Whilst not the first and consigned to full a gaping gap in the book market as the public readership and booksellers were dissatisfied with available grammars and lexicons, the rather heroic and singular academic undertaking by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language—first published on this day in 1755, was highly influential and considered the authoritative reference source until the introduction of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Compiled over seven years, Johnson produced more than just a glossary of jargon or foreign concordance but rather a comprehensive, well-organised accounting of the English language—with over forty-two thousand entries, he proclaimed he was Vasta mole superbus (“Proud of its great volume”)—the word list was annotated with parts of speech and accentuated with literary citations, mostly drawn from the works of William Shakespeare, John Milton and the poetry of John Dryden, which were illustrative and often humorous, as in the titular definition of his vocation, and versified for effect, courtesy of Jonathan Swift, et al.: Opulence—wealth; riches; affluence
“There in full opulence a banker dwelt,
Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt;
His sideboard glitter’d with imagin’d plate,
And his proud fancy held a vast estate.”
Johnson’s work established the paradigm for standard dictionary entries with etymological speculation, usage and a guide to pronunciation and when the OED became its definitive successor some one hundred seventy years later, reproducing many of the former’s definitions, marking them with a J., judging his scholarship expedient and judicious to copy.
photo booth: a self-meme generator that uses AI—via Web Curios
1up: the Super Mario Brothers’ theme inscribed in the US National Recording Registry—via Miss Cellania
martin chuzzlewit: Dickens’ illustrators
acta et vita: today is the feast of Lidwina, patron saint of chronic illness and ice- and roller-skaters
spring break: a look at the highdays and holidays of Old London—via Strange Company
jubilee: US Supreme Court ruled against blocking cancellation of student loan debt—see previously
the real macguffin: the Holy Grail of grail stories—with plenty of references to pop-culture
double-feature: raw footage from a video rental store on a Friday night in 1987—what titles would you have picked?
robo boys: an untethered large language model builds on a college years group chat with insights on the process of AI fine-tuning—via Waxy
Via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links, we are informed that enhanced and apparently made-to-order chatbots may be usurping human authorship in one tradition and am admittedly a bit torn on whether this is a good or bad development: fortune cookies. While admitting that I didn’t appreciate how large the collective enterprise was and that there are a recognised cohort of veteran fortune writers for this manufactured custom (Chinese diners are generally served fruits as a degistif), part of me is leaning towards saying that AI is optimised for palaver, wallpaper like this as well as horoscopes and greeting cards but another side wants to rally against it for stripping away the intent and sentiment and even benediction and blessing offered as one’s fortune. What do you think?
mod squad: celebrating the long life and career of Dame Mary Quant, Swinging Sixties fashion icon
the cure at troy: a poetic reflection on the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement
31 at jennie richee: outsider artist Henry Darger thug shaker central: self-promoting US Air National Guardsman identified as suspected source of Pentagon leaks
liberica: the studier coffee bean that could save the industry
ncc-1701: a meticulous ranging of all the Enterprises
news at 11: an epic 19 80s bumper
rupublicans: images of GOP politicians in drag—see also
hyperbole: more on the Googie style with this iconic Southern California motel
Beginning a six week run at the top of the US singles charts on this day in 1969 with a medley of two 
musical numbers composed for Hair, the release by the group the 5th Dimension went on to be certified platinum and ranks as according to Billboard as one of the greatest numbers of all time. The genesis of the eventual recording came after producer Dayton Burr “Bones” Howe was reunited with his lost wallet and invited the finder—a cab passenger who was involved in the production of the musical—was invited to a show in gratitude and raved that the introductory song “Aquarius” would complement and complete the titular sequence with its refrain. Purportedly leaving the Age of Pisces (Jesus fish), current or hence according to reckoning, some astrologers have derided the lyrics as premature and uninformed in terms of sun-signs, pointing out that Jupiter aligns with Mars multiple times annually and the Moon is in the seventh house daily.
After Elon Musk falsely and rather abruptly National Public Radio state media—then refining his mischaracterisation as government-funded which is an equivocation on corporate welfare and subsidies to 
the wealthiest at best in an erratic interview with another arguably instrument of agitprop (the BBC and Voice of America—Radio Free Europe were also recipients of this distinction)—the network of affiliates have announced, we learn via Kottke, that they will cease posting to Twitter. Upholding its statutory editorial independence in the face of diminishing support (only 13% of funding is government sourced), NPR’s decision, the first by a major news organisation, is commendable and highlights the platform’s transformation from a safe-haven for journalism, big and small alike, to a personal pulpit for rubbishing media outlets and promoting an impulsive, juvenile agenda.
We enjoyed this introduction to collage caricaturist Hanoch Piven and his found allegory of accidents, elements and sacraments through his latest project assaying the figures of the Old Testament with character profiles and an eclectic iconography, like here with fun-time gal and accomplished rhetorician Esther. Read more about Dream Big, Laugh Often and More Great Advice from the Bible at Print Magazine at the link above. What found objects might you use to create a similar three-dimensional tableau?
