Re: The Facts Of Life

1

That's pretty magnanimous of T, given that (a) he's so much cooler (and for that matter, better looking) than Chuck and (b) Chuck is so deeply closeted.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 11:54 AM
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2

That's not Clint Eastwood from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 11:55 AM
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3

definitely chuck, jm.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 11:59 AM
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4

The ass kickin' is just before the ass fuckin'.


Posted by: Chuck Norris | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:02 PM
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5

Much less appealing, then. I find it unlikely that Mr. T couldn't do better.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:07 PM
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6

5: He's on the rebound. Hannibal broke his heart.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:16 PM
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7

I was wondering what Stevie Ray Vaughan was doin up there.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:23 PM
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8

Reminds me of the famous Valentine's cover that Spiegelman did for the New Yorker.


Posted by: Bragan | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:28 PM
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9

I find it unlikely that Mr. T couldn't do better.

I pity the fool who thinks Mr. T couldn't do better.

Aren't they both some variety of Christian conservative, IRL? I seem to remember that Mr. T was a guest on The 700 Club a few times. Which only makes this even more awesome, of course.


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:33 PM
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10

Reminds me of this.


Posted by: Grumps | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:33 PM
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11

9: I don't think Mr. T's quite so weirdly republican about it, though. He might be baptist? He talked a lot about going to church growing up in his autobiography.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:37 PM
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12

That website is bizarre--I can't figure it out what it's about. Random people just design different t-shirts, and other people... buy them?


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:39 PM
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13

9/11: and I think Norris isn't quite so weirdly Christian about it. He's just a right-wing conservative, I think.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:41 PM
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14

12: basically.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:45 PM
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15

I originally thought it was Matisyahu. Which may make it funnier.


Posted by: baa | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:46 PM
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16

so the guy on the right could reasonable be chuck, stevie, clint, or jones. Proving what I've said in these forums many, many times: scruffy white men in hats all look alike.


Posted by: Michaek | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:47 PM
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17

12 -Brock, please to be shaking your cane and demanding us youngsters turn down that dagnab rock and roll music. Seriously, you've never heard of Threadless? I'm surprised someone didn't write a dumb New Yorker piece on it two years ago.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:48 PM
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18

16: no, the guy on the right is Chuck. The other interpretations are unreasonable.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:48 PM
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19

He talked a lot about going to church growing up in his autobiography.

Further evidence that if a piece of knowledge has been committed to paper, some unfogged commenter is aware of it.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:49 PM
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20

17: no, never heard of it. Is this a popular thing? I still don't understand the appeal.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:49 PM
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21

20: I can get never having heard of it, but I don't get why the appeal is mysterious.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:51 PM
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22

The strange thing about threadless is that the t-shirts all look like they could have been designed by the same two or three people.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:52 PM
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23

22: I have the same thought about Post-Secret. The submissions all look like they were submitted by three hipsters and one valley girl.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:54 PM
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24

#11/13. That's what I thought, pretty much. So in this design we see a re-united conservative movement, a joining of the religious wing and the ass-kicking wing, each cemented to the other by hot interracial man-sex.


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:54 PM
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25

I still don't understand the appeal.

It sells stand mixers and Mos Def in convenient t-shirt form. (As jms notes, it's got a particular and now much-copied graphical look for pun-loving skinny white kids in their early twenties.)


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:55 PM
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26

How can you hate on threadless after it has given you this t-shirt design?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:57 PM
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27

I think Norris isn't quite so weirdly Christian about it.

Well, here is Chuck Norris on the popular Chuck Norris Facts:

Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: "Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries. Ever." There was a man whose tears could cure cancer or any other disease, including the real cause of all diseases - sin. His blood did. His name was Jesus, not Chuck Norris.


Posted by: Grumps | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:58 PM
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28

13: I dunno, did you see his editorial about how those Chuck Norris facts are really Jesus facts?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 12:59 PM
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29

Pwned with a reference and a quote.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:01 PM
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30

It sells stand mixers and Mos Def in convenient t-shirt form.

