Bytes

Monday, January 21, 2019

Thought for the Day

Sir John Kerr, where are you now that America needs you?

Art copies, Part 2

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Part 2 of selected photos from a website where people post pics of recreated classical art works. These pics and some of the reader comments are from a selection on Bored Panda at:

https://www.boredpanda.com/art-take-a-photo-of-the-rembrandt-type/

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Some reader comments:

What a similarity. I like it!

I think the left picture she needs to look just slightly more surprised, then it would be freakishly accurate.

Twins eons apart!

Eyes make the difference! Feel of longing vs tired subtle sorrow!

Oh, wow

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She’s beautiful.

I like this, even though it's not as literal a copy as some of the others - it's good in its own right.

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Does anyone else see a skull image on the right? Other than that, adorable pic!

Aw, so sweet!

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Wish my cat would stay still enough to take pics like this

Cat got it better :)

Cute, but inaccurate! Ha ha love this

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This I like

Bath time just got serious.

I love that statue - where is the original at?

I think it's Piazza della Signoria. =)

I actually read that as PIZZA Della Signoria. Must be hungry.

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For a minute I couldn't figure out which one was the painting!

Me too. Both look like a perfect painting.

The one on the left is looking at the viewer. The one on the right isn't. Otherwise, very similar.

I like the original better.

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Brilliant job with the lighting

Great! I had to look twice to see the original

No, really. Stick your unwashed finger in my open wound.

Guy front center: Looks like the same guy!

Yes Thomas it is really me!

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This seems to be a popular painting to recreate

Yes, it's cool to see the different interpretations.

Yes in both paintings they forget to put the hand in front of the chin

I prefer this one.

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"Show me where I said I give a fuck about what is said."

This made me laugh out loud and not exaggerating. I LOLed at my desk. Thank you.

Wow!

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They are both so pretty.

The scarf is really gorgeous in both pictures!

Anna Karenina...?

It doesn't really look like a recreation. Just another cold person.

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Someone gone to a lot of effort to recreate that dress - lovely

I didn't know that recreating paintings was such a big thing, much less that someone would go to so much effort to make the dress. And, one presumes, more outfits for their studio. Interesting gimmick/theme for the studio, though.

So precious!

Kudos for the effort!

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Why God shouldn't be a woman?! She goat appropriate.

The best one yet

I laughed out loud.

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I think it's Ghengis Khan

It's definitely his son. The pagoda like face hair reveals it

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Why is the cat inside out?

Relax guys... that's not a cat!!!

Hairless breed!

Sphynx cat is a perfect stand-in for an ermine! They're so cute in their own way.

What they couldn't find a ferret ?

The idea is that since ermines are white, they are a symbol of purity. Ironic, because she was the mistress of some cardinal.

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The painting on the left is actually amazing. Who did this?

A Basket of Ribbons, 1869 Guillaume Charles Brun

Thanks for the info! This painting is breathtaking. A masterpiece of combination of color and light, the expression of the face and body language and the accuracy of the threadbare fabric of the skirt.....

This recreation misses with that important face lighting.

The model on the right is about ten years too old.

Well not everyone can pull off that "homeless child on the streets selling ribbons for sustenance" look perfectly.

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Expressions are off, but very well done.

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Are we seriously censoring this???

My thoughts exactly, are we really that precious these days?

Must hide the small, drawn tackle! Laughable that it is considered necessary.

"Psst, the guy has a wiener - don't tell anybody!"

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Both very pretty!

Those deep eyes, so lovely.

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Interesting pose

Title: the long chin and the devils claws

Thinking about how to dodge a party they've planned for the next year.

The recreated one looks suitable for album art of a musician.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Quote for the Day

Sydney Suburbs continued: Camperdown

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Continuing an alphabetical look at Sydney’s suburbs . . .

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Camperdown

Location:

Camperdown is an inner western suburb of Sydney, located 4 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district. It is part of the City of Sydney and Inner West Council.

