adelheid von burgund

Venerated on this day, on the occasion of her death in 999 (*931), the feast of Saint Adelaide (Adélaïde, see more on her namesakes) celebrates her involvement with palace intrigues and the complicated power struggle for Lombardy and Burgundy. A strategic first marriage saw Adelaide wed to Lothar II of Italy, producing a daughter, Emma who went on to become queen of Western France. Quite the soap opera to follow, Lothar was poisoned in 950 by rival for the throne Berengar II while visiting Turin.

Widowed Adelaide intended to rule in her murdered husband’s stead and her subjects seemed amenable to that arrangement but Berengar wanted to assert his legitimacy by arranging Adelaide’s marriage morganatic marriage to his son Aldabert. Adelaide wasn’t having this as it would mean forfeiting her territorial-holdings and so fled to Como to seek refuge in her stronghold there. Captured and imprisoned in Garda, a priest helped her escape to Canossa and sought sanctuary with Otto I, King of East Francia. The two eventually married and having secured dominion over a large swath of land with his wife’s contribution and a decisive victory against Hungarian incursions at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, extending his control all the way to the Elbe and thus established the Ottonian dynasty of The Holy and Roman Empire of the Germans, crowned emperor and empress (a significant break with tradition in acknowledgement of Adelaide’s standing and respect) by the pope in 962. After her husband died, Adelaide was regent to two generations of Ottos to follow, and once her grandson was able to rule in his own right, she devoted herself to acts of charity, founding and restoring religious communities. Their daughter Matilda was also a regent and first princess-abbess of Quedlinburg, the convent founded by her grandmother, also called Matilda, in 936. Because of her long, colourful court life, Adelaide is designated, among other things, patron and protector of in-laws, exiles, empresses and step-parents.

missing link

Until seeing this apomorphic cladogram, we had forgotten how in cladistic nomenclature the branch that represents the point of departure for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, plus the Bonobos) from a common ancestor is labelled panini. Our human ape selves as well as our gorilla and orangutan cousins all sound rather like fancy grilled Italian sandwiches.

the quarries

Via Waxy, we are directed to the first and hopefully, mercifully the last—though we’ve still got a long row to hoe—awards presentation, showcasing the best in quarantine culture, those independent productions that stepped in to fill a chasm that big-budget media was ill-equipped to address except as indulging nostalgia. Leaning into the strictures, limitations and loss, a grateful viewership, albeit not quite people’s choice, found their superlatives in such categories as Best Lip-Sync Performance, Best Inner Monologue (that was published), Best Socially Distanced Concert Series, Best Documentary of a Good Marriage, and Best New National Anthem: “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.”

six wedges

On this evening back in 1979, over a game of Scrabble two newspaper editors, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott—unable to locate all their letter tiles, decided to make up their own game, establishing the basic concept for what would become Trivial Pursuit—the board game commercially released in 1981.

zamenhofa tago

Observed on this day—the birthday of the constructed language’s inventor L. L. Zamenhof in Białystok in 1859 (Old Style, 3 December, †1917)—esperantists from around the world celebrate Zamenhof Day by holding information sessions, workshops and conduct other outreach programmes to promote and raise awareness of Esperanto media (see previously) and the cultural imprint of a universal language.

8x8

don’t wait for me beneath the mistletoe: the Allusionettes compose a festive carol for 2020 

ashika: chubby seal pillows  

extravehicular activity: a brilliant infographic of every spacewalk undertaken—from Voskhod 2 onward 

your branches green delight us: a stunning abstract Christmas tree in Tokyo crafted from a thousand corded mizuhiki balls 

solargraph: a forgotten pinhole camera took the longest exposure photograph on record

oină: archiving images of a ubiquitous red ball with white polka dots in Romania’s recent past 

disbarred: US attorney general to step down before Christmas  

boughs of holly: a round-up of seasonal plants beyond the tree and trimmings

bring a pitchfork and a torch

Our thanks to Cory Doctorow for directing our attention to more bardcore musical stylings with this delightful Old English tribute to a safe-for-work Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B with Well-Armed Peasants, including some deserved swipes and disses at the shortcomings of the massively overrated Magna Carta and the necessity of revolt and revolution.  Much more to explore at Pluralistic at the link above, including some choice lyrics.

location scout oder deckname topas

Hearing that someone might be making a weekend of visiting nearby sites where films had been shot sounded like a fun activity and piqued my curiosity as to whether any might be in reach for me. I was surprised to come across this image from 1968 in the Stars and Stripes photographic archive of the filming of the 1969 release of the Cold War spy-thriller Topaz, the cinematic adaptation of Leon Uris’ novelisation of a real defection, the Sapphire Affair, that took place in 1962 directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Here is the same building from last summer from a slightly different angle and perspective.
The story follows a French intelligence agent who becomes entangled in a spy ring and the geopolitical situation on the eve of the Cuba Missile Crisis. A high-ranking Soviet officer reveals that nuclear warheads will be placed in Cuba (mirroring the US installation in Turkey) and he and his family are evacuated to Wiesbaden. Filming also takes place in Copenhagen, Washington, DC, Paris, New York with Havana scenes filmed on a studio lot.