Political "crop circle"

Every year, Lebanon, Ohio farmer Bill Irons creates a design in his corn field. This year, it's a 12-acre maze with an election theme. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Irons creates his design the old-fashioned way. He draws it out on graph paper, then enlarges it on 16 to 20 pages of graph paper that he tapes together and mounts on a board.

The corn field gets special attention, too. It's planted in two directions - like the intersections on a grid, he said. The corn comes up extra thick that way.

When the corn starts growing, Irons gets out his tractor, and sometimes a hoe. He grooms his creation the entire growing season.

Irons chooses not to use a GPS device, a piece of technology that would guide him more easily through the cutting process. "I use my head and my hands," he said.

Corn maze takes election theme (Cincinnati.com, thanks Charles Pescovitz!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Kay the Complainer

Why is the donkey vomiting the word “Dems”, while the elephant displays its party affiliation in a more dignified manner on its back?

I guess it’s not an non-partisan crop circle.
Takuan

t’aint no proper crop circle. Just middlin’ crop art. Y’all wanna go look at Japanese rice paddy art to see it done right.
Phikus

Tak: Citation please.
- Antinous
  
  http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/07/time-lapse-video-of-rice-paddy-art/
Jake0748

Oy vey… you people are too cynical sometimes. ;)
Takuan

or
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/06/rice-paddy-art-in-yamagata/
anthropop

re: “I agree that we need a viable 3rd party (or 4th or 5th party) in this country, but no, this year is not your year”

Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul– Edward Abbey

I’m sorry you lack confidence. I do not. Happy Voting!
semiotix

Irons creates his design the old-fashioned way. He draws it out on graph paper…

As opposed to using crop circle design software… and of course even as I sarcastically type that, I realize that there are probably six different versions for Linux alone. Snark withdrawn!
minTphresh

corn, we call it…maize.
Anonymous

instead of reading ‘u decide’ i first saw ‘suicide’. heh..
joelf

it’s appropriate that it’s in a maze.
Phikus

Anthropop@36: “Do you work for the Arkansas Democratic Party? Good try. Now is the time. The Democrats in Congress are equally responsible for not stopping all the bad that has transpired in the last 8 years. They have forgotten conjecture.”

No. As I said, I live in Texas. Though an activist, I have never been a member of a political party. If you would have bothered to look at my history here, you would see that I post on a wide spectrum of topics, not just political ones, and that I have been fairly critical of the Dems over time, especially in regards to the FISA Bill.

To say they are “equally responsible for not stopping all the bad that has transpired in the last 8 years” is going too far. I would have thought you would have been better informed. You are saying this of Dennis Kucinich. Of Chris Dodd. People who have gone to the wall to try to fight within the system for your diminishing freedoms. I agree the Dems on the whole don’t seem to have done as much in opposition as I would have liked. I am not turning a blind eye to the cowardice and collusion that put so many signatures on the Patriot Act and the votes for appropriating funds to invade Iraq, etc. but Joe Lieberman is one of the only Dems (now former-) I would ascribe to equal responsibility (since he has voted in lockstep with bush’s goals.) Conjecture is what you would seem to be using to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

But now that you know a little more about me and my leanings, I don’t expect that you will change your position. I thought I would give you the respect of providing a little more of a thorough examination of the possibility of voting third party this year rather than parroting the usual: “It’s throwing away / wasting your vote” because I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of such rhetoric. As I said, I truly empathize, and were we at the same point we were 8 years ago instead of precariously hanging off the edge of a cliff, I would vote 3rd party again. But we can’t turn back the clock; and when one is dangling, one cannot be so choosy about which hand is offered in rescue. I’ll take anyone who is not stomping on my fingers like the Republicans are, thank you very much.

As Uncle Max pointed out, you would seem to have personal reasons for your vehement dislike of Dems, and that is a shame. I put it to you, however, that if you are going to be this petty about your own slighting, it is probably a good thing that you were not elected to office. Were you in power, it would seem you would wield it no more responsibly than the Sarah Palins of the world.

(How’s that for conjecture? It stings to get lumped in with such spitefulness, doesn’t it? I hope the point is not lost on you.)
irsean

#3:
That’s exactly what prompted me to post a comment here.

I, too saw “suicide”.
Nice one, Farmer Irons.
Phikus

Ant & Tak: Thanks!

