Author Archives: Ron

Maiden Voyages: June 2023

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Bayard’s Iconic Image: Pip did a short post a while ago on the iconic image of Cosette from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. What he discovered in the course of this research is that Émile Bayard published a book Le nu esthétique : l’homme, la femme, l’enfant which is a collection of nude photographic studies used by the artist to produce much of his work. It was just discovered that the French site Gallica has collected volumes which can be downloaded either as pdf files or paged through one jpeg at a time. Volumes 1 & 2 have been collected together into one book. And if you click on the link that says ‘See all documents from the same set’ there are four links, Pip suspects it will contain most if not all of the series.

Role of Butterfly in Portrayal of Psyche: A reader had a question regarding the use of butterfly wings in images from Pip’s Psyche series. In response, Pip sent me a link on the folklore of butterflies that should clarify things.

Pathologizing Intimacy: You have probably heard stories like this a hundred times, but one of our readers was kind enough to dig this one up for us. Not only was this a scandalous story which caused an outcry in Oberlin, OH, but the story was so compelling, the author Lynn Powell decided to write a book about it. The incidents in question took place before 2000 and the book, Framing Innocence, was published in 2010.

More Album Covers: Album covers were really more Pip’s thing so I can’t say much about the albums, but I am happy to share any discoveries passed on to me by readers. Here are some covers for: Dolphin, Lustro, Niurose, an album of Stories for Rainy Days and even an album offering a common-sense guide “Explaining sex to your little girl”!

Carnival Kids in Tokyo: As a kind of follow-up on a random image posted on Pigtails, a reader has found a cache of photos [link broken; see comment below] of some of the child participants. Given the perception of Japan as a conservative culture, these kids are baring an awful lot of skin for a public setting.

Delightfully Ironic: Pigtails in Paint has a reputation for opposing censorship. A reader was kind enough to share this t-shirt on the subject.

Maiden Voyages: May 2023

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Membership Instructions: I feel I have to remind readers about membership procedures. Please remember that this site is run by volunteers and that we cannot get to requests immediately. Also, some registered members are not realizing that logging in for the first time does not guarantee that the process will be automatic after that. You need to keep the instructions I sent you in case you have to log in again. Changes in email will not affect the log in procedure except where changed passwords are sent. You can go into your account and alter your information or I will be happy to do it upon request.

The Demise of More Image Accounts: A reader who has been in communication with Christian has reported about the demise of a couple of his Tumblr accounts. He has been active on Tumblr since 2010 and his main blog, Foxy’s Fancies, was very active over the last four years, containing over 8000 posts. A couple weeks before I received the email, he added a secondary blog called Ada’s Angels whose purpose was to follow recent developments in AI generated images and share photorealistic work that was especially beautiful. After posting the image below, the blogger was notified that his accounts were terminated. Attempts to follow up were just ignored. He’s been rather depressed ever since (been there) but grateful to have Christian to share his predicament with. Pigtails will be making some efforts to preserve some of the more interesting examples for members to view.

[The blogger generously preserved both posted and yet-to-be-posted images from the Ada’s Angels blog and readers are welcome to view and download them (or the zip files). -Ron]

Secret Dreams: It may seem strange to many of us, but sometimes young girls dream of becoming Victoria Secret models. In their naivete, they are probably not aware of the culture of misogyny before that company’s demise (this news item was in 2016), but some like Gigi and Bella Hadid followed up on their dreams and achieved their goal. Interestingly, their mother shot the girls dolled up in angel’s wings years earlier.

Art on Art: Some have posited that the human body itself is an artform and so the notion of body-painting has always struck me as a kind of double art. A reader has shared the site Projet Symbiose whose focus is to share photographs of body painting from various sources. Some of these look familiar and must have been shared on this site before. I had hoped to do a proper post on the subject, especially as a customary practice in naturist communities.

Mystery Album Cover Art: A reader just submitted an interesting album cover for something called ‘Sax Club Number 14 “Romantic”‘ by Gil Ventura (1977). There is a girl on the cover art reminiscent of Fabio Cabral’s work. We were hoping some of our readers would recognize the image and confirm the photographer’s identity.

