A brief history of the selfie

In November, Oxford Dictionaries named selfie the international Word of the Year.

[For those of you unfamiliar with the word selfie, it is, per Oxford Dictionaries, "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."]

According to Oxford Dictionaries (the people responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary), the first use of the term dates back to 2002, though the word didn't really take off until 10 years later.

I, however, would argue that selfies have been around for much longer. Much much longer.

For example, take a look at this selfie Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn did when he was 24, back in 1630.

[Hmm.... I wonder what filter he used?]

And here's a selfie Vincent van Gogh took back in 1889.

[I bet van Gogh used the Mad Artist filter.]

And here's a selfie Pablo Picasso did back in 1901, during his blue period, when he was 19 or 20...

And this crazy one he did six years later, in 1907.

Those twentysomethings, I tell ya.

And Andy Warhol was, like, the King of the Selfie.

You try getting someone to pay millions of dollars for your selfies -- and hang them in a museum.

Though getting millions of people to watch your music video titled #SELFIE? Not a problem.

It's a Pop Pop Pop Pop-Tarts World

Perhaps the ultimate pop-up store, Pop-Tarts World, a store dedicated to the iconic Kellogg's breakfast pastry, opened this week in New York City's Times Square (on the south side of 42nd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, to be exact). So the spouse and I, who had our share of Pop-Tarts back in the day, decided to go check it out.

Behold, the power of Pop-Tarts!



















































































Truth be told, we were rather unimpressed with Pop-Tarts World, despite the allure of creating your own custom box of Pop-Tarts and the Pop-Tarts sushi (which we didn't sample). Like Pop-Tarts themselves, the Pop-Tarts store was/is way more about good marketing than good taste. And once January comes, and its lease expires, all that will be left of Pop-Tarts World will be a few crumby memories. (Though maybe Pillsbury will open a Toaster Strudel Universe in its stead.)