From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
The Write Stuff
I admit it. When it comes to fonts, I'm a Times New Roman guy. Oh, sure, I've learned to live with Verdana and Ariel when I must, but I prefer letters with legs, gol'durnit. Serif all the way. Regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree, you have to admit that what Portland, Maine type designer Mark Jamra has done is pretty darn cool. As the Maine Sunday Telegram reports, after years of painstaking work he's created a new typeface for the Cherokee Nation:
Jamra, 59, is celebrated in the world of type and design as an innovator. Classically trained and considered a master by his peers, he has received national and international awards for his lettering and typefaces. But nothing matches the satisfaction of knowing he’s helped preserve a culture and advance a language, he said. […]
Jamra’s work modernizes a writing system developed by the Cherokee silversmith Sequoyah in 1820. Sequoyah’s system was widely used among the Cherokee and was the principal tool for recording recipes, writing letters and preserving folklore for more than a century. Over time, as Cherokee Indians folded Anglo culture into their own, English replaced Cherokee as their primary language, both spoken and written. […] He created a cleaner set of characters in a variety of weights that ranged from light to bold.
Today, Jamra’s efforts are a part of the Cherokee’s push to make the language available across digital applications, including Apple devices and Android phones. There are Cherokee interfaces for Microsoft Windows and Google, as well. […]
Jamra became interested in the Cherokee syllabary when he attended an international type conference in New Orleans in the summer of 2011. A Cherokee contingent made a presentation, appealing for functional typefaces to help preserve its written culture. … The trace of the human hand is visible in Phoreus Cherokee, which Jamra attributes to his early drawings and his calligraphy practice.
It's a good-news story from a fascinating little corner of the professional world we don’t often think about, and a big win for the traditional communications culture of the Cherokee Nation. All from little ol' Portland, Maine. Pretty cool.
We now return you to our regularly-scheduled world gone mad. Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Note: Due to unforeseen budget cuts, nine of the drummers drumming have been laid off, funding for the ladies dancing has been diverted to the Pentagon and all the maids a' milking will lose their food stamps on Monday. On the bright side, in the spirit of the season all executives will receive their bonuses in full. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Hanukah: 5
Days 'til the Army-Navy game: 11
Average global temperature in October, the highest on record, according to NOAA: 58.86 degrees
Number of months in 2015 that have broken heat records, with November and December likely to follow: 8
Average length of wait time in Miami for a Social Security disability hearing, the longest in the country according to The Washington Post: 22 months
Amount visitors will pay as a "bribe" to gain entry into the new Museum of Political Corruption in Albany, New York: $12.50
Speed at which 14-year-old Lucas Etter solved a Rubik's Cube, setting a
new record: 4.904 seconds
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
The gentle souls at Town Hall have some supportive words for Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood. Golly, wherever did right-wingers ever get the idea that shooting up an abortion clinic was okay? Hmm...
Cecile Richards has a black heart, but then so did her mother. Neither one of them ever saw a child that wasn't worth yanking out of it's mother's womb, in pieces, and selling for used parts... just like an auto junkyard sells used parts! ---Beekster
I find it reprehensible that Planned Parenthood doesn't express emotion for the thousands that they kill yearly in their murder clinics. ---Travis
These people are insane criminals! ---TNVolunteer
Nine male lawyers of the Supreme Court gave the right to commit murder to so many women that didn't have the decency to protect themselves from that instance of erotic pleasure and don't want to deal with the consequences. ---Almack
All together now: 1…2…3… Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
For World AIDS Day: a special project from When Dogs Heal...
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CHEERS to December. The year's glorious, sparkling, musical, snow-bedecked, bell-ringing, Norman Rockwellesque grand finale! Bring on the swans a'swimming, sharpen your dreidel tips and polish your Festivus pole. Bring on the climate summit! Bring on Han, Leia, Luke and Chewie in the Star Wars reboot! Bring on the Grammy nominations! Bring on the winter solstice! Bring on C&J’s 12th anniversary! Oh, and check the expiration date on the eggnog that's been sitting in the back of your fridge since 1999 before you take a swig. (If it's turned semi-solid, you can still use it to patch potholes in your driveway.) And settle your differences with 2015 because in 30 days it is out the door and ain't comin' back.
JEERS to December. The year's stress-filled, bone chilling, dark-by-3, be-cheerful-or-else, and oh-look-it's-a-giant-blizzard grand finale. The Harry Simeone choir will make curmudgeons' ears bleed, and you just know there are a handful of beloved mega-celebrities who will inconvenience us by dying this month. (I miss you already, whoever you are. Also the Pearl Harbor anniversary. The wise among us will forgo candy canes and instead hang holiday-themed Prozac dispensers. And remember the Republican mantra this holiday season: You can't spell Noel without "No!"
