Wandering a bit through the neighbouring market town of Ostheim vor der Rhรถn and learned our area had a connection—and a celebrated one at that—with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, marking his visits to the town in 1780, accompanying Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar, whom ennobled the writer and polymath, in his role as privy councillor and highway commissioner.
On one occasion, under the advisement of local economics chair, Goethe directed the construction of two ramparts bridging the river Streu, designed to straighten the flow of the waters and provide irrigation to the meadows, a system used by famers through 1985. Referred to in local dialect as the above (Wackeliege Stege) as the original wooden footbridges, replacing the stepping stones, became wobbly shortly after installation. The master baker Hans Bickert was an avid researcher of local history and was particularly intrigued by the connection to Goethe and acquired in 1970 the old Saxe-Weimar Amtshaus (we have been to a Flรถhmarkt inside this building) from the State of Bavaria (see above: Ostheim is historically tied to Thรผringen but joined Bavaria in 1947)—restored and renovated the history structure next door and hung signs bearing important transitional dates in the ownership and allegiances of the town. The chronicle includes the second visit of Goethe in April of 1782, this time to recruit draftees for the American Revolutionary War, a task which Goethe detested as human thievery and resolved to keep his focus on his earlier project of improving the towns river shallows and apply new irrigation techniques, and adding a basin for wading and ablutions—see also. Not many men were conscripted for Prussia. This minor but lovingly attended to construction together with notable correspondence dispatched from here not only helped the amateur historian to commemorate Goethe’s time in Ostheim with several plaques but also inspired the baker to dress up as the poet laureate while giving guided tours of the town.Thursday, 24 April 2025
Saturday, 19 April 2025
laguna hainersee oder living lagovida (12. 399)
Returning to the Stรถrmthaler See campgrounds for Easter weekend with a view of the floating, phantom steeple, the Vineta created to evoke the leveled settlements during the height of mining and mechanisation, we visited some neighbouring lakes and marinas reclaimed from a heavily industralised landscape like all of the Leipziger Neuseenland, the Haubitzer, Hainer and Kahnsdorfer lakes were developed in the early to mid-1990s when a large open-cast lignite coal extraction operation was flooded and slowly converted into beach-front properties with resorts and recreational boating.
The bulk of the land too polluted to be rehabilitated, the fields of Witnitz II stretching for kilometre in every direction, now forms the largest photovoltaic park in Europe—the endless array not being quite so photogenic under overcast skies and at speed but impressive nonetheless. Inland, Kahnsdorf features a manorial estate owned once by the scholarly family of theologians, the Ernestis of Leipzig, the property, suffering years of neglect and near demolition during the DDR era as a relict of feudalism, celebrated for hosting the introductory meeting of Friedrich Schiller and jurist Christian Gottfried Kรถrner of Dresden, of an established household of patrons of the arts and culture who entertained Goethe, Hiller and Mozart, on the first of July 1785.
Later a financial backer who saved the poet from wrack and ruin, Schiller dedicated An der Freudschaft (“On Friendship”) to Kรถrner and the pivotal moment marking the turn around of Schiller’s fortunes was the inspiration, according to the premises, for Ode to Joy. The surrounding grounds are a park and a pasture for a local group of alpaca enthusiasts who sell wool products in the cafe of the main building.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a wine so nice they named it thrice (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit
seven years ago: robots assembling IKEA furniture, the Paris riots of 1968 plus springtime in Wiesbaden
eight years ago: an appreciation of edutainment, AI and implicit bias plus a profile of a North Korea day
nine years ago: a termite tent, the Sea-Monkey kingdom plus another experimental chatbot
eleven years ago: a light installation in Oberhausen, an arctic henge in Iceland plus EU lend-lease policy for Ukraine
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
minotaure (12. 374)
The French Surrealist-oriented magazine in print from 1933 to 1939 was originally intended to be a general review of the plastic arts: poetry, architecture, theatre, ethnography, mythology and psychoanalytic studies but the publisher’s association with Andrรฉ Breton and others in the movement, ensuring a steady supply of contributions, shifted the focus. Illustrators and writers included Pablo Picasso, Joan Mirรณ, Max Ernst, Dalรญ, Renรฉ Magritte, Yves Tanguy and Frida Kahlo (see above—the pictured cover is by Diego Rivera for the Mexican supplement) and the publication’s high quality and high standards attracted the patronage of several sustaining sponsors. The title character was very much en vogue at the time with Picasso already having established several studies on the theme with the metaphor of the labyrinth representing the mind and the marauding Minotaur analogous to the irrational impulses with vanquishing Theseus a symbol for the greater self-knowledge of the Surrealist and psychoanalysis movement.
