today i won't post dull ramblings which i have been giving you for the past few posts.. i think, my readers deserves something more. something with depth and won't make them feel like they wasted their time visiting my blog. and today's post will be that. interesting but still very random. insightful and yet some may not even give a damn about. today, i shall bare the truth of the origin of the famous smiley face. where did it come from? why did it become famous? then i try to uncover a part of a male's body part. no need to blush ladies.. it's about the nipples. why do men have them? they're practically useless. next is a personal search of enlightment. i've gotten grief and have been mocked for my middle name. oh yes.. some of you are already giggling right now. but today, i shall find out more about farnie and search for others like me. were they famous? is it a name to be proud of? did i get your attention with the intro? if yes, please read on and learn something today.
just smile :)
if you think forrest gump invented it by accident when he wiped his face on a shirt, then you are very wrong. the smiley face mania was made by two brothers in philadelphia, bernard & murray spain in the early 70's. as you all may know, it was the time of war and hippies. the 2 brothers were trying to design a sort of peace sign but with more appeal. the signature yellow face smile was introduced with the caption, "have a happy day". it became the latest fad with mass productions of button, greeting cards, shirts, bumper stickers, cookie jars, earrings, bracelets and key chains. the fad lasted a year and a half and in 1972, the sale of the buttons ALONE were more than 50 million.
it doesn't end there though.. the 2 brothers made the smiley face popular to the world but they did not invent it. we now travel back to 1963. worcester, massachusetts; there worked harvey ball in a subsidary state mutual insurance company. he was assigned to design a smile button for a morale boosting campaign. harvey, not a man to waste ink, initially drew just the smile. pondering the result, he realized that if you turned the button upside down, it became ... a frown! then he added the 2 eyes, which of course you could also turn upside down, but then it meant ... i'm standing on my head!--a more ambiguous sociopolitical message. he made the thing yellow to give it a sunshiny look, and the company, printed up 100. the buttons were a big hit, the company began handing them out by the thousands, and the rest you know. mr. ball's total take: his $45 art fee. state mutual, not very quick on the uptake, didn't make any money either.
but it goes much deeper still, which i will not go to. some say the yellow face craze originated in the 1930's. but for my sake and for yours as well, i shall leave it at that. on to the next one..
it doesn't end there though.. the 2 brothers made the smiley face popular to the world but they did not invent it. we now travel back to 1963. worcester, massachusetts; there worked harvey ball in a subsidary state mutual insurance company. he was assigned to design a smile button for a morale boosting campaign. harvey, not a man to waste ink, initially drew just the smile. pondering the result, he realized that if you turned the button upside down, it became ... a frown! then he added the 2 eyes, which of course you could also turn upside down, but then it meant ... i'm standing on my head!--a more ambiguous sociopolitical message. he made the thing yellow to give it a sunshiny look, and the company, printed up 100. the buttons were a big hit, the company began handing them out by the thousands, and the rest you know. mr. ball's total take: his $45 art fee. state mutual, not very quick on the uptake, didn't make any money either.
but it goes much deeper still, which i will not go to. some say the yellow face craze originated in the 1930's. but for my sake and for yours as well, i shall leave it at that. on to the next one..
man nipple: just for show?
okay. i've searched really deep in the internet for this and i found no conclusive facts about this. from what i found is that nipples aren't a sex-linked characteristic. in other words, nipples are just one of those sexually neutral pieces of equipment, like arms or brains, that humans get regardless of sex. every human being gets a unique set of 23 pairs of chromosomes at conception. These fall into two categories. One pair of chromosomes determines sex--the XX combination means you become female, the XY combination means you become male.
the other 22 pairs, the non-sex chromosomes (they're called autosomes), supply what we might call the standard equipment that all humans get. these 22 pairs constitute an all-purpose genetic blueprint that in effect is programmed for either maleness or femaleness by the sex chromosomes. the programming is done by the hormones secreted by the sex glands.
for example, the autosomes give you a voice box, while the sex hormones determine whether it's going to be a deep male voice or a high female voice. similarly, the autosomes give you nipples, and the sex hormones determine whether said nipples are going to be functioning (in females) or not (in males).
one interesting consequence of the developmental set-up just described is that during the very early stages of fetal life, before the sex hormones have had a chance to do their stuff, all humans are basically bisexual. among other things, you have two sets of primitive plumbing--one male, one female. only one set develops into a mature urogenital system, but you retain traces of the other for the rest of your life.
human nipples appear in the third or fourth week of development, well before the sex characteristics. (the sex hormones start to assert themselves at seven weeks.) so, after the nipples are developed, then the sex hormones kicks in, rendering nipples on males useless.
i hope i haven't lost you yet cause yours truly is coming up next!
the other 22 pairs, the non-sex chromosomes (they're called autosomes), supply what we might call the standard equipment that all humans get. these 22 pairs constitute an all-purpose genetic blueprint that in effect is programmed for either maleness or femaleness by the sex chromosomes. the programming is done by the hormones secreted by the sex glands.
for example, the autosomes give you a voice box, while the sex hormones determine whether it's going to be a deep male voice or a high female voice. similarly, the autosomes give you nipples, and the sex hormones determine whether said nipples are going to be functioning (in females) or not (in males).
one interesting consequence of the developmental set-up just described is that during the very early stages of fetal life, before the sex hormones have had a chance to do their stuff, all humans are basically bisexual. among other things, you have two sets of primitive plumbing--one male, one female. only one set develops into a mature urogenital system, but you retain traces of the other for the rest of your life.
human nipples appear in the third or fourth week of development, well before the sex characteristics. (the sex hormones start to assert themselves at seven weeks.) so, after the nipples are developed, then the sex hormones kicks in, rendering nipples on males useless.
i hope i haven't lost you yet cause yours truly is coming up next!
stop laughing! it's not farnie!
my quest to find my meaning was not really a memorable journey. i googled it and the only famous farnie was a henry brougham farnie (1836 – 1889). he was famous for writing the first instruction book on golf. yes.. golf. he did some adaptations on some novels but i shall spare you all from listing them down. i'm sure none of them are known and could not be cared less. ofcourse, when googling something, you rarely get only one result. even then, i just let out a sigh of grief. the other results were from sentences in blogs. apparently, it's a cute way saying/writing the word "funny" as "farnie". sigh..
when all hope was lost, i suddenly stumbled on the meaning of 'farnie'. urbandictionary.com says 'farnie' means someone who wears the same clothes every day.
example: That boy is a farnie because he always wears his jeans and shirt to school everyday.
that's right people.. i'm a definition now. sigh.. i then asked myself how i got the unusual name. who better to ask than the source - my parents. i was hoping for a wonderful story. i was hoping for a funny anectode of how my name was concocted.
alas.. i was dissapointed yet again. my dad said he got it from essays he used to compose as a kid. he remembered that he used the name farnie as a main character in his stories. he liked the name so much, he wanted to use it on his first born son. lucky me.. sigh..
there you have it folks. later days
when all hope was lost, i suddenly stumbled on the meaning of 'farnie'. urbandictionary.com says 'farnie' means someone who wears the same clothes every day.
example: That boy is a farnie because he always wears his jeans and shirt to school everyday.
that's right people.. i'm a definition now. sigh.. i then asked myself how i got the unusual name. who better to ask than the source - my parents. i was hoping for a wonderful story. i was hoping for a funny anectode of how my name was concocted.
alas.. i was dissapointed yet again. my dad said he got it from essays he used to compose as a kid. he remembered that he used the name farnie as a main character in his stories. he liked the name so much, he wanted to use it on his first born son. lucky me.. sigh..
there you have it folks. later days
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