Show Me More: A while ago, Pigtails did a post on Will McBride and Helga Fleischauer-Hardt’s famous and controversial work Show Me! (English title). What I didn’t know at the time was that a sequel was made—probably only published in German—Zeig Mal Mehr! I could not tell the reader who brought it to my attention any more about it. The question is: how different is this volume from the original, are there any digital copies and how does one get access to them? A few links have been provided to help with the research: here, here, here, here and here.

Forgotten Flattery: There was an interesting artist, Vladimir Timofeev, who created an image imitating Hajime Sawatari’s ‘Alice’ series. The site that hosted that image has been shut down because of violations of Terms of Service—big surprise, right? We don’t always archive images discussed in ‘Maiden Voyages’ so if any readers know where this image is or has a copy, would you please share? [Christian was kind enough to provide a link to this artist’s page. There are many portraits of little girls but I don’t think any of these were meant to emulate Sawatari. -Ron]

Maiden Voyages: April 2023

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I know many of you have observed a drop in my participation on this site. I am grateful for Moko for contributing articles and when time permits, so will I. We seem to be in a more stable stage for the site right now and would encourage others to contribute articles. Until I get more motivated, my main goal is to just keep this site running so readers can access it and try to keep up with administrative duties such registering new members and responding to comments. -Ron

A Serious Look at Taboo Subjects: For some, the discussion of paraphilic sexuality including pedophilia is uncomfortable. For others, the subject is to be avoided because one might be accused of some perversion simply for expressing an undue interest in the subject. Dr. James Cantor cuts through the crap and helps clarify these phenomena based on science rather than morality-based speculation. As a result, he has certainly experienced more than his fair share of cancel culture. He has appeared on a couple of podcasts and I though I’d share one of the better examples.

Curious Filipino Comic Book Artist: One of our readers cam across a comic strip drawn by Noly Zamora called Kwin seemingly featuring a half-naked little girl. Not much could be found about this artist in English. My best guess is that the text is in Tagalog and maybe someone fluent in that language could find out more for us.

Haunted Painting? There is a painting featuring a little girl and boy that has some creepy paranormal activity associated with it. When the painting The Hands Resist Him (1972) was recently put on auction, the seller felt a disclaimer was needed to warn potential buyers what they might be getting into. On the other hand, the winner of the auction says he never experienced anything unusual. Was this just some hype to jack up the price of the painting?

Future Features: Honestly, I do have an interesting backlog of leads I hope to process in time. What is most interesting is that artists themselves have found our site and are sharing their own work. Also, there have been some submissions making use of the latest versions of graphical AI. Stay tuned; we’ll get these things out to you.

My Reflections on Graham Stuart Ovenden

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As Pigtails in Paint celebrates its 12th anniversary, one understandably reflects on milestones. The biggest in my life and to many others is the passing on December 9th last year of my friend, Graham Ovenden. The funeral was on January 27th and attended by about 30 people. This post also commemorates February 11th which would have been his 80th birthday.

Graham Ovenden – The Shadow Self : Philosophers (date unknown)

The Approach: Probably like many others, I often assume that people with a certain notoriety will be unapproachable, either because they adopt the attitude of a prima donna or their entourage works to insulate them from their rabid fans. I was impressed with the scope of Graham’s work and upon working on Pigtails, realized that he held key information that would help us break open the “Cult of the Girl Child”. I had no idea how to proceed and was shocked when a close associate simply gave me his phone number. I was nervous and postponed calling him wondering if it was OK to just cold call him. It turned out great and that cold call led to a 45-minute conversation. It turns out Graham had a good sense of a person’s authenticity and he knew I was “the real McCoy” even though he did not “know me from Adam”.

Bad Timing: We had three great conversations before he expressed concern over our continued communication. He was just about to face trial and his friends advised him that including a new person in his life was too great a risk so he asked if I would stop contacting him any more until after the trial. I was disappointed, of course, but respected his wishes. I found out later that one of his American friends familiar with Pigtails strenuously discouraged contact and the perceived harm to his reputation. This friend has since reversed his opinion and we have actually had some productive dealings which led to the expansion of the PIgtails Library.

A Real Friend: It is common knowledge that the trials did not go well and Graham had to serve prison time. Fortunately, I had been in contact with a few of his friends and they were good enough to keep me apprised of his situation. A short while after his release, I was startled to find a letter from the UK in my mailbox. It included contact information so we could continue our association and I knew that he was just as cognizant of our chemistry as I was. I am eternally grateful for the efforts of Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a long-time loyal friend of Graham’s, for reconnecting us.

