sancta francesca romana

Made patron of automobile drivers (see also) in 1925 by Pope Pius XI due to anecdote that her guardian angel lit her path before her while she travelled, Saint Frances of Rome (*1384) was a caregiver and mystic who excelled as an organiser of charitable services and founded a community of oblates, a mendicant order who lives with the general population and not cloistered, uniquely without religious vows and is venerated on this day, on the occasion of her death in 1440. Living at the time of the Western Schism and wars between rival popes and anti-popes, Francis felt it incumbent on her to use her station and wealth to provide succour and aid to the suffering amidst the collapse of a social safety net and sought to recruit the company of like-minded individuals.

санитарный поезд

Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are exposed to the impressive portfolio of photographer Emile Ducke through his series on medical trains that service the vast reaches of Siberia with annual whistle-stops at each station to perform diagnostic exams and prescribe medicine to remote communities who otherwise go without regular health car. The locomotive Saint Lukas (Luke of Antioch, patron of surgeons and physicians) has for its caboose a chapel wagon. More to explore at the links above.

l’hirondelle noire

Celebrated in his adoptive home of France but not so well known in his native America, flying ace, boxer and jazz musician Eugene Bullard (*1895 - †1961) grew up in Columbus, Georgia and gaining an appreciation for the effects of systemic racism decided to stowaway on a ship to Aberdeen and eventually made it to Paris, via Glasgow and London, becoming one of the first in a cadre of Black combat pilots to serve in World War I. Also fluent in German, Bullard became involved in espionage and military intelligence, monitoring the Germans who patronised his nightclub in the run-up to World War II. Eventual repatriation was a culture-shock, still experiencing the same prejudice and inequality from thirty-three years prior, taking a series of odd jobs in Manhattan, one of which was elevator operator at Rockefeller Center. One anchor noticed his impressive array of medals he wore on his attendant uniform (see also) and intrigued interviewed the “Black Swallow” on the Today Show.

6x6

ribbit: frogs use their lungs effectively as noise-cancelling devices—via the new Shelton wet/dry  

oculus: architect envisions Rome’s Pantheon as world’s largest camera obscura (previously) with a conceptual installation 

fetish-free commodities: Existential Comics attempts to demystify Marxist marketplaces—via Nag on the Lake and Memo of the Air 

radiant baby: a brief biography of artist Keith Haring told with drawings and song  

ipa: an iconographic dictionary that corresponds to each phoneme of human language 

marshmallow test: cuttlefish demonstrate self-control and delay gratification, passing a cognitive benchmark designed for human children

rückwanderer

Describing the route wherein a word travels from its originating language to a second foreign one and is re-introduced with a nuanced meaning from the first, reborrowing occurs in a wide range of languages through various processes—some simple and straightforward in cases of etymological twinning like host and guest, warranty and guarantee, ward and guardian all French influences as the diglossia between stable and table (drab, dirty cows and pigs to beef and pork) or calquing—that is, adopting a foreign term directly as was the case with off-the-shelf fashions translated first in French as prêt-á-porter in the early 1950s and then reclaimed by English speakers a few years later. Other migrating words take more circuitous round-trips and one can imagine future scenarios with blended meanings. The German term for a tuxedo—ein Smoking from smoking jacket comes to mind (similiarly a frock coat or redingote crisscrossed the Channel several times) and other examples include the Dutch derivation of cookie (from koekje) and the Dutch word cookie for the web-browser token as well as the Japanese borrowing of the English term animation as アニメ (anime) and then readopted in English to indicate a particular style of animation from Japan. Conversely, e-mail as with regular mail comes from the French “malle-post,” though the French word email already carried the meaning enamel and so employ un courriel from courrier électronique first coined in bi-lingual Quebec and formally made part of the parlancesoon there after.

der sendung mit der maus

First aired on this day in 1971 and every Sunday morning thereafter by WDR (Westdeustcher Rundfunk) and a consortium of broadcasters, The Show with the Mouse (previously) is considered “the classroom of the nation” and is one of the most successful and impactful children’s educational television programme (see also)—despite early critics believing such exposure detrimental to children’s development and contravening a law for its first six years of broadcasting that prohibited television aimed at young audiences. The core format consists of so called laughing and factual, practical stories Lach- und Sachgeschichten, cartoons balanced by science segments exploring how things are made, how things work) but has had several mini-series with guest characters from other shows, Shaun the Sheep, Cap’t Blaubär, Der kleine Maulwurf (the Little Mole) and others and a number of special episodes about German reunification, voting, space exploration, atomic energy, etc.

seven nation army

Released as a single from their album Elephant on this day in 2003, the song from musical duo the White Stripes with its simple yet catchy riff and drumbeat marked a moment of revival for the garage band and has been adopted by numerous sports clubs as a game anthem, chanting favourites, athletes, personalities and even Labour leader Jeremy Corbin. Originally the guitarist Jack White wanted to save his riff in chance the group was ever approached regarding composing a James Bond theme but ultimately decided to include it on their fourth studio record—thinking it unlikely that they’d ever get the chance to do so—although five years later, singly White did write and perform “Another Way to Die” for Quantum of Solace. Though most teams wail the chant with “oh,” as the unofficial theme song of the Italian national football league, the audience refers to it as the “po po po po po” tune.

6x6

di grattacielo con le bretelle: Milan’s Brutalist Torre Velasca  

sixty songs in three and ½ minutes: the Hood Internet (previously) presents 1995  

razor banks: the rather macabre antique bathroom wall slots to dispose of dull blades in the voids between walls 

through the looking glass: vis-à-vis the above, a tenant finds hidden rooms behind her medicine cabinet in her New York City apartment—via Super Punch  

superior mirage: walker in Cornwall spots a ship floating aloft 

in your bubble: contemplating quarantine in the Bolwonigen globes of ‘s-Hertogenbosch—see previously