There are a lot of theories about what looks very much like the image of a face on an apple in front of Michelle Obama on the latest Newsweek cover. I saw Ann Althouse’s discussion, and she thinks it looks like Karl Marx. Here’s Newsweek’s incriminating apple, followed by Karl Marx:
Whether it’s Marx or not, considering the Biblical story of Eve, I think Newsweek would have been well-advised to kill the apple entirely. Which they did (except it’s too late) and which Hillbuzz thinks is no coincidence:
Early this morning, 3/16/10, it looks like the White House ordered Newsweek to crop the photo so the apple is no longer visible online. Newsweek has cut the table out completely, now, because whatever’s going on in this photo was noticed by the public.
So Newsweek has only compounded the problem and made itself look more guilty. The apple has reached the attention of Snopes, where there’s some discussion of whether it looks like Osama bin Laden.
The Anchoress (who seems familiar with the phenomenon of images appearing in food) is skeptical:
But I’m a Catholic; I have learned to be skeptical of images in food.
Gerard Van der Leun expresses skepticism from a photographic perspective:
The face of (Muhammad) (Karl Marx) (Rasputin) (Jesus) that so many around the blogosphere are seeing today is, alas, a mere figleaf of their imaginations. Sorry, kids, it just isn’t there.
How do I know? I used an ancient reporting technique. I walked to the corner and looked for myself at the real cover on-sale now for $5.95 [Pass]. Nope. No face. Instead, there’s just your average highlight on the apple representing either a reflection of one of the main umbrella lights used for portraiture photography, or something dropped in by the Newsweek photoshop jockey making everything nice on the final image.
Now I had some fun with this in the sidebar yesterday, but like many things on the web, “If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing.” Today, this thing is all over. What people are freaking out about is either a subtle photoshop (which I doubt), or an artifact of pixillation that happens when an image is reduced and optimized for web display. The latter is by far the most likely explanation.
Far be it from me to spoil anyone’s fun, but for the record, I don’t think it looks like Muhammad, Marx, Osama, Rasputin or Jesus.
But still, this is so much fun that if I could be permitted another bite at the apple, I’d like to go on record as saying it’s the spitting image of Jerry Garcia. This was my initial reaction, and I am not alone.
I just don’t think the forehead shape and general hairline match Marx. But I have seen Jerry Garcia many times over the years looking exactly like the image in that apple.
Here are two examples, found by Googling, followed by the apple:
But why on earth would Newsweek deliberately insinuate an image of Jerry Garcia into Michelle Obama’s apple? I doubt they would. And I certainly hope they didn’t.
Far be it from me to give food to the idea that 1960s acid rock was a form of “Cultural Marxism” or anything….
Comments
7 responses to “Taking another bite at the Marxist apple”
Or, maybe it’s God from Monty Python and the Holy Grail . . .
We’re being distracted by the image on the apple. The “apple” symbolizes death. As a Catholic I love the Marion theology of Grimm’s Snow White, so my first thought on seeing the photo was of the wicked witch who offered Snow White the apple. MO offering the U.S. the apple of “health(care)” symbolizes death. Remember, evil will always tell you what it’s about to do. Believe your lying eyes.
It is James Clerk Maxwell.
I first saw this story at The Anchoress. I checked the picture she posted (the same one that you have) against a copy of the print edition of Newsweek. The images of the apple are completely different. For example, the reflections which make up the “cheeks” are completely absent on the print edition. I don’t know much bout digitizing images, but I think that the picture which has been circulating around the Internet is a photoshop.
And here I thought it was me.
I haven’t seen the print magazine, but if it does look different, it could easily be a result of pixillation…
But that doesn’t let Newsweek off the hook, so to speak. The shadows are quite evident and the webedition workers – from the original graphics person to the editor – saw it and let it go. For giggles, most likely, but it was (IMO) deliberate.
Personally, I’m not a fan of Michelle Obama. During the campaign I saw someone who is far more problematic than her husband. But I will give her credit that she is, so far, conducting herself according to First Lady protocol, even if the faux fawning of the media that she is the new Jackie O and a Fashion Icon for the ages is gag-worthy.
It’s Garth Hudson.