Soul Mate: From my perspective, Graham and I had a great rapport and I was later delighted that he recognized it as well and, in his frank manner, told me so. Our conversations were great and we emailed back and forth but I felt he was hinting that I should visit him in person. I am not fond of travel, but I realized that we could cover a lot more ground by spending some time in person. I planned and made my first visit in the summer of 2016.

Lucky Timing: I had never travelled outside the US except under the auspices of the US Army in my youth. I had heard that one should arrive at the airport at least 3 hours in advance of one’s flight. I did so and toiled through the process and patiently waited at the designated gate for my flight. I was so early that I had not realized my flight was switched to another gate and was surprised to hear my name over the intercom. I was redirected to the correct gate but I had gotten there too late and they gave away my seat. The airline scrambled to get me on another flight to the UK. The good luck was that I got a direct flight and so I ended up at my destination at roughly the same time as originally expected; I simply had to wait a few more hours for my replacement flight. I did not have a cell phone at the time so I had no convenient way to inform Graham of the change. When I arrived in country and took the train to Liskeard, Cornwall, it turned out that I was on the train just after the one they expected me on! Graham and a good friend of his, Jack, were still there waiting for me!

Living in a Museum: As far as I was concerned, I was staying in a museum. Graham was an avid collector and fit what he could into that small flat. The visit was overwhelming and I did my best to take notes and Graham was gracious enough to scan interesting items that could sometime appear on Pigtails. I tell people that if Graham had lived in Las Vegas, I would have visited him there. I was not that interested in the place, but I have to say I fell in love with Cornwall and his friends were delightful. They were understandably suspicious of this new friend of Graham’s but they too realized that I was the real deal.

Paying It Forward: One of the artists I learned about who really impressed me during the visit was Brian Partridge. I made a point of featuring him on this site early on. Brian and Graham had a long collaborative relationship and they lost touch during Graham’s incarceration. All he had on Brian was his mailing address. I took it upon myself to write to him and let him know how to get in touch again. I was delighted by the outcome because I got to see a lot more of Brian’s work and spoke with him on the phone a couple of times. As a token of appreciation, Graham sent me an annotated copy of the Garage Press publication of Brain’s work. It’s kind of like having an original manuscript.

Friendship Credentials: Graham was known for giving his friends gifts and, in a funny way, if one wants to show proof of their friendship with Graham, they need simply show the artifacts they were given, often including originals of his own artwork. I can boast two original portraits and a number of photographic prints. Graham bestowed me a special honor by signing a print of Sophie (a famous image from the cover of States of Grace). He told me he never signed photographs or prints and so it seems I have a unique item.

Reaching Out: Graham had an ambivalent relationship with technology. On the one hand, he experimented extensively with digital image manipulation such as the image appearing on this page, but he also resisted more convenient forms of communication such as Skype. He said he didn’t want to use such forms of communication to protect his friends but I suspect he didn’t want to cope with the steep learning curve. Because of this, I assumed he wasn’t interested in having a website to share his work and give his side of things. It turns out that I was mistaken and I am glad to have done him the service of connecting him with a website host who was also a fan of his. Fortunately, he also lived in the UK and could visit Graham in person to help him with any technical problems. This is why his personal and publishing (Garage Press) websites exist today.

Fly on the Wall: I was always kind of envious of journalists who got to speak with interesting personalities. I wish I had the presence of mind to bring an audio recorder during my visits because in retrospect, I realized we had a few fascinating conversations on a multitude of subjects that may have been of interest to others. We talked extensively about philosophy, history, politics and the arts. Graham educated me on Blues and Jazz and we shared a love of Classical music. Graham had an extensive phonograph collection and in my last couple of hours with him before my return home, we listened to Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Graham had the foresight to recognize the decline in his health and reached out to The British Library who happily accepted the donation. There are quite a few rare items in there including an interview with a woman who knew Lewis Carroll personally as a child.

Final Exhibition: Many times, Graham donated parts of his collect to exhibit in museums. With a lot of help from Jack—to whom he bequeathed this collection—he got to have one final show held in his home town of Liskeard displaying his Victorian and Edwardian photographs last October. It was well-attended and featured renowned photographers like Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Julia Margaret Cameron, Joseph Gale, George Ruff, Francis Bedford, Dorothea Lange and Lewis Hines.

