No aspect of the U.S. government shutdown has garnered more public attention or drawn more outrage than the closing of national monuments. State governments and private donors have kicked in funds to keep monuments open. Here is a more nuanced perspective: fuck the fucking national monuments.
At long last, a little chicken-fried class may be coming to roost in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Some descendants of Popeyes Chicken founder Al Copeland are hoping to commission a tasteful memorial statue of their patriarch in a local park in Metairie, Louisiana. That's "tasteful" not as in "The national World War II memorial is understated and tasteful," but as in "Mmm, this Popeyes Bonafide® fried chicken sure is taste-ful and also featured in this garish memorial statue."
"Sir, Mr. Ebert, this is Will Leitch, an editor at the Daily Illini." How Roger Ebert put up with one young writer.
In New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and elsewhere, Apple fans have been gathering and leaving spontaneous tributes to Steve Jobs at Apple Stores throughout the night. People have left flowers, signs, Post-it notes, and even writing right on the glass walls. Here are a few of the images circulating on Twitter and elsewhere.
Forty-three years after his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr., has taken his place on the National Mall: the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C., was unveiled to the press today, in advance of its official dedication next week. It captures the great civil rights martyr just as he was in life: Trapped in a big white rock, like Han Solo frozen in carbonite, with some other rocks piled up behind him.
The most tragic American image of 2011 will undoubtedly be that of 6-year-old Cooper Stone, looking down from the stands at his father, 39-year-old firefighter Shannon Stone, who had fallen to his death trying to catch his son a baseball at a Texas Rangers game. Now the two will be immortalized in bronze, in a memorial set to be installed next season outside the park's home plate gate. It's meant to be both a remembrance of Stone and a tribute to all of the game's fans — but man, that's going to be one seriously solemn statue. [AP, photo via NGottwald's Flickr]
Londoners have a 10-foot-tall sculpture of Ronald Reagan to call their own. Unveiled at its permanent home outside the American Embassy, the statue was constructed at a cost of $1 million, paid for by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation "as part of a worldwide effort to promote his legacy" in this, the 100th anniversary of his birth.
This weekend, Princeton's class of 2006 celebrates its five-year reunion with a standard-issue bacchanal. This year's theme: "'06 Feet Under." Cute, right? Except when they announce the '06 reunion memorial service, which now looks like it is being introduced with a wacky pun.
Here's President Obama's relatively subdued appearance at Ground Zero, where he laid a wreath to honor the victims of 9/11 and then chatted up a nice police officer. No soaring speeches today, it seems. Before the ceremony he stopped at a local firehouse, and now he's meeting privately with 9/11 victims' families.
In case you missed it, today was the 17th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death, a solemn occasion best commemorated by a visit to Jared Leto's blog, Notes From the Outernet. Take it away, Jared!
The chairman of the British soccer club Fulham, Mohamed Al Fayed — who's still creepily obsessed with his son Dodi's relationship to Princess Diana — has some choice words for fans of the team who don't like the new Michael Jackson statue outside of the stadium:
Requests are pouring in to West Hollywood City Hall to have a street named for Liz Taylor. How they'll fit "Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky Ave." on a street sign is their problem.
[Paul the Psychic Octopus, who correctly predicted World Cup match winners, was honored today at the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany with this monument. Paul died in October. Image via AP]
Per his wishes, the ashes of Portuguese journalist Carlos Castro—who was apparently murdered by his very disturbed 20-year-old model lover—were scattered in a Times Square subway grate. In true New York fashion, it was probably illegal.
Insufferable talk radio blowhard Laura Ingraham graced Bill O'Reilly with her appearance on tonight's Factor for a chat about President Obama's speech at last night's post-shooting memorial in Tucson, Arizona. Her thoughts? It was a shameless "campaign rally." Watch inside.
Where was Speaker John Boehner last night? He wasn't at the president's memorial service in Tucson. And breathless reports are claiming he wanted to hobnob at an RNC cocktail party instead. That monster! But maybe there's more to it.
[Members of Congress, their staffs and others gather on the steps outside the House of Representatives during this morning's national moment of silence for the Tucson shooting spree victims. Photo via Getty.]
One year and two months after drunkenly torching a 9/11 memorial on Halloween, Harvard Law grad Brian Schroeder pleaded guilty to three charges. "I cannot explain why I acted the way I did," he explained. "I drank many alcoholic beverages."
Hundreds of Rutgers students gathered in the rain to honor Tyler Clementi's memory.
Today we looked at the rekindled Flight 93 memorial Muslim controversy and sighed and shook our heads and threw up our hands. Well, most of us. One commenter was proactive and hatched an idea for a true, beautiful memorial.
