Okay, I know this is silly, but today in BoingBoing they're sharing a 16th century golden ear/toothpick:


How lovely. Yet I want to remind everyone of my perpetual battle against Qtips as ear cleaning tools. Doctors agree, you should never stick anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. You can risk busting your eardrum and the bleached cotton on Qtips (nevermind the hard metal of something like this) can irritate your ear canal and lead to excess ear wax and infections. Don't do it.

I'm headed off this afternoon to witness my Brother's graduation from undergrad at Stony Brook. As much as I hate going anywhere near the wrong island, it will be lovely to see my larger family and mark this wonderful occasion. Especially since I never went to mine, I'm hoping this will be all the fresher. Yay Moose!

I was reminded it would have been Malcolm X's 83rd birthday today, and (of course) TheRoot.com has a good article about the civil rights leader's legacy:

Happy Birthday, Malcolm
by Melissa Harris-Lacewell | TheRoot.com

I particularly agree with Harris-Lacewell's eloquent sentiment: "His life is a reminder that greatness is not found in arrogant self-righteousness or intellectual hubris, but in the willingness to be open to our own limitations."

My friend Amy Pennington is a photographer and artist who's got a new beautiful website! She's moving to Syracuse in July to start at the SU art school, I'm really excited!

A Stone-Faced Lie on the Mall
By Ibram Rogers | TheRoot.com

I heard about this on NPR originally (I'm hoping that Michel Martin picks this up on Tell Me More), but this morning in the Root.com there was an opinion article about it that I really agree with (although I have reservations about calling King a "militant", I think that label contradicts King's pacifist message unless you want to parse it away from its connotations of violence). The general story is that the US Commission of Fine Arts is asking the sculptor Lei Yixin designing the Washington monument of Rev. King to make the civil rights leader look less confrontational and more smiling and idealistic. More of a dreamer and (in my opinion) less of the much feared "angry black man" which is getting so much press lately with the Rev. Wright bullpoopy. As far as I can tell, this is more of the same kind of false and disingenuous ameliorating that seeks to deny and cover up the very real impact and continuation of institutionalized racism in this country. Overall I think that plays into the hands of an over-arching public narrative that wants to delegitimate the righteous anger of anyone suffering under institutionalized structures of exclusion based on race, religion, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation and disability. I hope someone can stop this, I'm going to look around for the email addresses of the commission or a petition somewhere, I'll pass it along once I find something.

Update: Neal Conan covered this on Blog of the Nation, including a good interview with Ibraim Rogers.

This is exactly what I've been talking about in terms of the islamophobia in this country and in Europe. In my opinion, this woman was clearly railroaded. I hope we're better than this.

Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
From The New York Times
By Andrea Elliott
Published: April 28, 2008

I've been waiting for this since I heard about it on BoingBoing, Sundance has posted the Isabella Rossellini bug porn, and yes, it's wonderful.


Don't watch them all at once, savor.

And a nice piece from Michelle Obama:

A good victory speech always improves my circulation:

Oh, how I love him....

However much I want to hear the words "President Obama", I have to admit he messed up. I agree with Mr. Willis:

Did Obama Betray Wright First?
By Andre C. Willis | TheRoot.com

Fun Primary synopsis from Slate V