Virtues and Vices: Of course whatever we may think of his work, Graham was also a man and had his foibles. He was a great collector and we can thank him for bringing all these interesting items together. However, he was kind of a pack rat and could not refrain from purchasing one more first edition even if the purchase worked against his interests. Collectors should be glad to know that a lot of interesting volumes will be appearing on the market sometime in the near future. I don’t envy Jack the task of cataloging and finding buyers for these items (Jack is a bookseller). This habit even had a little to do with his estrangement with his family; he even confessed one day that he was not really built to be a family man. However, his younger sister and brother remained supportive of him and are the executors of his estate. Since Graham was an invalid the entire time I knew him, he was always grateful when I went into town to get takeout food (the English call it takeaway). One of the items he always wanted was duck and if I was going to the Chinese place, I would always bring him some.

Graham Ovenden taught me so much in the time I got to know him but I know that was just the tip of the iceberg. I was fortunate to meet a few of his friends and I can understand why they were so loyal to him. He was a prolific painter and I came to understand that occupying himself with that work was instrumental in maintaining his sanity during the most trying times. I felt kind of guilty during my three visits because having my little space in the flat made painting impractical most of the time. Whenever I returned home, he would paint a flurry of new works. I could go on and on with anecdotes and I only knew him a short time. These will undoubtedly come out in due course as PIgtails publishes more posts and in responses to readers’ comments.

REST IN PEACE, MY FRIEND. -Ron

Maiden Voyages: February 2023

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Guardian Angels: As we approach our 12th anniversary, practically all readers know that we have gotten help from seemingly out of nowhere as we have been subjected to protests and cowardly shutdowns. In last month’s address, I expressed some concern that we may be coming to the end of our rope, but I have been assured that our arrangement right now is quite solid so long as your Editor-in-Chief continues to use good judgment regarding standards of content. To some, this may seem like a veiled warning but I see it as a vote of confidence that we have been dealing with such a tricky subject with due dignity and purpose.

Random AI: After the introduction of an AI-generated image on this site, a few readers have submitted their own attempts. If I published them all, it would dramatically change the appearance of this blog so I have decided to publish only one per month with a distinct theme based on my own impressions. In addition, spacing these out will mean we can get some perspective on how this technology is evolving over a relatively short time period. For instance, one reader sent a YouTube link that is a pretty good overview of the issue as it stands right now. And I just heard an excellent letter sent by listener Kevyn to Things They Don’t Want You to Know (The relevant letter begins at the 21-minute mark). Clearly, the implications of this technology ranges all over the place covering freedom of expression, commerce, the law and ethics.

The Joy of Fandom: Dr. Laurie Santos of The Happiness Lab podcast had an interesting episode recently about the happiness gleaned from being a fan of something, even if it seems a little silly. I am sure our biggest fans can relate!

More Social Media Gems: I continue to get leads about Instagram and other social media accounts. Here is one from Pinterest.

“Cute” Stats: As most people who have not been living under a rock realize, most media personalities are worried about their stats. These are important in attracting advertising and other forms of revenue so they can stay in business and make a living. There is a site CuteStat.com which is, “a web service for Website Owners, Webmasters and General Internet Users to retrieve information related with Domain Name, IP Address, Web Server and Search Engine Optimization”. One of our contributors looked up this website and shared some details. As of January 18th, Pigtails is 5 years 11 months old [sic], has a global traffic rank of #637,405 in the world, has an estimated worth of $2,400 and a daily income of around $10. There were no active threats reported recently by users and is considered safe to browse. Don’t worry, there is no risk of selling out even if the stats were much better! It is interesting to see a volunteer site analyzed from the perspective of commercial interests. Of course the age is wrong because earlier incarnations of this site were not taken into account and the algorithm generating this data is clearly automated. As all of you reading this surely understand, such a narrow perspective leaves out the deep intangible value of this site evidenced by the wonderful messages I receive on a regular basis.

Beautiful 8-year-old girl topless in profile, gold applications, floral patterns, by Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha

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This may the longest title in our database. In fact, it’s a set of instructions—cleaned up for clarity—given to an artificial intelligence (AI) which generates images based on a verbal description. This image was submitted by DS from Germany who wanted to begin a debate regarding the ethics and capabilities of emerging AI.

