alasitas (12. 178)

Derived from the Aymara word “buy from me” and evolving from an annual event pre-dating European contact that involved communal prayer for good crops and an exchange of staple goods, evolving over time to accommodate missionary teaching and colonisers’ sense of acquisition, the month-long fair in La Paz—and other Bolivian communities—honouring Ekeko (Iqiqu), the indigenous god of abundance, begins today at noon. Similar to the paper votive offering given and received for Lunar New Year’s celebrations, people purchase miniature plaster representations of luxury items that they hope to get in the coming year from artisans and have them blessed by shamans and local priests.

nye (12. 129)

 

Happy New Year from us to you!   Thanks for visiting and wishing you an auspicious 2025!

effervescence (12. 128)

Having previously explored the physics of tiny bubbles, we enjoyed this deep dive that brings together the study of flutes and coupes, the fermentation process and the celebrated through probably apocryphal declaration by Dom Pierre Pérignon that he was tasting the stars, which nonetheless has its place above earthly bounds insofar that the science behind it fizzy drinks also has applications in aerosols, cloud formation and carbon-sequestration on our planet and beyond. The article circles back to the glass and the toast with suggestions to optimise effervescence and all the factors, virtual sytnhesis of synaesthesia, that effect the palette. More BBC features correspondent Nicola Jones at the link above.

7x7 (12. 074)

watermark: a year in illustrations from Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic  

大年三十: due to a quirk in the lunisolar calendar, Chinese New Year’s Eve will disappear for the next five years 

<div>: web designer demonstrates the virtuosity of cascading style sheets—via Boing Boing

you have died of dysentery: a cinematic adaptation of the Oregon Trail computer game—via Kottke  

liquidation: a bankruptcy judge voids the Onion’s purchase of Infowars, arguing there was money left on the table  

dalgona challenge: McDonald’s Australia introduces a Squid Game Happy Meal  

special perils policy: the brilliant, dynamic typography of the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: another MST3K classic (with synchronoptica), DJ Riko’s X-Mas mix, Messiah of Evil (1974) plus a cosmetic automat

seven years ago: the French Revolutionary calendar, curvature blindness plus linguistic eggcorns

eight years ago: IKEA retail therapy, emoluments and self-dealing plus the legacy of Bauhaus design

nine years ago: LEGO Inferno plus assorted links to revisit

eleven years ago: It’s A Wonderful Life

shelly’s leg (11. 690)

For Bastille Day 1970, Seattle’s gastronomical scene arranged a dinner party and parade to showcase their establishments, and a freak accident involving an antique cannon loaded with confetti, which during the route had dipped from its skyward trajectory and fired into the crowd resulted in the establishment of the city’s first disco—we learn via the New Shelton wet/dry an all inclusive space—yielding a triumph, fabulous but short-lived and returning to tragedy, from this mishap.

Among the spectators was one Shelly Bauman, whom at close range sustained life-threatening injuries from the festive munitions and the eponymous (in the tradition of taverns of olde) leg had to be amputated. Confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, Bauman sued the municipality and event-planners for a settlement of several hundred thousand dollars and eventually used this as seed money to purchase a former hotel and turn it into a rather fabulous club scene and outreach centre, no expense spared and unapologetically gay, running from 1973 to 1977. Read more at the links above. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Talking Heads’ second album (with synchronoptica), molecule of the month, social summaries plus misquoting Marie Antoinette

seven years ago: Trump in Paris, personality quizzes plus the composite photographs of Fong Qi Wei

eight years ago: but let us return to our sheep at hand

nine years ago: wiping out the buffalo, assorted links to revisit plus the Greek economic crisis

eleven years ago: making banking scary again plus a visit to Bad Homburg

and surely ye’ll be your pint-cup and surely i’ll be mine (11. 238)

In light of recent toasting and cheering and an earlier post on translation of popular lyrics, we enjoyed learning about the Japanese verses inserted into the Robert Burns’ poem made into a New Year’s tradition. Initially used for a completely separate purpose, Hotaru no Hikari (The Glow of a Firefly, 蛍の光) set to the tune of the Scottish folk song was used for school matriculations and graduations and played also as outro music at shops and restaurants to signal closing time for customers, a few lines from this other composition in Japanese are added to Auld Lange Syne to ring in the New Year. Much more at Language Log at the link above including various performances of the different versions.

défi de janvier (11. 223)

