Web artifact made of solid gold CELEBRITY LECTURES SERIES from Michigan State University. Ten years worth of lectures were posted in 1998. They are all still there-- awaiting your return. Edward Albee ,Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, Jacques d'Amboise, E.L. Doctorow, Richard Ford, Carlos Fuentes, David Halberstam, Joseph Heller, John Irving, Judith Jamison, William Kennedy, Norman Mailer, David McCullough, Terry McMillan, Arthur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, Jane Smiley, Susan Sontag, Amy Tan, Paul Theroux, John Updike,Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Derek Walcott, Garry Wills, August Wilson and Tom Wolfe. I listened to the Vonnegut lecture. Imagine-- a whole hour and a half (Well, I skipped the first 9 minutes of introductions.) with my favorite author wheezing and sputtering. How refreshing to hear him declaim in his own voice and reveal the happiest day of his life and his own favorite from among his works -"The Sirens of Titan".
posted by notmtwain on May 27, 2011 - 8 comments

:)
posted by slater on Mar 24, 2010 - 30 comments

Kids on Aciiiiid! In order to protect her pupils from internet pervs a British headmistress has censored photos on the school's website by slapping smileys all over them. The result is like some combined fever dream of Chris Morris and Banksy.
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Mar 6, 2008 - 46 comments

Remember how some of us joked that the mailbox bomber was placing his bombs in a smiley face pattern? Well, we were right.
posted by Reggie452 on May 9, 2002 - 9 comments

:( Harvey Ball, creator of the smiley face died yesterday. He was paid $45 for designing it for an insurance company. Neither he nor the insurance company bothered to copyright it, and the rest is history.
posted by dchase on Apr 13, 2001 - 16 comments