"pelt" sighting: Live Pelt, by Kelly Heaton, a multimedia installation based on the transformation of 64 Tickle Me Elmo dolls

The art of Kelly Heaton exists in that place where obsession, engineering and popular culture come together. -- George Fifield for the catalogue of the 2001 DeCordova Annual Exhibition

Live Pelt, by Kelly Heaton, is a multimedia installation based on the transformation of 64 previously owned Tickle Me Elmo dolls, the popular consumer toy, into a woman’s coat. Fashioned from the toys’ pelts and electronics, the coat (entitled The Surrogate) provides full body vibration and is designed to be a substitute lover. Using Elmo as a vector to channel information about contemporary American culture, the installation encompasses moods both poignant and Frankenstein weird. The narrative investigates frontier economics, the human-machine relationship, and the technologist’s power to play with life. In all seriousness, Heaton’s sense of humor prevails.

The artist has developed eight characters to represent the various facets of Live Pelt. Desecration and fetishism are consistent throughout the narrative, which relies heavily on the historic precedent of the American fur trade. The Trapper collects Elmos through eBay; The Industrialist performs the skinning; and The Taxidermist stuffs and mounts their heads. The Alchemist solders the electronic viscera and seeks clues to the mystery of life. Other characters, The Sociopath, The Debutante, and The Fashionista, interact with the coat and its accessories at various stages in The Surrogate’s development. Btsy Rss alters the American flag to the tune of De-Star Spangled Banner, a painfully slow rendition of our national anthem performed by Pamela Z. Heaton plays some of these roles in a documentary video by Shambhavi Kaul.

Read more about Live Pelt here.

"pelt" sighting: on a blog about writing

...and your mouth was stuffed with the dusty upholstery smell of their heated pelts, and the yellow of them was in your eyes like the yellow of an exquisite French tapestry...


A Place for Strangers and Beggars
Where story tellers and friends hang out

"pelt" sighting: Charlie Brown's Lucy Van Pelt

Lucy Van Pelt works hard at being bossy, crabby and selfish. She is loud and yells a lot. Her smiles and motives are rarely pure. She's a know-it-all who dispenses advice whether you want it or not--and for Charlie Brown, there's a charge.

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"pelt" sighting: price of seal pelts down

N.L. tannery operator says seal pelts selling for about half of last year's cost

Mon, 2008-04-07 18:01.
By: THE CANADIAN PRESS

CATALINA, N.L. - Seal hunters can expect to pocket about $33 for a top-grade pelt this year - about half the price it would have fetched last year, a Newfoundland seal product processor said Monday.

Dion Dakins, sales director for NuTan Furs Inc., said the revival of a grading system is to blame for the drop.

In 2007, without the grading system, sealers were getting $62 per pelt . The year before, competition among buyers saw prices spike at $105.

Read the rest of this article here.

Word of the Week (April 6 - 12) pelt

Word of the Week (April 6 - 12)
from our sister facebook group

pelt

Definition according to the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

pelt n Cp OED ~ sb1 'skin of a sheep or goat'; cp EDD sb3 for sense 2; OED sb1 3 (1903 quot), EDD sb1 3 (2) for sense 3.

1 The skin of a seal with the fat or blubber attached; SCULP n; occas the seal itself (see 1891 quot); FAT1 2.

1792 CARTWRIGHT Gloss i, xii-xiii ~ The skin of an animal with the fat adhering to it. That term is made use of for the skins of seals, and other such animals, the fat of which lies between the skin and the flesh.

[1799] 1976 HEAD 224-5 The ice ... affords the inhabitants an opportunity of going off and killing the seals in great numbers, bringing their pelts on shore.

1842 JUKES i, 273 The skin is laid out flat and entire, with the layer of fat or blubber firmly adhering to it, and the skin in this state is called the 'pelt,' and sometimes the 'sculp.'

[1870] 1899 Nfld Law Reports 338 The action was brought to recover damages for the wrongful conversion of the pelts of certain seals which the plaintiffs allege they had killed, and sculped, and left on the ice several miles from their vessel during the last seal fishery.

1891 PACKARD 444 The Hooded Seal is not uncommonly, during the spring, killed in considerable numbers by the sealers. The young 'pelt' weighs 70-80 pounds, while the old male or 'dog hood,' weighs 400 pounds.

