20 January 2021 - Bernie Sanders Meme Merchandise Earns $1.8 Million for Vermont Charities
Bernie Sanders celebrates raising $1.8m for charity with meme but says its ‘no substitute for action by Congress’
Chris Riotta (The Independent, 28/01/2021)
Never let a good meme go to waste, as Senator Bernie Sanders might say.
The Vermont senator and his team successfully raised $1.8 million for national charities after selling sweatshirts and other merchandise based on the “Chairman Sanders” meme that went viral on Inauguration Day.
The meme is a photo from the inaugural ceremonies of the senator sitting alone on a chair with his arms crossed over his body in wool mittens. It exploded online in the days after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, with users superimposing the photo of Mr Sanders into images from historic moments of pop culture, TV and politics.
Sanders spotted wearing his iconic inauguration look a week later
Judy Kurtz (The Hill, 28/01/2021)
SPOTTED: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) not giving up on a good — and toasty — thing, wearing his now-famed parka-and-mittens combo on a stroll a week after the inauguration.
An ITK spy eyed Sanders leaving the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday night sporting his Smithsonian-worthy gear.
An image of Sanders at President Biden's inauguration last week — showing the 79-year-old lawmaker sitting in a foldout chair at the formal ceremony while dressed in a parka and pair of oversized mittens — instantly went viral.
The Vermont teacher who made Bernie's mittens has three pairs up for auction
Marika Gerken (CNN, 28/01/2021)
The teacher who made the now infamous -- and not-for-sale mittens worn by Sen. Bernie Sanders during President Joe Biden's inauguration is auctioning off three more pairs.
After announcing last week that she had no more mittens to sell, second grade teacher Jen Ellis made time to knit three extra pairs.
As of Thursday, the pair most like Bernie's had attracted bids of more than $5,000 with proceeds going to Outright Vermont -- a nonprofit that supports Vermont's LGBTQ+ youth.
Memes like Bernie Sanders’ mittens spread through networks the same way viruses spread through populations
Anthony Bonato (The Conversation, 28/01/2021)
None of us escaped the Bernie Sanders mitten memes following President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The photographer Brendan Smialowski captured the image of Sen. Sanders seated at the inauguration that went viral, resulting in an explosion of thousands of memes that spread rapidly across the world.
Memes aside, we are in the middle of a deadly global pandemic, unlike anything we’ve faced in modern times. At the time of writing, there are more than 100 million COVID-19 cases and two million deaths worldwide. When a person becomes infected with COVID-19, they may infect others physically close to them at their home, workplace or in a crowded public space. Despite mitigating efforts such as physical distancing and face masks, new hotspots of infection may readily appear.