10.02.06

the dirty dozen, october doldrums edition [part 1]:

001 news of interest in ladymagland (which is quite deserted today, what with the holiday): five models were booted out of fashion week in madrid for being too skinny. as reported in the pittsburgh post-gazette,
Spain's crackdown may have stemmed from women's advocacy groups and medical associations in Spain that protested last year that too many models looked skeletal.

The 68 models who showed up to audition for Madrid Fashion Week this time had been told in advance that they would be examined by several specialists. The inspectors included a doctor with Spain's National Endocrinology Society and an obesity consultant at a hospital.

The five who flunked the physical were taller than 5 feet, 7 inches, weighed less than 121.25 pounds and had a body mass index under 18 - below the BMI minimums set by the endocrinology society and the World Health Organization.
this i find somewhat insulting. it's horrible that the fashion industry causes some women (and, gulp, children) to hate themselves, but shielding the fashion week crowd from the psychic shock of malnourished models smacks of paternalism to me. i do feel that girls' magazines should self-censor, and i'm glad that my ladymag eschews ze skeletons (i find them sci-fi and boring - fine for art photography, not particularly useful when i'm trying to figure out what to wear this fall), but the idea that adult women need protection from designer mind games is just sad. thanks, spain, but no thanks.

002 neil gaiman tribute album! predictably, tori amos and the rasputina gals contributed tracks; less predictably, stephin merritt did as well (future bible heroes' "mr. punch"). part of me wants to make it this year's frivolous halloween purchase, part of me wants to lay low and snatch it from an unsuspecting teen goth in the west village (because mugging one of them would be fun); the largest part of me doesn't recognize any of the other bands, and is feeling dark enough already, what with turning twenty-eight next week, thanks.

003 via caterina.net, a decent premise for a new flickr group:
Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words. His answer, personally felt to be his best prose ever, was For sale: baby shoes, never used. Some people say it was to settle a bar bet. Others say it was a personal challenge directed at other famous authors.

I'd like you to post a photo with a Six Word Story in the title section of a Flickr photo. Be as inventive as possible. Have those few words tell the whole tale, and let the picture be its visual interpretation.
meh to the photo element (i'll leave the fancy snapping to the pros), but the story idea i like: caterina's commenters have done some fine work with it.

004 gary shteyngart (absurdistan, the russian debutante's handbook) on food: like gary shteyngart in general, random and satisfying. highlights:
I was so happy [about the possible trans-fats ban]; I mean, sad too, because I'll never taste them again. But I don't have to constantly think, What am I eating here?

[...]

I'd love to wake up and eat a stick of butter and take a shot of vodka.

[...]

I don't give a damn [about the spinach warning]. I just know that's not how I'm going to die — it's too sad. Killed by something I don't even enjoy eating — that would be definitive proof of lack of God.

[...]

Tired all day, ended up just slurping some black-bean soup at home and eating a crapload of very tasty apples. My girlfriend is from California where they eat that type of thing. My stomach cried me to sleep.

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