Introduced with various levels of societal and political traction since about a decade in the US and the UK, the abstinence campaign Dry January (translated as January Challenge) is not being endorsed by the government of France, contrary to the urging of addiction experts who want more to be done to address the risks of alcohol, as out-of-step with French culture and traditions. What do you think? A keen imbiber himself, the president is seen as a strong advocate of the wine industry and that a meal without it was “a bit sad,” and at the same time overall consumption has been seen to drop rather precipitously.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: 2022 in review, recycling calendars, the union of soviet republics, Swedish words of the year, more General Knowledge quizzes plus more year-end lists

two years ago: more calendar recycling plus an AI suggests New Year’s resolutions

three years ago: assorted links to revisit, more calendrical correspondence plus Ra-Ra-Rasputin

four years ago: more words of the year from Sweden,  more links to enjoy plus novelty New Year’s eyewear

five years ago: intercalary days, In the Land of the Silver Birch, 2018 in review plus Starcrash

you’re going the wrong way—dammit—the bow’s underwater (11. 183)

As our faithful chronicler informs, the Irwin Allen disaster drama based on the eponymous novel by Paul Gallico from three years prior and capitalising on a spate of star-studded survival misadventures of the decade, like Airport and The Towering Inferno, had its debut in the US on this day in 1972. The acclaimed and high-grossing film featuring the talents of Shelley Winters, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall and Gene Hackman follows the passengers and crew of the SS Poseidon on its final voyage during New Year’s from New York City to Athens, where it will be decommissioned and scrapped. An undersea quake in the Aegean triggers a tsunami and the ship is capsized and turned upside down. Scored by conductor John Williams, the performance “The Morning After” (garnering an Oscar for best original song) became a hit single, prompting an album of the soundtrack to be released.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a modernist sanctuary plus more advances in fusion technology

two years ago: assorted links to revisit, the satellite Uhuru, the Human League plus Tilda Swinton as libraries

three years ago: your daily demon: Caim, vaccines and alcohol don’t mix, more Breton saints plus a daytrip to Bedheim

four years ago: Authority is a Necessary Evil, more words of the year, the Heritage Trust and Stonehenge, another UK General Election plus the etymology of Antwerp

five years ago: Persons of the Year, Beyoncé as HTTP codes, an auto graveyard plus a computerised sneaker

9x9 (11. 110)

tragedy of the commons: Tokelau’s country-code top level domain (see also) turned the tiny Pacific island into a virtual den of thievery—via Web Curios  

hanna-barbera educational division: a bizarre 1979 film-strip about getting home safe for latch-key kids featuring some ranger danger 

itinerant filmmaker: travelling from town to town, The Kidnappers Foil was a four-decade vanity project for local talent, produced hundreds of times over  

suspense accents: add the sound of drama to your day—via Things Magazine  

mixtape 2023: Cardhouse’s annual audio/visual revue

björn of the dead: Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson to play a starring role in an apocalyptic ABBA-tribute band horror movie—via Good Internet  

so red the nose, or, breath in the afternoon: an Oakland, California speakeasy bringing back drinks from 1930s—including Ernest Hemingway’s favoured Champagne cocktail  

merrie melodies: a snippet of the score for the cancelled Coyote v Acme—see more about the shelved project 

legal autopilot: a neural network negotiated and finalised a contract—an NDA—without human intervention

dschungelweg (11. 042)

Deciding to try again to find the route we were searching for yesterday but from a better trodden starting point and walked through the vineyards on another educational trail (Lehrpfad) that this time had information about the different varieties of grapes grown and harvested here with more views of Escherndorf, Nordheim and the Main valley, passing the Vogelsberg and the orchards on the other side of the Weinberg. 

We entered an ancient old-growth stretch of woods hugging the bank of the river, untouched except for a very narrow footpath through the forest. Passing Fahr and back up to the top of the ridge through a second nature path for some more views of the valleys and vineyards before returning to the campground. 

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago:  absinthe banned in Switzerland, the Feast of Sergius and Bacchus plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a cool ghoul and your ghost host, the Cyrus Charter, a bird wife plus a catalogue of invasive toys

 

three years ago: most senior US government officials in quarantine,  a typing tutor, a birdhouse apartment plus more historic maps

 

four years ago: a minimum wage machine

 

five years ago: more links to check out, East Germany’s Tag der Republik, a visit to an automotive and aviation museum plus himpathy and related neologisms

mainschleife (11. 040)

Driving around a bit for provision, we stopped at a rather uniquely outfitted supermarket on the outskirts of Volkach. Whilst this chain’s affiliates are family-run and there’s a degree of individual decor—like the franchise at home that has a rather offensive figurine of a banana boat loader standing proud over the produce section dating from a time when this kind of caricature was more tolerated—but this style of decoration was decidedly strange, like it inherited the stock of a Bed, Bath & Beyond with throw pillows piled high at every aisle and fixed to the walls and a bank of music boxes that one could attach I guess to one’s trolley and randomly placed oversized plush llamas. 

