And in ethnographic items like Native American rugs and some Oriental rugs (Caucasus area?) you'll see swastikas that are reversed from the evil version. Native Americans adapted much of their rug design from mid-East designs, so I guess its not surprising to see swastikas show up in each.
I'm all in favor of non-Nazi uses of the swastika. It helps strip their terms and symbols of their power. It's why I like Holocaust jokes--if we laugh at the Nazis, it shows we don't have to fear them anymore, and makes neo-Nazis less manly and powerful-seeming.
Hitler
has only got one ball
Goering
has two but they're quite small
Himmler
has something simmler
and Goebbels
has Noebbels at all
The directional distinction is one-way only: whiel the Nazi's only used a swastika comprised of backwards L's, traditional Indian, Native American, and Middle Eastern designs use both. In fact, the so-called "Nazi" version is more common in India than the reverse, with no Nazi implications.
chuckR: The correct words are nazidirectional and counternazidirectional.
Thanks for telling us the canonical spin nomenclature. I was about to write that I know of a currently operational Amercian courthouse which tiled floors are covered with thousands of swastikas. The swastikas are of the counternazidirectional persuasion. As I understand local lore they were also inlaid long before the rise of that abominable movement. According to this article, such tiling was once common, and has even been found in at least one synagogue.
I'm sure that JB knew this, but simply didn't post it: the traditional tune for those lyrics is the Colonel Bogey March, specifically the trio, which many folks will know as the theme music from the movie "Bridge Over the River Kwai."
And just a few miles northeast of where I now sit, in northern Jackson County, Minnesota, on one of the innumerable Fish Lakes in the state, is the locally famous Swastika Beach (also cited in a Wikipedia article here). I've no idea where the name came from.
I don't know if this is the one you were thinking of, but the Idaho Falls, ID courthouse (Bonneville county) has swastika tiles; most of them have been removed. One, however, is just covered by a potted plant.
The article, as it stands right now, is an excellent example of how Wikipedia articles can really suck, even when there isn't any vandalism or significant edit conflicts.
NYC's Woolworth building has Swastika's on its outside facade on the upper floors. The symbols there were supposed to be the peace signs of various religions and ethnicities.
NYC's Woolworth building has Swastika's on its outside facade on the upper floors. The symbols there were supposed to be the peace signs of various religions and ethnicities.
Which reminds me of the flagpole base in Washington Square Park, silvery, on the left as you walk in from the north (5th Ave.) side. Donated by some Italian-American outfit back in the 1920s or 1930s, and with a prominent fasces displayed on it.
Any NYC readers know if that's still there? I've not been there since 1998.
I don't know if this is the one you were thinking of, but the Idaho Falls, ID courthouse (Bonneville county) has swastika tiles; most of them have been removed. One, however, is just covered by a potted plant.
It was this one, at least before the current renovation. I think they kept the counternazidirectional tiled floors, but I haven't checked very recently.
Silicon Valley Jim wrote:
I'm sure that JB knew this, but simply didn't post it: the traditional tune for those lyrics is the Colonel Bogey March, specifically the trio, which many folks will know as the theme music from the movie "Bridge Over the River Kwai."
Just to add excruciating detail: The traditional tune for "Hitler has only got one ball" is indeed the trio of F.I. Rickett's "Colonel Bogey", but without the lower brass countermelody, which Malcom Arnold composed for the movie.
Sometimes swastikas are the fortuitous result of design considerations. It's been 20+ years since I've been there, but I believe the carrels in the University of Chicago library look like swastikas when viewed from above. (Is there some kind of balcony or mezzanine, or was I coming down the stairs when I noticed this? I don't recall.) Of course, if you want to fit the maximum number of carrels into an open space without impeding the free flow of pedestrians, putting them together in sets of four at right angles is the obvious way to do it, even if the top edges of the set make an obvious swastika.
Hitler
has only got one ball
Goering
has two but they're quite small
Himmler
has something simmler
and Goebbels
has Noebbels at all
I don't know if this is the one you were thinking of, but the Idaho Falls, ID courthouse (Bonneville county) has swastika tiles; most of them have been removed. One, however, is just covered by a potted plant.
The courthouse was built before WWII of course.
Which reminds me of the flagpole base in Washington Square Park, silvery, on the left as you walk in from the north (5th Ave.) side. Donated by some Italian-American outfit back in the 1920s or 1930s, and with a prominent fasces displayed on it.
Any NYC readers know if that's still there? I've not been there since 1998.
It was this one, at least before the current renovation. I think they kept the counternazidirectional tiled floors, but I haven't checked very recently.
Silicon Valley Jim wrote:Just to add excruciating detail: The traditional tune for "Hitler has only got one ball" is indeed the trio of F.I. Rickett's "Colonel Bogey", but without the lower brass countermelody, which Malcom Arnold composed for the movie.