If you receive Google News Alerts for “Lewis Carroll,” as we do, you may begin to wonder why our favorite author “dropped back to pass, but never had a chance as Jerod Maddox came flying in on the back side and sacked him to end the half.” Lewis Carroll is the name of the quarterback for the Geneva County Bulldogs, a varsity football team in Hartville, Alabama.
A couple weeks ago, Geneva County left Kinston gimbling in the wabe, with a 9-8 win:
Lewis Carroll kicked through a 27-yard field goal with 4:30 left to lift the Bulldogs to victory.
Keep playing, Lewis, we’d love to finally see a Lewis Carroll in college football or the NFL one day!
A tiny bottle of treats labeled “eat me” to wear around your neck? What could be sweeter? The necklace is made by a Scottish designer “And Mary,” and is for sale on ModCloth.com for $24.99.
Note: it is not at all clear from the description whether or not the treats are edible.
Baby Leroy as “Joker” in the Paramount production of “Alice in Wonderland” (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1933
Avax News is a website for interesting photos. Their mission is clearly stated:
Every day, Lord Almighty is responsible for hundred thousands of fascinating and mysterious events in our earthly existence, which people gaze upon with wonder through the lenses of the camera. The most gripping of those images you can find within these pages. Nothing less, nothing more. It’s just you and the images you see.
Earlier this year they posted a nice collection of high-quality Carroll-related photos under the sub-heading “Appealing.” There are images of Carroll, by Carroll, and of various stage productions. If you are looking for high quality images of a decent size, it may prove very helpful indeed. I would only caution against venturing away from the Carroll images via other sub-headings such as “Sad” or “Disgusting.” You know the internet. You have been warned.
A while ago someone sent us a link to this artistic masterpiece created on a dirty car windscreen.
www.repubblica.it
The image is one of several in a slideshow on the Italian website www.repubblica.it, though there is unfortunately no information on the artist or artists. Other masterpieces include portraits of Kinky Freidman and the Mona Lisa. It’s a great excuse not to wash the car.
October 6th – It’s Hatter Day, here in the US anyway. In the UK, much like Mother’s Day and Independence Day, they celebrate on a different day (the 10th of June).
First appearance of Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter in Batman (1948)
In Hatter news, the mad one is to join the roster of villains out to kill Batman in the video game Arkham City. Josh Harmon discusses the addition on the gamer site Gameranxwhere there is also a trailer for the updated game.
Hatter entered Batman’s universe sixty-three years ago this month in 1948. Originally, he was a batty ever-so-slightly megalomaniacal baddie, real name Jervis Tetch. Over the years he’s gained a touch of 21st century evil, as the screenshot from Arkham City below suggests. The updated game will be released on October 18.
Can you change “100” to “CAT” by moving just two of these toothpicks?
The above puzzle is probably familiar to many lovers of logic games, but new to the multitude who have not yet made the connection between mathematical problems, visual conundrums, and, of all things, fun.
One man who spent a lifetime reaching out to both the initiates and the multitude was Martin Gardner, philosopher, mathematician, magician, and for 25 years the author of the “Mathematical Games” column in the Scientific American. He was also a founding member of the LCSNA and the creator of the irreplaceable Annotated Alice books.
Martin Gardner
When Martin died last year the foundation Gathering for Gardner vowed to “celebrate Martin’s life and work, and continue his pursuit of a playful and fun approach to Mathematics, Science, Art, Magic, Puzzles and all of his other interests and writings.” One of these celebrations is fast upon us – the second annual Celebration of Mind events to be held worldwide on or around what would have been Martin’s 97th birthday – October 21, 2011.
Last year, people gathered to share magic tricks, puzzles, recreational mathematics problems and stories about Martin at 66 locations from Tokyo to Tehran to Buenos Aires to Boulder, Colorado. This year, 30 hosts have signed up already and the organizers expect many more – if you can’t make the gathering at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, how about attending one of the 15 already listed in North America? Events held by LCSNA members will undoubtedly have an Alice flavor – if you are hosting one, be sure to get in touch and we will advertise it on the blog.