Since we are talking about 3rd parties and the division of the political field in this country, let me share my recent voting experiences with you, if I may.

I voted mostly Green in 2000 after watching the debates and finding bush and Gore agreeing on all but two out of ~27 points. Lieberman had always been too much of a Republocrat, even then, for my tastes, also. My vote became my first protest against the two-party system.

I should add that my state (Texas) was not even close to a being a swing state (where is Texas Swing when you need it?) and I “swapped votes” with someone from Florida who wanted to vote Green but knew it might cost the Dems the election (so they voted for Gore.) We were just shooting for the crucial 5% that would allow all kinds of benefits to ensue. Turns out the fix was in anyway (though people still like to fling poo at the Greens to this day over that, which makes Republicans very happy.)

I understand the need for more viable parties to exist in order for us to come closer to a true democratic republic and I truly support all the Green causes I can, but I can’t vote Green in any close race where a Dem needs my vote right now.

Since 2000 it has been a whole new ball of wax, in that both terms have shown bushco to be the greatest threat to this country and the Constitution since the Civil War. We progressives have had to learn to be patient and to pick our battles. This is not the time to diminish the only chance we have to lawfully remove this unimpeachable regime, if we can manage to have a fair or at least more fair election.

Those who are pledged to vote for a 3rd party say the candidates of the two parties are all the same. Though I would agree that the true left is largely unrepresented (we have right and far right) I would also say that there is plenty of distinction between the two, especially with the nominees as they stand. Somebody above in the thread mentioned betting. Only one party is still pushing an agenda of privatizing social security. As David Cross has observed, that would be like taking all of our possible funding for the future; all our hopes and dreams for America, and betting it all on Papa’s Mustache in the 3rd.

Kerry was a Skull & Bones man. I never felt good about Edwards as a person, but I voted for them, and I still wish they hadn’t had their election stolen from them as well. The country might have been able to stop some of the hemorrhaging by now. Certainly Katrina would have gone down differently, in respect to the government’s response (or lack thereof.)

Though never my first pick, I thought Hillary would have made a stronger VP nom, and the Dems are treading water for not choosing her. Rove is a master chessman, not some stupid ham-fisted McCarthy (who btw, came back as the 3-headed hydra of Coulter, O’Reilly, & Hannity.) The Republicans do not choose their candidates to govern. They choose them simply on their ability to win elections. Their parts are largely dictated to them. Given that conservatives own most of the media, they get to control the issues, the battlegrounds, and a lot of the mainstream public perception.

I know the arguments: “If not now, when?” being chief among them, to which I say: When this latest bunch of Robber Barons have been disgraced and toppled from power. When we have restored the Constitution and the Rule of Law, and our Democratic Republic has been put back on it’s axis. When we have ended this mad crusade in the middle east chewing up so many humans and human resources for the benefit of so few. Now is the time to unite the tribes to defeat Sauron. -Then will be the time to diverge to the left a little more. It is simply not the right time to splinter.

Thanks for reading this.
Uncle_Max

“There is one child in every classroom who thinks that they know it all, well you should tell them that they don’t but admire their confidence!” – Alfred Griswold

I’m sorry your confidence is sorely misplaced. But I agree, Happy Voting to all!
EH

Heh, yes, I saw “suicide,” too, and thought it a strange eulogy for David Foster Wallace.
Cyberwasteland

When I first looked at the picture I imediatly thought: “U decide? ‘U’? What happened to ‘you’?! Even the aliens can’t spell anymore!”

Seriously I hate it when people use U instead of YOU, but seeing it in a weldesigned crop circle is just horrible.
Anonymous

Another election themed corn maze in northern Illinois:

http://www.richardsonfarm.com/corn-maze.asp
FloydT

No doubt both sides get lost in the maze.
CB

Yes, I also first saw ‘suicide’ under the elephant-and thought it very appropriate.
smbilodeau

This seems a popular idea for corn mazes this fall:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=720138
Frank_in_Virginia

Build it and they will vote.
anthropop

Interesting, I had a comment up and it disappeared. When did boing boing start censorship?
- Antinous
  
  anthropop,
  
  You posted a link to a video promoting a political party.
hassan-i-sabbah

When you started to think bad things……
Uncle_Max

@Anthropop: “Now is the time. The Democrats in Congress are equally responsible for not stopping all the bad that has transpired in the last 8 years.”