Along the way we visited the well-conserved village of Prichsenstadt, a walled settlement virtually unchanged since the fourteenth century, earning the Altstadt the moniker “the Rothenburg of Lower Franconia.” Local lore tells of a legend of a figure marauding in the woods called the He He, basically a headless horseman (see also) that sometimes took the form of a monstrous black dog.  

Returning to Escherndorf after finding our route for a hike fenced in by a flock of grazing sheep at the other ferry crossing the Main at Fahr, we stopped at a Winzer to get a case of local Silvaner we had sampled the night before. The purveyor manning the shop seemed to have sampled a bit too much also as when completing the transaction, dropped his eyeglasses and trying to retrieve them, slipped off his chair and faceplanted into the floor. Gotten his lumps from the local varietal called Lump, the man was uninjured but a bit embarrassed and terribly apologetic but it was an understandable occupational hazard, H later recognised him for the He He with detachable head.

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago: more research in the paranormal plus a 1975 McDonaldland mascot specification manual

two years ago: more streamlined designs,  a unique underpass plus a beloved Soviet cartoon character

 

three years ago: Trump emerges recovered from COVID, fascist nihilism, assorted links to revisit plus the first exoplanet confirmed (1995)

four years ago: German-American Day

 

five years ago: more fascist nihilism plus Carter debates Ford (1976)

days of wine and quinces (11. 039)

From the campground in Escherndorf, we took the dog on an extended hike up through the vineyards to the Vogelsberg perched atop the Weinberg. A thirteenth century monastery built on the foundations of a much older Celtic fortification (Burgstall), it was deconsecrated in favour of the neighbouring Carthusian chapterhouse in Astheim but has since been restored as an active religious community under the bishopric of Würzburg—which also assumed the wine production and includes a restaurant and guesthouse. 

After pausing for some lunch there, we continued down the other side of the hill along a path leading through a restorative nature project that alternated between rewilding and low maintenance orchards of cultivated through native and naturally occurring Quitten (quinces) of all sorts and information tables between groves about their history, culinary and medicinal significance. Tasting like a mix between an apple and a pear, the ancient, hardy fruit was rediscovered during post war rationing as a source of sugar and older recipes brought back in service for jellies, gin, wine, soap and a paste referred to as cheese. Sacred to Aphrodite , the signs also touched on the mythological references to quinces as binding symbols of oaths and probably the Golden Apple of Discord. In the evening we tried a pizza from a restaurant a ferry ride away made with the local produce of rosemary, honey, walnuts and not Quitten but rather pears on mozzarella that was a really superb flavour combination. 

 

synchronoptica

 

one year ago: the tarot of Austin Osman Spare, the world’s mass transit systems plus Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1996)

two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Tubular Bells

 

three years ago: Civilisation comes to American audiences, Athens’ underground, the blessed Rosario Longo, a glass model of the coronavirus, IKEA’s back catalogue plus apologies in good standing

four years ago: late Thursdays in Germany, more links to check out plus more poetic graffiti

 

five years ago: an outstanding collection of vintage travel posters, legislating Scotland on maps plus more memorable fonts

7x7 (10. 940)

glas musterbuch: an unending catalogue of antique glassware 

bob hope presents the chrysler theatre: a star-studded television anthology airing from 1964 to 1967  

ziff-davis: more on CNET’s culling, content-pruning internal memo  

numa numa: Gary Brolsma recreates the viral dance video to the O-Zone song nineteen years later—via Waxy 

if you’re not paying, then you are the product: Zoom’s new terms of service agreement grants it perpetual rights over the contents of your meeting in exchange for turning it into an email with AI  

take two: slant board setting that allowed actors to rest in between shooting without getting out of costume

ti 5100: before the iPhone, calculators were regarded as aspiration personal electronics—see also

but my friends, they’re waiting in the lobby (10. 425)

Though no one can say quite sure why Dinner for One (previously), an eighteen minute British sketch from Lauri Wylie and starring comedians May Warden and Freddie Fronton recorded in 1962, has been made a Jahreswechsel broadcast and standard New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day television—perhaps owing to one of penultimate lines delivered by manservant James (posing as one of the no-show guests Mister Pommeroy) wishes Miss Sophie a Happy New Year, since New Year’s Eve 1972, it has been continuously aired, first by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk based in Hamburg, since attaining cult status with even Netflix producing a short remake of this obscure tradition with characters from their most popular series and a German film consortium planning a prequel mini-series—possibly a murder-mystery —for the end of 2023.

