de strijd tussen vasten en vastenavond

For this Marti Gras, we are given an object lesson on the cusp of the shifting seasons in the form of the composition called The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (see previously) painted in 1559. The ceremonies, one raucous and the other serene and reserved, also signalled the shift in cuisine and palette from a time of abundance to privation reinforced by social conventions and Christian iconography, and although we may not be privy to a coherent and linear narrative, there’s much allegory to be found in the details.
Tuesday’s procession is led by a fat man astride a huge beer barrel with a pork chop hood ornament whereas Ash Wednesday’s float, piloted by the Lenten Lady, is laden with mussels, waffles and pretzels, dietary staples of the Netherlands and the time until Easter—underscoring how Lutheranism did away with fasting but still permitted its annual lead-up. Learn more about the details and symbolism from My Modern Met at the link above.

on the cult of personality and its consequences

Though leaked contemporaneously by Mossad and intermediaries to the press, Nikita Khrushchev’s so called “secret speech” («О культе личности и его последствиях») that was critical of deifying the past and of Joseph Stalin’s brutal purges in the name of promoting communist ideals delivered on this day in 1956 to a closed session during the twentieth party congress of the Soviet Union, transcripts of the text were not officially released until 1989 under the auspices of Mikhail Gorbachev’s campaign of glasnost.

The denunciation marked a shocking departure from the unified and coherent propaganda of the day and while notably removing the body of Stalin from public view and interring it in the Kremlin necropolis signified an internal shift (pivotal without qualifications—though his reforms and liberalisation had well-defined limits—the speech a catalyst for uprisings in Hungary and Poland, the author also summarily suppressed them), the aftermath of this revelation accrued greater and more immediate external changes with membership dropping precipitously in the Communist Party in the US and UK over Stalin’s violence and the political, ideological schism between the USSR and China, who condemned Khrushchev as a revisionist and self-serving.

abschaffung von preußen

Though effectively absorbed into the unitary government of Nazi party with the Preußenschlag of Chancellor Franz von Papen that took over the free state under an emergency decree in April 1932, the corridor that linked Germany to Russia along the Baltic, the Prussian State, was formally abolished on this day in 1947 under Law № 46 of the Allied Control Council.
Assessing the region and former Hohenzollern kingdom—ultimately the conquests of the Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus der Heiligen Maria in Jerusalem, that is, the Teutonic Knights, an organized para-military wing of German crusaders—as representative of expansionism and militarism and with the aim of promoting democratic self-determination and peace for a devolved Germany, the Prussian administration and agencies were dissolved and territories not already forfeit were apportioned to respective Länder, Brandenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, the Kaliningrad Oblast, Klaipėda and the Polish Western Territories. Signatories of the Four Powers were General Marie-Pierre François Kœnig, Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, General Lucius D. Clay and General Brian Hubert Robertson.

i’m awfully fond of you

Voice by Jim Henson as an ode to the Muppet character Ernie’s bathtub toy, Rubber Duckie’s first performance aired on this day in 1970 on an episode of Sesame Street. An unexpected hit, it inspired homages, cover-versions and was even nominated for a Grammy.
The latex toy itself—which the number greatly popularised—was conceived by Georgian-American sculptor Peter Ganine (*1900 – †1974) whom otherwise worked with ceramics and produced rather avant-garde chess pieces, including those used on set in Star Trek’s tri-dimensional version of the game—there’s a franchise cross-over. Musical contributors Jeff Moss and Joe Raposo also collaborated to produce the Sesame Street and the Electric Company theme songs as well as [It’s not Easy] “Being Green” and “C is for Cookie.”

circus maximus

Two podcasters of note, John Hodgman and Elliot Kalan, are hosting an absolutely delightful mini-series revisiting the 1976 prestige television adaptation of the Robert Graves work of historical fiction I, Claudius.
Though harshly panned by critics on its first airing, it enjoyed cult-status and a dedicated viewership both in the UK and in America where it was syndicated by the Public Broadcasting System in 1978 and features an extraordinary cast of actors including Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Siân Phillips (the Bene Gesserit reverend mother of Dune and voice actor for all the Disney princesses for their UK releases) as Livia, John Hurt, Sir Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies, Brian Blessed, Patsy Byrne (Nursie in Blackadder) and Patricia Quinn, the Lady Stephens (Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show)—just to name a few. Watch along as they recap each chapter with special guests, beginning with the pilot A Touch of Murder/Family Affairs—an extended episode counted as one.

the battle of los angeles

Though swiftly discounted as a false alarm in the wake of real raids, the response of civil defence authorities on this day in 1942, less than three months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan and a day after a mostly failed bombardment of a oil refinery in Santa Barbara, highlighted the course of panic and pandemonium that took hold of a besieged public.
Subsequent investigations concluded a stray weather balloon drew the crossfire and mounting peer pressure caused all the anti-aircraft barrages in the area to direct all their ammunition towards the skies as a means to at least partially alleviate some of the stress and fear that they were experiencing. Prior to the event, air-raid sirens blared constantly and blackouts and radio silence were enforced by zealous mobs. A contingent of soldiers were stationed on the Disney studios lot to protect surrounding Hollywood from attack and turned sentiment towards suspicion that eventually manifested with the detention of thousands of Japanese-Americans.

urban oases

Via Present /&/ Correct, we really enjoyed the calming and inviting symmetries from on high from photographer Hoi Kin Fung with this aerial study of the now sadly endangered fountains and common areas of public housing estates in Hong Kong. The Housing Authorities’ policy dates back to a devastating fire in 1954 that consumed thousands of makeshift buildings leaving many homeless and prompting the government to intervene. Many of the apartment towers were constructed at that time with prefabricated designs referred to as Old Slab/New Slab, Cruciform and Ziggurat.

terminalia or forty-eight hours later

Having inherited some of the peculiarities of our civil calendar from the Ancient Romans, tomorrow, 24 February rather than 29 February marks the intercalary day of a leap year, this day proclaimed by Numa Pompililus, legendary king of Rome following Romulus, as New Year’s Eve and the occasion to demarcate borders and survey boundaries to ensure that one’s neighbours were not encroaching on one’s property.
Every two or three years, depending on astrological observation with an approximately week long month called Mercedonius, work month or mensis intercalaris, or according to political will as it was also a time to harrow out one government (24 February—Regifugium) for the next and the addition of holidays was one method to extend one’s time in office. Holding these days to be outside of ordinary time, rather instead made 24 February ante diem sextum kalendas martii—that is, not one’s honour bound term limit but, counting backwards as was the fashion from 1 March (kalends), the sixth day before the first of March. As if it weren’t already convoluted enough, when the calendar needed to be synchronised with the seasons, the Romans didn’t invoke an extra day but rather extended the 24th to a single day forty-eight hours in length, giving us the term ‘bisextile year’ (the-sixth-day-before-the-beginning-of-the-new-month-times-two) a term synonymous with a leap year, the doubled-up day eventually (despite the Romans’ opposition to odd numbers—see above) being split into two.