Pretending To Be Holy & In Control of Some Unknown Something or Other . . . ." When I saw this on FFFFOUND it immediately looked familiar, and then it hit me--it's a front-view echo of the picture that Erich van Daniken claimed to depict an ancient Mayan astronaut.

No, really:

An advent calendar comprises 25 condoms each held behind a respective door for selective removal. Information is contained behind each door and a special condom is available on Christmas eve.

From Jo Longhurst's Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches:

My work with the British show Whippet – a dog bred to an ideal standard – focuses particularly on the evolution of the visual image of the Whippet, and the construction of human identity through the shaping of the figure of the dog.

Via It's Nice That

Drilling for oil in the Great Salt Lake may destroy this piece of conceptual art, "one of the great works of mysticism in the 20th century." Step back and you'll see an a culture clash beyond art versus commerce--while the American norm is toward eternal preservation, the equally sublime Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala is made to be destroyed.

Reeve 60631, originally uploaded by otisarchives2.

Above: a divine x-ray of a rattlesnake.

Elsewhere on the web: sacred snake spiral jewelry from Ka Gold and Exotic India.

Jennifer Emick sends this candid shot of a fervent Christian evangelist disturbing the peace of a forthright friendly atheist:

We took this at our local winefest, which is always vigorously protested by this guy and his friends, who harass all the "fornicators and drunks." (But not the glutton...just out of frame is his 400+ pound pal with his list of six deadly sins...) [H]is pickup matches his signs and shirts. The old guy was actually minding his own business until the preacher spotted his shirt and went bananas.

Protests forced this line of cosmetics to be pulled. Context is everything, I guess--folks objecting to how stuff like this trivializes Jesus seem fine with products marketing "the Christian palette for the face" in Christian stores.

The view from Unique Pakistan, in a lengthy article that includes personal stories, descriptions of various garments and a critical response:

The chador, the billowing black dress that covers most everything from head to toe, leaves the face exposed. The burqa, which is worn in Afghanistan, covers everything including the eyes. And the niqab leaves only the eyes exposed. All these fashions, however, are not following the Quran or even the Muslim religion, Mardini said, but are mere cultural definitions of how to cover.

"The hijab is not meant to restrict or confine a woman, it's a code of modesty," said Mardini. "The hijab is worn so as not to cause attractions; this means the woman has to make sure her hair and neck are covered and wears modest clothing that cover(s) the physical body. You don't have to have the chador or niqab or any of that, those are merely cultural."

But hijab-clad females who don makeup, lots of jewelry and tight clothes defeat the idea. "The hijab's purpose is to not draw attention; when wearing it, one has to be simple, not colorful or stylish," Mardini said.

Part of the symbolism of wearing the hijab also is in "the gaze, the way a woman looks at other people, especially men, particularly strangers," Mardini added. A woman's gaze should be modest, along with "very modest dress and demeanor." And she should "be mindful of God" when veiling.

Mardini said the Quran also calls for conservative cover for men: "They are supposed to cover their bodies in public, be decent in public and not wear tight clothes."

Roses in Riyadh will soon be rare, now that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has banned items with a scarlet hue from floral and gift shops.

For real--Steve Gerber, Howard's creator, has died.  Gerber was an astute satirist, and if your only exposure to Howard the Duck was the 1980s movie, well, that wasn't Howard the Duck.  

Gerber was one of those writers who had a tremendous influence on me over the years but whom I never met.  His last work, which he wrote literally on his deathbed, was the latest incarnation of Doctor Fate.

Below:  God explains the mystery of life in the last issue of Gerber's 2002 Howard the Duck revival:

The following Bell Labs movie--directed by Frank Capra!--was a reliable way for my elementary & middle school teachers to kill time. What I'd forgotten about this classic film since then was how religion dominates it early on--the biblical reference at the opening to offset the science & paganism, Mr. Sun as a bitterly nostalgic dethroned deity basking in the memory of past adulation, the use of Father Time's forward focus to skirt explaining creation before the film had a chance to establish its cultural cred. The overarching narrative frame is fantastic as well--the meta-play of fiction and fact, with the text escaping control of its authors, illustrates a point with which I've annoyed any number of graduate seminars: there's precious little in postmodernism that hadn't already appeared in cartoons.

