Sunday, June 27, 2010

ONE ILLAR

Today my family took our weekly visit to the public library.  I was perusing the religion shelves of the nonfiction section when I noticed something.

Came to the religion section seeking enlightenment. Found a dollar instead. Thanks for the mixed messages, universe!
Finding a wayward buck at the end of a shelf full of Buddhism struck me as kinda funny. But then I reach for the bill and see that something's stinky in ol' Denmark.

WTF?
The above image has not been monkeyed with, at least not by me.  Someone scanned in a dollar, edited out the middle of it and printed the results.  Trying to figure out what the butt-heck is going on, I flipped the abbreviated bill over.


Okay, mixing serif and sans serif fonts like that is dubious, but I appreciate the sheer hucksterism, the 50's era Madison Avenue-style 'Burma Shave!' attitude at work here.  Then I noticed something that I sincerely hope was simply an oversight on the part of the artist:

Jesus wept.

Never have the letters T-A-T-E been more sorely missed.
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Posted by Jeff Rients at 5:10 PM

19 comments:

  1. Malcadon6:51 PM

    What a tease! In this struggling economy, that sort of thing should be a capital offense!

    I also make regular trips to the public library, and I have been seeing a lot of religious bookmark pamphlets lately - just not what you encountered. Somehow, sticking such a thing in the Buddhism section feels like spamming a Sesame Street website with porn adds. Its quit trollish too me!

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  2. Unknown6:56 PM

    This is a total dick move.

    I rather like the "UNAMERICA" at the top of the front, as well.

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  3. Jesse Carter7:05 PM

    Ah, to live in a town where the library is open on a Sunday would be glorious!

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  4. Anonymous7:16 PM

    You never see followers of Odin or Zeus pulling this trick on unsuspecting library goers.

    Think about it.

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  5. ze bulette7:32 PM

    Here you go Jeff, I fixed that for you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:37 PM

    50's is right... The new McCarthyism mixed with neo-fundamentalist/Tea Party zeal.

    Somewhere, right now, a faux-conservative is getting his wings.

    Probably bat wings...

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  7. Jayson8:16 PM

    Shucks, it has a kind of nifty, kooked-out Alt-Universe feel on the front:

    Hey! An OR-PND from the Unimerican Certifitreasury!

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  8. Intruder_W8:29 PM

    That reminds me, I have to get all my Illars changed before I go to Tuared.

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  9. FrDave8:47 PM

    Even I think the "Illar" is in poor taste...

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  10. Dr Rotwang9:14 PM

    Were I to express here how much I detest those smarmy-assed religious come-ons, you'd need a new monitor.

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  11. Mark CMG Clover12:00 AM

    Perhaps they thought that book was an easy mark. :-)

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  12. user@example.com2:05 AM

    At least they didn't leave it as a tip for a waiter. That's where I usually see fake money being used, and it's colossally dickish, especially when (at least half the time I've seen it done) they don't leave any actual money, and walk off being self-righteous and smug about how they've given the poor, struggling waiter something worth more than any amount of cash.

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  13. S. John Ross4:09 AM

    There's nothing much wrong with mixing serif and sans-serif if it's done with a sensitive eye for the overall design ... but that awful vertical squashing of the fonts is just unforgivable :(

    I remember finding one of those phony-dollar pamphlets on a convenience-store parking lot years ago ...

    user@example.com: Yikes, that is PROFOUNDLY dickish. I've seen religious tracts laid alongside tips, but INSTEAD OF? And with the fake-money ones to boot? Who the heck do they think they'll convert with that kind of behavior? Just disgusting.

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  14. Anonymous5:52 AM

    hail eris, baby!

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  15. Stefan Poag12:08 PM

    Malcadon wrote: "Somehow, sticking such a thing in the Buddhism section feels like spamming a Sesame Street website with porn adds."

    Absolutely. What a d1ckish move. Why does 'sharing the good news' have to include interfering with other people's right to read about Buddhism unmolested? And, somehow, a religious pamphlet that tries to fool you into picking it up by looking like money doesn't say much for the faith of the person who placed it there.

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  16. Anonymous1:05 PM

    @ze bullette: BRILLIANT!

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  17. Malcadon10:16 PM

    @Limpey:

    Unfortunately the absolution over the abject worship of Jesus as resulted in a lot of desperate followers who are driven by the idea that only the followers of Christ would ever get into Heaven. Ironically, it was Jesus who fought against such intolerance and blind-dogma in his lifetime.

    I know enough about Buddhism to know that it shares many of the core values Jesus advocated to his people. Both gave a great deal of wisdom to our world, and we should not let a bunch of over-zealous dickheads twist their message and profound wisdom.

    The funny thing is that both faiths teach that true faith cannot be bought or sold like that.

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  18. jgbrowning7:55 AM

    Yeah, that's tacky.

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  19. JB12:17 PM

    Ha! Dickish move that it is, I find it absurdly funny. I mean, would anyone looking to research Buddhism actually be drawn to Christian Right by this tactic? I would think it would have the opposite effect!

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