<div dir="ltr">Hi Tom,<div><br></div><div>Hindu followers of Shiva would love this. Last week I did my Shiva show for my continuing ed students. The second part of the evening focused on Shiva lingas in India, Bali, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Tibet. Yes, even the Dali Lama has his very own lingam. His Yellow Hat sect takes the sexuality of Tantra symbolically, but the Red Hat Lamas have their very own tantric consorts. The one from from Red Hat Bhutan was found on the left side of a home entry. Most Bhutanese homes have one painted on the outside for fertility purposes, and to shock tourists . See attached and but viewer discretion advised.</div>
<div><br></div><div>No need for viagra in Asia,</div><div><br></div><div>Nick</div><div><br></div><div>P.S. My course Hindu Gods and Goddesses will continue after Thanksgiving with "The Incarnations of Vishnu) on Dec. 11/12 and "The Hindu Goddess" on Dec. 18/19. The Wed. night sessions (7:30-9:340) are at my home 509 Taylor, and the Thurs. afternoon class (2-4) is held at 909 Travois Way, #16.</div>
<div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 4:28 AM, Tom Hansen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com" target="_blank">thansen@moscow.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><div><span></span></div><div><div><span></span></div><div><div>While browsing the web for off-the-beaten-path college mascots, I came across several that were interesting, to say the least. </div>
<div><br></div><div>I came across the Fighting Ocra of Mississippi's Delta State University.</div><div><br></div><div>I visited Artie the Fighting Artichoke of Scottsdale Community College.</div><div><br></div><div>I even ordered and received a coffee mug depicting University of California at Santa Clara's mascot, the Banana Slug.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, could have mentally prepared me for . . .</div><div><br></div><div>Rhode Island School of Design's mascot . . . Scrotie the Nad!</div><div><br></div><div>Here, I'll let the school's website (at <a href="http://www.risd.edu/About/News/Scrotie_Responds/" target="_blank">http://www.risd.edu/About/News/Scrotie_Responds/</a>) introduce Scrotie:</div>
<div><br></div><div>(FYI: Decency and censorship prevent me from posting a photo of Scrotie the Nad)</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><h3 style="border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-width:1px;line-height:29px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif;margin:0px 0px 14px;font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:8px;border-bottom-color:rgb(153,153,153)">
Scrotie Responds to Hands-on Attention</h3><p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Most RISD students have had the pleasure of watching the eyes of our friends and families widen in disbelief when they first learn about Scrotie. While students at other colleges cheer on their lions or tigers or bears, RISD is the only school in the country with a friendly phallus as its unofficial mascot.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Even without any legs to stand on, Scrotie rises an impressive six feet tall and serves as a sometimes too-real reminder of our grueling Foundation Studies life drawing courses. But what most students may not realize is that the Scrotie we now know and love is actually a reincarnation.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The original Scrotie was born in 2001 when students created the first anatomical costume, which had a small red cape. He frequented Nads hockey games to dance around and encourage fans to yell “Go Nads!” Then, after eight years of bringing rowdy students to their feet, the original Scrotie succumbed to understandable wear and tear.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">A year of mascot celibacy followed, but as hockey fans grew increasingly restless and dissatisfied, RISD’s <a title="Center for Student Involvement" href="http://csi.risd.edu/" style="text-decoration:none!important" target="_blank">Center for Student Involvement</a> stepped in just in time. The CSI invited senior <strong>Sean Devare 12 IL</strong> to reconceive our heroic hot dog.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Working with a talented team that included <strong>Liz Mooney 12 IL</strong>, <strong>Jesse Bonelli 12 IL</strong>, <strong>Nick Truss 12 IL</strong> and <strong>Darian Brenner 12 FAV</strong>, Devare dreamed up a radical redesign of the cocky mascot. Functionality was of paramount importance, so the team added adjustable straps for support and comfort, along with strategically placed openings that enable the wearer to sit down. It pumped up Scrotie’s super-hero feel by adding a larger cape, a mask and a sperm emblem emblazoned on his chest.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The mascot’s new “skin” – a bright red on top blending with royal blue testicles below – is the most noticeable and controversial change. But Devare explains that “we wanted Scrotie to be race-blind” and points out that the wearer conceals his own skin color by donning a mask, gloves, long sleeves and pants. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Of course, the biggest challenge for the Scrotie redesign team was actually creating the huge sculpture. After commissioning the basic structure from Big Nazo, the local puppet studio run by alum and RISD faculty member<strong><a title="Erminio Pinque" href="http://www.risd.edu/Film-Animation-Video/Erminio_Pinque/" style="text-decoration:none!important" target="_blank">Erminio Pinque 83 IL</a></strong>, students took over the responsibility of bringing Scrotie to life. They worked in basements and alleyways to get the necessary space and ventilation, and once even worked on the roof of a building next to the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence. “The people staying at the Biltmore that day had quite a sight,” recalls Devare, remembering the hotel guests looking out their windows at students hard at work making a giant foam penis.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">But wherever the reconstructive surgery took place, the team worked with their “balls to the wall” making hair follicles out of fishing line, sculpting veins in foam and even trying to incorporate a squirt gun into the tip. In the end, though the squirt gun never quite worked out as planned, the new Scrotie is an impressive representation of RISD’s collective talent as well as of our family jewels.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Scrotie made his first post-surgical public appearance at the 2010 RISD Block Party. “There was definitely rejoicing going on,” recalls Devare, who was the first to wear the updated version. “I just put on the suit and hammed it up,” he says. And his peers loved it. That day they swamped Facebook with pictures of themselves posing next to and even hugging the loveable penis. Since then Scrotie continues to visit Nads games and pop up around campus, embodying enthusiastic yet typically strange RISD school spirit. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">And as true fans like to say, “The people cried out for a hero, and a hero came.” </span></p><p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><em style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">—Samantha Dempsey 13 IL</em></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 16px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"> <em>also of interest:</em></span></p><ul style="padding:0px;margin:12px 0px 14px 17px"><li style="list-style-type:square;padding-bottom:14px">
<a href="http://www.risd.edu/About/News/Go_Nads/" title="Go Nads!" style="text-decoration:none!important" target="_blank"><em style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><font color="#000000">Go Nads!</font></em></a></li>
<li style="list-style-type:square;padding-bottom:14px"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><em> <a href="http://www.risd.edu/About/News/Game_On.aspx" title="Game On" style="text-decoration:none!important" target="_blank">Game On</a></em> (about the RISD Pricks and the RISD Seamen)</span></li>
</ul></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com" target="_blank">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div>
<div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size:medium">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size:medium"> </span></div>
<span style="font-size:medium">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-size:medium">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span><br>
</span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span>- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>=======================================================<br>
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