scope of practise (11. 563)

Via Kottke, we that the inaugural World Umarlling Championship has been announced and is taking submissions, giving us a chance to revisit the gentle stereotype, classically a male pensioner who pauses to observe and inspect construction works in progress. Self-appointed foremen, the interest that umari take in infrastructure and built-environments is a model that we could all take a lesson from in terms of civic engagement without being a busybody or a backseat driver, especially under the terms of the competition. Learn ore at the links above.

10x10 (11. 562)

crimes of atrocity: a long, dense episode of -ologies with Alie Ward on the hugely fraught and difficult subject of genocide with a powerful and circumspect post-script 

airoboros: artificial intelligence trained on AI made content is becoming highly problematic and only compounded—see previously  

the city on the edge of forever: public portal linking Dublin and New York City suspended after inappropriate behaviour  

palmerston’s follies: two maritime forts off Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight that have been converted into boutique accommodations go up for auction  

the deuce: the Greek grandmother who built an adult entertainment empire in Times Square before its Disneyfication 

foot on the gas: the inevitability of the climate collapse and humanity’s capacity for adjustment  

⌘ |: the lost history of pre-internet emoji and rendering software—via Waxy—see previously 

flashing headlights: the giant Dana squid’s photophores in attack-mode  

eternal return: cosmic cycles and time’s resurgence  

first-day agenda: how Trump is framing his vision for a second-term

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit plus a visit to Arnstadt

two years ago: St Brendan, more links to enjoy plus the Electrotechnical Exhibition of 1891

three years ago: a classic from Kim Carnes, a language quiz, more links worth the revisit plus an ancient action figure

four years ago: more Trump’s Space Force, birdhouses, the stress of social media moderation, a medieval manuscript game plus a musical typing tutor

five years ago: GenX, consular services at McDonalds, soliciting grievances, Japanese mascots plus office equipment

he will not go out in the fresh air or eat his vegetables (11. 561)

Via Futility Closet, we learn that the four-year-old son Junior—called Tony—of humorist, critic author (an

auxiliary member of the Algonquin Roundtable) and eventual editor of the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town section, Wolcott Gibbs, composed a defiant chant intoned one evening while taking a bath. With the opening and refrain, his father took down the words with the opening and refrain: 

He will just do nothing at all.
He will just sit there in the noonday sun.
And when they speak to him, he will not answer them,
Because he does not care to.

Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger (previously) adapted the lines into a song, finding the opposition highly relatable.

asemic writing (11. 560)

The above describing wordless or meaningless text intended to invite the reader to divine a message through the symbolisms rather than to convey a message—though these carefully recorded compositions that suggest mathematical and chemical formulae certainly encoded a meaning that was perhaps only known to the artist—and could be certainly applied to the verisimilitude (see also) of the collected works of outsider artist Melvin May, a bassist who returned to New York City to study informatics but his career path was sidelined by a schizophrenia diagnosis and subsequent drug use, landing him in a men’s shelter on Randall’s Island whilst seeking treatment. Way’s discipline was discovered through art workshops sponsored by the shelter, dense and intricate sketches with ballpoint pens committed to found scraps of paper, often carrying around works-in-progress on his person, protected with a layer of scotch tape. More on this retrospective—and sadly posthumous by only months—and Way’s life at Hyperallergic at the link above.

mittwoch mantinee (11. 559)

Released on this day in 1968, the surrealist drama adapted from the 1964 eponymous John Cheever short story by the Oscar-nominated writer-director duo of Eleanor and Frank Perry (see previously) features the acting talents of Burt Lancaster in the title role of Ned Merrill, Janice Rule, Joan Rivers and Janet Landgard. Set in an New England suburb, Merrill drops by a neighbour’s pool party and chatting over cocktails realising that the series of backyard pools in this community form a river that would make it possible for him to swim back to his home. Slightly put off by this plan though tolerant of such behaviour, Merrill departs and crashes a succession of pool parties, revisiting past dramas and incidents and gradually revealing his downfall, mental breakdown and social ostracism which Merrill had managed to temporarily put out of his mind.

progrock (11. 558)

Established after the breakup of two of the founding bands of British progressive rock Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1981—with John Wetton of Uriah Heap and Geoff Downes of the Buggles later joining Steve Howe and Carl Palmer—the supergroup’s eponymous debut album reached number one on the US charts on this day in 1982, holding top place for nine weeks, ranked as the best-selling record for that year in America and in several other countries. The signature lead single from lyricist Wetton and keyboardist Downes is described as an abject apology to the dreadful way he treated his first wife.

synchronoptica

one year ago: EuroVision, a papal encyclical plus a singing computer (1961)

two years ago: lavaforming, Kepler’s Laws, a rejects’ gallery plus an ancient, mysterious herb

three years ago: your daily demon: Sitru, St Olaf, recognising women in the sciences, duck icons, AI-splaining plus Subterranean Homesick Blues

four years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus a musical rooster

five years ago: a new art gallery in China, celebrating waters, returning to the Moon, more links to enjoy plus a disruptive network hack

extended diacope (11. 557)

Via Language Log, we are directed to an omnibus linguistics lesson of fascinating terms of literary criticism and figures of speech—which although containing a few that we’ve encountered before (though often needing to look up to remind ourselves of the particular scheme and trope) like tmesis, eggcorns and mondegreens, amphiboly and redundant acronym syndrome syndrome—there were quite a few new concepts to ponder, like rebracketing, a fusion of terms whose components are then taken apart and reconfigured in a way that’s readily intelligible, like alcoholic to workoholic, and the so called cutthroat compounds, agentive and instrumental exocentric verbs-nouns like the class itself or scarecrow and scofflaw. From the source, there was also the humourous dysgraphomophone—a homophone that looks like a typo used purposely to catch the eye or to lure someone into correcting it: like indorse their banns—to formally back (from dorsum, dorsal) their wedding announcement. More at the links above. 

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Martian topography plus some Ancient Greek terms that should be reintroduced

two years ago: Chess (1986),  the Mise of Lewes plus St Matthias

three years ago: more on grawlixes plus the curse of toil 

four years ago: St Corona, The Safety Dance (1983), pandemic neologisms, a mole on Mars, paperback dress-up plus misremembered cultural touchstones

five years ago: quiltwork of Old World diseases,  celebrating Doris Day, shark faces, the US Library of Congress’ open archives, paleofuturism plus safeguarding private data

proclamation of neutrality (11. 556)

Though granting legal recognition to the Confederate States of America as belligerents, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under Queen Victoria, announcing the stance on this day in 1861, never accorded the breakaway southern states with the status of a nation, negotiated treaties or exchanged ambassador and trade came to a halt. Despite massive losses in the textile sector, particularly in Manchester, due to loss of imported cotton, most Britons, maintained their fidelity to the Union and Abraham Lincoln, and CSA president Jefferson Davis’ wager that dependence on “King Cotton” would lead to diplomatic recognition, mediation or intervention militarily, fell far short of hopes. After the costly war in the Crimea, European powers wanted no more entanglements. Some smuggling of cotton occurred (see previously) with privateers running bundles across the Atlantic in exchange for munitions and luxury goods, but most mills—even threatened with bankruptcy and famine for the workers—refused to process the Confederate contraband.