timelightbox:

Untitled (American Flag, Trees), 1972

Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea is exhibiting the work of secret shutterbug, Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier: Unseen Images features 35 black and white prints. When Maier died in 2009, she left behind more than 120,000 negatives and 2,000 undeveloped rolls of film. Last year, a couple hundred of these rolls, shot in the 1960s and 1970s, were finally developed. A selection of these images make their debut in this exhibition. (note: exhibition open from April 12, 2012 - May 26, 2012)

See Maier’s work on LightBox here.

theatlantic:

Barack Obama Reading Where the Wild Things Are: Now in GIF Form

(via theatlanticvideo)

1. To dadburn
Function: verb
Definition: to curse
Etymology: “Dad” is a substitute for “God” in turn-of-the-century Southern U.S. vernacular. “Godburn” certainly sounds like Old-Testament-style divine retribution; ie, to curse. Use it in a sentence: “Dadburned boll weevil done ‘et my crop!”

2. To hornswoggle
Function: verb
Definition: To embarrass, disconcert or confuse.
Etymology: Belongs to a group of “fancified” words popular in the 19th century American West, invented to ridicule sophisticates back east. (Funny, it didn’t quite work out that way.)
Use it in a sentence: “I’ll be hornswoggled!”

3. Sockdolager
Function: noun
Definition: A big finish.
Etymology: A mis-heard, semi-spoonerism of the word “doxologer,” a colloquial New England rendering of “doxology,” which was a Puritan term for the collective raising of voices in song at the end of a worship service. Thus, a “sockdolager” is something truly exceptional — the end-all-be-all. Use it in a sentence: “Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologisin’ old man-trap!”
Fun fact: The above line appears in Tom Taylor’s play Our American Cousin, which was performed on the evening of April 14th, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. It got a big laugh from the crowd, which John Wilkes Booth used to muffle the sound of the gunshot that assassinated President Lincoln.