6x6

street legal: these stunning automobile illustration are from a 1930 Soviet children’s book by Vladimir Tabi—via Present /&/ Correct 

conferment ceremony: Finnish PhD students receive a Doctoral Sword and Hat on graduation 

a coney island of the mind: Beat Poet and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti passes away, aged 101 

train à grande vitesse: Roman roads of Gaul presented in the style TGV routes across France, Belgium and Switzerland—see previously  

epilogue: French electronic music duo Daft Punk disband after twenty-eight years  

usps: design proposals for the next generation US mail truck

your daily demon: belial

A Hebrew term synonymous with worthless (and unyoked, in the sense of without a master) that became a personification of wickedness and conflated with Satan or others among the host of fallen angels, this sixty-eighth infernal king, created immediately after Lucifer, rules from today through to the end of February—according to the Ars Goetia and other sources that include Belial on the Calendar of Demons—and has the virtue, office of curry political favour and secure titles for the exorcist, for which demands a high tribute. Opposed by the angel Hanhniah, Belial commands eighty legions of spirits.

unworter des jahres

Far outpacing the usual number of neologisms coined in the German language annually of a couple hundred, the Leibniz Institute for Deutsche Sprache has curated over twelve-hundred new words inspired by COVID-19. In very relatable terminology we have Cornonafrisur (corona hairstyle due to salons being shuttered), Impfneid (vaccine envy), Holistay, Maskenpickel (the equivalent of Masknce), Quarantini, as well as Covidiot and Maskentrottel for a mask simpleton who wears their face covering incorrectly. The actual un-words of the year (see previously) was a toss-up (also the first time more than one was chosen) between Corona-Diktatur and the cynical and euphemistic term Rückführungspatenschaften meaning repatriation sponsorship, an EU policy mechanism that allows member states that refuse to allow in refugees assume responsibility for their deportation and return—something quite counter to what is conveyed with sponsoring another.

♛

Via the always interesting Language Hat, we are referred to a circumspect survey of the names for the six chess pieces in different languages, seventy-eight to be precise. Just a few noteworthy items to compare and contrast, the Rook—usually called a Tower or Fortress in many languages is a ship (Ладья́) in Russian, and while the Queen is usually a royal consort and co-equal, the piece is a vizier or viceroy in Arabic, Hindi, Turkish and Russian. The Bishop can also be interpreted as a messenger or runner—from the Latin for cursor. Metonymically, the King was originally the Persian Shah and when under attack by the opposing side, was said to be in check and during the end-game, checkmate—that is, the king is defeated.

quo vadis?

First screened on this day in 1951, the cinematic adaptation (one of several) of Nobel Laureate author Henryk Sienkiewicz 1896 eponymous novel, the title, Latin for “Where are you going?” is from the non-canonical Acts of Peter—the apocryphal gospel first relating the account that the Apostle requested to be crucified upside-down (see previously)—was produced by Sam Zimbalist and starred Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov and Robert Taylor. Future stars Bud Spencer and Sophia Loren both appear as extras—though uncredited. The film went into general release in theatres on 8 November of the same year. A commercial success and critically acclaimed, the film helped rescue Metro-Goldwyn Mayer from insolvency, Quo Vadis portrays the final years of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the treatment of Christians that eventually disrupts the Empire’s social order.

they ride single-file to hide their numbers

Back in 2013, Star Wars: A New Hope (Sq’Tah Anaa’) was dubbed in Diné, making it among the first major motion picture screened in the language of the Navajo people, though only released shown to a limited audience at the time with its Washington, DC premiere at the Native American Museum and only available in translation by purchasing a speciality DVD edition. Now, however, it is available for streaming for anyone and becomes another in-road (see also) for making the endangered language accessible and revitalised. Especially intriguing is the choice to have C3PO voiced by a woman and the transformative effect that had for the character.

like chalk and cheese

Though attested since the late fourteenth century and surely encountered in every day speech, we were unaware of this delightful idiom, said of things that are superficially alike but very different in substance, like a crumbly, unaged cheese that’s never mistaken as flaking chalk (though some attribute the etymology to an unscrupulous cheesemonger that tried to pass off adulterated product). The Turkish equivalent Dağlar kadar farklı, “As different as the mountains” conveys the same sense. Its extended meaning covers things that don’t pair well.  Learn more at Nag on the Lake at the link up top.

cathedra petri

Gifted to Pope John VIII in 875 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald (Karl der Kahle), the simple wooden stool that tradition claims was the pontifical throne of Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome and encased in a magnificent reliquary by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the mid seventeenth century. The chair—which research suggests only dates to the seventh century—has metal loops, suggesting it was used as a sedia gestatoria (see also)—is venerated on this day with a feast celebrating the relic as a synecdoche (συνεκδοχή, simultaneous understanding) to reflect on the importance of episcopal office, locally and globally.