Name origin:

Camperdown is named after the 240 acre estate granted to Governor Bligh (he of Mutiny on the Bounty and Rum Rebellion fame) in 1806.

Bligh called his land Camperdown in memory of a naval battle in which he took part in 1797.

It was fought off the Dutch coast near the town of Camperdown, 50 kilometres north of Amsterdam. This was a definitive battle in the French Revolutionary Wars between the British and Napoleon's Dutch allies. During the battle, the British succeeded in capturing nearly a dozen Dutch ships without suffering any significant losses of their own.

Governor Bligh

The Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797, by Thomas Whitcombe, 1798,. The painting shows the British flagship Venerable engaged with the Dutch flagship Vrijheid.

Comments:

Ordered by his superiors to clean up widespread corruption in the newly formed colony, Governor Bligh proceeded to make numerous changes in Sydney in order to improve Sydney and ensure the colony's success. He developed a model farm on the Hawkesbury to promote more efficient farming methods, and he provided flood relief for the farmers. He destroyed illicit stills, legislated the purchase of alcohol and severely restricted the practice of bartering for alcohol. This triggered Australia's only armed military takeover in history: the Rum Rebellion. Camperdown was put up for auction several months later.

The estate became a largely residential area and was primarily rural, but it developed over time.

The University of Sydney and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital were built in the 1800s.

The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was a small 146-bed hospital originally, but, like Camperdown, grew to meet the needs of the surrounding community. Today, it is one of the largest teaching facilities in the state and remains at the cutting edge of medical research.

The University of Sydney was incorporated in 1850 and its first buildings were designed by Edmund Blacket (1817–1883). In 1859, Blacket's Great Hall was opened at the university.

In common with neighbouring inner city suburbs such as Newtown and Enmore, Camperdown has large areas of Victorian terraced housing, including many examples of single storey terraces. There are several examples of semi-detached houses which became popular around the time of Australia's Federation at the turn of the 20th century. With the advent of gentrification, from the late 20th century, modern infill development now tends to be sympathetic with the traditional Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes.

One of the oldest industrial suburban hamlets in Sydney, Camperdown at one time boasted a foundry, a soap and candle makers, a coach works, a cordial factory, a tannery, a glassworks, two biscuit factories, and a prosperous pottery works.

Gallery:

Part of the University of Sydney

MacLaurin Hall, University of Sydney (I did some of my exams here)

Front entry, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (I have been a patient here)

RPA, 1890

Boy on a bike, Australia Street, Camperdown, date unknown

A drinking trough commemorating James Sullivan, who lost his life in 1924 whilst saving horses in a fire in a stable in a lane behind where the Children’s Hospital used to be. It was dedicated in 1925 and is located in Fowler Street, Camperdown Park, Camperdown.

From:

https://cargocollective.com/squidink/Camperdown-Park

While many of the narrow streets and lanes in Camperdown are named in memory of mayors and councillors who performed their elected functions, it is rare for a memorial to be erected to a working man. According to the academic Chilla Bulbeck, ‘memorials to workers are marginalised both in form and location… more likely to be a drinking than a decorative fountain, they are rarely grand or in the form of statues’ (Bulbeck 1990). Sullivan’s memorial trough is certainly not grand. The 59-year-old left no descendants, only his name inscribed on a concrete filled tub. We know nothing else about this Camperdown Hero, as the Herald called him, other than that he lived locally and was an employee of Mr. W.E. Budd, who paid for his burial at Rookwood cemetery. How many other stories of blue-collar workers deserving of recognition have been forgotten?

