When Stick Figures Fought 2025 Nov 6    animationobsessive.substack.com
Linked is a reminiscence about an era of Internet culture history that I'd lived through but since forgot – stick figure death theater.

The Biting Pear of Salamanca 2025 Jun 2    deviantart.com
On February 28, 2006 painter, children's book author, and deviantArt user Ursula Vernon posted this linked deviation of a surrealist scene – in a verdant, rolling hillside, a large pear with grinning teeth poses for a chipmunk with a camera on a tripod while giraffes wander in the background along the way to a distant tower.

But Vernon had no way of knowing that their artwork was going to become internet famous. They were just a biting-pear-obsessed artist. How could they have? Reflecting on this in 2009, Vernon writes:

I have a strange relationship with my beloved pear–on the one hand, I love it and am very proud of it for having gone on to such weird internet fame. On the other hand, it went on without me, despite the best efforts of fans to point out the original creator, and it has gone to some REALLY strange places...