synchronoptica
one year ago: invasive species (with synchronoptica), a rare 1995 hybrid eclipse plus making US election day a holiday
seven years ago: Swedish house gymnastics, tokusatsu gifs plus giving a banana a passport
eight years ago: a cradle that mimics a car ride plus the first pizza delivery
nine years ago: Julia Child’s home in Provence, an ode to a departed feline friend plus quotes paired with fine art
ten years ago: a Nazi summer camp, assorted links to revisit plus the first petroleum company
catagories: ๐ซ๐ท, ๐จ, ๐, ๐ง , myth and monsters
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
9x9 (12.357)
gondor assault small group: a poem for the first of April
unitedhealthcare: US attorney Pam Boni general will seek the death penalty in the slaying of company CEO

dataviz: an infographic challenge round to recreate the WEB Du Bois economic and demographic charts as presented during the 1900 Paris Exposition using modern tools—via Quantum of Sollazo
nearby jobs: Chinese omni-app points flexible users to local gig opportunities and side-quests—shake it ’til you make it
unabhรคngigkeitserklรคrung: from Der Zeit, Europe frees itself from American hegemony but starving their attention—via Kottke
wyld stallyns: texting conversation demonstrates that we’re in the wrong timeline
mora, negare, deponere: archaeologists uncover fresco foretelling the coming of Saint Luigi
i scorn the morn: ‘conjugated nouns’ by linguist Arnold M Zwicky
Saturday, 29 March 2025
strangers with candy (12. 347)
Born on this day in 1961 in Endicott, New York, writer, comedian, actor and sister of author and humorist David Sedaris, Amy Louise Sedaris. Disposed to making pranks and working as a waitress in a comedy club in Chicago, Sedaris toured with Second City’s company by the late 1980s, eventually moving to New York and joined with fellow member Stephen Colbert a fledgling cable television venture, Comedy Central, as a sketch artist, eventually given her own series, portraying a middle-aged woman, Jerri Blank who goes back to high school, based on her impression of 1970s era motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, a cautionary cult figure who lectured to students about her lurid past warning them about sex and drugs and falling under the influence of radical charismatics—a sort of scared straight scenario. More active than even, Sedaris has multiple roles, titles and accolades to her name.
Sunday, 23 March 2025
8x8 (12. 331)
fork in the road: AI misapprehension of a machine translated simple yes/no survey from Spanish rendered ‘i griega’ (upsilon) as a y-junction and all affirmative responses as the utensil
hunter-gatherer: the handbag theory of human advancement—via Strange Company
signature authority: after declaring his predecessor’s pardons invalid over the use of autopen, Trump faces scrutiny over unsigned deportation orders

spring issue: the fourth instalment of the achingly beautiful HTML Review—see previously—is out, via MetaFilter
vexatious lawsuits: mob boss Trump partially reverses executive order rescinding law firm’s contracts and security clearances for millions in pro bono services, prompting mass resignations
schlachthof: ancient butchery for mammoths discovered in Austria
cousin german: a comparison between English and Lower Saxon
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Cityspeak in Bladerunner plus The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound
seven years ago: the Ecosia web browser, an ancient passing red dwarf plus Cambridge Analytica
eight years ago: Trumpland, Trump’s triumphs, recreating the bedroom from 2001 plus more on concrete poetry
nine years ago: the christening of Boaty McBoatface, humorist Richard Littler plus a tubular tree house
ten years ago: God Bless You Mr Rosewater plus the crusades and the reconquista
Friday, 14 March 2025
u is for upper canada, where the poor slave have found rest after all his wanderings, for it is british ground (12. 302)
This 1846 hand-coloured primer was printed as an abecedary (see previously here and here) for the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Fair, authored and distributed by a pair of activist Quaker sisters, Mary and Hanna Townsend, realising that change could only be affected by including the young before they were inculcated otherwise with racist and oppressive ideas handed down. This volume was conserved and shared by the State of Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the whole alphabet, the rhyming couplets are reflective of the time and a bit paternalistic but worth reading, is showcased courtesy of Kuriositas at the link up top. I is the Infant, from the arms / Of its fond mother torn, / And, at a public auction, sold / With horses, cows and corn.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a psychoanalytic board game (with synchronoptica), Pi Day plus assorted links to revisit
