i feel like singing a plot shanty

Originally lampooned by Mystery Science Theater 3000 on this day in 1989—later reprised in season three, a high-tech crime-fighting unit is called the titular Mighty Jack is formed to fight an evil criminal syndicate called Q, which retaliates by kidnapping one of the R&D professionals called Mister Atari to learn the secrets of their hybrid vehicles that keep foiling Q’s plots for world domination. Not an actual feature film but rather a couple of episodes of a 1968 tokusatsu action television series strung together and unlike Voltron and Ultraman, received the most exposure on MST3K.

mise-en-scène

Via Futility Closet, we are treated to a composition arranged by Paramount studio photographer A. L. “Whitey” Schafer captured in 1941 in derisive protest to the Hays Code that started to be enforced in 1934—see previously. Captioned “Thou Shall Not,” the image includes all the taboos and transgressions that filmmakers could not show on the big screen until 1968 when censorship in American cinemas became a self-regulatory matter with less government interference regarding expression. Schafer received a fine and censure for entering his work in an industry candid photography contest but the satire was not lost on judge and jury.

ultracrepidarian

Though already acquainted with the wonderful term and its etymology and provenance but had forgotten how the advice from the cobbler if not exactly solicited (see also) regarding painter Apellis’ depiction of Alexander the Great criticising his sandals was well received and acted upon and then went on to embolden the shoemaker to critique other parts of the painting. Speaking ‘beyond the shoe’ had placed the cobbler definitely out of his element and squandered any previous goodwill or faith the artist might have harboured for the critic.This Sutor, ne ultra credpidam proscription was an unfair invective against the engineer and craftsman , Karl Marx thought, since those individuals drove innovation (in an ideal society with division of labour, “it makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow: to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, critise after dinner—just as I have a mind without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic”), lamenting how the anecdote, fable had become idiomatic across European languages. It occurs in the English saying, “A cobbler should stick to his last”—that is the term for a wooden foot model, Pushkin’s “Суди, дружок, не свыше сапога”—judge not above the boot, “Zapatero, a tus zapatos—shoemaker, tend to your shoes, “Schuster, bleib bei deinem Leisten!”—stay in your lane or “Chacun son métier, les vaches seront bien gardées”—to each his own profession and the cattle will be well looked after. More to explore including a compelling, complementary after though at Language Log at the link up top.

matronym or organised kaos

The regulatory body in Iceland, Kynhlutlausa—the national naming authority (see also), in addition to approving the names Ingaló, Sanný, Gulla, Róma, Bertmarí, Estíva, Gulla, Lucas, Theo and Søren has also enacted previously passed legislation that restricts names to specific genders and allows neutral assignment and can give themselves whatever name they choose. Some resistance circulated due to grammar and standard Icelandic orthography but such differences can be set aside.

cardinal rule

Though disagreeing in principle with the way the thesis is presented and that no birds—weaponised killer drones disguised as our avian friends excepted—are garbage, this essay, via the venerable Card House, does make a compelling argument and presents solutions for the preponderance of poorly selected state symbols in America (previously) and with humour demonstrates how bestowing these honours has consequence. The vetting and the P-R process has been pretty lacking with many states choosing invasive imports, domesticated breeds, copy-cat cases of multiply mocking birds and landlocked Utah choosing the sea gull as a sign of gratitude when the birds miraculously intervened to devour a plague of locust that threatened to drive the settlers to starvation.

⚡

The visual search engine Same Energy has been circulating for a few days and while we found it to be a clever idea and there was definitely correspondence among images by a word prompt it seemed a little predictable. Uploading a picture, however, like I did with this art work from Tadami Yamada Japanese surrealist in this 1983 composition that features elements of a still life, chequerboard and a strange framed tarot motif in the background and taking in a mosaic of what the algorithm makes of the visual cue really is engaging and demonstrates a virtuosity that we weren’t expecting. Do give it a try and see what it serves up. 

 

patient-zero

Re-emphasizing that the 1918 influenza pandemic only became known as the Spanish Flu because its journalists untethered by war-time propaganda and the need to uphold troop morale and public confidence were free to report on the emerging public health crisis, from the American perspective, according to convention, the first cases of the particularly deadly viral strain were recorded in the hospital wards of Camp Fuston, a training centre for new army recruits and part of the compound of Fort Riley outside of Manhattan, Kansas on this day in 1918. Though impossible to reconstruct a century on, epidemiologists believe that either this military installation in the US or a British staging hospital in Étaples-sur-Mer near Calais—with troops from the former’s 89th Division were deployed to France in the Spring of 1918.

eine symphonie des grauens

Premiering on this day in 1922 in the Marble Hall of the Berlin Zoological Gardens (previously), this silent, Expressionist horror film directed Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (see also), Nosferatu, was considered and unauthorised, unsanctioned cinematic adaptation of Dracula, despite significant changes to the story of Count Orlok, and all copies were ordered destroyed by the estate of Bram Stoker. A few reels, however, did survive and the world of film retains the legacy of this pioneering and influential masterpiece. A relator (Makler) from the fictional town of Wisborg dispatches one of his employees beyond the Carpathian Mountains to arrange their purchase of a property in his hometown for a mysterious and feared Transylvanian aristocrat.