hugh of lincoln

Venerated by the Catholics on 16 November and the Anglican church on this day, and arguably the most popular English saint after Thomas à Becket, the bishop and Avalon native established the first Carthusian charterhouse off the mainland in 1179—financed as part of the penance of Henry II for the murder of Becket in lieu of going on crusade, and is considered the patron of the sick, shoemakers and swans—the iconography and associated legends stemming from his lasting friendship with a swan from the village of Stow, who was very protective of Hugh (see also) and would attack any strangers that approached him and guarded Hugh when he slept.  

i am not a crook

On this day in 1973 during a press conference delivered at the Contemporary Resort Hotel at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida Richard Nixon made the declaration addressing his declining job approval ratings with the pall of the Watergate scandal eroding public trust and confidence (see also) to an Associated Press annual convention being held there. The rather impromptu one-hour live broadcast was wide-ranging and was specifically prompted in response to a question raised by one of the wire service’s reporters regarding Nixon’s taxes and self-dealing, launching into the line of questioning, “I have earned every cent—and in all my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice… People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.”

6x6

for ages eighteen plus: adult content next door 

cph-ø1: Copenhagen harbour floating parkipelago gets its first module  

dapper duds: older dogs dressed as senior human citizens to encourage adoption 

holes and slices: the Swiss cheese model risk management and loss prevention  

coandă effect: a drone stays aloft by taking advantage of the fluid dynamic tendency to stay attached to a convex surface—a principle used in hovercraft, the Avrocar, NOTARs, windshield cleaners, mitral regurgitators and ventilators  

for ages six and up: small bricks present a choking hazard

say after me

Ever grateful for the reminder that A-ha is a Norwegian group and for any excuse to listen to their songs, we appreciated this hearing early track, draft that contains quite a few signature elements of what we know as “Take on Me”—including the central synth bridge—debuting on Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar’s earlier band’s second album recorded and scheduled for release in 1981 though postponed by the group’s breakup and subsequent reconstitution until August 2018. The song was originally called “Miss Eerie” and was their demonstration piece intended to show off their vocal and electronic virtuosity.

nunc dies tertitus est

Perhaps one glaring lexical gap in English (see previously) is handily filled—thanks to learning about the lyrical term nudiustertian, though the 1647 coinage by puritan pamphleteer Nathaniel Ward failed to reach the threshold for critical mass (maybe for the best considering the source) and thus adoption in common parlance. Whilst derived from the Latin biblical pronouncement “now is the third day,” it was conscripted to refer to events of the recent past and specifically the day before yesterday (see link up top), but like ereyesterday and overmorrow, didn’t catch on and became obsolete.

dagur íslenskrar tungu

Celebrated annually since 1996 with accolades presented to the individual or group that has significantly contributed to the language, the Day of the Icelandic Language was picked for this date in honour of the poet, naturalist and independence activist Jónas Hallgrímsson (*1807 – †1845). Clerk to the sherrif of Reykjavík and studying for the bar, Jónas later went to metropolitan Copenhagen to complete his law degree but instead found himself far more enamoured with literature and natural sciences and so switched his focus of study, writing poems and founding a patrotic newsletter, Fjölnir, that argued for autonomy and promoted the native language of the island, based on Old Norse with little outside influence. Dividing his time between Denmark and Iceland, Jónas died of blood poisoning, aged thirty-seven, having slipped on a flight of stairs going up to his apartment. Let’s lighten the mood and build your vocabulary with the way the language forms new terms at the link here, cutely illustrated by Eunsan Huh.

goût grec

We rather enjoyed looking through these fantastical masquerade outfits informed by neoclassical Greek columns and other architectural elements from the imagination of Ennemond Alexandre Petitot—himself the court architect and influencer (railing against this particular style) of the Bourbon Dukes in Parma, printed in 1771, not as sketches for buildings nor actual fancy dress but rather gentle derision on the obsession for “Greek taste” that dominated French fashion and decorative arts with Ionic scrolls, key and fret work and similar patterns—sort of like the tiki aesthetic of its day. Much more to explore at Public Domain Review at the link up top.

peaceful transition of power

Though there’s no strategy to Trump’s fractious and recalcitrant behaviour other than keeping all options on the table for himself and not committing to any one course of action until all are exhausted—except perhaps resigning at 11:00 on Wednesday, 20 January so his viceroy can take office and pre-emptively pardon Trump from federal prosecution (I remember it being suggested that President Obama do something similar to spoil all of Trump’s tacky 45 election merch) and Joe Biden will naturally be a quick study for taking high office, there are nonetheless negative and deadly consequences for postponing the changeover for Biden and Harris. The chaos can potentially derail efforts to redress the pandemic response not (just) through wilful undermining and sabotage but as inauguration day approaches, with the team already behind the curve, there is a time crunch and decision that perhaps need to be weighted and considered more carefully become rushed under pressure and studies that should be taken into account on downstream effects are perhaps not read. It’s impossible to reframe the past on hindsight and whilst there’s not a definitive connection, we only need to look back to the last contested election of 2000 where the delay of declaring the next president could have led gaps in intelligence gathering and security that yielded the 9/11 terror attacks—the character of America changed over one missed report. With pettiness and malice added to the mix, there seems to be catastrophic potential in the deadlines and breach from the regularly scheduled process.