So here is James Sullivan's sad but heroic story, from the same site:

According to the Sydney Morning Herald at seven pm on the 23rd July, 1924, a horse-driver spotted smoke coming from W.E. Budd’s stables at Camperdown. In the stables were 66 horses and as the animals smelled the smoke they became panic stricken (Sydney Morning Herald 24 July 1924. p.9). Nightwatchman Jack Sullivan was in the north-eastern corner of the stables where the fire had commenced and where the flames were the fiercest. Nearby residents saw Jack Sullivan leading a terrified horse to safety. He ran back into the stables and was in the process of saving another horse when he realised his escape route had been cut off by the seething flames. He climbed to a ventilator above the stall but could only fit his head through the narrow opening. A woman living opposite the stables heard his cries for help and witnessed his plight. She ran into the neighbouring houses yelling for help. Several young men ran to the footpath below the ventilator with a pole and tried desperately to widen the opening of the ventilator. Others grabbed a ladder and an axe and tried to hack their way through the galvanised iron wall. They could see that Sullivan’s face was blackened and his eyes were almost closed from the smoke rising around him. ‘Water, for God’s sake, get me water,’ he cried. The men hacked at the reinforced iron walls with tools and used a long pole as a battering ram. From inside the stables the screams and frantic kicks of the horses could be heard. ‘I’m burning alive, I’m burning alive,’ Jack Sullivan gasped and around him the galvanized iron walls glowed red from the intense heat. ‘I’m done’, Jack Sullivan cried and loosening his grip on the ventilator, he fell back into the flames. Moments later, fire brigades from Glebe, Annandale, George-street West and Newtown arrived and broke through the iron walls. They found the blackened remains of James Sullivan lying beside the body of the horse he had tried to save.

Twenty-one horses perished that Wednesday night in the great Camperdown fire while 50 more horses were saved (Sydney Morning Herald 6 August 1924, p. 14). The fire made such an impact on the newspaper’s readers and local residents that the RSPCA proposed in a letter to the editor to permanently honour the memory of Mr Jack Sullivan. A fund was set up to erect a handsome trachyte water trough to be called the ‘Jack Sullivan Memorial Trough’ at a cost of 200 pounds. On the following day, an unknown reader wrote to the Herald suggesting that the nightwatchman’s name and deed live on to inspire the lowly and the great. ‘Fearless of the horrors of that great stables’, he wrote, ‘where the menace of the cruel flames was intensified by the plungings of the maddened horses, ready in their terror to bite and kick their rescuers, Sullivan rushed in to save these good friends of man’. (Sydney Morning Herald 25 July 1924, p. 9) He enclosed a pound note for the fund and signed his letter: A Citizen.

The employees of W.E. Budd’s stable suggested that the memorial to their mate be erected at the corner of Pyrmont Bridge Road and Parramatta road close to where the fire occurred. For forty years the trough was used as a watering station by draymen, carters and horse-drawn lorries travelling along Parramatta road until it was shifted to its current site beneath two old fig trees at the entrance to Camperdown Park. No longer used by Clydesdales and other working horses the twin troughs filled with rainwater, figs and rubbish until local residents petitioned the council to have it removed. Marrickville council responded by filling the troughs with concrete. Today the rectangular structure stands in the shadows of the fig trees bearing a inscription at either end: To Honour James Sullivan who lost his life on 23rd July 1924 when trying to save his employer’s Horses from death by fire. People sometimes stop and peer at the brass inscriptions before they move on, but the stone and concrete sarcophagus serves mainly as a ledge on which passers by leave their drink cans.

For those interested in reading a detailed look at the death of James Sullivan and how the politics and society of the time is reflected in how he was honoured and remembered, click on the following link:

Remembering and forgetting James Sullivan, by Peter Harney, University of New England

https://historyitm.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/harney.pdf

The final paragraph of that article reads:

James Sullivan was the Camperdown Hero, but of a Camperdown no longer recognisable. His time and place seem to hold no relevance and have been forgotten. We do not remember James Sullivan because we hardly know who he was. The attempt to recover the past at the local level is increasingly a struggle to understand the story of an area via individual sites, objects, people and events. Just as more information becomes accessible in archives, the physical environment and objects it relates to continues to be modified or removed. The RSPCA spoke of a block of granite that would be imperishable, and its presence has indeed been maintained. But they left behind the person who gave it meaning. Because of this the memorial does not easily prompt remembrance to a hero and his time, but rather to a convoluted story in which he disappears.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Thought for the Day

Those We Lost in 2018

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The final instalment . . .