I wonder how many events this year will feature readings from A Bouquet for the Gardener, the beautiful collection of tributes and reminiscences published by the LCSNA in July? (Available at Amazon.com.)
For a map of planned events, and for guidelines for hosting your own event, go to the Gathering for Gardner website. There you can also find photos and descriptions of previous events along with downloadable visual treats and puzzles to whet your appetite. You can also follow event updates on Twitter account @G4G_CoM.
And finally, if you haven’t figured out the toothpick teaser above, I’m not going to tell you. What are Sunday afternoons for?
There’s a new hidden object game proving popular in all the usual online fora. It’s called… The Hunting of the Snark. The story is a little adapted – obviously – and the party encounter two monsters who may or may not be Snarks. It’s a little confusing but the illustrations and sound effects are pleasantly weird and the whole thing takes about fifteen minutes to play.
The team that made it is called Long Leaf’s Friends and the main designer is a Polish illustrator called Navatika. From her resume: “My name is Navatika. Navatika is a paint-brush containing ninety hair. It contains ninety different points of view and ways of depicting the world, which can be distinguished and appreciated by experienced eye.”
An article on Libya in last week’s Sunday Times Magazine was topped with this surreal image of an abandoned teacup ride inside Muammar Gaddafi’s compound. The Surreal Ruins of Quaddafi’s Never Never Land made no mention of the improbable amusement park but the image – in which we see a spare teacup yards from the ride as if flung by a mad hatter, or perhaps a large explosion – is a fitting illustration for Robert Worth’s long and disturbing account of confusion and violence in the last days of Gaddafi’s regime.
For more on the teacups, you have to turn to the UK tabloid The Sun. In I played on Mad Dog Gaddafi’s Teacup Ride(August 25) Sun reporter Virginia Wheeler is pictured lounging in a teacup, presumably researching her account of this fairground built for “spoilt grandchildren” and other decadent finds within the Gaddafi compound. The details are few but the photo is pretty priceless (follow the link to see it). Wheeler looks like she is waiting for a few rebels to jump in the other teacups before they all go for a spin. Thanks all the same, but I think I’d rather go to Disneyland.
(Thanks to Alan Tannenbaum for spotting both these articles.)
A few weeks ago we blogged about the Arne Nixon Center’s Alice exhibitions currently on display in Fresno, California. One of the artists featured in the collection is Karen Mortillaro, who does amazing “anamorphic” bronze sculptures. What is anamorphosis, you might ask?
Over the past thirteen years, Mortillaro has been exploring anamorphia. A concept taken from the past-from the Chinese, the Greeks, the Renaissance masters, and the 17th Century French-and brought it to the 21st Century. She literally has lifted the image from a flat page and made it a truly three-dimensional form.
If Fresno is not in your travel itinerary, Mortillaro’s website, www.karenmortillaro.com, has many images of her work in an anamorphic gallaery and a sculpture gallery, most of which is of Lewis Carroll characters.
Look under the News and Updates section of her site to see a rotating image of the 3D anamorphic art, and an explanation of the current project:
The Alice in Wonderland Bronze Collection is very pleased to announce the addition of anemographic sculptural illusions. Watch for the first release of this amazing art form. All twelve chapters will be explored, starting with Chapter I, “Alice Down the Rabbit Hole.” This is an extraordinary addition to the collection. Mortillaro is very pleased to announce this exciting new addition to the Alice in Wonderland Bronze Collection. If you have never experienced an anemographic illusion, you are in for a real treat.
If you receive Google News Alerts for “Lewis Carroll,” as we do, you may begin to wonder why our favorite author “dropped back to pass, but never had a chance as Jerod Maddox came flying in on the back side and sacked him to end the half.” Lewis Carroll is the name of the quarterback for the Geneva County Bulldogs, a varsity football team in Hartville, Alabama.
A few weeks ago we