mcmlxxxix (10. 420)

By dint of the limited permutations of the Gregorian, civil calendar, we discover that we can helpfully recycle (see previously) our calendars from 2017 or 1989 for the upcoming 2023. Not to be dismissive of the events bookended six years ago, the political turning points of the latter with the fall of the Berlin Wall, Perestroika, the Velvet Revolution, the uprisings in Romania and China, as well as the gradual dismantling of the apartheid government in South Africa, the return of democratic norms to Brazil and Poland and the first internet service providers seem to bode as auspicious points of correspondence. Having lived through it, may we may live in exciting times. 

yulehole (10. 367)

Via Language Hat, we are referred to a love letter to obscure and superannuated words—like the above that refers to the slacker notch in one’s belt that might be necessitated by the attendant feasting that goes along with the Festive Season—from Guardian contributor and logophile Paul Anthony Jones who offers a selection of Christmas-related terms like boun—that is, to dress with evergreen boughs, the snowballing effect of rolling across a field to accrue size is a hogamadog (also the name of a nascent snail shell that matures into something substantial), bull week, the period preceding the holiday and a time to sort out the rest of one’s business and particularly the Tudor-era term for a hangover, a barleyhood.

8x8 (10. 220)

punto di ebollizione: pasta maker introduces ‘passive cooker’ meters 

capricorn one: a thoroughgoing review of a 1977 film about a faked Mars landing  

a shropshire lass: four decades of mushrooming in England and Wales  

friluftsliv: the term for the Danish tradition of unwinding in the wilds popularised by playwright Henrik Ibsen  

perfect for roquefort cheese: all about blue cheeses—see also  

yes sirah: origins and production of wine grape varietals around the globe—via tmn  

wormsign: building a functional Fremen thumper 

hasta la pasta: the Italian influence in Argentinian cuisine

la fin de la fée verte (10. 201)

The production or sale prohibited until the first of March of 2005, as a result of a referendum that took place in 1908, absinthe containing thujone, wormwood was banned in Switzerland on this day in 1910, prompted by a rather sensational murder that made headlines all over Europe and informed and heightened a moral panic associated with the drink. A heavy alcoholic named Jean Lanfray, a labourer who worked at a vineyard in the canton of Vaud, murdered his family in a drunken rage. Though Lanfray drank up to five litres of wine daily and as a lunch time refreshment on the day of the violent killings partook of seven glasses of wine, six cognacs, a brandy coffee, two crème de menthes, then two shots of absinthe as a digestif after a sandwich, vintners were hoping to shift the blame squarely on the latter.

she keeps her moët & chandon in a pretty cabinet (10. 035)

Though unclear if the attribution is entirely accurate as sparking did not become the dominant style of the wine region until the nineteenth century, this day in 1693 is the traditional date ascribed to the invention of Champagne by Benedictine monk and cellarer Dom Pierre Pérignon at the Abbey of Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers and our abbot can certainly be credited with innovating the techniques and practises of in bottle fermentation, which beforehand was an acute occupational hazard since if wine was bottled prematurely, they would become literal time-bombs liable to explosion due to an excess of carbon dioxide. Pérignon further championed purity in wine-making and prescribed a set of protocols for harvesting and crushing grapes. The popular quote of Pérignon’s first impression of drinking his Champagne— « Venez mes frères, je bois des étoiles » (“Come quickly my brothers, I am tasting the stars!”)—is also unfortunately a fin de siècle marketing myth meant to distance the drink’s associations with decadence and tie it to the diligence of a hard working monk.

good wine needs no bush

A shared image of a Japanese supermarket’s libations section seems at first to illicit a mangled, machined translation or poor command of English whereas this example is no case of Engrish to be  ridiculed but rather a pretty apt quotation from William Shakespeare in, recursively, the epilogue to As you Like It. With the term bush denoting the sprigs of a grapevine that symbolised a vintner’s shingle, the phrase meant that quality speaks for itself and does not need to be advertised—with the reference all but lost to English-speakers: delivered by Rosalind, “If it be true, that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true, that a good play needes no Epilogue.” The French equivalent, still in common-parlance, is à bon vin point d’enseigne or the German—not beating around the bush—gute Ware lobt sich selbst.