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Jan "Miloš" Forman (18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) –

Czech American film director, screenwriter, actor and professor.

After Forman left Czechoslovakia for the United States in 1968, two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984), acquired particular renown, and both gained him an Academy Award for Best Director. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest became the second film to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Leading Role, Actress in Leading Role, Director, and Screenplay) after It Happened One Night in 1934—an accomplishment not repeated until 1991, by The Silence of the Lambs. Forman was also nominated for a Best Director Oscar for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). He also won Golden Globe, Cannes, Berlinale, BAFTA, Cesar, David di Donatello, European Film Academy, and Czech Lion awards.

After a short illness, he died at the age of 86.

BTW:

Forman was orphaned at 10 when his parents were seized by the Nazis and later killed in concentration camps. Raised by relatives, he had only three options when he failed to qualify for drama school: courses in mining and metallurgy, law school or studies at FAMU, the Prague film academy. “If FAMU had not accepted me,” Forman said, “I’d probably be a mining engineer today.”

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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (26 September 1936 - 2 April 2018) –

South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela.

Comments in brief:

Mandela served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003 and from 2009 until her death.

She was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996.

A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League.

She was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".

She married anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1958; they remained married for 38 years and had two children together. In 1963, after Mandela was imprisoned following the Rivonia Trial; she became his public face during the 27 years he spent in jail. During that period, she rose to prominence within the domestic anti-apartheid movement. She was detained by apartheid state security services on various occasions, tortured, subjected to banning orders, banished to a rural town, and spent several months in solitary confinement.

In the mid-1980s she exerted a "reign of terror", and was "at the centre of an orgy of violence" in Soweto, which led to condemnation by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and a rebuke by the ANC in exile. During this period, her home was burned down by residents of Soweto. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) established by Nelson Mandela's government to investigate human rights abuses found Madikizela-Mandela to have been "politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the "Mandela United Football Club", her security detail.

Madikizela-Mandela was accused of endorsing the necklacing of alleged police informers and apartheid government collaborators, and her security detail carried out kidnapping, torture, and murder, most notoriously the killing of 14-year-old Stompie Sepei whose kidnapping she was convicted of.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990, and the couple separated in 1992; their divorce was finalised in March 1996. She visited him during his final illness.

As a senior ANC figure, she took part in the post-apartheid ANC government, although she was dismissed from her post amid allegations of corruption.

In 2003, she was convicted of theft and fraud. She temporarily withdrew from active politics before returning several years later.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died at the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on 2 April 2018 at the age of 81. She suffered from diabetes and had recently undergone several major surgeries.

BTW:

In 2010, Madikizela-Mandela was interviewed by Nadira Naipaul. In the interview, she attacked her ex-husband, claiming that he had "let blacks down", that he was only "wheeled out to collect money", and that he is "nothing more than a foundation". She further attacked his decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk. Among other things, she reportedly claimed Mandela was no longer "accessible" to her daughters. She referred to Archbishop Tutu, in his capacity as the head of the Truth and Reconciliation commission, as a "cretin". The interview attracted media attention, and the ANC announced that it would ask her to explain her comments regarding Nelson Mandela. On 14 March 2010, a statement was issued on behalf of Winnie Mandela claiming that the interview was a fabrication.

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Ann Hopkins (18 December 1943 – 23 June 2018[1]) –

American business manager who was the plaintiff in the landmark American employment discrimination case Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins.

