a financially unstable mess but at the liquor store they call me ma’am

Matt “the Mincing Mockingbird” Adrian paints an expressive range of avian friends with a certain deftness juxtaposed with humorous titles and captions that contrasts the beauty of Nature with the humdrum complaints of human existence. Visit the artist’s website and have look through his expansive portfolio and see if you can tag yourself.

śmigus-dyngus

The second day of Bright Week—the Octave of Easter, is a public holiday in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia as an extension of Eastertide and events sometimes traditionally include egg races and other activities to use up, put away the festoonery—a pretty practical idea, which in parts of central Europe, including parts of Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine they had down to a science, once at least though the practise seems to be less and less common.
Called in Polish above and Oblévačka in Czech, “Wet Monday” (or simply Dyngus Day by diaspora) was chance for adolescents to throw water on each other and flirtatiously beat each other with willow branches that made up traditional egg trees and decorative boughs. With suspected roots in pagan fertility ceremonies and the welcoming of spring countered by Christian missionaries trying impose their religion on the natives, linguists conjecture that śmigus refers to baptism—an involuntary or unwanted one at that, going all the way back to the conversion of Mieszko I, the Duke of the Poles in 966 (coincidentally also on this day)—and Dingnis—from the old German for ransom—refers to the tribute that one can pay in leftover eggs to avoid getting doused or whipped.

les animaux tels qu’ ils sont

Via Present /&/ Correct, this lovely antique volume by M. et Mme Lambry of Paris teaches one how to sketch all our animal friends working up from basic geometric forms, bunnies included. Be sure to check out both sites linked above for a wealth of graphic design resources.

pachyderm

The incredibly prolific design duo of Ray and Charles Eames (see previously here and here) had great affection for elephants and prototyped a moulded plywood multipurpose piece of furniture for children in 1945—which never went into production until 2007. Our friends over at Pasa Bon! (don’t be intimidated by the language difference) give a bit more background and history on the design and present several scalable tutorials to create one yourself out of paper or sturdier media as a fun and engaging project for any one.

roman missal

Though not feted right now due to the ranking of liturgical days according to the Roman Rite, outside of Eastertide which of course takes precedence, the pontificate of sainted Julius I (†352) is celebrated on this day.
While Julius’ theological accomplishments in establishing heterodoxy among articles of faith (see also) regarding the tripartite nature of God carry more weight in terms of Church structure and governance, his most enduring decision took place in 350 when he decreed that that the birth of Jesus should be observed on 25 December—there having been no set date beforehand. Though the most obvious rationale for the choice is probably the correct one—a concession to already established Roman holidays celebrating the solstice and Sol Invictus, there is another explanation rooted in the belief that saints and other noble figures didn’t suffer to survive for only fractions of a year (see also), that their lives would be bookended by nice whole numbers, and hence God pre-ordained these leaders to expire on the anniversary of their conception, the Feast of Passover (Pesach) coming nine months after Christmas.

garysaurus

His massively popular and curatorially acclaimed colossal sculptures having already attracted quite a following as they were paraded, fully assembled in cross-country processions and on display in-situ became the backdrop of the 1986 sci-fi comedy Howard the Duck, Jim Gary (*1939 – †2006) was the only artist invited to present a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, opening on this day in 1990, and featuring dozens of Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, stegosaurs, triceratops, tyrannosaurs, pterodactyls fashioned out of salvaged automobile parts and brightly lacquered in car paint.
When not touring, the dinosaurs resided in Gary’s garden or were on loan to his favourite cafes and restaurants (hence the appellation for one installation, the dinersaur), sort of like those art cow statues (called CowParade and conceived by Swiss artist Pascal Knapp) of its day. The term above was an encomium to Gary in an obituary by biographer and reporter for The Guardian Andrew Roth, coining the neologism to describe his creations.

pv3

After just over two years of rigorous and closely monitored field trials and coincidentally on what was the tenth anniversary of the death of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (see previously) whose progressive and ultimately fatal paralytic illness was believed to be caused by an onset of a childhood case of the disease, the polio vaccine that Doctor Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh was declared safe and effective on this day in 1955 and approved for general use against strains the debilitating virus. Although transmission does still occur in parts of the developing world, the incidence of contagion has been interrupted, decimated by mass-intervention—numbers in the United States alone saw a precipitous drop, falling from thirty-five thousand cases in 1953 to fifty-six hundred in 1957 and less than two hundred four years later.

llamas

Observed on this day, the birthday of the composer of the original song lyrics and melody based off a traditional Latin American tune doo-wop artist Richard Berry, Jr (*1935 – †1997)—the Louie Louie Advocacy and Music Appreciation Society has been sponsoring and promoting the international celebration of his most famous, enduring and reprised piece since 2007.
Although the 1963 version recorded by the Kingsmen is the standard and propelled the number’s popularity (below but find your favourite version in the original or among the hundreds out there), there are countless worthy covers, tributes and homages throughout the decades, including Paul Revere and the Raiders, Otis Redding, the Kinks, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison, Jan & Dean, Motörhead, Led Zepplin, Blondie, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, the Grateful Dead, Tommy Petty, Tina Turner, John Lennon, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Robert Plant and the Dave Matthews’ Band—just to name a select few.