otium

We here at PfRC will be on a short sabbatical whilst we return to the Italian lake district for vacation. Please stay tuned for further adventures but expect that posts might be less frequent. The title, Latin for leisure, signals withdrawing from daily business—that is, negotium, to engage in more enlightening and edifying endeavours.We have a lot to be grateful for. Ciao, ci vediamo presto!

valhalla

Strange Company’s always engaging weekend link dump directs our attention to a website called “Plodding through the Presidents” and their expertly curated gallery of unexpected commemorative statues of past administrations plus the current pretender to the office. From a nude Zeus-like George Washington, a bronze George W Bush with terrier in a fast food parking lot in South Dakota, to this 1941 shirtless, sexy Abraham Lincoln by artist James Lee Hansen, what’s more striking than the fact that some of these likenesses were created in the first place is that they’ve been given a home that’s accessible to the public—though tracking down some of these might pose more of a challenge than others.

factitious disorder imposed on another

Munchausen syndrome by proxy (previously) is a very real and dire disorder and I suspect one that probably merits greater study particularly in an age when it is arguably manifested in the form of parents endangering their children by withholding vaccinations and being vocal about it and is no laughing matter. We were however rather taken with this 1959 Madame Alexander dark, wrong-handed creation to seemingly teach young girls the art of unhealthy attention-seeking called Marybel the Doll that Gets Well. Marybel’s script includes, “I broke my arm when I stumbled and fell. Now I wear a cast to make it well.”

say hello to your boy—special guy

The son of the Supreme Court associate justice that the Trump administration is pressuring to retire sooner rather than later so Trump will be able to nominate pivotal pick for his replacement was the Deutsche Bank executive, during whose tenure extended the Trump organisation a line of credit of well over a billion dollars—at a time when most other financial institutions were wary of lending to the Trump crime family.
Republicans are urging the Reagan-appointee who has been the swing vote on the court’s many split decisions to step down before the mid-term elections this fall, fearful that the outcome could frustrate the installation of an arch-conservative figure. Perhaps given the relationship with the family that spans nearly two decades, the soon-to-be superannuated member could be persuaded that he is leaving the high court in competent hands.