Monday Morning Photosnark: Jimmy Fallon Hosts Primetime Emmy Awards
Photosnark caption possibilities, including a double dose of “The Simpsons” references:
- Ruff, ruff. I’m Poochie the Rockin’ Dog!
- I’m Jimmy Fallon and, Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Poplowski of Hazel Green, Wisconsin, I’m here to rock your sensibilities in an outrageous but completely non-threatening manner. Don’t let the sunglasses scare you. I’ll have your daughter back before 11:00. Or will I? Yes, I will. Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. No, sir, I don’t wear the sunglasses when I drive at night. Um, is Becky ready to go yet?
- What is hell is this thing in my right hand? I’ve never seen one of these before.
- This promotional photo is the 132th reason ?uestlove regrets joining “Late Night.” And forming the Roots. And having been born.
- Todd Flanders: “Is he killing that guitar, Daddy?” Ned Flanders: “Yes, son.”
Photo credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Pan Am: Messing with an Iconic Logo Design
Interesting piece written by Patrick Smith in his “Ask the Pilot” column at Salon about the bastardization of the classic Pan-Am logo for the sake of merchandising. A small sample:
As discussed in this space before, the current fixation in airline livery design is something I call the GMST, or Generic Meaningless Swoosh Thing (Cosmonaut comment: Amen). (Actually, this was a term concocted by Ask the Pilot reader Amanda Collier several years ago.) Take a look around the tarmac. There are enough streaks, swishes, arcs, twists, swirls and curls out there to make anybody dizzy. The idea, we think, is to suggest a company that is “in motion,” or “moving forward.” In the process, sadly, they have become indistinguishable from one other.
Really nice insight on branding, especially from an airline pilot who clearly has had a lot of time to consider such things.
If you’re over the age of 30, you doubtlessly can conjure a mental image of the iconic blue-and-white globe logo. If not, here it is:

As Smith wrote, it represents a much more glamorous time in airline travel, an era long forgotten in the post-9/11 world of TSA muggings and joyless, amenity-free flights. You might also recall that, in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, at the beginning of the film Dr. Heywood Floyd traveled to the space station via Pan Am:
It is part of how the future of space travel was envisioned through a prism of hope and faith in progress. Now it seems unlikely that such space vehicles will be in use before the mid-21st century.
Unfortunate Photo Framing: NFL Hall of Fame Weekend
These are three of the new inductees to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio (from left to right): Floyd Little (running back, Denver Broncos), Jerry Rice (wide receiver, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks) and Emmitt Smith (running back, Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals).
As three dimensions flatten to two in this image, the distance between Little and Smith’s handshake disappears and, well, it looks like there are four hands in Rice’s lap. Jerry’s smile seems a bit more perverse in this context, does it not?