seven years ago: celebrating the life and achievements of Stephen Hawking, the Norwegian Porridge Feud plus more praise for Professor Hawking
eight years ago: Trump’s rentier economy, more links to enjoy plus the thawing of the tundra
nine years ago: six-plus decades of space exploration, the making of 2001 plus the statues of Dublin
ten years ago: Iceland drops its bid to join the euro-market, even more links to revisit plus the digital attention deficit
Saturday, 8 March 2025
anaรฑรฑฤtaรฑรฑassฤmฤซtindriya (12. 285)
Via New Shelton wet/dry, we found this critique from the political and literary forum the Boston Review to be quite resonant as we here at PfRC essentially at our core blog when we learn a new word for a phenomenon or behaviour—way to name something that we didn’t know had a name or could draw a distinction that we weren’t aware of beforehand—or make connections, especially etymologically—be it on the topic of language, history, culture or current events. Pedantry is our mainstay. We’ve devoted a lot of posts to the untranslatable and the hyperspecific ways that language can impart feelings and states of being—see previously here, here and here—but we appreciated the counterpoint presented in the subject book review: the telling comes at the expense of showing, communicating through narrative or poetry rather than a borrowed short-hand explored through a treasury of terms from classical Indian literature. The title refers to the Pali concept for the mental faculty of coming to know, which is undoubtably a premium word but emotion and incident do not map neatly onto a linguistic framework and if not creating new experiences with words, one can bereft with neologisms that destroy them.
Thursday, 6 March 2025
7x7 (12. 280)
yarn-bomb: a collection of museums and monuments around the world for knitting and craft enthusiasts
defying democracy: Randy Rainbow breaks into the ballad from Wicked during an interview
the living? the miraculous task of it: Joseph Fasano’s short poetic response to a student who used AI to write a papereight million dollars to promote lgbtqi+ in the african nation of lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of: all you need to know about the southern African enclave (the only one outside of Italy) landlocked by South Africa
fission chips: a survey of Mid-Century Modernism
spinsrรฟche: a mashup of “Jet City Woman” and prog metal
mullet talley: cross-referencing hair-styles with football club fans in Australia—from the Annals of Improbable Research (previously)—via Pasa Bon!
synchronoptica
one year ago: the mental radio interceptions of Grant Wallace (with synchronoptica) plus more on endonyms and exonyms
seven years ago: Teen Look magazine plus a demonic backlog of unfinished business
eight years ago: presidential pets, animator Tom Oreb, separating migrant families plus NASA’s style guide
ten years ago: assorted links to enjoy
eleven years ago: neglected bestiaries
Saturday, 1 March 2025
7x7 (12. 267)
dromedary: Ze Frank’s True Facts (previously) about the camel
client state: secretary of defence Hegseth orders Cyber Command to halt Russian contingency planning

rosmรฅlning: the decorative doll houses of Amy Balfour—via Messy Nessy Chic
pulmonic ingressive affirmative: the Gaelic Gasp or how the Irish inhale their yeses
hydro integrator: Vladimir Lukyanov’s unique water computer designed in the 1920s to improve the durability of reinforced concrete
musk or us: lessons from the ostracising of apartheid South Africa is a resonant learning moment lesson in how boycotts can overcome evil
capri candela was some ginchy chick, daddy-o: Wilbur’s Place from Peter Gunn—see also
Friday, 21 February 2025
sink full of insects (12. 249)
Via Web Curios, we introduced to another vintage digital demesne (previously) called NobodyHere, an enigmatic online diary began in 1998 that has grown into web of interactive stories that are still maintained and with irregular new entries. There were—and are still a few—forever-places out there on the internet and not curated just as a succession of platforms, geocities, mySpace, but imagine how many might have not been forsaken, abandoned for the ease and instant dopamine hit of engagement of social media, so many house-proud and vibrant, independent domains with caretakers literate in their architecture and up-keep. There’s no site-map for this labyrinth but a bit of an explainer in the form of a video disclosure from the author.