Stable Diffusion AI et al – Beautiful 8-year-old girl topless in profile, gold applications, floral patterns, by Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha

This particular image was created using a free application called Stable Diffusion which, like many in its cohort, create images from text. This is an early stage of developing AI technologies that simulate human pattern recognition and generation by “training” a computer on a multutide of examples on the internet or other massive database. After “seeing” endless examples of various objects and concepts, the computer is finally able to recognize a car or a chicken or a shoe, etc. which can appear in a myriad of variations/styles.

The technology is far from perfect so some quality adjustments need to be made. For instance, DS usually generates hundreds of images on his computer (about two images per minute) and selects the best ones. The algorithm in this case is not error-free, often producing too many fingers or heads appear. By repeating the process, an acceptable form can be found or some reworking may be required using Photoshop.

The more professional versions charge a fee but there are some free versions besides Stable Diffusion such as Midjourney and OpenAI.

There are many ethical issues that come to mind using this technology, some more obvious than others. And it is important we begin to deal with these sooner rather than later. After all, it is not as if we can put the genie back in the bottle. What control do we have over our own image? What about professional models whose images are used? What compansation is due to living artists whose work is used to train the algorithm? What is the potential for fraud in the art collecting community? What freedoms or limits do there need to be with respect to standards of decency?

These are just the tip of the iceberg and the last point forces us to expound on the issue regarding minors portrayed engaging in illegal activity. Already, many companies have put in safeguards to prohibit nudity, but right now it is a simple matter for competent hackers to override this safeguard. Let the discussion begin!

Random Images: Harry Callahan

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Christian has been sharing a number of interesting leads lately. I have to say that the Google image search algorithm is improving with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). That means that even though the original image was unidentified, I was able to get some detailed information.

Harry Callahan – Barbara (1953)

Harry Callahan (1912–1999) was an American photographer and teacher. He was considered one of the 20th Century’s great innovators and technicians of black & white photography, He demonstrated a fluidity in moving between seemingly disparate subjects: still life, portraits, landscapes, urban scenes, architecture, street portraits and even abstract experimental double-exposure effects. He frequently photographed his wife and daughter who were an integral part of his art. For example in this photo, the choice for Barbara to wear a light-colored dress would have been deliberate given that she would be shot against a darker location. Personally, what is so compelling about this photo is capturing a girl’s moment of contemplation while the careful choice of backdrop adds a more complex texture and provides visual engagement.

Random Images: Eddy Samson

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Very little is known of Eddy Samson (1914–1981) except that he was a painter who operated out of The Netherlands. Samson was likely one of those artists who was penalized for producing representative art when it was out of vogue. This painting predates that period slightly and so he may have enjoyed some success before the ascendance of the Nazi regime and the subsequent Cold War.

Eddy Samson – La naissance d’Aphrodite (1940)

Without even translating the title, the first thing that struck me about this piece (oil on board) is that it is a reinterpretation of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. It makes some sense that Aphrodite (Venus) should be portrayed as a youth since we are talking about a birth here, but on the other hand we are not looking at a toddler either. Given that “birth” in this sense is a metaphor, the symbolism is a bit mixed up here. I would love it if one of our readers had a little more on this artist and the artist’s intent with this piece.

Random Images: Emanuele Caroni

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A reader shared this image presented in a Sotheby’s auction. Since Pip was more familiar with the use of mythological characters in art, I discovered that he had already given me the same lead a while back. You can see other angles to this sculpture using the link above.

Emanuele Caroni (b1826)  worked in Milan as the student of Vincenzo Vela and subsequently in Florence under Lorenzo Bartolini. He was politically involved in Italy’s 1848 struggle against the Austrians before settling permanently in Florence. The medium with which he showed exceptional skill was marble and a number of his works are now in prized collections. He combined the subject of a child with animals at least one other time in Triumph of Love over Force which depicts Cupid seated on a large, docile lion.

Emanuele Caroni – Leda and the Swan (1875)

In the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, Zeus, in the form of that majestic bird, either rapes or seduces Leda, and she was impregnated with twins. It is common with classical painters to depict Leda in mid-coitus with the swan (one of the few examples of classic art where it was permitted to do so) or with her four children, usually with the broken eggshells of Zeus’s offspring. According to Pip, Caroni’s choice to depict Leda as a prepubescent girl with the swan between her legs was unusual for the time and seems mildly shocking today. But it isn’t exactly unprecedented to depict Greek and Roman mythic characters as children, complete with sexual subtext that most people of the time period would have been familiar with.