Anyway kids, roll up your nap blanket and get your milk & cookies, 'cuz here he is . . . Our Mr. Sun!

Even in the midst of the dreaded deadline doom, this story is sure to haunt me all day. Be sure to click through for the entire fascinating obituary of the last native speaker of Eyak.

A Christianity Today greatest hits article resurfaces on the CT website today. "God-made" food beats "man-made" food; Jesus hates Atkins; people will be saved when they see Christians lose weight--learn all this and more here.

A global micro-enterprise network that trains people to craft jewelry & textiles. One constituency: women in prostitution. A Teen Challenge venture.

Via CrunchGear

The woman who made the above list was born in 1964. It was found in her clothing, donated by the hospital after her death.

Words fail:

The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.

The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce. . . .

The killers enforcing their own version of Islamic justice are rarely caught, while women live in fear.

Boldly splattered in red paint just outside the main downtown market, a chilling sign reads: "We warn against not wearing a headscarf and wearing makeup. Those who do not abide by this will be punished. God is our witness, we have notified you."

The attacks on the women of Basra have intensified since British forces withdrew to their base at the airport back in September, police say. Iraqi security forces took over after British troops pulled back, but are heavily infiltrated by militias.

And tracking the perpetrators of these crimes is nearly impossible, Khalaf says, adding that he doesn't have control of the thousands of policemen and officers.

"We're trying to trace crimes carried out by an anonymous enemy," he says.

Amnesty International has raised concern about the increasing violence toward women in Iraq, saying abductions, rapes and "honor killings" are on the rise.

"Politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders were increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists," Amnesty said in a 2007 report.

Sometimes, it's just the color of a woman's headscarf that can draw unwanted attention.

"One time, one of my female colleagues commented on the color of my headscarf," Safana says. "She said it would draw attention ... [and I should] avoid it and stick to colors like gray, brown and black."

This extremist ideology enrages many secular Muslim women, who say it's a misrepresentation of Islam.

Sawsan, another woman who works at a university, says the message from the radicals to women is simple: "They seem to be sending us a message to stay at home and keep your mouth shut."

Above: A Jesus Malverde scapular. For more, check out this article in today's New York Times:

Malverde items are typically sold at botánicas — alternative-medicine pharmacies found in Hispanic neighborhoods that sell herbs, ointments and assorted good luck and black magic charms and potions.

“People say Malverde helped me do this or that; mostly it’s people into drugs who think he’ll shield them from the police,” said Raul Gonzalez, owner of a botánica called Mystic Products in Compton, Calif. “It’s the power of the mind, you know. They believe it, so they take chances and get away with it, but they will eventually get caught.”

Indeed, drug enforcement authorities in Mexico and the United States said Malverde statues, tattoos and amulets can be tip-offs to illegal activity.

“We send squads out to local hotel and motel parking lots looking for cars with Malverde symbols on the windshield or hanging from the rearview mirror,” said Sgt. Rico Garcia with the narcotics division of the Houston Police Department. “It gives us a clue that something is probably going on.”

Courts in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have ruled that Malverde trinkets and talismans are admissible evidence in drug and money-laundering cases.

A newsstand photo via FFFFOUND!:

prayer comittments, originally uploaded by ratterrell.

From the photographer:

tonight at the view we commissioned kate for her mission month in nicaragua. the cards that are on her are prayer commitments from members of our faith family. we spoke the commitments over her and then taped those commitments onto her to remind her that our words are on her and will travel with her.

The Christian abstinence movement has swayed a number of administrators in U.S. schools to establish an abstinence-only curriculum in their sex-ed classes. Two teens in Illinois have been suspended for protesting the abstinence message in their school by wearing t-shirts festooned with condoms and brandishing the message, "Safe Sex or No Sex."

decadent donuts, originally uploaded by hessiebell.

Although I'm not sure that Tom Waits was referring to a donut hole.

Looks like my hidden agenda has been exposed. The last paragraph tells all:

An elaborate, jewel-inlaid religious icon has become the subject of a federal forfeiture suit against a convicted Reynosa drug boss.