JEERS to the creep in Colorado Springs. The domestic terrorist who got caught up in the right-wing hysteria about a non-existent "baby parts" video by shooting up a Planned Parenthood clinic stepped into a courtroom yesterday. Whatsizname "stared woodenly ahead" and mumbled a few words including "no questions" and, if my lip-reading skills are accurate, "Carly 2016." Meanwhile, California Senator Barbara Boxer reached out to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking that he call off his mad dogs:
I call on you to immediately disband the new so-called "Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives," which serves only to continue the witch hunt against Planned Parenthood, its staff and its patients. …[W]e should not and cannot continue this politically-motivated committee targeting Planned Parenthood, which is already costing taxpayers and helping to create a dangerous climate for legal health care in America. Since 1977, there have been 11 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings and 186 arsons against abortion clinics and providers.
It's the reasonable, rational and compassionate thing to do in the wake of the Colorado Springs terrorism. So naturally Ryan has no intention of listening.
CHEERS to dollar diplomacy. When President Obama opened up diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in 50 years, the Republican knee-jerk reaction was to get all up in his grill and be like, "This sucks! Cuba sucks and Obama sucks and sucky suck suck impeach!" But some time has gone by and they're starting to crack, now that the fresh aroma of money is hitting their nostrils. Exhibit A: Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is spending three days this week in sunny Havana. Says the group EngageCuba.org (via email):
"Governor Abbott’s trade delegation to Cuba is a great example of the bipartisan interest in opening up Cuba to U.S. businesses and travelers. We’re confident that Gov. Abbott and the rest of the Texas delegation will come back convinced that we can’t shackle American businesses any more with an outdated, ineffective policy toward Cuba.”
Stay tuned for a new refrain from Team GOP: "Obama didn’t open relations with Cuba soon enough! He's sucky suck suck impeach!"
CHEERS to parking your kiester for equality. On December 1, 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama public bus. The bus driver, James Blake, said he was just doing his job when he ratted her out. But history reveals his job apparently also included being a dick:
Once, after she had paid her fare at the front, he had ordered her to board the bus at the rear and then, before she could do so, driven off. On other occasions he had ostentatiously driven past the stop at which she was waiting.
As for Parks, she wasn't the first black American to challenge the discriminatory rules of public transportation. But in this case, her arrest and the ensuing boycott of the bus system---led by budding activist Martin Luther King, Jr.---became a signature event of the civil rights protest movement. I don’t like to play the game of "What If" (it's like Twister on steroids---no thanks) but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts she'd be rooting for the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Yeah---going out on limbs is my business.
CHEERS to James Inhofe's worst nightmare come true! The United Nations climate summit opened in Paris yesterday. There are thousands of attendees from nearly 200 nations (and some creative protesters skirting the city's no-demonstrations ordinance), which means a lot of nitty-gritty details are being hashed out involving unfathomably-complex formulas and assumptions. So I thought I'd call in an expert to focus on the broader perspective:
That's why he’s on retainer. Big-picture thinking.
CHEERS to America's cleaning service. On December 1, 1970 the Environmental Protection Agency was born during the reign of that shameless Marxist socialist, Richard "Hitler/Mao/Stalin" Nixon. Under his orders, government "life panels" were created to ration environmental care by putting competent bureaucrats between you and your polluter under the guise of collectively "protecting human health and the environment." It was just one more way the Republicans tried to take power away from the individual and use it to advance their radical socialist agenda. Today, thoroughly embarrassed by their un-American blunder, Republicans running for president want to abolish the EPA as they try and erase any connection between themselves and promotion of America's general welfare. Because, as their current bumper sticker slogan says: "Clean Air = Lazy Lungs."
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Ten years ago in C&J: December 1, 2005
JEERS to "Coat Hanger Sam." Well, now we know. Samuel Alito's reason for living is to overturn Roe v. Wade and bring back the old-fashioned charm of the back-alley abortion. No wonder Republicans were so eager to give Harriett Miers the boot---this guy’s their new pinup idol.
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And just one more…
CHEERS (because it's important) and JEERS (because it's still necessary) to World AIDS Day. This year marks 34 years since the first published scientific account of the virus that would decimate the gay community and spread to the straight community with equal viciousness. Today more than 36.9 million people around the world live with HIV or full-blown AIDS. A minimum of 25.3 million have died from it. But UNAIDS says the 27th anniversary of World AIDS Day brings with it more optimism than ever:
The world has committed to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. This ambitious yet wholly attainable objective represents an unparalleled opportunity to change the course of history for ever---something our generation must do for the generations to come. … Already we have reached 15.8 million people with life-saving treatment. And increasingly we are able to refine our efforts and be more precise in our ability to reach people who might otherwise be left behind. With this attention to location and population countries are able to redistribute opportunities to improve access.
Ending the AIDS epidemic means that adolescent girls and young women have access to education and appropriate HIV and sexual and reproductive health services. It means key populations, such as people who inject drugs and transgender people, have full access to health services delivered with dignity and respect. And it means that every child is born free from HIV, and that they and their mothers not only survive but thrive.
This is an exciting time in the AIDS response. We are building momentum towards a sustainable, equitable and healthy future for all.
By the way, the last time the 54-ton AIDS quilt could be displayed in its entirety was 1996, and if laid out today it would cover more than 1,293,300 square feet. Not coincidentally, this is also Give A Virus The Finger Day. Knock yerself out.
Have a nice Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“There’s something nasty coming out of the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool.”
---Donald Trump
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