I read this report with mixed emotions of sadness and astonishment at first. And then rising anger that we entrust people with 'authority' who are so clueless, confused, uneducated...and desperately lacking in any semblance of culture.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65087218
What hope for the kids trapped in that little Florida desert of ignorance and subject to 'authority' that has such depressing failure to understand the difference between art, cultural history and pornography? What hope for the teachers?
I'd get my kids away from that bleak landscape so fast you wouldn't see them for dust. To somewhere they can be inspired.
Edited by - adstrom on 03/27/2023 08:13:17
Yeah a little over the top...
We can agree on that Mike..
quote:
Originally posted by adstromI read this report with mixed emotions of sadness and astonishment at first. And then rising anger that we entrust people with 'authority' who are so clueless, confused, uneducated...and desperately lacking in any semblance of culture.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65087218
What hope for the kids trapped in that little Florida desert of ignorance and subject to 'authority' that has such depressing failure to understand the difference between art, cultural history and pornography? What hope for the teachers?I'd get my kids away from that bleak landscape so fast you wouldn't see them for dust. To somewhere they can be inspired.
What amazes and astonishes me is that ONE person complains and suddenly everyone is debating whether a statue is pornographic or artistic.
I hope the Italian offer of a cultural visit is taken up by the complaining parents.
They certainly need to get out more. And Florence would be a good place to start.
We had a replica of that statue in the atrium of our college library (Loyola, Montreal, now Concordia). It was rescued in '65 from the large shopping mall (Fairview, in Pointe Claire) that removed it because the suburban matrons were aghast at seeing David's , uh, ... , and wanted to "protect" their young ones.
So it ended up on a Catholic campus, accepted by its Jesuit administration, where the sons and daughters of said matrons could study beneath David's approving gaze (and his, uh ...).
I was at a table near that statue on St. Patrick's day, '67, when some enterprising students tied long strings to each end of a green garbage bag, and, from the second floor, slooowwlly and quietly raised it up, covering David's, uh ... - right behind a librarian working at a desk right below David's, uh ... (She was facing away from the statue, and thus wasn't scandalized.)
I wonder if any of those pranksters were children of those aforementioned matrons.
It's only going to get worse!
Edited by - bubbalouie on 03/28/2023 04:01:23
It takes a dirty mind to see pornography everywhere.
Here's a group of typeface characters.
Do YOU perceive it as a dirty picture??
8==O
I'm reminded of a school principal regaling me about having a student in his office one time and trying to set said student straight about the inappropriateness of having drawn "cannons" on the walls of the boys' washroom. Sometime after the student had left, the principal noticed that while the student was sitting, absorbing it, behind his back he'd drawn another cannon on the office wall.
I don't recall the final outcome, but I suspect it was as forgiving as the principal could make it, as he did get a bit of a chuckle over the student's nerve/balls (?)/chutzpah.
This appeared on my Facebook feed. While I was wondering if it would be appropriate in the thread about books, or this one ... or the round file .... one of the options became no longer available. 
Today, the news is covered with many things that are much more obscene than I could possibly consider the statue of David to be.
Some folks would consider one of the letters near the end of the alphabet to be obscene if they thought about it too long.
I could start a fig farm so I can sell the leaves, but then someone will decide that fig leaves are obscene by reason of association, and thousands will jump on the bandwagon. Then someone will pass a law banning figs, and we won't have Fig Newtons anymore. And Figmo will have to change his handle again.
Edited by - rcc56 on 03/28/2023 16:58:27
----I'd get my kids away from that bleak landscape so fast you wouldn't see them for dust.----
Florida is many things, but a "bleak landscape" is not one of them, as the sunny landscapes and seascapes and sunsets are spectacular. When I go there the blue skies and sunshine always keep me upbeat and happy. For "bleak" go look at the grey world outside your window.
quote:
Originally posted by banjo bill-e----I'd get my kids away from that bleak landscape so fast you wouldn't see them for dust.----
Florida is many things, but a "bleak landscape" is not one of them, as the sunny landscapes and seascapes and sunsets are spectacular. When I go there the blue skies and sunshine always keep me upbeat and happy. For "bleak" go look at the grey world outside your window.
I wasn't referring to the weather.
