Allegedly Anti-Semitic Billboard Torn Down, Left Behind Next To West Side Highway : Gothamist
Allegedly Anti-Semitic Billboard Torn Down, Left Behind Next To West Side Highway
Earlier this week, the Wodka Vodka company slapped up a billboard along the West Side Highway featuring two dogs—one wearing a yarmulke and another in a Santa hat—with the copy "Christmas quality, Hanukkah pricing." The "joke," as if you needed it spelled out for you, is that the Jews like cheap crap while the Goys like paying through the nose for luxury. Immediately after Gawker reported on the billboard's existence, controversy ensued, surprising no one. And that's why you're reading about Wodka Vodka today, even after the billboard was removed. Whoever does their marketing is getting a nice Hanukkah bonus this year!
Ron Meier, the New York regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, promptly fired off a statement calling the ad "crude and offensive. Particularly with the long history of anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money, with the age-old notion that Jews are cheap, to use the Jewish holiday in dealing with issues of money is clearly insensitive and inappropriate."
After the predictable backlash and media exposure , Wodka Vodka Tweeted an apology yesterday saying: "Although rarely serious, we apologize to anyone we may have offended, and are removing our billboard immediately." City Councilwoman Gale Brewer praised the billboard placement company's decision to yank the ad, "The lesson here is simple: messages occupying public space cannot become platforms for vulgarity and invidious stereotypes."
The Times notes that Wodka is known for "shock advertising" intended to draw attention and generate controversy. A previous ad carried the text “Hamptons quality. Newark pricing." (We don't see what's so shocking about that, but anyway.) Brian Gordon, who runs the company that designed the campaign, denied the billboard was shock advertising, and told the Times, "We thought people would perceive it as 'ha ha quirky.' But people perceived it as offensive, and because of that, we pulled it." The billboard was taken down yesterday, and the Times reports they left it in a "crumpled heap near the road." Which, coincidentally, is how every experience with Wodka Vodka comes to an end.
Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
Allegedly Anti-Semitic Billboard Torn Down, Left Behind Next To West Side Highway : Gothamist
Depleted Texas lakes expose ghost towns, graves
Depleted Texas lakes expose ghost towns, graves
November 20, 2011 1:31 PM
A child's grave site, normally at least 20 to 30 feet underwater, has joined other remnants of old Bluffton, Texas, resurfacing as the drought shrinks the state's largest inland lake. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
(AP) BLUFFTON, Texas - Johnny C. Parks died two days before his first birthday more than a century ago. His grave slipped from sight along with the rest of the tiny town of Bluffton when Lake Buchanan was filled 55 years later.
Now, the cracked marble tombstone engraved with the date Oct. 15, 1882, which is normally covered by 20 to 30 feet of water, has been eerily exposed as a yearlong drought shrinks one of Texas' largest lakes.
Across the state, receding lakes have revealed a prehistoric skull, ancient tools, fossils and a small cemetery that appears to contain the graves of freed slaves. Some of the discoveries have attracted interest from local historians, and looters also have scavenged for pieces of history. More than two dozen looters have been arrested at one site.
"In an odd way, this drought has provided an opportunity to view and document, where appropriate, some of these finds and understand what they consist of," said Pat Mercado-Allinger, the Texas Historical Commission's archeological division director. "Most people in Texas probably didn't realize what was under these lakes."
Texas finished its driest 12 months ever with an average of 8.5 inches of rain through September, nearly 13 inches below normal. Water levels in the region's lakes, most of which were man made, have dropped by more than a dozen feet in many cases. The vanishing water has revealed the long-submerged building foundations of Woodville, Okla., which was flooded in 1944 when the Red River was dammed to form Lake Texoma. A century-old church has emerged at Falcon Lake, which straddles the Texas-Mexico border on the Rio Grande.
Steven Standke and his wife, Carol, drove to the old Bluffton site on a sandy rutted path that GPS devices designate not as a road but the middle of the 22,335-acre lake, normally almost 31 miles long and five miles wide.
"If you don't see it now, you might never see it again," said Carol Standke, of Center Point, as she and her husband inspected the ruins a mile from where concrete seawalls ordinarily would keep the lake from waterfront homes.
Old Bluffton has been exposed occasionally during times of drought. The receding waters have revealed concrete foundations of a two-story hotel, scales of an old cotton gin, a rusting tank and concrete slabs from a Texaco station that also served as a general store. The tallest structure is what's left of the town well, an open-topped concrete cube about 4 feet high. Johnny Parks' tombstone is among a few burial sites.
A rusting tank and concrete slabs from a Texaco service station, normally at least 20 to 30 feet underwater.
(Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay) Local historian Alfred Hallmark, whose great-great-great grandfather helped establish Bluffton, said his research showed 389 graves were moved starting in 1931 when dam construction began. That's the same year Bluffton's 40 or 50 residents started moving several miles west to the current Bluffton, which today amounts to a convenience store and post office at a lonely highway intersection serving 200 residents. Residents had to leave their ranches and abandon precious pecan trees, some of which produced more than 1,000 pounds of nuts each year. "It was devastating," said Hallmark, 70, a retired teacher, of the move. "They had no choice."
Other depleted lakes across Texas are revealing much older artifacts. More than two dozen looters have been arrested at Lake Whitney, about 50 miles south of Fort Worth, for removing Native American tools and fossils that experts believe could be thousands of years old.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees Lake Whitney, is patrolling a number of areas that contain artifacts, including some rock shelters once filled with water, said Abraham Phillips, natural resources specialist with the agency.
At Lake Georgetown near Austin, fishermen discovered what experts determined was the skull of an American Indian buried for hundreds or thousands of years. It's not clear what will become of the skull, said Kate Spradley, a Texas State University assistant anthropology professor who is keeping it temporarily in a lab. Strict federal laws governing American Indian burial sites bar excavations to search for other remains.
No such restrictions exist for the nearly two dozen unmarked graves discovered this summer in a dried-up section of a Navarro County reservoir. Some coffin lids are visible just under the dirt. Crews plan to excavate the site about 50 miles south of Dallas and move the remains to a cemetery, said Bruce McManus, chairman of the county's historical commission. He said the area of Richland-Chambers Lake is on property formerly owned by a slave owner.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime find ... and maybe the only silver lining in the ongoing drought," McManus said.
© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or
Phono-records or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as
Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for
Classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or
Phono-records or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as
Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for
Classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
Nikola Tesla unlimited free energy forever
Nikola Tesla unlimited free energy forever
From Google Videos.
Lightworks Video&Audio
Hosted by Bill Jenkins, formerly of ABC Radio, this comprehensive documentary features physicists and inventors who are challenging orthodox science to bring this non-polluting technology forward despite ridicule and suppression. See actual working prototypes that defy classical physics including phenomenal experiments in anti-gravity and the transmutation of metals.
http://www.lightworksav.com/
Read More... Nikola Tesla unlimited free energy forever
From Google Videos.
Lightworks Video&Audio
Hosted by Bill Jenkins, formerly of ABC Radio, this comprehensive documentary features physicists and inventors who are challenging orthodox science to bring this non-polluting technology forward despite ridicule and suppression. See actual working prototypes that defy classical physics including phenomenal experiments in anti-gravity and the transmutation of metals.
http://www.lightworksav.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
>
