NEWS BRIEFS

By: Staff

Posted: 11/7/07

Selling a Marxist to the highest bidder

A Houston-area bookstore owner paid $100,000 for a lock of deceased Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara's hair at a recent auction. Bill Butler calls Guevara "one of the 20th century's greatest revolutionaries," and reassures us, "a lot of (Guevara's) writings are still worth reading." A member of the auction house that sold the hair said the staff was not surprised at how few bidders emerged, because people might not be sure if buying a piece of the man's body was "the right thing to do." $100,000 for a lock of a man's hair? Commodity fetishism? Reification? Going once, going twice ...

Public art strikes again

The city of Leeds in Yorkshire, England, recently installed its latest public sculpture: Two 10-foot stainless steel balls, each weighing in at one ton. Artist Kevin Atherton "wanted the installation to symbolize contemporary life in Leeds and the U.K. today." The balls seem to be a welcome variation on the ever-popular phallic symbols that are a common subject for public art. Perhaps Vanderbilt's own phallic statue on library lawn, affectionately dubbed "Dragon Penis" upon its unveiling by The Slant, could use a similar complement.

Perp wields dildo, police fear the worst

An Ontario man suspected of bank robbery was cornered on the highway after a long car chase last month. Police opened fire when he reached into his pants to remove what appeared to be a handgun. They later discovered that instead of a gun, the man was trying to dispose of a dildo, which was inexplicably tethered to his belt loop. A handgun used in the robbery has since been recovered from the side of the highway several miles back. Police Sgt. Cliff Matthews said of the incident, "I have found that type of thing on people many times"… but never has a dildo stricken fear into the hearts of so many men in uniform.

Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week

Conservative gadfly David Horowitz resurfaced again last week as his Terrorism Awareness Project partnered with the right-wing Young America's Foundation to hold "Islamo-fascism Awareness Week" at universities around the country. Horowitz, who has created a one-man industry by attacking what he views as liberal bias in academia, enlisted his supporters to host speakers like Ann Coulter and stage demonstrations that "highlighted the threat from the Islamic jihad, and the oppression of Muslim women," according to the event's Web site. Activists antagonized particular women's studies departments, suggesting that they sympathized with the enemy because the faculty members had not banded together to jointly denounce oppression of women in Islamic countries. Meanwhile, the ASPCA is planning a demonstration later this month to harass universities that have not up to this point formally announced they like kittens.