forth and bargy

Via the always engaging Nag on the Lake, we are treated to an audio sampling of a sadly extinct, very distinct Anglo-Frisian language variant and accent of English that evolved from Middle English in a pocket of County Wexford. Referred to as Yola—meaning Old in the dialect—it was replaced along with other regional vernaculars by standard Irish English that was more or less mutually intelligible (see also) across the isles. Phonologically closer to Dutch and German, Yola had a fuller compliment of pronouns, including reflexive ones and uses –en to form the plural of nouns, retained in oxen and children. Though heavily influenced by Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, it contains many French and Irish borrowings as well.

web of deception

On this day in 1999, Bruce Miller was found murdered in his scrapyard in Flint, Michigan, victim of a conspiracy between his wife Sharee Paulette Kitley Miller (*1971) and her online liaison Jerry Cassaday—who was convinced to carry out the shooting by Sharee for Miller’s money, arguing a divorce could not generate enough alimony since the couple had only been married for a few months. Mortified by his actions, Cassaday, a former police officer who knew forensics and thus how to commit a perfect crime, took his own life afterwards and Sharee was apprehended the following February after finding their chat logs, printed out and left in a briefcase along with Cassaday’s suicide note.

Individuals should know that their actions (even in that then new media) have consequences and have been sentenced accordingly but I wonder in what ways does hindsight temper judgment. What do you think? Sometimes time vilifies and exculpates but never universally and one has to wonder about our own naivety. With headlines like “Murder by Instant Message,” the investigation and trial were recorded as the first internet based homicide.

quodlibet

From the Latin term for whatever one wishes (“what” + “pleases”), as a subgenre of the trompe-l’œil technique of hyper-realistic rendering refers to desk notions painted and arranged as to appear just left lying around and in artistic disarray, we find the aesthetic in its highest form of expression in the works of Antwerp and Copenhagen court painter Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (*1625 – †1675). Though the “deceive the eye” style didn’t receive that particularly categorisation until around 1800 when French artist Louis-Léopold Boilly titled one of his pieces as such—the reverse of a canvas with a cat, a log and a dried fish peering through, an homage possibly to Gijsbrechts’ own strikingly modern and meta creation—artists have been developing a flair for the realistic and forced perspective since Antiquity. Much more to explore with Public Domain Review at the link above.

home box office

We enjoyed this curated gallery featuring the minimal encapsulations of movie poster (see also) executed by graphic designer Chungkong, which served to highlight the not only the commercial blockbusters of shared experience but those certain cinematic shibboleth of obscure choices—both by the creator and collector—that yet resonate nostalgic but are still cult enough to carry distinction. Peruse through an assortment of over twelve hundred filmic properties and artefacts assiduously catalogued and distilled in an instantly recognisable fashion at the artist’s website above.

fortuna favet fortibus

Controversial and polluting Indian energy-extraction concern Adani, which operates the Carmichael Coal Mine in Queensland and has proposed a channel through the Great Barrier Reef for coal export announced in a sort of “under new management” charade that it would be changing its name for Australian operations to Bravus—presuming it was Latin for brave. This false-friend however means rather the opposite, signifying something crooked, with principles for sale like a soldier of fortune or hired assassin and fortis (already taken) seems to be what they were going for. Incidentally the plaudit bravo/brava (huzzah) originally carried that same sense of mercenary, cut-throat boldness before it was reduced to praise for a job well-done.

business as usual

On this day of convention breaking-firsts for US governance—historic departures that were long overdue but nonetheless whose time had arrived—first with Jeanette Rankin in 1916 becoming the first woman elected to federal public office, representing Montana in the House of Congress, then in 1989 with Douglas Wilder and David Dinkins as the first African Americans elected respectively as a state governor (Virginia) and as mayor of a major city (New York), next in 2000 with Hilary Clinton elected senator representing the state of New York—the first former First Lady to have an independent political career, Kamala Devi Harris is announced as the vice president-elect of the United States, highest office held by a female (and daughter of Jamaican and South Asian immigrants as well), deputy to former vice-president and forty-sixth president Joseph Robinette Biden, Junior, unseating the incumbent, impeached Donald John Trump.