palimpsest

A series of religious tableaux dating to the Middle Ages in the Guild Chapel of Stratford-upon-Avon was conserved thanks to chamberlain John Shakespeare, father of the village’s most famous son, has recently been fully restored and is now available for public inspection.
In the wake of the iconoclast movement and the turmoil of the Reformation in England, such allegorical murals were ordered destroyed and replaced by, well, blank, unadorned walls in line with Puritanical customs and later painted over as styles changed, but reluctant to wipe out such ancient works of art, Shakespeare the senior directed workers to limewash the walls, preserving the originals under all those layers to be teased out later. Be sure to visit Hyperallergic at the link above to marvel at this unique gallery of images, rich in symbolism and narrative that are sure to contribute to our understanding of the medieval psyche as well as that of the Elizabethans.

civics lessons

On Monday, the electors of the US Electoral College travel to their respective state capitols to cast their votes. Most jurisdictions require the representatives to be faithful to the will of their constituency, however a few states allow electors the option to go faithless and, like in Texas, two electors have chosen to resign their commissions rather than assent to Trump and one individual will be going to Austin to vote for someone other than Trump.
Some suggest that up to twenty electors are seriously considering abstaining or changing their votes, which is something truly unprecedented, and pressure groups on both sides are plying their case. What do you think? The numerical constraints the such a system introduces might be by their nature flawed but is it the responsibility of the College to decide elections? Or to ratify the popular vote? Twenty possible dissenters nearly erodes that surplus of thirty-seven that cost team Clinton the presidency, but in the end is unlikely to change the results—still razor-thin no matter how it’s called. A few score of electors are asking that all, prior to casting their ballots, should be debriefed by the intelligence agencies in order to make an informed choice (arguably one not afforded to the general electorate) about the role that Russian interference played in the outcome. Many more are asking that that the ballot be delayed until the investigation is finished. Another affiliate branch within the College plans to abstain and thus narrow the gap to the point where the decision to turned over to the (Republican-controlled) Senate to anoint the next president.

meme-base or selective pressures

Courtesy of the always engaging Waxy from Andy Baio, we are treated to a year-long retrospective, parsed out on a daily basis, from New York Magazine’s select/all crew in the form of a memetic calendar. This is really brilliant: one can go to any date and see what was transmitted and trending on or around that day and be reminded of some of the accounts of pith and moment captured—despite the life-cycle and how meaning and context flees—that tell of the events of 2016.

goodwill ambassador

After just two months in office, the United Nations decided that they had to strip Wonder Woman of her diplomatic credentials as a role-model for feminist empowerment, petitioners deciding that the super-hero was rather the antithesis, embodying the expectations of the established patriarchy.
Not only was the costume of the non-canonical goddess considered insensitive to much of the world that she represented with many present seeing her appointment as frivolous, more the objectification of women was so prominent in US headlines and politics to champion women’s rights with such an image seemed inappropriate. While I am very glad to learn that the UN has a memory for yesterday’s news, I do hope our heroine finds another engagement soon.