Nice!


Posted by: baa | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:02 PM
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31

29: that's worth quadruple bonus points.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:02 PM
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32

Well, the subtle, self-deprecating admission in 11 already won the thread.


Posted by: Grumps | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:04 PM
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33

12: Random people compete to provide product, chosen by popular vote, which threadless then makes money selling. threadless does give you some money if you win their contest, I believe, in exchange for copyright. So not quite as lame as, say, Boston Magazine, which posted to a Flickr group assigning a subject and offering to publish the resulting photos for No Money.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:04 PM
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34

pun-loving skinny white kids in their early twenties

You rang? Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if I was wearing a Threadless shirt at that brief Chicago meetup. They were the staple of my closet until I could go to concerts and started picking up band tshirts.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:05 PM
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35

The T-shirts on that site are stupid. I can only assume my cane is in the mail.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:05 PM
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36

32: self deprecating, my fanny. His autobiography rules. Possibly even more than the video this is taken from. Bonus points to anybody who can identify the author of T's rap.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:10 PM
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37

I'm surprised someone didn't write a dumb New Yorker piece on it two years ago.

Does a Times Magazine article count?


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:12 PM
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38

Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if I was wearing a Threadless shirt at that brief Chicago meetup.

I wore one to the Bay Area meetup last July.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:15 PM
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39

You rang? Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if I was wearing a Threadless shirt at that brief Chicago meetup. They were the staple of my closet until I could go to concerts and started picking up band tshirts.

Whippersnapper. Back in my day, we didn't have your fancy online clothing vendors and had to wear our "This Is Not a Fugazi T-Shirt" shirts as we walked uphill both ways to school in the blizzards.

(I do love this, but then again I'm a white guy who owns Black On Both Sides.)


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:16 PM
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40

You rang? Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if I was wearing a Threadless shirt at that brief Chicago meetup. They were the staple of my closet until I could go to concerts and started picking up band tshirts.

Whippersnapper. Back in my day, we didn't have your fancy online clothing vendors and had to wear our "This Is Not a Fugazi T-Shirt" shirts as we walked uphill both ways to school in the blizzards.

(I do love this, but then again I'm a white guy who owns Black On Both Sides.)


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:16 PM
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41

Bad tags and a double-post! Get off my lawn!


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:17 PM
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42

Breaking (Huffington Post): The inhabitants of Lesbos in Greece are suing the so-called "lesbians" of the world for trademark infringement. Hide your strapons, laydeez.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:22 PM
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43

42: Now it's tribadism's time to shine!


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:24 PM
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44

(I do love this, but then again I'm a white guy who owns Black On Both Sides.)

I like that shirt too, but because of the bajillions of people in DC who bought it after Butterstick was born I decided not to get it when it came out. This is a frequent problem with the shirts. Particularly in certain places--Pitchfork Festival two sumers ago was like a Threadless convention.

I did just double check to see if I'm wearing one, though it appears that I am not.


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:25 PM
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45

Pandamonium! Yeah, that was one of my first shirts from Threadless, along with Nuts! back in like '03 or something. Its popularity is something to embrace, the guys behind it are pretty cool and run a sweet workplace, so I'm happy when I see the sea of Threadless shirts at Pfork and the such.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:49 PM
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46

Jesus, Po-Mo is young.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:50 PM
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47

No more masturbating to Albert Hoffman. Tweety.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:53 PM
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48

Crap. Hofmann.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 1:54 PM
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49

47: I heard. 102!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 2:03 PM
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50

102!

Apparently drugs aren't that bad for you.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 2:05 PM
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51

Did anyone see the Mr. T ad for Snickers on Youtube with the kid playing soccer?


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 2:07 PM
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52

The ad with the tank.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 2:09 PM
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53

22 and 23 get it right.