In 1982, Hopkins was considered for partnership at Price Waterhouse. At the time, she was the senior manager at the firm's Office of Government Services. She was the only woman among 88 candidates for partnership. Despite her clear success in bringing business to the company, and high praise from other partners as an "outstanding professional" with a "strong character, independence, and integrity," her candidacy was put on indefinite hold. She eventually resigned and sued the company for sex discrimination, arguing that her lack of promotion came after pressure to walk, talk, dress, and act more "femininely." These requirements, she argued, would never have been made of a male colleague and violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Lower courts upheld Hopkins' claim, but the case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in 1989 that Price Waterhouse had, in fact, discriminated based on sex stereotypes.[7] In his lead opinion, Justice William Brennan wrote, "An employer who objects to aggressiveness in women but whose positions require this trait places women in an intolerable and impermissible Catch-22: out of a job if they behave aggressively and out of a job if they don't."

A year after the Supreme Court ruling, a federal district judge awarded Hopkins the partnership she was originally denied at Price Waterhouse. By that time, Hopkins had moved on to the World Bank, where she worked as a senior budget officer. The judge also ordered Price Waterhouse to pay Hopkins between $300,000 and $400,000 in back pay.

In an interview after the decision, Hopkins said of her case: "The explanation I got about why I didn't make partner didn't make sense to me. … I filed suit not because of the money, but because I had been given an irrational explanation for a bad business decision."

BTW:

After her landmark case, Hopkins returned to Price Waterhouse, where she worked until her retirement in 2002. The team she led became one of the most diverse and profitable in the company.

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Scott Wilson (March 29, 1942 – October 6, 2018) –

American actor.

Wilson had more than 50 film credits, including In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Great Gatsby. Dead Man Walking. Pearl Harbor and Junebug..

Wilson played veterinarian Hershel Greene on the AMC television series The Walking Dead (2011–2014; 2018). In addition, he also had a recurring role on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as casino mogul Sam Braun, as well as a lead role on the Netflix series The OA as Abel Johnson.

He died of cancer, aged 76,

BTW:

News of Wilson’s death came shortly after it was announced at “The Walking Dead” panel at New York Comic Con that the Wilson would be among past cast members appearing in the AMC show’s ninth season. Wilson had already filmed his scenes.

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Nanette Fabray (October 27, 1920 – February 22, 2018) –

American actress, singer, and dancer.

She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and became a musical-theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed for her role in High Button Shoes (1947) and winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. In the mid-1950s, she served as Sid Caesar's comedic partner on Caesar's Hour, for which she won three Emmy Awards, as well as co-starring with Fred Astaire in the film musical The Band Wagon. From 1979 to 1984, she appeared as Katherine Romano on the TV series One Day at a Time.

BTW:

Fabray overcame a significant hearing impairment and was a long-time advocate for the rights of the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Her honors for representing the handicapped included the President's Distinguished Service Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award.

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Vic Damone (June 12, 1928 – February 11, 2018) –

American traditional pop and big band singer, actor, radio and television presenter, and entertainer.

He is best known for his performances of songs such as the number one hit "You're Breaking My Heart", and "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady) and "My Heart Cries for You" which were both number four hits.

Damone died on February 11, 2018 from complications of respiratory illness at the age of 89.

BTW:

Damone was a personal friend of Donald Trump. In May 2016, Trump offered to be a character witness on Damone's behalf in the event of any legal action his step-daughters might take to prevent him from receiving any of his then ill wife's estate, with an estimated worth of $900 million.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Thoughts for the Day

Funny Friday

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Some long jokes, some shorter ones, some reposts and some corn, what better way to start Friday?

Enjoy, Byters.

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A man in Melbourne walked into the produce section of his local supermarket and asked to buy half a head of cabbage.

The boy working in that department told him that they only sold whole heads of cabbage.

The man was insistent that the boy ask the manager about the matter.

Walking into the back room, the boy said to the manager, "Some old bastard outside wants to buy half a head of cabbage."

As he finished his sentence, he turned around to find that the man had followed and was standing right behind him, so the boy quickly added, "and this gentleman kindly offered to buy the other half."

