Eugene the Jeep

Eugene the Jeep is a character in the Popeye comic strip. A mysterious animal with magical or supernatural abilities, the Jeep first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip (March 16, 1936). In the August 9, 1936, strip, headlined “Wha’s a Jeep?” [sic] Popeye asks Professor Brainstine what exactly a Jeep is. He gets the following response:

A Jeep is an animal living in a three dimensional world—in this case our world—but really belonging to a fourth dimensional world. Here's what happened. A number of Jeep life cells were somehow forced through the dimensional barrier into our world. They combined at a favorable time with free life cells of the African Hooey Hound. The electrical vibrations of the Hooey Hound cell and the foreign cell were the same. They were kindred cells. In fact, all things are, to some extent, relative, whether they be of this or some other world, now you see. The extremely favorable conditions of germination in Africa caused a fusion of these life cells. So the uniting of kindred cells caused a transmutation. The result, a mysterious strange animal. When asked if he had any further questions, Popeye, totally unenlightened by this explanation, repeated, "Wha's a Jeep?"

In the context of the comic strip, Eugene the Jeep was a gift to Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl from her Uncle Ben who found Eugene in Africa. The Jeep is a yellow creature about the size of a dog who walks on his hind legs. He has a bear-like head and ears but a large nose, long tail, and protruding belly. The Jeep’s diet consists only of orchids.

As his language is limited to the word “jeep”, Eugene primarily communicates through body language. Eugene always tells the truth, even to criminals. He possesses high intelligence, so is able to help humans such as Popeye and Olive Oyl solve complex problems. He makes use of a limited form of teleportation: he can disappear from one place and reappear in another, and can walk through and on walls and ceilings. These teleportation powers are said to stem from the Jeep’s ability to cross into the fourth dimension.

Excerpted from Wikipedia

Finished reading: The Idiot by Elif Batuman đź“š

I’ve never read a book that seemingly had no arc. But I think that was the point.

Captures college life (and email!) in the 90s well. It’s a little painful to recognize bits of your own partially-formed self in the characters.

Finished reading: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen đź“š

More engaging and realistic characters than The Corrections, but they make such terrible decisions it was like chewing glass sometimes, and I had to put it down.

Finished reading: The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini đź“š

Crazy book. Originally written in Italian. No Italian characters or settings. A fictionalized account of the German-Jewish Lehman family and the construction and ultimate demise of their financial empire. Written in blank verse and particularly enjoyable as an audiobook.

Labor Day Weekend

My family are all away. My favorite bar and backup favorite are closed. I have not felt this abandoned since my mother practiced the Ferber method.

Elliot Page




zacharylevis:

Many of the political attacks on trans people—whether it is a mandate that bathroom use be determined by birth sex, a blanket ban on medical interventions for trans kids or the suggestion that trans men are simply wayward women beguiled by male privilege—carry the same subtext: that trans people are mistaken about who they are. “We know who we are,” Page says. “People cling to these firm ideas [about gender] because it makes people feel safe. But if we could just celebrate all the wonderful complexities of people, the world would be such a better place.”

Page was attracted to the role of Vanya in The Umbrella Academy because—in the first season, released in 2019—Vanya is crushed by self-loathing, believing herself to be the only ordinary sibling in an extraordinary family. The character can barely summon the courage to move through the world. “I related to how much Vanya was closed off,” Page says. Now on set filming the third season, co-workers have seen a change in the actor. “It seems like there’s a tremendous weight off his shoulders, a feeling of comfort,” says showrunner Steve Blackman. “There’s a lightness, a lot more smiling.” For Page, returning to set has been validating, if awkward at times. Yes, people accidentally use the wrong pronouns—“It’s going to be an adjustment,” Page says—but co-workers also see and acknowledge him.

Whatever challenges might lie ahead, Page seems exuberant about playing a new spectrum of roles. “I’m really excited to act, now that I’m fully who I am, in this body,” Page says. “No matter the challenges and difficult moments of this, nothing amounts to getting to feel how I feel now.” This includes having short hair again. During the interview, Page keeps rearranging strands on his forehead. It took a long time for him to return to the barber’s chair and ask to cut it short, but he got there. And how did that haircut feel?

Page tears up again, then smiles. “I just could not have enjoyed it more,” he says.

ELLIOT PAGE for TIME Magazine › 2021 interview by Katy Steinmetz, photography by Wynne Neilly via Tumblr

Self-Portrait


philamuseum:

Believing “human experience is the proper subject matter of art,” Martha Mayer Erlebacher employed her meticulous technique to paintings of people. Trained as an abstract painter, she studied the history of art and eventually was drawn to the more precise figurative style of Italian Renaissance artists. In this self-portrait, she focuses her direct gaze on herself, rendering her torso in a shallow space defined by a fabric-draped wall with her head framed by sky.

See this work and more in our newest exhibition “Painting Identity.”

“Self-Portrait,” 1975, by Martha Mayer Erlebacher via Tumblr