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Meercaz is an alternative/Indie/proto-punk rock band originally from Portland, Oregon and later the San Francisco Bay area. Meercaz's lead singer is Muslim "Muzz" Delgado. Delgado has performed with various artists in the band including Clay Silva and Kyle Raquipiso, and performed with the band, The Visions. The Meercaz's album cover was designed by Mac Blackout, a visual artist and punk rock musician from Chicago.

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Kappa Alpha Theta (KAθ) is a sorority founded circa 1870 when Bettie Locke wanted to form an organization offering friendship and support for the woman on her college campus. Locke could not find any organizations like that, so she and classmate Alice Allen developed the constitution and bylaws, designed the badge, and identified potential members to create Kappa Alpha Theta. It did not take long for KAθ to grow and spread quickly as it was the first Greek-letter fraternity for women. There are shirts, bags, and novelty items with the phrase “let’s get KAθtic” for members of the sorority to display their affiliation.

White egg with smiling face and yellow feet holding a pink paintbrush and pink paint cup with yellow block text on yellow background with pink ombre border.

Hallmark began in 1910 when Joyce Clyde Hall started selling postcards. He had little money—not even enough to take a horse-drawn cab to his lodgings at the YMCA—but he had an entrepreneurial spirit and the determination of a pioneer. Hall quickly made a name for himself with the picture postcards he sold. Rollie Hall joined his brother in business, and the company was named Hall Brothers. On January 11, 1915, a fire destroyed their office and inventory. They took the only salvageable item, their safe, and set up shop again. With $17,000 in debt, they decided to press onward. As postcard sales declined, they recognized the public’s desire for more privacy in their communication, so they started offering high-quality Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards mailed in envelopes. The fateful fire resulted in the Hall brothers’ decision to buy printing presses and begin producing their own greeting cards in 1915. Hallmark eventually made the move to manufacture and sell collectable memorabilia including pin-back buttons, most of which revolve around holidays and other special events.

Put On a Happy Face, was the title of a popular song with lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse. It was introduced by Dick Van Dyke in the musical Bye Bye Birdie in 1960. The phrase and meaning, according to the song, was that donning a smile would spread sunshine. If you were not feeling happy, simply smiling would make others smile and reflect happiness, in turn, making you happy as well.

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Silence=Death is a symbol and slogan created in the 1980's by Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Socarrás to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic. The phrase was meant to criticize both the public stigma surrounding the disease as well as the Reagan administration's lack of response. The pink triangle was a symbol used by Nazis in the 1930's and 1940's to identify homosexuals, but by flipping it upside down, the creators of Silence=Death helped to reclaim the symbol for their community. The visual iconography was chosen to make the movement as inclusive as possible. As a result, the group of creators choose not to use photographs, but rather a more general symbol of a pink triangle.  

Silence=Death—and the upside down pink triangle—became a hugely impactful symbol, and eventually was adopted by the organization AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). With its new symbol, ACT UP would go on to fight AIDS both in the U.S and around the world. As of 2024, ACT UP continues to advocate for the nearly 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS. 

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The Norcross Greeting Card Company was established in the mid-1920s by Arthur Norcross. Early on, the company had its headquarters on 244 Madison Avenue in New York City and was ran by Norcross, his wife, and children. Norcross tapped local freelance artists to design his greeting cards, most popular of which were his Valentine’s Day ones. When the Second World War pulled some of his associates away from the business and into the battlefield, Norcross wrote personal letters to them. The letters not only included company news but also divulged baseball scores and other bits of information that the servicemen could appreciate. When Norcross died in 1969 the company was sold to John Dorance, CEO of Campbell’s Soup. Without the “family way of operation,” however, the company went on a downhill slide, and its remains were auctioned off in 1981.

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The University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, Canada, was founded in 1908 and started with forty-five students and five members of the faculty. Today, it is one of the biggest research institutions in Canada and has over 38,000 students. Students have a plethora of research programs to choose from including nanotechnology, marine science, agricultural & environmental studies, and nuclear & particle physics. The University has had a long impact on the surrounding area offering lectures and library services to the region. It is also where CKUA radio was founded in 1927 and the Banff School of Fine Arts was opened in 1933.