**Above, a portrait of Pekar by artist Jeff Hurst.**
_Pollux writes:_
A lot of thoughtful and moving tributes to Harvey Pekar have emerged from the world of comics this week, and Emdashes would like to make special mention of two of them.
Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics has written an insightful “piece”:http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Harvey-Pekar-R.I.P..html&Itemid=113 on Pekar. Reynolds talks about his relationship with Pekar, both as a young fan and admirer and as a subsequent editor for _The Complete Crumb_ series.
Bill Kartalopoulos, an authority and teacher of comics (and a friend of Emdashes) has written a typically thoughtful “piece”:http://imprint.printmag.com/illustration/what-harvey-pekar-did-for-comics-2/ on Pekar that explores the Clevelander’s contribution to the world of comics.

_Pollux writes:_
_SMITH Magazine_’s “Pekar Project” was a webcomic series by Harvey Pekar and multiple artists that has been tragically brought to a halt by Pekar’s death.
However, _SMITH magazine_ has asked artists to create “The Harvey Heads,” in which artists submit their portraits of Pekar. You can see them, and the “Pekar Project,” “here.”:http://www.smithmag.net/pekarproject/

_Pollux writes_:
Back in 2006, Emily wrote a post called “Pekar, Piqued.”:http://emdashes.com/2006/01/pekar-piqued.php I thought it would be worth revisiting. Check out the WKSU “Special Feature”:http://www.wksu.org/features/harveypekar/ that asked, _Who is Harvey Pekar?_

_Pollux writes_:
Just to follow up on the Paul the Octopus story, he has “predicted”:http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/paul-the-octopus-gives-the-final-order-get-ready-for-a-spanish-celebration.html a win for Spain, so let’s see if he turns out to be right. They’ve stopped eating octopus in Spain out of respect to Paul.
As a side note, I can’t help thinking that an intelligent octopus could easily fix the oil leak in the Gulf. All it needs is eight strong hands, sensitivity, and knowledge and respect for the ocean, qualities that no one at BP seems to possess.

_Click on the image to enlarge_.
_Pollux writes_:
You have to admire “Paul the Octopus'”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Octopus bravery: predicting Germany’s loss in the World Cup game against Spain while residing in a German aquarium? Gutsy move (do octopuses have guts?).
The Germans and the Argentines (Paul also predicted Argentina’s loss against England) are up in arms, but the eight-armed Paul blithely continues to do his work.
To defer to animals as oracular messengers is as old as civilization itself. Ancient Egyptians consulted divine animals such as “The Bull Who is in Hermonthis, Lord of Medamud, Who is in Tod.”
Octopuses are said to be highly intelligent, and Paul’s prognostication proved correct against the face of popular opinion, namely that the Germans would handily beat Spain and advance to the World Cup Final against the Netherlands.
I’m impressed, and Paul’s predictions make me want to ask _Das Krakenorakel_ questions unrelated to World Cup soccer.
Paul, is the war in Afghanistan a big mistake?
CHOICE #1: Yes
CHOICE #2: Define “mistake.”
Paul, is there life in other parts of the universe?
CHOICE #1: Yes, but you’ll only find it in octopus form.
CHOICE #2: We’re all alone, so exceedingly, extremely alone.
Paul, what is your opinion on Ayn Rand’s criticisms of altruism and her overall philosophy regarding selfishness and its place within a larger societal framework founded on capitalism?
CHOICE #1: Netherlands.
CHOICE #2: Spain.

Emily Gordon writes:
Remember the contest Greenpeace UK announced to redesign the BP logo? Our own cartoonist Pollux beat them to it, of course, but now that the official contest is closed, you’ll want to go look at the entries. From the Greenpeace UK Flickr page:

BP claim that they are ‘beyond petroleum’. But this is a company that is up to its neck in the dirtiest oil going – poised to invest in the Canadian tar sands, and causing environmental catastrophe through deepwater drilling.

Their nice green logo doesn’t really seem to fit them too well, so we ran a competition to find a logo that we could use to rebrand BP.

The results are displayed here.

Some of the entries are pretty good, especially the ones that depart from the green-and-yellow starburst motif and try something more conceptually daring, like the droplet surrounding an oil-covered hand (“not waving but drowning,” as the Stevie Smith poem goes) and the tagline “be patient.”

