what you need you have to borrow (10. 283)

Artist David Bowie had his US television premiere on this day in 1975 on the Cher Variety Hour  (previously) performing the song Fame, recently composed during a jam-session with flatmate John Lennon (the two lived together during the former Beatle’s period of estrangement from Yoko Ono) and session guitarist Carlos Alomar. One of the most popular features on CBS in the mid-70s, the interview show that lasted for one and one-half seasons came about during her acrimonious split with Sonny Bono which put an end to their Comedy Hour but gave the former couple their own series on the network until they reconciled in 1976 and revived The Sonny & Cher Show.

turning and returning to some secret place to hide (10. 282)

Written by Tom Whitlock and Giorgio Moroder (also to his credit, “Danger Zone”) and performed by the new wave band Berlin for Top Gun, the Oscar award winning song climbed to the top of the UK singles chart on this day in 1986, holding that position for four weeks. Also topping the charts in the US, the Netherland, Ireland and Belgium, it repeated its performance in Britain with Peugeot’s October 1990 advertising campaign coinciding with the movie screened on ITV. The producers were so pleased with this addition to the sound track that they reshot the romantic scenes with Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis to showcase the tune. The accompanying music video (interspersed with scenes from the movie) features Terri Nunn walking in a windswept aircraft boneyard—part of the Mojave Air & Space Port, at night.

adapted for drawing-room performance (10. 281)

Via the always excellent Everlasting Blört, we are directed to a gallery of the very worst Jane Austen book covers (see also). Famously in the public-domain and a mainstay for book-sellers, Emma as well as Sense & Sensibility of course as the does the aesthetic of the Regency Era feature heavily in this thread, which has delightfully elicited a lot of outside response. Much more to explore at the links above and do let us know your favourites.

два вихідні дні (10. 280)

Not the usual variety of holiday-creep but rather in response to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church’s propaganising and open support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and acquiescing to an already emergent move to more Western traditions that have been present among the populace particularly since 2014—even declaring the Gregorian date a public holiday in 2017 but with appeals stretching back as far as shortly after the 1582 change instigated by Pope Gregory was adopted by neighbouring Poland for civil and religious purposes , the ecclesiastical body, the independent Kyiv Metropolitanate, announced that each parish could hold full Christmas service on 25 December if they wished—whereas the day in the Orthodox calendar was only a solemnity for prayers beforehand. Leaders of the country’s some seven thousand churches are polling parishioners to find out how many would like to have Christmas on the Western date or stick with the Julian calendar (7 January)—with most communities and families expected to observe both.

able archer (10. 279)

The third of the annual NATO command post exercise to train Western Europe units for escalating nuclear conflict and prompted by intelligence that suggested under code-name Operation RYaN (РЯН, “Nuclear Missile Attack,” Ракетно Ядерное Нападение) a coordinated campaign to monitor decision-makers in government and military hierarchies for the intent to launch a first strike against the Soviet Union and a string of infiltration maneuvers on both sides to see to what extent that spies could penetrate the opposing sides’ defences before detection, the war game, began on this day in 1983. The added sense of realism to the execution with coded communiques and radio black-outs in light of increased rhetoric from Ronald Reagan (sabre-rattling that was taken with dread earnestness) and the scheduled delivery of additional missiles for staging in the theatre, reportedly caused some in Soviet leadership to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse de guerre to distract from actual preparations and placed units in Poland and East Germany on high alert and began priming their fuses. Tensions as high as during the Cuban Missile Crisis two decades earlier, the Chief of Staff for the US Air Force in Europe convinced Washington not to respond in kind, de-escalating the situation by the end of the simulation.

king gustavus adolphus day (10. 278)

Celebrated annually on this day in Sweden (Gustav Adolfsdagen), Finland (Kustaa Aadolfin päivä) and Estonia (Adolfi päev), becoming popular first in the nineteenth century some two centuries after the king’s death on the battlefield in Lützen on this day in 1632 (OS 16 November—see previously). Whereas formerly observed with patriotic parades, contemporary traditions primarily consist of pastry-consumption, centred in Göteborg (a city founded by his person, styled Gustav II. Adolph) which has sold this confection known locally as Gustav Adolfskaelse since the 1850s and hosts a yearly competition to honour the best version without the royal, bas-relief portrait.

where the eagles cry, on a mountain high (10. 277)

Written by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie and recorded by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes (previously) for the film An Officer and a Gentleman—the romantic drama starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger and Louis Gossett Junior (original roles cast with John Denver, Sigourney Weaver, then Anjelica Huston before securing Winger and R Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket), “Up Where We Belong” began on this day in 1982 a three-week long streak at number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 and would go on to garner Grammys for the writers and performing duo. This video for whatever reason also incorporates footage from Top Gun.

7x7 (10. 276)

aeiou—red, green, yellow, purple, blue: the virtuosity of polymath Francis Galton and his 1883 work on synaesthesia—see previously  

toots, blorts and kerflunks: alternate social media network Mastodon grows a pace—via Language Log

wwjd: struggling corporations should look to the Jesuits as models of stability and longevity  

tragedy of the commons: a look ahead to COP27—more here  

momentum i: a 1983 synth compilation for runners by Matt Sullivan—see also  

kant generator: programmer Giacomo Miceli’s Infinite Conversation between interlocutors Werner Herzog and Slavoj Žižek   

sensory world: crossed-wires result in great art