Back in 2013, Star Wars: A New Hope (Sq’Tah Anaa’) was dubbed in Dinรฉ, making it among the first major motion picture screened in the language of the Navajo people, though only released shown to a limited audience at the time with its Washington, DC premiere at the Native American Museum and only available in translation by purchasing a speciality DVD edition. Now, however, it is available for streaming for anyone and becomes another in-road (see also) for making the endangered language accessible and revitalised. Especially intriguing is the choice to have C3PO voiced by a woman and the transformative effect that had for the character.
Monday 22 February 2021
like chalk and cheese
Though attested since the late fourteenth century and surely encountered in every day speech, we were unaware of this delightful idiom, said of things that are superficially alike but very different in substance, like a crumbly, unaged cheese that’s never mistaken as flaking chalk (though some attribute the etymology to an unscrupulous cheesemonger that tried to pass off adulterated product). The Turkish equivalent Daฤlar kadar farklฤฑ, “As different as the mountains” conveys the same sense. Its extended meaning covers things that don’t pair well. Learn more at Nag on the Lake at the link up top.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐น๐ท, ๐ฌ, ๐ง, The Simpsons
cathedra petri
Gifted to Pope John VIII in 875 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald (Karl der Kahle), the simple wooden stool that tradition claims was the pontifical throne of Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome and encased in a magnificent reliquary by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the mid seventeenth century. The chair—which research suggests only dates to the seventh century—has metal loops, suggesting it was used as a sedia gestatoria (see also)—is venerated on this day with a feast celebrating the relic as a synecdoche (ฯฯ ฮฝฮตฮบฮดฮฟฯฮฎ, simultaneous understanding) to reflect on the importance of episcopal office, locally and globally.
5x5
vanishing london: the Topographical Society laments and documents changes to the city—1900 to 1939
a murder of crows: a captivating thread about accidentally creating a fiercely loyal avian regimen
kaitenzushi: a 1948 proposal to move diners from course to course
genius loci: an investigation into the character Tom Bombadil from the Middle Earth legendarium
forwarding address: moving a Victorian mansion in San Francisco
catagories: ๐, ๐ฝ, antiques, architecture, Tolkien
Sunday 21 February 2021
calving and bergy bits
scale model
ferฤlia
Marking the end of a nine-day festival honouring familial ancestors called Parentalia (dies parentales, ancestral days), as historian and poet Ovid records in his book on Fasti, Romans across the Empire were prohibited in worship of the gods and instead were to visit the tombs of their departed and lay wreaths and leave offers of violets, salt and wine-soaked bread. More elaborate votives were permitted but this was sufficient to appease the spirits and the practice was strictly enforced, lest Rome return to a time when Ferฤlia was neglected and restless ghosts haunted the streets. As with most Roman holidays, observance was mostly a domestic, private affair and what public rites were held are an obscured and confused accounting, the only surviving description involving a drunk woman holding seven black beans (see also) in her mouth and lighting incense over the grave of a mouse, and sewing shut the mouth of a fish—then proclaiming, “Hostiles linguas inimicaque uinximus ora,” I have gagged spiteful tongues and muzzled unfriendly mouths.
7x7
gerontologists hate them: two Florida women disguise themselves as “grannies” hoping to get vaccinated sooner—via the New Shelton/Wet-Dry
the sleeping sharks of isla mujeres: Jaws-inspired speedo-fest that’s a favourite of Quentin Tarantino
orchestral manoeuvres in the dark: thirty-five years on, the soundtrack to Pretty in Pink is timeless
a searchlight productions: find actors, colours, objects in movies—try kitten, fox or cheese, via Waxy
a working-class hero is something to be: an obsessive photographic provenance of every figure featured on the Sgt Pepper’s album cover—see also here and here
it gettu betur each time you watch the clip: gentleman on Icelandic quiz show responds poorly to losing ruling against his answer
covax, co-pay: prices per vaccine paid globally varies widely, often not representative of purchasing-power