Really? Right now? Of any election in the past several decades, this time it really IS throwing your vote away to not vote Republican or Democrat. I agree that we need a viable 3rd party (or 4th or 5th party) in this country, but no, this year is not your year. So yeah, if you want to feel morally superior, and you want to lash out because you PERSONALLY feel slighted, then go for it. But that will be a very lonely voting booth.

Also, I find it hard to believe that you give Democrats an equal share of the blame for the past 8 years, when they’ve only had any kind of a majority for the last 2. I agree they’re not blameless, but really? They’re just as bad as the previous 6 years of fucking up the country?
anthropop

Phikus,

Do you work for the Arkansas Democratic Party? Good try. Now is the time. The Democrats in Congress are equally responsible for not stopping all the bad that has transpired in the last 8 years. They have forgotten conjecture.
anthropop

No I did not. It promoted Independent. No Party.
- Antinous
  
  There’s an American Independent Party. How would that be different than saying, “Vote Democratic, but I really mean in keeping with principles of democracy.” See my point?
dainel

Not a real maze. Where’s the entry? Where’s the exit? It’s more a maze-like maize field.
phillamb168

#36 @Anthropop

Why the specific mention of the Arkansas Democratic Party? Axe to grind?
anthropop

So, Boing Boing runs a picture that shows democrat and republican icons, which leads the reader to think that there are only two choices. I posted this: http://revver.com/video/1166920/obamcain-for-the-soul/

to state that there are more than the two corporate parties. They take it off. Maybe not this time?
anthropop

There’s no American Independent party on the ballot in my state. And, I didn’t say “Independent Party” and I included no recognizable icon.
- Antinous
  
  Would you then care to define what it means to vote Independent?
Ugly Canuck

Oh you USians.
melvillain

“U-decide!” as long as it’s between the two-party-but-can’t-tell-’em-apart system. It’s to bad that Bill Irons didn’t include the parties who agreed with these principles (http://www.cmpgnfrlbrty.cm/blg/?p=484).
anthropop

Ok, now I think I’m really paying too much attention to this thread but: how did my reply to Antinous (#15) get posted chronologically before the post to which I replied (#16)? Has his timezone been unceremoniously demoted?
anthropop

“to vote Independent” is to vote for a candidate that belongs to no political party. you know, like groucho marx.
- Antinous
  
  Wouldn’t that be referred to as throwing your vote away?
  
  Also, I exist in the moderatorial temporal anomaly, so it’s quite normal for my comments to appear in the past or the future.
anthropop

I think the black hole actually happened. We’re entering it now.
FloydT

McCain or Obama for POTUS and then either Biden or Palin for VEEP — mix it up. Obama-Palin or McCain-Biden
anthropop

No. Throwing your vote away would be having money invested in the U.S. stock market.
FloydT

@23… that sounds pretty accurate.
anthropop

Ok. I like this now. Wanna bet on the football game?
Jupiter12

There’s a guy in Kansas named Stan Herd who does crop art better than anyone in the world. Check out his online gallery. Some of the commercial work may look familiar.

http://www.stanherdart.com/PF_iowacountry_detail.htm
swartz1984265

WOW, I wonna be there
anthropop

re: “you would seem to have personal reasons for your vehement dislike of Dems, and that is a shame”

Ok, for a minute I thought you weren’t a parrot…

I have no vehement dislike of anything except ignorance and I take nothing personally. If you take the time to dig into my background, you’ll find all you need to abandon your line of accusation. I’ve accused you of nothing. Just offering a bit of illumination. Ok, I did almost call you a parrot.
anthropop

re: “Why the specific mention of the Arkansas Democratic Party? Axe to grind?”

Many axes. I was on the ballot as an independent in Arkansas in 2006.
Jake0748

Boy, I was going to comment about how neat it was that this farmer dude made a nice (and I thought, non-controversial) corn maze. And how it gave me a warm fuzzy.

But then I’m reading comments about suicide and disemvowellment and if voting independent is really just that. Fooey on all you buzzkills.

BTW – “Also, I exist in the moderatorial temporal anomaly, so it’s quite normal for my comments to appear in the past or the future.”

I can vouch for that. Its happened to me a few times too. I think Antin lives near the LHC or something.