goût grec

We rather enjoyed looking through these fantastical masquerade outfits informed by neoclassical Greek columns and other architectural elements from the imagination of Ennemond Alexandre Petitot—himself the court architect and influencer (railing against this particular style) of the Bourbon Dukes in Parma, printed in 1771, not as sketches for buildings nor actual fancy dress but rather gentle derision on the obsession for “Greek taste” that dominated French fashion and decorative arts with Ionic scrolls, key and fret work and similar patterns—sort of like the tiki aesthetic of its day. Much more to explore at Public Domain Review at the link up top.

peaceful transition of power

Though there’s no strategy to Trump’s fractious and recalcitrant behaviour other than keeping all options on the table for himself and not committing to any one course of action until all are exhausted—except perhaps resigning at 11:00 on Wednesday, 20 January so his viceroy can take office and pre-emptively pardon Trump from federal prosecution (I remember it being suggested that President Obama do something similar to spoil all of Trump’s tacky 45 election merch) and Joe Biden will naturally be a quick study for taking high office, there are nonetheless negative and deadly consequences for postponing the changeover for Biden and Harris. The chaos can potentially derail efforts to redress the pandemic response not (just) through wilful undermining and sabotage but as inauguration day approaches, with the team already behind the curve, there is a time crunch and decision that perhaps need to be weighted and considered more carefully become rushed under pressure and studies that should be taken into account on downstream effects are perhaps not read. It’s impossible to reframe the past on hindsight and whilst there’s not a definitive connection, we only need to look back to the last contested election of 2000 where the delay of declaring the next president could have led gaps in intelligence gathering and security that yielded the 9/11 terror attacks—the character of America changed over one missed report. With pettiness and malice added to the mix, there seems to be catastrophic potential in the deadlines and breach from the regularly scheduled process.

woty: lockdown

Though perhaps some might argue that there was little alternative for defining this dreadful year, Collins Dictionary’s announcement of lockdown as its Word of the Year for 2020 (see previously) by the numbers its astounding to see the uptick in occurrence of the term and what other neologisms and nonce words were contenders: key workers, BLM, social distancing and self-isolation. What would you nominate?

sara josephine baker

Born this day in 1873, the Poughkeepsie, New York native and pioneering physician—while perhaps not a household name—contributed to literacy in hygiene, preventative medicine and the concept of public health with enduring impact matched only by Florence Nightingale. Baker, Doctor Joe as she was universally called, solely and significantly reduced infant mortality through aggressive educational campaigns and cheap and effective early interventions—remarking, not without controversy at the time that “Healthy people don’t die” and dedicated her practise to preventing people from falling ill. Not to overshadow the countless anonymous lives she saved and sent off with better future prospects, Baker also tracked down and remanded to isolation Mary Mallon—twice, and helped her colleagues accept that there could be such a condition as an asymptomatic carrier. Also petitioning fervently for the franchise, Baker was a feminist who spent a quarter of a century with her partner, Australian author Ida (“I.A.R”) Wylie, whom had more than thirty of her novels and stories adapted cinematically from the 1920s through the early 1950s (Keeper of the Flame, Four Sons, The Red Mirage). On retirement, the couple bought a ranch in New Jersey with their friend pathologist Louise Pearce, who developed a therapy to render sleeping sickness less fatal, saving millions in central and southern Africa. Read more at the WOW Report at the link up top.

in cold blood

First appearing as a four-part serial in The New Yorker first in its September 1965 issue, the gruesome quadruple murders of a farm family, the Clutters of Holcomb in the state of Kansas, on which Truman Capote’s sensationally popular and genre defining true-crime novel, occurred on this day in 1959, when two recently paroled ex-convicts from the penitentiary travelled across the state to the small farmstead on a jailhouse tip that the head of the household kept a vault of cash on the premises to pay the day labourers they employed (some being drifters finding their footing after being released from prison). Capote compiled press coverage and conducted many interviews of the investigators, members of the community and court (his friend and Kansas native, author Harper Lee helped research and ingratiate Capote) and prompted national discussion on mental health, incarceration and the death penalty, seen as a challenge to traditional thinking on the nature of the premeditated and criminal culpability referred to as the M’Naghten rules, a series of protocols—instructions to the jury dated to 1840s Britain formulated in react to the acquittal of an individual due to insanity over. M’Naghten had in fact killed a man but was only motivated to do so under the delusion that his victim was the Prime Minister and once disabused of his misconception was quite paralysed with guilt for having taken an innocent life.

8x8

ginger-reveal party: photographer Kieran Dodds has spent years capturing images from red heads all over the world  

nacelle: a handy camper turned a surplus jet engine into a deluxe caravan trailer 

thursday afternoon: the video paintings of Brian Eno—see previously 

lawn and order: perhaps Spain ought to get out of the art restoration business and other items of note from Hyperallergic’s weekly digest 

we’ll let the supreme courtyard marriot decide the outcome of the vote: apropos the entry above, more roundups and rundowns from the week from Super Punch  

julia’s name is going to be julia gulia: a team of volunteer correspondents answer missives left to Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers  

matita: a treasury of vintage Italian pencils 

macroscopic: a pairing of recent posts from the always excellent Nag on the Lake celebrate capturing images of the tiny at extremely close range

all this trouble over a fat little man in a red suit

As our faithful chronicler informs, the sci-fi comedy (self-descriped as “yuletide science fiction fantasy” and hoped to find a niche for a perceived market gap) by Nicholas Webster and Paul L. Jacobson, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians—universally panned though significantly debuting the figure of Mrs Claus a full three weeks before appearing on the Rankin and Bass (previously) television special Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, premiered in cinemas on this day in 1964. It was to receive the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 treatment on 21 December 1991—shortly after MST3K was syndicated by the Comedy Central cable network and thus solidifying its enduring popularity aside from making the movie a cult classic. A young Pia Zadora has her film debut as Girmar—the Martian Girl.

palæomixology

The ever adventurous team of explorers at Atlas Obscura bring us the story of a university palæontologist celebrating his first published paper—on archaeopteryx feathers—was taken to commemorate his accomplishment with a signature cocktail for the occasion, sharing the recipe and toasting remotely with his friends and colleagues over a video conference call. Afterwards the hobby bartender was inspired to create more drinks honouring other prehistoric icons including Lucy and a ginkgo mimosa. What other dinosaur and dinosaur-adjacent cocktails might you mix up? Much more to discover at the link up top. Here’s a slightly modified version of the namesake drink of the Urvorgel (see previously) with appropriately German ingredients.

• Two full shot-glasses (a shooter glass—three ounces) worth of black-berry or black currant (Schwarze Johannisbeere) soda or syrup 
• One shot Jägermeister 
• One shot lime juice 
• One shot of Stone Fruit (Pfirsich oder ähnliches) syrup 
• One dash of activated charcoal plus 3 dashes of bitters 

Mix all the ingredients in a couple (a broader, shallow stemmed flute) glass, saving the charcoal for last and garnish with a black feather—the colour of the plumage (the cocktail by the same name is however brandy, Cointreau, vermouth plus bitters) being one of the conclusions drawn from the paper.