Big Barrel by Actual Size Artists

I'm not the best headline writer, but I did come up with one I liked yesterday: "COP Says HAMP Remains FUBAR." COP is the Congressional Oversight Panel and HAMP is the Home Affordable Modification Program. The head wouldn't have made any sense only a few years ago, except for FUBAR, which has endured since WWII as the more extreme version of SNAFU. I try to use it when I can. Another one of that era that I'm fond of is JANFU, which is so specifically military that you never see it now (but for all I know, it could still be current in the Army and Navy). The euphemistic definition is here.

Though it was open last Saturday, the Evanston Art Center was between exhibits, according to the college girl behind the desk who had little to do but read. But there was an installation on the lawn, "Trickledown," which is supposed to be taken down sometime this spring. The sign near the work said it was by "Actual Size artists Gail Simpson and Aristotle Georglades."

For a while I thought Actual Size might be a style of sculpture I'd never heard of, which would be no surprise. Turns out the two artists themselves made that up as the name of their collaboration. It's amusing anyway. "Actual Size? No, I prefer the handy Travel-Size artists."

The sign further added that "it is inspired by the current economic situation and its effect on our communities," showing as it does parts of houses spilling out of a bucket. It was also inspired by the Jack-and-Jill rhyme, noted the sign.

A new Jack-and-Jill might go something like this, with complete disregard for making the thing scan, because that's an oppressive paradigm: In 2006 Jack and Jill/Went up the hill/To get a subprime or Alt-A or even prime mortgage they couldn't possibly afford from lenders who didn't care about that fact/Jack came down/And defaulted his crown/And the foreclosed property affected everyone else's valuations.