Thursday, 20 February 2025
and we all shine on (12. 245)

synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: Mister Roger’s Neighbourhood (1968) plus modular cardboard feline furniture
eight years ago: Stars Wars anniversary edition action figures plus more links to enjoy
nine years ago: death taxes, gravitational waves and the Underworld, charting radio-ownership plus the imprisoned paint portraits of the biggest criminals
ten years ago: even more links, urban beekeeping plus an appreciation of sci-fi authors
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
be my valentine, charlie brown (12. 190)
Premiering on this day in 1975 on the CBS television network, the thirteenth prime-time animated special based on the Peanuts comic strip, deals with the subject of rejection and heartbreak when Sally first misinterprets Linus’ heart-shaped box of chocolates for his teacher as an overture
for her non-requited affection and our protagonist receiving only one treat, a chalky candy heart with the message “FORGET IT KID!” during the class party—the teacher departing early with her boyfriend. A belated greeting arrives from the Little Red Haired Girl and Charlie Brown gets a regifted card from Violet. Optimistic that these pity Valentines might sustain a trend and he’ll get more next year, but Linus warns his friend not to get his hopes up. The score with the opening theme “Heartburn Waltz” was recorded by Vince Guaraldi’s Orchestra. The card which Sally reads and acted out by Snoopy is the entirety (see also) of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese (№ 43), which opens with “How do I love thee? Let me me count the ways.”
synchronoptica
one year ago: USA for Africa’s We are the World (with synchronoptica) plus the zombification of the abandoned internet
seven years ago: pedometers and privacy, Thamesmead Housing Estate plus Aloha Wanderwell
eight years ago: governance per Tweet, assorted links worth revisiting plus Little Englanders
nine years ago: a time-capsule apartment in Chicago, ranking passports plus the game Go
ten years ago: hydrophobic materials plus a superb cartographical collection
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
crash course (12. 171)
This is ghoulish and possibly what’s in store for the American educational system, its department defunded and tasked with eliminating itself and focused on removing all trace of guilt or bad feelings from school curricula (getting rid of critical race theory—as the MAGA party understands it, see previously here and here)—and other fields of study to preserve the pride of white Christian settlers and their ilk): via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links, we learn that a Utah-based edutainment start-up has summoned up an AI emulation of diarist Anne Frank, murdered at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp aged fifteen in 1945. Not only does the experience to be marketed to young pupils have the uncanniness of a tireless, overly accommodating docent and is unconscionably disrespectful to her memory and other victims, it gets biographical information incorrect and seems with some prodding to twist one of Frank’s more famous quotes, “in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” as a directive to deflect blame for the Holocaust on the Nazis. School districts seem quick to adopt these models with no regard for the philosophical implications, educational value (it seems rather antithetical to the entire lesson) or whether or not educators have any input or remedy for what such avatars dispense.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (with synchronoptica), artist Iris Wildros plus an art artefact
seven years ago: more colour stories, ecological treats plus Dr Seuss’ commercial work
eight years ago: Trump to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, famous songs using borrowed tunes, global Hyper Loops plus American Carnage 1.0
nine years ago: the Mind Expanding programme of Hans-Rucker Co
ten years ago: Euro/USD parity plus ageing and rejuvenation
Sunday, 12 January 2025
twentytwentyfive (12. 169)
Better Living through Beowulf brings us a thoughtful reflection on George Orwell’s prescient 1946 essay called “The Prevention of Literature” that forecasts how authoritarian regimes will turn to AI (not exactly couched in modern parlance but rather as formulaic, mass-produced writing that could outpace any author or newsroom, though his dystopian novel does feature prole porn—we might even be denied that—and other entertainments produced by machine), which envisions journalism being first censored out of existence to be churned out with minimal human input or intervention with prose and poetry to follow—though book bans in the United States (including 1984) seem to rather subvert that sequence, notwithstanding the attacks against what’s labelled as the “legacy media” continuing—already witnessing the change in his own time with modular stories and plots, easily adapted and repackaged for an eager audience and easily made to conform with the worldview that the state seeks to project. Introducing his work with a recollection of attending a meeting of the PEN Club in London that coincided with the three-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Milton’s Areopagitica—in defence of press freedoms—two years prior, Orwell blames the loss of intellectual liberty on the undermining of the increasingly concentrated ownership of the press and monopolies on broadcast media by corporations that refused to support their authors and internecine squabbling amongst academics. Such an atmosphere and compromised readership enables conditions for a totalitarian takeover. Contemporary critics generally agreed with Orwell’s premise, though some though his arguments amounted to “intellectual swashbuckling” and concluded his prophecies doubtful.
