Year: 2008

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

A longtime staple of hip-hop and plumber culture is now illegal in Flint, Michigan: you can now be warned or charged for wearing saggy pants.

The new law, as explained by the Blue Man Group.
Click the illustration to see the original article.

Flint’s new interim Chief of Police, David Dicks, announced that Flint police will start arresting people wearing saggy pants that expose underwear or bare bottoms. “Some people call it a fad,” he is quoted in the Detroit Free Press, “but I believe it’s a national nuisance. It is indecent and thus it is indecent exposure, which has been on the books for years.” In a deprtmental memo released in June, he said “This immoral self expression goes beyond freedom of expression.”

The penalty for this crime: 93 days to a year in jail and/or fines up to $500.

My favourite line in the article is from 18-year old Senita Abrams of Flint, who said “I think it’s cute when boys sag.” She may or may not have been talking about pants.

Footage from the USGS’ Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project shows that some grizzlies know that trees make excellent back-scratchers. What they do with trees looks a lot like pole dancing, especially if you set it to the right music. You know, like the stripp — er, I mean exotic dancers — do. Or so I’ve heard.

Here’s the hip-hop version:

And here’s the big beat/’60s jazz-funk version (I rather like the tune):

The back-scratching reminds me of the song Bear Necessities from the film The Jungle Book, where Baloo explains his philosophy of life to Mowgli. It’s the spiritual ancestor of Hakuna Matata:

It’s been five months since I’ve been using a Windows Vista-based computer as my primary machine (after having used a Mac for years). My opinion can best be summarized with a “Successories”-style poster utilizing that horrible new photo of Paris Hilton attempting to channel Audrey Hepburn:

If work won’t provide me with a Mac laptop, I may end up just buying one myself. The refurbished ones are available at pretty good prices.

In case you’re too young to get the reference in the Paris Hilton photo, here’s the original — it’s a still from a scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s:

While most people think of Hyundai as a car company, they actually started as a construction company and over time turned into a conglomerate producing everything from semiconductors to ships (other examples of such companies include Mitsubishi, which makes everything from fruit juice to jet engines, and General Electric, who make everything from lightbulbs to jet engines to NBC/Universal).

I’ve seen all sorts of things bearing the Hyundai brand, but I had no idea they made accordions (or other musical instruments)! Better still, their C-level execs seem to “eat their own dog food”: here’s a video of Mr. Kim, president of Hyundai Music Corporation, playing When the Saints Go Marching In on a green Hyundai 12-bass piano accordion:

[Thanks to chiamattt — owner of the blog smokehard — for telling me about Hyundai accordions!]

“Engrish” — the gramatically and often hilariously incorrect English that you often see in East Asia or on East Asian products — typically makes at least a little sense. Not this t-shirt, which I spotted on an outdoor rack at the corner of Spadina and Sullivan Streets:

“Enquired? Bump? Brush culuff?” Feel free to theorize in the comments.

(This stores sells other shirts with Engrish, such as this one from back in May.)