Prosecutors allege that Carlos Landín-Martinez — a 52-year-old former Tamaulipas police officer turned second-in-command of Gulf Cartel operations in Reynosa — purchased the gold jewelry with proceeds from drug smuggling operations within the United States.

Landín-Martinez was wearing the piece when agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested him at a local H-E-B in July.

In the form of a pendant, it features the image of Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, inlaid with 128 diamonds, 36 emeralds and one ruby, according to an affidavit filed in the case. It is appraised at a value of more than $12,000.

“Persons who engage in large-scale drug trafficking tend to wear expensive gold jewelry as visible proof that they have been successful,” DEA agent Jaime A. Fernandez said in the document. They wear it “as evidence that they are criminals of consequence.”

Sellers call this a "Fibonacci Fractal Chaos Math Pewter Pendant". But wait--isn't it tied by a string? So it really should be the Fibonacci Fractal Chaos Math String Theory Pewter Pendant. And the big circles turn into little ones . . . hmmm . . . maybe it's the Evodevo Fibonacci Fractal Chaos Math String Theory Pewter Pendant.

I'm all for the integration of science and design, but ya gotta be careful to do more than just follow fads.

Via Consumerist

A Don Addis cartoon via Friendly Atheist

Via MediaBistro, a revealing interview with architect Daniel Libeskind on designing a Jewish museum that isn't centered on the Holocaust:

I’ve dealt with Jewish museums in Europe where you are always part of an immense tragedy. I thought it was remarkable to work in San Francisco on a Jewish museum that is a celebration of Jewish life, and of San Francisco, and of America. That’s why I based it on that very traditional and very ancient core of the Jewish spirit: l’chaim. To life.

Libeskind also discusses the interplay of symbol and abstraction in Jewish design:

[I]f you really go into the biblical texts, you see how important architecture and art is for Jews from the beginning. In the book of Kings, chapter six is a very serious passage. There’s the description of specific measures and cherubim, or angels, and it says: “And he made the oracle in the midst of the house, in the inner part, to set there the ark.” But of course, Jewish architecture is not about venerating an image—it is being communicated through the weight of the buildings, the substantial aspect of the tabernacle.

But enough with the excerpts; read the whole thing here.

Just in time from Valentine's Day, Sugah! offers this line of chocolates designed to reflect seven different--and distinctly NSFW--positions from the Kama Sutra. Of course, if you're reading this blog, I'm sure you're only interested in its religious significance:

Tantra is the philosophy of Spirituality, art and science that has eroticism at its core. Like our approach to chocolate, the Tantric approach to life is joyful and sensual.

Chocolate has long been heralded for its aphrodisiacal qualities. Ancient Tantric teachings have long been used to spice up new and old relationships. Take your lovemaking to new heights and treat yourself and your partner to a little something more than some fine chocolate with our tantric tablet collection.

On Slate, Jeff Greenfield observes that tomorrow's Super Tuesday primary vote will make for "a nutty night." Yet one thing is certain:

Now, barring a McCain appearance at a Black Mass (and given New York's approach to matters spiritual, maybe not even then), McCain appears certain to win New York—and its neighbors.

It's a great line, but what Greenfield might not realize is that McCain is a Satanist.

No, really: it's on YouTube:

Sustainability and spirituality--fossil jewelry has it all:

Our trilobite jewelry was created by taking a mold from actual trilobite fossils. Fossils are worn as amulets to promote longevity, for protection, and to increase spiritual energy. Fossils are symbols of time, eternity, evolution, and represent how nothing in nature is wasted.

Presenter: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?

Contestant: Jesus

Atheist Alley, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

I lived in Moscow, Russia in 1993 and '94. Took a lot of pictures, many of which were destroyed in a flood.

Mirabile victu! This weekend I came across a box with a few surviving photos, including the sign for this cheerful little sidestreet, Atheist Alley.

Via Bogoff.com, found through Neatorama, which featured the following super-cool Masonic watch from the 1930s and made the spot-on joke I wish I'd thought of first.

*. . . but were afraid they'd sing.

Via Shiny Shiny