living in a ghost town

Via Nag on the Lake, we are treated to the Rolling Stones’ first single released in eight years—the previous one being “Doom and Gloom.” Mick Jagger conceived of this song a year ago—so the band mates did not endanger, notwithstanding Keith Richard’s inherent indestructability, one another recording some of the tracks in studio together, and deciding that it spoke to the ethos of the moment, decided to produce—Jagger and Richards tweaking the lyrics a bit, and put out the single working remotely, with contemporary footage of ghost towns including Los Angeles, London, New York and Toronto.

choreomania

Via Miss Cellania’s Links, we’ve also found ourselves reflecting on whatever possessed Frau Troffea to dance herself to injury and complete exhaustion one summer’s day in Strasbourg after one week of doing so compulsively and without pause, meanwhile enlisting dozens of other townspeople to join in—see previously, and had some idea that it wasn’t the best of times, even for the Holy Roman Empire of the early sixteenth century but failed to appreciate what a bad year Frau Troffea and her compatriots, dancing fools or not, were facing.
Herky-jerky with or without rhythmic accompaniment (musicians were brought in in hopes of soothing them and playing them down into a state of calm), the preeminent medical authority of the day Doctor Paracelsus, though ultimately at a loss for a diagnosis, termed the affliction Saint Vitus’ Dance (martyred by being boiled in oil for not renouncing his faith under the persecutions of Diocletian and not for loosing a dance-off to the megalomaniacal emperor) for the time of year that it struck and for their choreography’s resemblance to how worshippers performed in front of the saint’s relics. The other aspect—aside from the very troubled times—that we had failed to see, dancing fools ourselves, was how that there’s something viral and catching too in the routines that are being promulgated—especially in social isolation, which begs the question whether dancing is an expression of grief, a symptom itself, or somehow attendant to suffering, or perhaps healing.

the candy-stripe of incident tape

We’ve encountered several compilations of tape measures, interventions (see also) to remind people to practise physical distancing in order to lessen the spread of COVID-19 and found this round-up from My Modern Met to be one of the more comprehensive and visually compelling. For as much as we seem accepting and even complicit of the figurative and literal velvet rope for enforcing order and norms, it is truly outstanding how we can turn on a dime and respect those marks laid out for us.

for all intensive purposes

We’ve previously explored the idiosyncratic contextualisation and substitution of a word or phrase to something more familiar or plausible in the speaker’s own experience termed an eggcorn and liked revisiting the concept with more examples, including a growing database of citations.
A whetstone does not lubricate a dull blade but rather gritty and sharpens it and hence the often mistaken idiom “to whet one’s appetite”—one wonders what else might be properly described as such when one understands wet. A penthouse apartment derives from the Anglo-Norman pentiz and ultimately traced to the Latin appendō for something I attach and was originally referring to something akin to an outhouse and through eggcornisation and folk etymology the suite appended to the top of a building was understood to be a compound form of house.

the east is red one

On this day fifty years ago, carried aloft by a Changzheng (long march, CZ-1) rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre of Inner Mongolia, China became the world’s sixth space-faring nation (see previously, the UK launched Ariel 1 with American cooperation) with the Dongfanghong I (东方红一号, meaning the eponymous national anthem during the Cultural Revolution, 1966 - 1976) which the research vehicle broadcast continuously back to Earth (along with telemetry data) on an ultra-shortwave band during its planned twenty-day life span. Though the tune is used by broadcasters as an interval signal, like the pips, and remained popular with the public, it was dropped later in the decade with the ascension and reforms of Deng Xiaping in favour of the original “March of the Volunteers” for its associations with purges, imprisonment and factional strife. In May 2016, an updated version was circulating on the internet “The East is Red Again,” suggesting that Xi Jingping is the political heir of Mao Zedong, whom while the mentions of the songs went down a memory hole, Xi failed to refute the comparison.

stunt-double

Quarantined stuntmen, bruh... pic.twitter.com/nYSOqzAzBs

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) April 22, 2020

Via Cynical-C, we enjoyed this flowing, action packed montage nearly as much as this other collaborative and international bucket brigade, of stunt performers self-isolating, yet keeping their talents exercised.  The earliest practitioners of this discipline were the acrobatic acts of travelling circuses and were known as cascadeurs, trained to fall according to a pre-arranged sequence.

the mitigation of world tension through the exercise of humour

With its act of secession from Key West tolerated as a boost for tourism and the above motto, the Conch Republic declared its independence on this day, St. George’s Day, in 1982. While motivated out of genuine displeasure on the part of residence regarding inconvenience incurred with federal authorities combating the narcotics trade, the movement’s organisers, a “Sovereign State of Mind” have portrayed the micronation as a prevailing attitude and way of life exclusive to the Keys and have subsequently staged and invasion and surrender ceremony with a brokered peace. Though unimpeachably a nice place to live, the Conch Republic’s break-away status has only made its relationship and allegiance to Florida closer.

yngismeyjardagur

According to the old Icelandic calendar’s reckoning, the first Thursday after 18 April marks the first day of the month of Harpa, Sumardagurinn fyrsti, a public holiday—the beginning of the Náttleysi (nightless) time.  Meteorological projections for this season happen to align with folk beliefs that project that summer will be a mild one should there not be a freeze on the night before.