State of the Blog Address 2023

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Yet one more straw has been placed on the camel’s back. We have weathered a number of crises in the past and I am so delighted that we have been able to carry on so far (with a few interruptions). Our latest host did careful research to find the kinds of connections that allow us to operate despite somewhat rabid opposition. We have found many tolerant service providers, but the simple fact is that they are in business to make money. That means when there are enough complaints about us, we are asked to leave. After all, no data center wants to be associated with child pornography, however false the claims. Many services have been lined up so far, but I feel it necessary to inform you that were are on our last one and it is possible that we will have to shut down in the near future. Naturally, we are interested in any useful ideas and leads that might keep us going and we have a few guardian angels out there already trying to help us out. I just thought it only fair to warn readers that we may have to unexpectedly shut down. If this happens, this will not be the end of Pigtails in Paint. At the very worst, we will just have to take a break for a while until we can get some more ducks in a row. Thank you everyone for your wonderful support. -Ron

One Funeral at a Time: It is my sad duty to inform you that Graham Stewart Ovenden passed away on the morning of December 9, 2022 (GMT). I delayed in this notification to allow his closest friends and family to process the news. I only got to know him in the last few years, but my life has been greatly enriched in the process. One of the problems of social and academic progress is that the entrenched power-brokers resist change and suppress the contribution of bright young minds. Of course, this idea is a two-edged sword because it is not only the obstructors who pass away, but the hopeful visionaries as well. It falls to those of us who survive to shape the meaning of this man’s life. He will be greatly missed.

Bad Choice: One of the temptations in modern capitalism is to go overboard in promoting a new product. With all the competition out there, it is so easy to cross the line or misrepresent a new offering to get attention. A 2020 coming-of-age film by Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré is one of the latest examples. Cuties (French, Mignonnes) is about an 11-year-old girl who joins a dance troupe and is confronted in the process by cultural conflict and her own emerging womanhood. Unfortunately, the writer-director received harsh criticism for this well-constructed work because of an error of judgment by Netflix during its US release. Instead of using one of the established publicity stills, it used an image of the troupe somewhat provocatively posed as if that were the main purpose of the film. Naturally pundits—who certainly have not watched the film—made the boilerplate accusations of pornography and abuse. Bridget Todd of the podcast Internet Hate Machine produced an excellent overview this issue.

The Dark Side of Chocolate: One of the ironies of running this site is how we are accused of promoting child pornography. My understandable irritation is amplified by the fact that there is real deplorable abuse of children out there that requires action. I have posted many examples on this site to inform readers including well-researched outright human trafficking. Let’s give some consideration to this fact the next time we indulge in chocolate. As it happens, the most popular brands have been sourcing their cocoa from companies that make extensive use of child labor, most of which were abducted exclusively for this purpose according to documentarian Miki Mistrati.

Curious Alice: Once in a while I get a message from Pip, the founder of this site, and he shares some interesting tidbits he recently came across. Like many young girl enthusiasts, Lewis Carroll’s Alice is a popular theme. A most curious case in point is a 1971 production called Curious Alice. It was a short US government anti-drug propaganda film. It used animation, still photography and standard film in rather weird combinations that play off the various types of highs one gets from different drugs with each Wonderland character representing a different substance (Caterpillar as marijuana, Mad Hatter as LSD, March Hare as amphetamines, etc.). It is definitely a film of its time and Pip finds it amusing that the government used hippie aesthetics to make an anti-drug film that was not only ineffective but may have had some appeal for drug users!

In Defense of Teddy Bears: Also from Pip is yet another stupid phony controversy regarding Balenciaga for—get this—featuring teddy bear handbags with BDSM attire! Here is a link with Balenciaga’s apology for their ads. This apology was likely the result of pressure from Kim Kardashian who is an ambassador for the brand and also put out a statement in response.

Our Girl Wednesday: According to an associate, there is a new dance inspired by the character Wednesday from the Netflix series of the same name in The Addams Family franchise. The dance is shown here on YouTube and there are numerous imitators either dressing up as Wednesday or copying the dance which I will let you dig up yourself since there are quite a few, most notably on Instagram.

Another Item of Pinterest: One of our readers is an avid postcard collector. He agreed to share what he has put up so far on his Pinterest account.