The manager approved the deal and the man went on his way.

Later, the manager said to the boy...........

"I was impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier, we like people who can think on their feet here, where are you from son?"

"New Zealand, sir," the boy replied.

Why did you leave New Zealand ?" the manager asked.

The boy said, "Sir, there's nothing but prostitutes and rugby players there."

"Is that right?" replied the manager, "My wife is from New Zealand!"

"Really?" replied the boy, "Who did she play for?"

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It is the month of June, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town prostitute that in these hard times, gave her services on credit.

The prostitute runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that is how a capitalist economy works.

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My mates are really annoyed with me right now just because I lost us the pub quiz.

Apparently the drone isn't the national bird of Syria.

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A repost . . .

A little boy is excited because the circus has come to town. They had a parade with a band and animals and clowns! Oh, the clowns were fabulous! He was so excited that he got a ticket right away.

The show began and there were stunts and people on the high wire and trained animals. Then out came a tiny car and out from it poured a endless stream of clowns who did the funniest things you ever saw. It was absolutely hilarious. Then all of a sudden the clowns stopped and started looking around, all puzzled. They searched high and low and still they kept going. Finally one clown stopped and addressed the audience, "We seem to have lost our horse and we need help finding him. Would the person in row 32 seat H please stand up?" The boy notes that he is in that seat so he stands up! The clown says, "Ah! We've found the horse's ass, now we need to find the rest of the horse!"

The audience roars with laughter and the boy turned beet red. He tore from the tent in humiliation, mostly because he didn't know what to say! He decided that would never happen to him again. He pulled out his most recent copy of Boy's Life and found an ad for a book for snappy comebacks, so be bought it. It arrived and he proceeded to memorise it in its entirety. He had the local librarian borrow similar books that he also memorised.

As he grew up, he practised his snappy comebacks, but was he ready? No! He went to a college that allowed you construct your own major, so he majored in Snappy Comebacks. He studied Moliere, Shakespeare, Henny Youngman, Phyllis Diller, all the greats. He earned his major. Was he ready? No. He went on to get a PhD in snappy comebacks. Was he ready? No. He started publishing papers presenting a full taxonomy of snappy comebacks, classifying them by type, cultural reference, social import and final impact. Was he ready? Yes.

He returned to his home town and waited for the circus. When it arrived, they had a parade with a band and animals and clowns! Oh, the clowns were fabulous! He got a ticket right away for the same seat.

The show began and there were stunts and people on the high wire and trained animals. Then out came a tiny car and out from it poured an endless stream of clowns who did the funniest things you ever saw. It was absolutely hilarious. Then all of a sudden the clowns stopped and started looking around, all puzzled. They searched high and low and still they kept going. Finally one clown stopped and addressed the audience, "We seem to have lost our horse and we need help finding him. Would the person in row 32 seat H please stand up?" The boy notes that he is in that seat so he stands up!

The clown says, "Ah! We've found the horse's ass, now we need to find the rest of the horse!"

And he says in a loud, steady voice, "FUCK YOU CLOWN!"

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The above item is what is known as a shaggy dog story, a long involved story that ends without any point, sometimes a pun or an anti-climax.

The first recorded use of the term is in 1937 when the following appeared in Esquire magazine: Esquire magazine, May 1937: "One of the more sporting ways of finding out which ones are not [sane] is to try shaggy-dog stories on them."

The term is believed to have originated from a story where a young boy enters his dog into a contest to find the shaggiest dog. He wins the local contest, then the regional contest and so on, winning bigger and bigger contests. Eventually he makes it to the world championship for shaggy dogs. When the judges had inspected all the dogs they said to the boy about his dog “He’s not so shaggy.”

It may not be funny but that is the point. A shaggy dog story story builds an expectation that is either not met or is met in an unexpected way.

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Gallery:

I love Bizarro's cartoons, here are some . . .