A bigger issue for you today since last weekend was spent preparing to launch the concīs Summer Season anthology (which any of you who like poetry, prose poetry or flash fiction should read).
“Our too-young and too-new America, lusty because it is lonely, aggressive because it is afraid, insists upon seeing the world in terms of good and bad, the holy and the evil, the high and the low, the white and the black; our America is frightened of fact, of history, of processes, of necessity. It hugs the easy way of damning those whom it cannot understand, of excluding those who look different, and it salves its conscience with a self-draped cloak of righteousness.”
—Richard Wright
—from Black Boy
dakhma (dokhma) /DOK-ma/. noun. A raised circular structure, or tower, upon which Zoroastrians place the bodies of their dead to be consumed by vultures. AKA a “Tower of Silence.” From Persian dakhmak (funeral place).
“Alexander promptly ordered the dakhmas, or Towers of Silence, to be closed.” (H.G. Rawlinson)
“When Joseph dies, his body will be placed in the dokhma, and the three-day ceremonies too will be permitted. Whether he’s had a navjote or not…” (Cyrus Mistry)
“In a dream I saw him. Like Opi’s mother he had no lips, and also like her, he was on the dakhma.” (Rebecca Kanner)
“The first corpse brought to a new tower—‘dakhma’—must be the body of the innocent child of a mobed or priest. No one, not even the chief watcher, is allowed to approach within a distance of thirty paces of these towers. Of all living human beings ‘nassesalars’—corpse-carriers—alone enter and leave the ‘Tower of Silence.’” (Helena Blavatsky)
The Oatmeal (with an assist from Augusten Burroughs) nails it again. → How to be Perfectly Unhappy.
A barely literate prisoner with a dictionary and a Mario Puzo novel teaches himself to read then finds (many!) errors in—and becomes friends with the editor of—Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Another great episode of the Criminal podcast.
Some fascinating Lincoln links [must resist bad puns]: The Blood Relics From the Lincoln Assassination and the amazing story of the 1901 exhumation of Lincoln’s body.
You abso-effing-lutely should read The Dexterous Tongue’s explanation of English Expletive Infixation!
Before the computer, there was something almost as complex: the Chinese typewriter.
Kurt Vonnegut’s only play—Happy Birthday, Wanda June—is underrated. It’s funny and full of outrage. And despite not being much of an opera listener, I’m intrigued by the idea of the Indianapolis Opera adaptation. Among other videos at the link, this ►workshop performance clip. [Thanks, Reader J.]
Is Listening to an Audio Book “Cheating?”. Cognitively, the short answer: mostly not.
Apparently, a company has successfully trademarked the contraction “should’ve.”. I’ll let that one speak for itself.
The Nod Travel Pillow makes a ton of sense…but could I bring myself to actually use it?
Meet the parents who won’t let their children study literature
Hindsight is…well, you know. → The Good Old Days? 12 Crazy Vintage Ads That Prove We’ve Come A Long Way
Get Lost in the Stacks of These 10 Beautiful University Libraries
Starved, tortured, forgotten: Genie, the feral child who left a mark on researchers. See also, the Nova documentary ►Genie: Secret of the Wild Child (transcript here).
Today in 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deploys the National Guard to intimidate the “Little Rock Nine”—nine black students scheduled to enter the all-white Little Rock Central High School—and support the protesting segregationists. I wish this sounded more outlandish. The action, and the polarizing photos, would lead to fiery national debate in what became a seminal moment in the history of the civil rights movement. Coincidentally, on this same day in 1908, novelist, essayist and poet Richard Wright was born just outside Natchez, Mississippi. Wright’s work, including the powerful novels Native Son and The Outsider, would be a significant force in race relations and civil rights in the United States and, after his permanent move to France, around the world.
►Over 100 years of stop-motion animation in three minutes.
Inside London’s Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History where, among other exhibitions, you’ll find massive hairballs, bladder stones, shrunken heads, cat skulls, the skeleton of a Fijian merman, “Russell Brand’s Pubes” and celebrity poo. See also: ►One Day in The Life of Viktor Wynd - National Geographic Documentary.
Reader B. was close to the Godunov action: “…days after his defection, the Bolshoi Ballet travelled to Chicago, which is where I saw their performance of Spartacus with my ex-wife. The ballet aside, what I remember most were the bulky men in dark suits who guarded the edges of the stage to prevent other dancers from ‘escaping’. There was also a loud argument in Russian, a violent woman’s voice complaining somewhere behind us, where spotlights were being operated. It went on and on, often louder than the orchestra. A pity I don’t understand Russian.”
Reader T. on Spurious Correlations: “I would be surprised if there weren’t a lot of things correlated with Nicolas Cage’s activities on this planet.”
Another Reader B. on ‘acedia’: "This one had some good timing, as its focus on acedia met with my watching the film Melancholia. ¶ I tried to escape both with the same director’s previous film, Antichrist. Maybe it’s time for some cartoons instead.
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
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