1933 GREENE 72 Size of hide or weight of fat—both of which together, after being cut away from the carcase, form what the sealer terms the 'sculps' or 'pelts' that he gathers when in the Patches. T 43/4-64 The pelt is the fat an' the skin.

1976 Evening Telegram 19 Mar, p. 6 You don't skin a seal, you sculp them! You take the seal's pelt, fat, and hide off.

2 Mischievous boy or youth, freq in phr pelt of a tripe: DEVIL'S PELT. Cp NUZZLE-TRIPE*.

1937 DEVINE 37 Pelt of a tripe. A rascal. P 118-67 You brazen little pelts!

3 Phr in bare pelt: stark naked (P 108-70).

pelt v Cp OED ~ v2 'to skin' obs (1596, 1641); cp NID ~ 2 v. To remove the skin and the attached fat from a seal carcass; SCULP1 1. [1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 1811 pelted ten harps.

1819 ANSPACH 423 The dead seals are dragged on the ice to the schooner or boat; they are then pelted, that is, the skin with the coat of fat adhering to it is separated from the carcase.

1895 GRENFELL 200 I had two seals in my boat, and we pelted (i.e. skinned) them to burn the fat, breaking up one of the smaller boats, also, to use as fuel.

1924 ENGLAND 88 Lusty toilers are meantime, with 'seal-dog' hooks and ropes, hauling the round-seals up and in. Once on board, the men pelt these in a jiffy. T 43-64 On the ice you crack 'em on the head with your gaff, an' then you pelt 'em.

1976 Evening Telegram 19 Mar, p. 6 The seals were 'pelted' by the sealers and skinned by seal skinners.

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

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Doater sighting: Will and Testament Richard Burberry of Brockham 1824

Will and Testament Richard Burberry of Brockham 1824
I give unto Mary my doater the sum of four hundred pounds. I give unto Ann my doater the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds. I give unto James my son the sum of one hundred pounds. I give unto Hetty my doater the sum of one hundred pounds and all the remainder of my estate over and above hereinbefore mentioned shall be equally
divided between my five children hereinbefore mentioned that is to say Thomas Mary Ann James and Hetty but if there should be losses by bad debts so as it should not amount to the same before mentioned then and in that case my five children shall share and share alike in the loss and my will is that my children shall be accountable for all book debts and notes of hand and all agreements of any kind the same as then and now I hereby nominate constitute and appoint John Hoe Junior of Brighton and Thomas Uwins Junior at Brockham joint Executors of this my last Will and Testament and I give them five pounds each and all reasonable expenses paid them hereby revoking and making void all other wills by me at any time heretofore by me made declaring this and only this to be my last Will and Testament in witness whereof I have thereunto set my hand and seal this six day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen. ....

Dotard Sighting: urban dictionary

1.
dotard

When you are in the midst of your "dotage" meaning that you are in the midst of your mental decline. i.e. you're in the process of becoming a fucking idiot.

Read more dotard definitions from the Urban Dictionary. Sad to say none of them include Harbour Seal.

Dotard Sighting: Harbour Seals in Newfoundland

The Whale Release and Stranding Group Website

Harbour seal: 1.5 meters; 95 kilograms

Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina concolor) have a small round head that makes them look like a dog in the water. They are constantly on the lookout and pop up and down, staying submerged for about 20 minutes. If not frightened they often reappear with a fish or crustacean in their mouth. The harbour seal has a variety of coat colours ranging from a bluish grey to brown or tan, usually interspersed with brown blotches. Its belly is silvery white. They are found in Chance Cove Provincial Park on the southern Avalon, and may be seen anywhere around the island, especially in areas where fresh water rivers run into the sea.

Read more about other seals and marine mammals frequenting the waters off Newfoundland.

The Harbour Seal is our favourite dotard.

Dotard Sighting: Distribution of the Harbor Seal, Phoca vitulina

"The origin for the name "doter" or "dotard" for older seals is not known."

from:

Distribution of the Harbor Seal, Phoca vitulina Linnaeus, in Canadian Arctic Waters
Arthur W. Mansfield
Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 48, No. 2 (May, 1967), pp. 249-257
doi:10.2307/1378028
This article consists of 9 page(s). View Article Abstract

Dotard sighting: Myspace

Visit a real, live Dotard at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dotard