Today's WikiWeirdness is that connoisseur of celery, grocery bags and panties counter-gravitationally tumbling around the ankles of shocked 50's pin-up models... the notorious Art Frahm.

From the Wikipedia article:

Art Frahm (1907-1981) was an American painter of campy pin-up girls and advertising. Frahm lived in Chicago, and was active from the 1940s to 1960s. Today he is best known for his “ladies in distress” pictures involving beautiful young women whose panties mysteriously flutter to the ground in public situations, often causing them to spill their bag of groceries. In one of Frahm’s noted idiosyncratic touches, celery is often depicted.

Of course, here's something that I never hear anyone mention about Frahm: the bag of groceries is an excuse for the girl to have her hands full, and be completely incapable of pulling up her panties as they fall. Plausible. Genius.

Art Frahm is, without a doubt, my favorite painter. I have printed out a number of the illustrations from his 'Ladies in Distress' series, had them tastefully framed and hanged them all over my bathroom walls. Coupled with the mirror that points directly at the toilet, this has caused a good deal of consternation amongst some of my female visitors when they've had to use the toilet, but it's all in the sake of art.

Of course, the Wikipedia entry on Art is pretty swell, but James Lileks' series of Frahmian analysis is still quintessential.

Art Frahm [Wikipedia]