master of none or doctor, lawyer, indian chief

The venerable librarian and antiquarian at BibliOdyssey shares her latest exquisite discovery with the Fleet Street publication in the year 1900 of the children’s book on various callings Jack of All Trades, scathingly rhymed and illustrated with clever out-set pictures by JJ Bell and C Robinson. Many of the unique vignettes are cautionary-tales, like this verse for creative minds:

There are two kinds of Artists,
And each has got an aim: The one he paints for pennies,
The other—does the same.

I wonder what these collaborators could say about employment nowadays, for those off the payroll at least, like blogger, internet entrepreneur, day-trader or copyright lawyer.

einschätzung or fine-print

In response to the intersecting frustrations over EU labeling requirements (industry resistance to larger, legible type and the mandate to list ingredients on many products in all the languages of Europe) and the slowness of reform and the slow creep of chemical short-cuts to the business of processed foods (like aromas as understudies for real and natural content and various concoctions which sound more harmless and anodyne in German as opposed to Latinate and sciency English equivalents—i.e., Farbstoß rather than naphthalenesulfonic acid hydroxy disodium salt, otherwise Red Dye Number 40), one German grocery franchise has responded since a few months back by providing customers with magnifying glasses to better scrutinize the contents of what they are buying. While I have never actually seen these installations being utilized, I do applaud the company and think by putting them on every single aisle (and this chain does not exactly have the reputation of providing the most healthful, organic—Bio selection), cues shoppers to be more cognizant of what’s going into their food and in turn what’s going into their bodies.

enthüllen

When we last left our hero, he was holed-up at the Ecuadorian foreign mission in London, protesting extradition to Sweden to face charges, since the Swedes might be pressured to render him to the US for summary judgment.

Still clinging to sanctuary, however, the Wikileaks team has managed to release its latest cache of some two-and-a-half million electronic corres-pondences between Syrian government officials and industrialists and Western ministries. I would not suggest that this enterprise is a motivated plea for leniency from America’s vindictive prosecution and the court of public opinion, since to disentangle the interests and actions of all parties, some probably very embarrassing revelations will come to light—for the American government and business interests too, showing once the consortium of journalists digest the connections and the raw details, that what diplomacy professes is something quite different from what’s hiding behind sanctions, truces and rebellion.

speciments