Thursday, 2 January 2025
evenweave (12. 138)
Via Kottke, we are introduced to the embroidery journals that Sophie O’Neill, California transplant in Glasgow, has been keeping daily (sometimes batched—we can relate) since New Year’s 2020 as a log of each day’s events and memories, represented by stitching a tiny icon. The practise, not dissimilar to other diary-keeping techniques and cultivating gratitude even for those mundane and tedious periods when it seems nothing noteworthy happens and was tempted to throw in the towel. Streaks are important and motivating to keep up but not for the faith of heart (see also here and here), when each entry requires patience, dexterity and imagination.
catagories: ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ, ๐, ๐งถ
Saturday, 7 December 2024
footnote (12. 065)
Once the preserve of daisy-chains of ideas that built off another, the ability of AI to abstract and summarise the answer to a query in the search engine itself (see also), the loss of linkages threatens to flatten out the architecture of learning and the serendipity when one diverges from the affiliated index and embraces the flowchart, algorithmic (albeit cosmetic and reliant for now on those vast, networked underpinnings until, unless it becomes recursive regurgitation). Collin Jennings invites us to consider Alexander Pope’s mock-epic The Dunciad, considered a broadside of word in print by Marshall McLuhan, which lampoons the agents of the goddess of dullness who champion tastelessness and imbecility through publishing and the press presented over four editions as hypertextual with its appendices and commentary that far exceed the lines of verse in subsequent issues. AI doesn’t google like people google, to investigate, check spelling, check or outsource memories, and I certain am not looking for a tee-shirt version of my last search. The linear nature of the printed page and packaged answers—which great writers have always striven to transcend—was a limitation of the medium and its successors did rise above in the internet, collaborative and full of serendipitous deviations but artificial intelligence becomes an inscrutable blackbox not so much in its magic predictions but moreover when one is shielded from the tapestry of associations that inform its results.
A Lumberhouse of books in ev’ry head,
For ever reading, never to be read.
Next o’er his books his eyes began to roll
In pleasing memory of all he stole.
More from Aeon at the link above.
Monday, 2 December 2024
10x10 (12. 049)
strapline: Cory Doctorow’s review of books for 2024
week-by-week: Tom Whitwell’s gleanings from the past year—see previously—via Kottke
bad precedent: the power of the pardon was never meant to condone crime
the birthday paradox: illustrating the veridicality of coincidence—via Quantum of Sollazzo
a boring roundup: a look at geotechnical investigations and advances in harnessing the Earth’s internal energy
whamhalla: why Germans love and hate Last Christmas—see also
the travelling salesman problem: a new Geotripper challenge to find the optimal route to take to a number of cities and return to the point of origin
press-gang: Moscow authorities raid popular night clubs, seemingly detaining hundreds of men to draft for the war effort
take time—it’s brief: one hundred superlative photos of the past twelve month—via Memo of the Air
anthology: Lit Hub’s poetry recommendations for the year
Thursday, 28 November 2024
9x9 (12. 036)
to john dillinger and hope he is still alive: William S Burroughs’ Thanksgiving Prayer
sampler-sized: iconic electronic music remixes by year
silent poems: a weird and wondrous, non-WYSIWYG word processor from graphic designer Lavinia Petrache—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
blacklisted: Musk publishes names of federal workers he wants to eliminate, a terror-inducing tactic that may force them to resign in lieu of being fired
well, please post the rebuttal—then community notes will take care of the rest: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explains to Elon Musk how EV charging works
sortes vergilianae: a particular form of bibliomancy drawing random passages from The Aeneid (see also here and here) and other works by Roman poet Virgil
anacyclosis: the rise and fall of civilisation and the undermining of democracy
the nine lives of dr mabuse: avant garde pop band Propaganda celebrate the filmology of the chaotic villain—see previously
pay no attention to that man behind the curtain: a political reading of Wicked
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Battle of Versailles (1973—with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth the revisit
seven years ago: Tom Baker returns as Dr Who plus Trump celebrates Native American Heritage Month
eight years ago: emoluments and more
eleven years ago: the debut of MST3K (1998) plus Germany’s Goldfinger tax-model
twelve years ago: :D for Dรผsseldorf
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same (11. 947)
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and ‘em up with worn-out tools…
“If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” recalls those above false councillors are not the ultimate arbiters and no victory or defeat is ever final; the struggle goes on and we have work to do.