Or this designer’s clever and poignant approach–a repetition of BP’s logo and the text, “I still love your logo,” then a note in small type below: “I wish your oil rigs were designed as well as your brand identity.”

_Pollux writes_:
As you know, I’ve been doing cartoon coverage for _The Wavy Rule World Cup_. The very funny cartoonist “Emily Flake”:http://www.eflakeagogo.com/ has drawn her own “cartoon”:http://www.citypaper.com/comics/story.asp?id=20344 on World Cup Fever.
I knew there were consequences to blowing on vuvuzelas besides serious ear damage!

_Pollux writes_:
To Whomever Is In Command:
From your website I learned about your need for a new Director. I am very interested in this position with the Institute of Dead and Dying Languages, and believe that my employment background is appropriate for the position.
As you may or may not know (do you subscribe to the Zarphatic-language edition of _Rolling Stone_?), I was recently head of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
As you probably do know, Afghanistan is where the endangered language of Moghol language is spoken, in the Herat Province. I never heard any civilian speak it myself, and this bugged the shit out of me while I was there. I wanted to translate my song about Afghanistan, called “Afghanistan,” into the multiple languages of Afghanistan.
You know what else? Straight-talking is an endangered language, and since I’m a middle-finger-pointing, Bud Light Lime-drinking straight-talker, I know a lot about what it’s like to speak a language like Abnaki-Penobscot or Niuatoputapu.
And while my approach has yielded limited success by military, geopolitical, economic, or personal standards, from a linguistic standpoint, my tenure saw an explosion of new coinages, like _COIN_, _COINdinista_, and _COINdom_.
If chosen as your Director, I’m not gonna be one of these Ivy Beleaguered, Gucci academicians who scratch their asses and only the surface of what we can accomplish.
I’m gonna get more boots on the ground. I’m gonna develop what I call _EARLI_, the Endangered, Ailing, and Rare Languages Initiative.
I don’t want to record any old fart speaking Cornish or Polabian. EARLI is going to show courageous restraint. We’re gonna strategically record what we can, but we’re going to be smarter than our enemy, and our enemy is what I call the Big Languages.
EARLI is going to record, document, and archive. Under my direction, we’re going to prepare a shitload of lexicons, grammars, text samples, and databases. It’s gonna put such a hurtin’ on the English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic languages that everyone’s gonna be speaking Wapishana before you know it.
A little about my background: in 1972, I founded and led the Dampal, Adynyamathanha, and Matagalpa Platoon, or _DAMP_, at West Point. We celebrated our appreciation of these dying languages by kidnapping pledges in the dead of night, throwing them in the back of a ice truck, and handcuffing them to an oil rig in their underwear.
They had to find their way back by following instructions written in Dampal, Adynyamathanha, and Matagalpa. The guys who made it back became full members of _DAMP_. That’s the kind of idea and initiative your Institute needs.
I also actively use Pig Latin, which not too many young people know these days, which qualifies it as an endangered language.
A requirement for this position is a track record of no bullshit in meeting goals. I have done this. More about me: I work well with others. I have a great sense of humor. I’m fit. I rarely eat. I sleep only 28 minutes a night. I dream in black-and-white.
I am available now for employment. I look forward to talking with you regarding the Directorship of your prestigious Institute. At 0900 hours, I will be calling you to confirm that you received my letter.
And don’t give me the runaround. If you’re not interested, just tell me. ‘Cause wasting time is fuckin’ gay.
Sincerely,
Stanley A. McChrystal
Ex-Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan

_Pollux writes_:
Is Arvore a cheese or a font? What about Balaton?
You can test your caseic and typographical knowledge with this “game!”:http://cheeseorfont.mogrify.org/ It’s an old (in web time, anyway) favorite and great for anyone bored at work, especially for those who work at type foundries and creameries.
It was made by “@mogrify”:http://twitter.com/mogrify from an idea by “@dickchiclets.”:http://twitter.com/dickchiclets You can follow “Cheese or Font”:http://twitter.com/cheeseorfont on Twitter.

_Pollux writes_:
If you want a laugh, read this short imagined “monologue”:http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html by designer and writer “Mike Lacher”:http://mikelacher.com/, which appears in _McSweeney’s_.
The imagined monologist? The font that everyone loves to hate, Comic Sans. This unloved font, deliciously defiant in Lacher’s monologue, lashes out angrily at all critics and comers.
See? Comic Sans is a fun font.