I think I remember seeing the Threadless website once, but it just looked like any other company consisting of a guy with pop-culture-related ideas and the ability to make t-shirts.

It's a fad or trend or something?


Posted by: Ardent reader | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 2:14 PM
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54

I love Threadless, but I think the shirt is kind of lame. New memes for new times, people. Fuckin' A.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 2:46 PM
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55

I used to live about two blocks from Threadless HQ. Looking at their website, I can see that their frolicking hipster models are posing on the sidewalks of my old neighborhood. I'm finding it really disturbing, for some reason.


Posted by: ed bowlinger | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 3:17 PM
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56

53 - Yes.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 3:25 PM
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57

50: Another icon of my youth gone...


Posted by: DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 3:57 PM
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58

23 is exactly right. It is truly baffling to me that that has become the house style of secretive self-disclosure. Did that many people grow up on Griffin & Sabine?

Rob Walker's Consumed column (I assume that's the NYTmag link) is a truly execrable craptasm the merciless. People like to buy different shit all the time! Let's think about what that could mean as if we just got into college and haven't once been exposed to the idea that expressing yourself with your purchasing power has a dark side or is somehow limited or manipulable!

I am not one of the hateradest people around here, but that column really gets my ooh.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 4:16 PM
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59

23/58: I've always taken this mostly to mean that the guy who runs it gets many more submissions than he posts, and that he (perhaps consciously, perhaps not) really favors those of a certain style. I don't really like the site. It seems like a nice conept taht is very poorly executed. And I can tell I really don't like the guy who runs it. Pompous.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 4:20 PM
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60

Similarly awesome.


Posted by: mano negra | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 5:05 PM
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61

60: On the other hand.

Further proof that Mr. T is so much better in every way. Way too good for Chuck.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 7:51 PM
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62

Football sucks.


Posted by: ---- | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 8:09 PM
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63

The T-shirts on that site are stupid.

I wouldn't sweat it. They'd only look silly with Friday casual Dockers, anyway.

The best of the Threadless designs are very good. They make the space of the shirt part of the design, something that's nice compared to the traditional half-assed blocky pictures or slogans that usually get stamped on t-shirts


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 8:31 PM
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64

60, 61: if you described brandon bird's work to me, without showing it to me, I would probably conclude that I'd dislike it and he's lame. But actually I love it.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 8:37 PM
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65

Yeah, it bugs when those cool sites that could have sort of an eclectic collection of stuff start trending towards same ol same ol. Etsy does that too.

As, come to think of it, does Unfogged.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 8:43 PM
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66

I have like 7 Threadless shirts. Some of them are really cool design-wise. Most of the shirts fall into the category 1) dopey frat guy "joke" shirts 2) weird design-y cool shirts 3) shirts that I really just don't get.


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 8:48 PM
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67

This is awesome too, but in a different way.


Posted by: mano negra | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 9:12 PM
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68

I have this shirt.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 9:46 PM
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69

because of the bajillions of people in DC who bought it after Butterstick was born I decided not to get it when it came out

Oy, Butterstick. One year when we lived there, we were showing a friend around the touristy bits of town and we stopped into a museum to pee. A museum guard made some enthusiastic remark about the artist-painted pandas all around DC (like the cows in Chicago and elsewhere) and I said (very truthfully, but thoughtlessly), "I hate the pandas."

I wish you could have seen the expression on her face, the shock and disappointment and appalled disbelief as she said, "You hate the pandas?"


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 9:59 PM
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70

Currently, the best T-shirt I own.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04-30-08 10:26 PM
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71

Does anyone know where my copy of England's Dreaming could've got to? Anyway, I was going to say that the Mr. T/Chuck Norris image seems awfully derivative of the Sex/Seditionaries/whatever T-shirt design reproduced in ED with the two half-naked cowboys talking to each other. Which is to say, if you buy the threadless T-shirt, you'd better be planning on wearing it ironically or I will mock you archly.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 05- 1-08 5:35 AM
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