rhoticity (10. 599)

Having previously explored the conventional understanding of vowels and consonants (see here and here), we appreciated this video via Miss Cellania on the plasticity of the r-sound and how under certain conditions it is classed by linguists with the usual range phonemes. A so called retroflex or R-coloured vowel, represented in IPA as ɚ, is rare overall but examples occur in the most widely spoken languages: dialectically in North American English and Canadian French in nurse, dollar, butter and third as well as in Mandarin in a phenomenon called Erhua (兒化—adding an extra r-sound to terminal syllables). In some cases, especially in non-rhotic regional variations, the r can be linking or intrusive—as in drawering or withdrawral. More from Otherwords in the presentation below.

let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in totalitarian darkness (10. 598)

Once again as our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1983 Ronald Reagan in a speech during the height of the Cold War and the Soviet-Afghan conflict delivered before the conference of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida characterised the Soviet Union (see previously) as an “evil empire” and “focus of evil in the modern world,” roundly rejecting prevailing geopolitical opinion that both the West and the East were responsible for the escalating clash of ideologies and reframing the arms-race as a battle between the forces of righteousness and malevolence. Referencing ongoing talks of anti-nuclear proliferation treaties, Reagan urged the audience to “beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault”—that to call the escalating push for tactical readiness a misunderstanding that can be resolved through negotiations was to remove oneself “from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil.” Five years later during a visit with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan recanted his words to a reporter, saying it was from “another time, another era” as a disarmament detente was building.

antebellum (10. 597)

Miss Cellania directs our attention towards a substantial essay and exploration of scenes cut from the David O Selznick’s cinematic 1939 adaptation of Gone With the Wind by film historian and collector David Vincent Kimel. Writing for The Ankler, Kimel’s research uncovers a suite of lost scenes from the working-copy of the director’s assiduously organised ‘Rainbow Script’ that not only document Selznick’s struggle with the inclusion of racist descriptions and stereotypes but also his ultimate deletion of scenes that show Rhett Butler’s suicidal ideation, privation and looting, and a number of vignettes illustrating the mistreatment of enslaved individuals on Scarlett’s family plantation whose rawness frankly do not romanticise slavery and the Old South. It is impossible to say how their inclusion might have limned public reception and perception of one of the most celebrated and disgraced projects of the industry and their cutting is an indictment more than anything reflective and rehabilitating but it is nonetheless fascinating read into the early drafts and the pageantry and promotion surrounding the premier in Atlanta, Georgia.

9x9 (10. 596)

destination berlin: a Royal Military Police guide to the divided city from 1988—see also

geodomesticeerde: one Dutch rancher spearheading the protest against livestock reductions 

gado gado: the Indonesia version of the cult Cobb salad that may be the best in the world—via Digg 

fret and fingerbøard: a guitar nearly exclusively sourced from IKEA furnishing elements—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest  

paratethys sea: the ancient lake that stretched from the Alps to the Arals was the world’s largest lake  

florilegium: botanical collages by an eighteenth-century septuagenarian—via Kottke  

mar yousef’s: the “pizza church” of Jordan imparting Iraqi Christian refugees with marketable skills—via Miss Cellania  

heritage graziers: regenerative agriculture, no farmstead required  

orange alternative: how a diminutive graffito helped bring down the Soviet Union

in witness whereof (10. 595)

As our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1984, US president Ronald Reagan issued Proclamation 5157 (they are numbered sequentially whether public or not so we know when the government is up to something) “in recognition of the significant contribution which the frozen food industry (see previously) made to the nutritional well-being of the American people, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 193 … has designated ‘Frozen Food Day,’” calling “upon the American people to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” Citing large-scale availability during war time rationing, convenience and the abundance of such meals aboard Skylab and other space missions, Reagan further extolled the estrangement from fresh, unprocessed groceries as a symmetrical response to rural-to-urban migration and due homage to the bounty of the land through surplus and subsidy.

8x8 (10. 594)

parasols: brief animations on Marie Paccou’s sun-shades when spun  

the misalignment museum: an art installation dedicated to the future AI apocalypse serves as a warning to the present  

the pez outlaw: one individual’s disruption of the collectors’ market  

banana for scale: a handy converter—via Pasa Bon!  

curious crumbs of history: rating Nation Trust sites by their scones 

future archeologists: Funko Pop! is disposing of hundreds of thousands chibi pop-culture icons  

eliza doolittle: a 1966 chatbot had the same warnings as out modern experiments  

grand canons: stop-motion of everyday objects by Alain Biet

points d’intonation (10. 593)

Via Present /&/ Correct we are referred to a suite of needful, progressive punctuation marks invented primarily by French writer Hervé Bazin—like the pictured appeal to authority and appeal to conviction, best known for his popular, semi-autobiographical novels about teen-angst and family dysfunction, who also essayed radical spelling reform for the French language in the mid-1960s, a campaign called Plumons l’Oiseau (“Let’s Pluck the Bird”), which proposed a nearly phonetic system, supplemented with six disambiguating glyphs additionally to express acclamation, doubt, irony and love.

the great michigan pizza funeral (10. 592)

With the governor also coming to pay his respects, a sizeable crowd with members of the press came to the small town of Ossineke to witness the ceremonial disposal of nearly thirty-thousand frozen cheese and mushroom pies on this day in 1973, buried in a five metre deep grave. In order to demonstrate personal accountability and generate a bit of publicity for his business, one of the most state-of-the-art and earliest operations of its kind in America, Mario Fabbrini, originally from Fiume, Croatia and fled Yugoslavia, proprietor of Papa Fabbrini’s Pizzas, was approached by safety inspectors from the US Food and Drug Administration and ordered to recall, out of an abundance of caution, nearly a week’s worth of manufacturing when a supplier of mushroom toppings had tested positive for botulism. A post-mortem revealed the pizzas to be free of the deadly bacteria.