The Gate
I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world
would be the space my brother’s body made. He was
a little taller than me: a young man
but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,
rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.
This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I’d say, What?
And he’d say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.
And I’d say, What?
And he’d say, This, sort of looking around.
—Marie Howe
—from What the Living Do
pedigree /PED-i-gree/. noun. A line of descent, most often of a purebred animal, or the document describing it. A genealogical table. A derivation or background. From Old French pie de grue (literally “crane’s foot,” referring to the appearance of spreading lines in a genealogical chart).
“There is no tracing the connection of ancient nations, but by language; and therefore I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.” (Samuel Johnson)
“At the time she had sneered at his Otherisms; she knew the grandees of her creed by name, had its hierarchies graven upon her heart. That particularly nasty strain of belief that was mysticism, to which she assumed he was referring when he spoke of the wasted lifetimes of the agnostic world, had nothing whatsoever to do with her own high-pedigree catechism; and appeared to her to consist mainly of the desire to explain phenomena such as spectral activity, telepathy and alien spacecraft.” (Rachel Cusk)
The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.
(Emily Dickinson)
As a long-time Alaskan, I’m quite familiar with artifacts of Chinook Wawa: North America’s Nearly Forgotten Language…you might be too. See also: the usual (happy) concoction of enhancement, addition and nitpickery on the article over at Languagehat.
By now you’ve all heard about Banksy’s self-destructing/shredding art. I’m enjoying the clever spectacle (and assume the conspiracy was deep). Now, Banksy has released a video showing how he did it and the reaction as it happened. Pairs with: Google Puts Online 10,000 Works of Street Art from Across the Globe.
There’s a lot to admire in Deborah Eisenberg’s short stories, so I was interested to learn more about her in this New York Times Magazine profile. I found myself alternately intrigued and enraged by her thinking and her off-putting, unrecognized privilege.
Continuing to feed my own addiction with typewriter-y links, the most recent rabbit hole opened up when I learned that Barbie typewriters had hidden cryptographic capabilities. Then I stumbled across this lavishly illustrated excerpt from Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing. See also: How Margaret Atwood Learned to Type && Somewhat related, this heavily-illustrated thread on “well-designed/beautiful keyboards.”
An interesting new (two-decades long!) project commencing → Massive trove of centuries-old undelivered mail seized by British warships going online. Thanks, Reader B.!
Austin Kleon is pretty much always great (life, art, writing…it all seems so straightforward when he explains it), but his recent entry about finding your way with maps—with many quirky examples—was exceptional. More for you: An Incomplete Atlas of Fantastic Maps
Did you know that Shockwaves from WWII bombing raids reached the edge of space‽
A feast for your eyes this week: John T. Unger’s life-size, hyper-detailed anatomical mosaics && Aleksey Kondratyev’s “Ice Fishers” photos && Shortlist | The Architectural Photography Awards 2018
I kind of can’t stop watching this ► deer accidentally re-creating the indelible—and not always in a good way—Phil Collins drum lick (and that tongue…I’m starting to think the deer knew just what it was doing).
Today in 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America institutes a new, parent-focused film rating system with descriptors G, M (later PG-13), R and X (later NC-17). The system, as problematic as it can be, was certainly better than the three-decades old system it replaced, the Hays Code, which was based on an evaluation of the morals of a film. Incidentally, the X rating only came to be associated with porn after it was adopted (and often augmented with a few more to make the mythical XX and XXX ratings) in the 70s by the porn industry as a kind of advertising; before then, various films had received the X rating, including A Clockwork Orange.
Mesmerizing ► video of rock balancing artist Kokei Mikuni. I could watch this kind of thing for hours. See also: ► Michael Grab && Manu Topic.
Tim Youd creates all kinds of art with typewriters. In performance, he retypes entire novels onto one double-layer sheet of paper with the same model typewriter used by the writer of the novel…in a location intimately connected to the novel. The resulting sheets become part of weirdly beautiful Dyptichs, the ribbons become part of his series of Ribbon Paintings, and some of the typewriters become sculptures. Related viewing: ► Youd talks about his creative process at SCAD.
Reader V.: “Looks like Houston might not be able to follow in Vancouver’s sex doll footsteps.”
Reader D.: “FYI, a big batch of new words and senses of words in the OED just came out. And I’m a 30+ year old juvenile, immediately seeing ‘Bobbit’ in close proximity to ‘bone-on’!”
Reader C.: “Probably not in response to your sharing The Eternal Life of the Instant Noodle, but the Nissin (‘Cup Noodles’ not ‘Cup o Noodles’!) company has opened a store with some noodle lovin’ merch.”
Reader F.: “I also love podcasts and don’t understand why more of my friends don’t listen to them. Your more enlightened readers might want to add this to their pile of listening lists: The Eight Most Informative Podcast Episodes You’ll Ever Hear.”
Reader A.: “I recently shared my podcast habits when Doug Belshaw shared his OPML file. The podcast that I think many overlook, but is worth a listen, is ABC Future Tense. It always has diverse topics incorporating a wide range of voices.”
Reader C.: “Is The Podcast Club The New Book Club? No. I’m the only person in my circles who even knows what podcasts are.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: mailto:clippings@katexic.com.
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