fifty-first state

While we’ve been following the ongoing statehood movement and debates for Washington, D.C. (christened on this day in 1791) for sometime now, it didn’t occur to us that the federal district under jurisdiction of the US Congress (no presence in the Senate despite having a population larger than Vermont and Wyoming) would need to be given a new name. For most of the campaign’s history it was assumed that the newly minted state would be called “New Columbia.” The latest admission act sponsored by the US House of Representatives in recent months, however, refers to the proposed polity as the “State of Washington, D.C.”—with the approval of the city council the abbreviation standing for Douglass Commonweath, in honour of the American orator, author, statesman and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

functional discourse

We quite enjoyed this latest edition of Merriam-Webster’s Word Matters podcast with veteran podcaster (going on fifteen years, from back when I had a couple of Ricky Gervais episodes included on the MP3 playlist on my TomTom GPS navigator) Mignon Fogarty (also known as Grammar Girl) and the panel discussion on an approach that’s neither pedantic, precious nor prescriptive about language but rather focused on inclusivity and clarity as language is not about cultural, class signalling or shibboleths but rather getting one’s message across with minimal distraction for the recipient. That said, we particularly liked learning that one only throws down the gauntlet (a piece of armour meant to protect the wrists and hands) to issue a challenge to a duel whereas one runs the gantlet (from the Swedish gatlopp for a street run) as a form of hazing.

why is there even a blue pill?

Via Super Punch, we are treated to this sincerely, unintentionally unfortunate juxtaposition with this teaser landing spot for the upcoming Matrix sequel, in which actors from the original reprise their roles. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

🧀 + 🐚 + ✝️ + 🩲 + 👓 = 📚

The always engaging Languagehat refers us to a discussion thread that traces the propagation of language and literature through historical shifts that shape the way we communicate and interpret the legacy of the incidents and accidents of publishing and publicising for Europe. While there is an element of the Just So Stories of Rudyard Kipling (How the Leopard Got its Spots, and likely as potentially problematic), the narrative does not purport to be academically strenous and presents only theories and strings matters together nicely. Our trajectory to book format begins with cheese and dairy as an imperishable caloric store to help early humans survive cold, harsh winters with female sheep and cows more valuable than their male counterparts, whom would be slaughtered young so they wouldn’t need to be fed during the season of scarcity. This yielded a surfeit of vellum that could be used for writing material, necessarily bound as a hardback as the medium tended buckle if not kept flat.

proclamation 4311

Issued on this day in 1974 by American president Gerald Ford, the directive granted a full and unconditional pardon to his immediate predecessor for any crimes he may have committed against the United States as its leader. In response to public outcry Ford defended his decision to exercise his prerogative in excusing Nixon, particularly over the Watergate Scandal (previously), saying it was for the good of the country to close this tragic chapter. Privately, after leaving office, Ford justified his actions by keeping on his person—in his wallet—a copy of a 1915 US Supreme Court decision that affirmed the notion that accepting a pardon implies a confession of guilt. I’m sure that assuaged his conscience.

season 1, episode 1

Though first broadcast in Canada two days before and being the sixth filmed instalment in the line-up, “The Man Trap” airing on this day for US audiences on this day in 1966 is considered the franchise’s premiere, picked among the other more establishing plots due to its theme and inclusion of alien monsters.
Informing The Next Generation’s Season 3, Episode 3 (“The Survivors”) with the homesteading Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge who want nothing to do with the Enterprise’s offers of assistance or rescue, the inhabitants of M-113 operating an archaeological research operation shun visitors. The last members of a dead civilisation hungered for salt which they extracted from several red shirt ensigns with deadly consequence and roamed the corridors of the ship for more. Several mid-twenty-third-century salt-shakers were designed and intended as props but fearing that twentieth century viewers would be confused, the vials and containers instead became regular items in Doctor McCoy’s sick bay, his decade-old history with one of the interlopers forwarding the plot.

your daily demon: furfur

Likely from the Latin furcifer for scoundrel, the powerful infernal Earl leads twenty-six legions of demons—according to the Ars Goetia after Johann Weyer’s late sixteenth century hierarchy and expanded, elaborated by Aleister Crowley and illustrated by Jacques Collin de Plancy—this demon is depicted in the form of a peryton—that is a chimerical winged stag (the hybrid itself created by Jorge Luis Borges in 1957 despite its being imbued with mythological pedigree) and has a reputation for dispensing falsehoods, unless compelled to tell the truth by being bound with a magical triangle. 

Once tamed into eloquence, Furfur imparts teachings on secret and divine things, wields tempests and galvanises romance and is summoned with this sigil (see also) and partaking of a quadrant of Virgo corresponds to today through the fifteenth of September.

spoiler candidate

Via Super Punch, we are directed to reporting from the Guardian on opposition candidate standing for the Duma from St. Petersburg, Boris Vishnevsky, is facing two other contenders running with not only nearly identical names (they’ve preserved their patronymics), his challengers having changed their names for the ballot, but who have altered their appearance physically and digitally to look like the candidate. It is hoped that these political doppelgängers (the real Boris bothered to wear a necktie) will split the vote and allow the incumbent to retain his seat. It’s the next level of misnegation, obfuscation to “Vote No on Yes to the Proposition Rescinding the Ban on Anti-Mask Mandates” and would hate to give America’s GOP this tactic for their arsenal.