I’m fairly well convinced that this pair was always intended as a shaker set, because their colour palette is more or less the same: the same dark green, with dark pink accents–and the smaller one’s face is the same brown as the larger one’s hair and shoes: But for all that, they areContinue reading “An Odd (Really Odd) Couple in Lots of Clothing”
Category Archives: Mysterious
Cute as a Bug in a Rugged Shirt and a Pair of Trousers
Here’s another set of nonhuman creatures wearing human clothing. At first glance, indeed, this pair of shakers appears to be quite completely clothed: They seem to be wearing black shirts with white stripes–their shirthood implied by the fact that their hands emerge from the arms of them. And on top of their shirts are whatContinue reading “Cute as a Bug in a Rugged Shirt and a Pair of Trousers”
The Implied Beneath
While it might not be apparent on first glance, this is a salt and pepper shaker set: This set represents the Bluenose, the Canadian fishing and racing schooner from Nova Scotia that has been appearing on Canadian dimes for many decades: While it’s a little hard to make out, since it consists of slightly raised brown letters on the same brownContinue reading “The Implied Beneath”
One of Chicken’s Children Got Shoes
The fifth or sixth egg of the eleven in my salt and pepper shaker collection is most notable for its footwear: This freak of nature was born with its shoes already on, it seems. How the shoes got inside the shell is unclear–unless perhaps, those are not shoes at all, but this particular chick’s actualContinue reading “One of Chicken’s Children Got Shoes”
The Power of Demotic Objects to Tell Grand Narratives
Be patient, please. Eventually I am going to get around to talking about this set of salt and pepper shakers: But first, I need some context. A friend who knows of my interest in shaker sets sent me a link to a review in the New York Times Book Review of The Innocence of Objects, a bookContinue reading “The Power of Demotic Objects to Tell Grand Narratives”
Two Santas, and Some Guys Who Haven’t Been Good
In honour of the season, I offer yet another salt and pepper shaker set that consists of two male figures: Two Santas. And yet, of course, this makes no sense, no sense at all. There can only be one Santa Claus, surely. Other shakers, operating safely within the logic of a rigidly binary world, representContinue reading “Two Santas, and Some Guys Who Haven’t Been Good”
A Coupla Chicks Sitting Around
After generalizing about there being no same-sex pairs in my salt and pepper shaker collection, and then being surprised to find all the many male pairs I’ve been discussing in my posts over the last week or so, I decided it was about time to see what I could find in the way of femaleContinue reading “A Coupla Chicks Sitting Around”
Once More for Old Times’ Sake, Once More
When I wrote about shaking in my last post, I realize, I was taking something important for granted: you are allowed to give the shakers a symbolic shaking that implies violence to the person or thing a shaker represents because the shaker is, in fact, merely a representation–not actually the thing it represents, but aContinue reading “Once More for Old Times’ Sake, Once More”
Unusual Bisectionality
At first glance this is only a little bit weird. It involves a dog and a fire hydrant, as did the subject of an earlier posting:But that dog was doing the sensible doggy thing and peeing on the hydrant. This one, for no apparent reason, has nested itself atop the hydrant. Was the dog attemptingContinue reading “Unusual Bisectionality”
E.T., Go Home
This is another example of a stacker (or nester). As two separate pieces it represents a somewhat odd couple brought together, it seems, by their shared connection to outer space: One is some kind of one-eyed alien or ET; the other appears to be an astronaut in a G-suit. Neither appears to be happy, the reasonContinue reading “E.T., Go Home”
Perry Nodelman 