Retraction

While at least one reader has demanded a retraction for my last post , another has brought to my attention the fact that the content of another recent post has been exposed as a hoax.

Reader Kathy emailed me the following:

I'm sorry to tell you that the 'lost' tribe are not new readers for Yajeev. They've been found since 1910 and if they haven't found the Land of Yajeev by now, well, it's time for a new advertising strategy!

I've been bambooozled and have, in my zeal, propagated the bamboozledness to the Land of Yajeev readership, and for that, I am very sorry. To read about the hoax that shook cyberspace, click here.

I also extend my sincerest regrets to the heretofore presumed-to-be-uncontacted tribesmen and tribeswomen. If you reply to this post with a valid Amazonian jungle address, I'll send down a coupla Land of Yajeev t-shirts. You're going to like the way you look in them. I guarantee it.


... on a separate note, the course I am teaching is drawing to a close, my wife and dog have officially moved to Connecticut, and I am soon to follow... as are several posts which are already written in my head (as my dad would say) ... I'm forecasting a surge in postages. No promises. Just predictions.

Welcome, new readers!

I learned yesterday via CNN that a tribe of Amazonian natives never before contacted by the outside world has been spotted and photographed by passengers in a small airplane flying over their thatched-hut community. The survival of this village is threatened by expansion of the a burgeoning illegal logging industry.

The indigenous Brazilians, mostly painted orange (one seemed to be painted gray) seem to have interpreted the flyover as a potential threat, brandishing bows and arrows, spears, and what appeared to be giant spit ball shooters at their aerial observers.

For better or for worse, I suspect that these tribesmen and tribeswomen will soon be exposed to the technology and advancements of the so-called "developed world". And, when they are introduced to the likes of the Chick Fil A chicken sandwich, underwear, Lost on ABC, Cedar Point roller coasters, the wheel, surely there will be no turning back to their old way of life (they'll have to tune in each week to see if the Losties finally get off the island). And, before long, they will certainly stumble across this great world wide web of communication I like to call the Bloggernet.

My goal is to make this blog as interesting and accessible for as wide an audience as possible, including the previously uncontacted. Because, beneath our clothing or protective gourds, we're all people with similar hopes and fears, frustrations and dreams. We all want to be loved. We all have the same experience of trying to pick the quickest line at the grocery store and having to wait as the customer ahead of us with eight items or less waits for a price check on their Kikkoman Soy Sauce or fruitlessly searches their purse or wallet for coupons they just know they couldn't have left at home. We've all had that dream of showing up for class on the day of the final exam naked (or gourdless) and having forgotten to study.

Orange-painted spear-wielding aborigines, may I be the first to officially welcome you to the blogosphere! I hope you'll find the Land of Yajeev to be your online home away from home! Please check out the archives for older posts and feel free to leave your comments whenever you feel so moved.

photos by Funai-Frente de Protecao Etno-Ambiental Envira via Reuters via MSNBC.com

Fine, art.

Probably fifteen years ago, I walked into an art museum, and the first painting I saw was an approximately 3 x 6 foot canvas painted solid red. No lines, no designs, no other colors: nothing but red.

It looked a little something like this:


I have long bemoaned the fact that this monochromatic quadrilateral was considered art. Fifteen years later, of all the pieces of artwork I have ever seen in person at a museum, the red parallelogram is the single piece that I remember most vividly and with the greatest emotion.

OK, artist wins.





Credits:
Images on right and left accessed from Wikipedia
Image in middle recreated from memory
Musings about what qualifies as art inspired by Mike