From this:

To this:

MSN wonders out loud: “What does Wal-Mart’s new logo mean?”

“”(The new sunburst) looks organic. My sense is they are trying to say, ‘we’re an eco-aware company,’” says Marty Neumeier, president of Neutron, a branding firm in San Francisco.”

This is the same school of thought in which a train disappearing in a tunnel symbolizes travel.

It’s abundantly clear what the source of inspiration of this logo’s designers was: this passage from Kurt Vonnegut’s classic “Breakfast of Champions”

“To give an idea of the maturity of my illustrations for this book, here is my picture of an asshole: ”

To quote two other modern classics:

“It means “grease your little cornholes”“

If I were to talk to Darren Aronofsky, I’d try to persuade him to film The Lady Who Sailed The Soul or Scanners Live in Vain. Rachel Weisz could totally be Helen America. That would have been awesome.

Yes, I seem to have a pretty generic look. You know, we all share a common ancestor about a thousand years ago, but some people, like me, probably share one a lot sooner. A bit like all these WWII era inhabitants of a French town visited by a son of a WWI era American soldier in Bill Mauldin‘s famous cartoon:

“This is th’ town my pappy told me about.”

Once, walking around in Brooklyn I’ve noticed a guy who looked a bit familiar, but I could not immediately understand why. I noticed that he was looking at me a little strangely too, as if trying to figure something out. His wife, on the other hand figured it out a in a split second – I could tell by her rounded eyes and pointed finger. If you’d put peyos and kipa on me, you would not be able to tell me and her husband apart. The three of us chatted for a bit about this and went on our separate ways, a little bit shaken by the experience.

Then, one day I thought that Travis Ruse, the very talented subway photographer, finally captured me on cmos. I’ve never met Travis, but I always thought that eventually either I’d spot him on the train or I’d end up in one of his pictures. This picture confused me a great deal. I could not tell if it was me in it or not for 15 minutes or so. Only small details were wrong: I don’t wear t-shirts under dress shirts, my glasses at the time had brown frames and I am slightly fatter. The blue shirt, pants and shoulder bag strap are spot on.

Update:
Long after I wrote this one, I ended up at the same company as Travis Ruse.

Update:
Here’s a picture of me with Steve Wozniak. There’s some resemblance, wouldn’t you say?

Exhibit B: Member of the New York City Float Committee dance group

Exhibit B: NYPD Skywatch Sentinel Droid Surveillance Tower.

And all we get is a crummy Palpatine-looking Senator.

I wonder if Oleksandr Tymoshenko have seen that “Friends” episode…..

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn) or Senator Palpatine (S-Naboo) ?

(left image from http://www.hillnews.com, right from http://www.starwars.com)