on-looker

Via Web Curios, we quite enjoyed this scenic if not a bit haunting selection of vintage postcards collected by Flickr artist Swellmap in an album of people staring off into the distance. The subject always has their backs to the camera and usual wear red, like some unfortunate Star Trek ensign about to meet their fate and forward the plot.

so, jetzt reicht’s aber, fräulein

Though since 1951 in East Germany, women could use the designation “Frau,” missus without applying for permission from the state, this is—proof of marriage, acknowledging that the classification of entire female sex in terms of its declared relationship to a man and while the fact that martial status was a private matter for males but a salutation of public interest for woman was highly problematic and inegalitarian, it was not until this day in 1972 in West Germany that the term Fräulein (the predicate a relatively new one, introduced in 1869 whereas in previous eras it was a binary Herr or Mann/Frau) was stricken from official use by the Ministry of the Interior under the Hans-Dietrich Genscher and ought to be avoided (along with comparable honourifics in other languages, like Miss and Mademoiselle) as a sexist and demeaning distinction.

6x6

teed-off: the worse examples of gerrymandered voting precincts in the US portrayed as formidable mini-golf hazards—via Print Magazine  

blursday afternoon is never ending: time reforms for 2022 

toponymy: Wordle (previously) place-names editions—see also 

la pista automobilistica: Nag on the Lake gives us the chance to revisit the incredible Fiat factory in Turin with rooftop test-track  

crying is for plain women—pretty women go shopping: season one Golden Girls are younger than the cast of the Sex in the City reboot and other essential reading  

undercounted: email traffic reveals how Trump interfered with US census to ensure polities with large immigrant populations didn’t gain clout

6x6

secret lairs: a tour of Modernist homes that upstage other performers as the starring-role  

👁 🅰️ ◀️ 🚍: Buddhist scriptures and sūtras for those who cannot read  

carpenters estate—lund point: Brendan Barry transform unoccupied dwellings in a twenty-three-storey tower block into a camera obscura to produce large format prints 

on a clear day, you can see forever: a look at some of the longest sightlines on Earth—via Miss Cellania  

kimochi no katachi: reuse those paper bags with a set of template rulers that guide you to folding a paring them down to pouches and envelopes  

offgrid: a handcrafted home in remote coastal Maine up for sale

video et taceo

Never destined for the monarchy and declared illegitimate by her father Henry VIII who had her mother Anne Boleyn executed on the charge of treason, succeeded after Henry’s death by half-brother Edward VI, who against Salic law bypassed his sectarian siblings and bequeathed the throne to Lady Jane Grey only to be deposed by her older sister, Mary—known as Bloody Mary for her violent suppression of Protestants—and imprisoned for her Protestant sympathies, Elizabeth (*1533 - †1603) inherited the crown upon Mary’s death in November of the previous year, holding her coronation on this day in 1559, adopting her above motto—I observe and stay quiet, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. Though at times bellicose and indecisive—never naming a successor and possibly paranoid like her father, especially after the Pope released her subjects from their obligation of allegiance to her but perhaps strategically since even a queen in her own right would have been in her time below her husband’s station, her forty-four year reign was a time of economic and cultural prosperity that helped forge a national identity and built the Church of England and the organisational structure of Great Britain.

unwort des jahres

Critical of unreflective and dehumanising, casual use in the press, the independent jury have selected Pushback as their “un-word” of the last year for Germany—previously. The often illegal practise of forcing migrants back from the borders of destination or transit countries was illustrated by the tragic stand-off at the EU frontier in Poland on the boundary with Belarus, weaponising asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq and Syria by granting them (at great personal costs—see previously) visas to Minsk and then pushing them out for West to care in reprisal for sanctions levied.

9. being crafty occasionally (3)

Vis-a-vis the recent popularity of the game Wordle, we quite appreciated this retrospective from Public Domain Review on the development (see previously) of the modern crossword puzzle, the appeal of diversions and challenges in times of turmoil, cryptic clues and the connection of the contemporary poetry of TS Elliot. Much more to explore at the links above plus with new puzzles daily, give Wordle a try.

like dear old alfred always said: eat a dinner, mattress wayne

Courtesy of Super Punch, we discover what a neural network will generate after being primed with a thousand pages of captions and quote bubbles from old Batman comics. More at the link above, including panels illustrating the text.  Joker is a clown but insane.  Two-Face is a man but attorney.