Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
“Lowering himself suddenly to his knees he placed his right eye at the keyhole, and controlling the oscillation of his head and the vagaries of his left eye (which was for ever trying to dash up and down the vertical surface of the door), he was able by dint of concentration to observe, within three inches of his keyholed eye, an eye which was not his, being not only of a different colour to his own iron marble but being, which is more convincing, on the other side of the door.”
(p. 5, Reynal & Hitchcock edition)
Rethinking My German Heritage
(thanks, Patrick)
Cindy, on Porcelain
Deron, toilets are made from porcelain because porcelain is beautiful.
Alicia
He walked along the beach, collecting shells. He had a collection, however small, and worried himself over which to add. It was minimal, this collection, and he spent hours deciding which new shell to enter into it — casting aside the perfectly shaped, or just plain ordinary, for those with an odd characteristic, such as a president’s face. He took pictures of each and kept files of the ones he discarded. This collection, however, he kept in his basement in an elaborate system of files. He named it after his mother, and each time he went down there it reminded him of her, standing in the darkness, reaching for the string that fell from the light.
Were Nazi Jokes Funny?
It can be argued that no one should write a book “reselling” and thus profiting from Nazi jokes (or for that matter blogging them). I take this point of view seriously, though ultimately I believe the story should be told.
Heaven (is an expensive place to stay)
Wrapped in that white hotel bathrobe
she looked like a child
of God
devouring
two room service hamburgers.
She Comes in Colors
vis-a-vis commodes
the old and the older still, it seems to me, put to good use
enamel and porcelain.
Trees, steps, and snow
In the sculpture garden of the Carnegie Museum of Art, snow has a distilling effect on the landscape, removing detail, editing out the shades of gray.
Will
“He always said he wanted children,” she told The Associated Press. “But there were no regulations in the law that deals with using sperm from dead people.”
Toilet Question
This post may get me in trouble, but here goes: Amy and I bought a toilet over four years ago to be placed prominently, obviously, in our “soon to be renovated” bathroom.
Suffice it to say, time has passed since then and a renovation business has come and gone. (For those short on the history, we started the renovation business about a third of the way through renovating our home. In short, don’t do this….)
Anyway, the bathroom is being tiled today (pictures to follow shortly) and in preparation for the finishing touches, I have removed the purchased toilet from its storage in the fire place. (I told you this post might get me into trouble.)
Anyway, all that just to say, or to ask, rather, why are toilets still made out of porcelain? Many other materials have come and gone out of which other common household items are constructed, but porcelain remains the material of choice for the old commode.
Why is that?
Car Magazine Tests the R8
Car Magazine has compared the Audi R8 against Porsche’s 911 and the Lamborghini Gallardo. You can read their verdict in the new issue, but here’s a cool video clip to keep you going until then.
Shades of Magenta
- Brilliant Rose (Crayola “Magenta”)
- Phlox
- Printer’s Magenta (Pigment Magenta)
- Hollywood Cerise (Fashion Fuchsia)
- Persian
- Shocking
- Razzle Dazzle Rose (Crayola
- Light Magenta (Fuchsia Pink
- Ultra Pink (aka Crayola “Shocking Pink
- Pink Flamingo (Crayola
- Brilliant Magenta
- Bright Magenta
- MAGENTA (Electric Magenta) (web color Fuchsia)
- Hot Magenta (aka Purple Pizzaz) (Crayola)
- T-Magenta (Deutsche Telekom)
- Pantone Color #226–
- Rich Magenta (Original Magenta)
- Royal Fuchsia (Hex: #CA2C92
- Fandango
- Sky Magenta
- Deep Fuchsia (Crayola Fuchsia)
- Deep Magenta
Rethinking One Person One Vote
Thirteen percent of Americans have never heard of global warming even though their country is the world’s top source of greenhouse gases, a 46-country survey showed on Monday.
Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery
After Hearing a Clergyman Wax Rhapsodic About the Medieval Culture which Produced the Church of Santa Croce, Mr. George Emerson Expostulates
“Built by faith indeed! That simply means the workmen weren’t paid properly. And as for [Giotto's] frescoes, I see no truth in them. Look at that fat man in blue! He must weigh as much as I do, and he is shooting into the sky like an airballoon.”
A Room with a View, E.M. Forster
Vurtego “Pro” Pogo Stick demo
Jonah Lehrer, Proust Was a Neuroscientist & Whitman
The fusion of body and soul:
A Fairly Succinct Example of Contemporary Media
A week or so ago, Fox ran with a story that Barack Obama (a Southern Baptist) had been educated in a radical Indonesian Madrassa. A Madrassa is an Islamic school for boys that teaches rote memorization of the Koran and has been speculated to be a prime breeding ground for future Islamic terrorists. The story was quickly debunked by CNN when they actually sent a reporter to the school and found out it was a fairly progressive ecumenical (I am using this in a broader sense) public school where Buddhism, Christianity, and other religions were taught.
After Insight posted the article on Jan. 17, Mr. Kuhner said, he was disappointed to see that the Drudge Report did not link to it on its Web site as it has done with other Insight articles. So, as usual, he e-mailed the article to producers at Fox News and MSNBC.
Press butt and release
I’m cross-posting this entry from my own blog, because I thought it might generate some interesting feedback.
I have a genuine anthropological interest–much to my own surprise, in fact–in graffiti. Certainly, anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) have been producing graphic art for millennia; the prehistoric cave paintings of France and Spain are, perhaps, the best-known (though we are still unsure as to its true nature). In historic times, graffiti has been found on walls and structures from ancient Greece and Rome, and can tell us much about the culture and mindset of ordinary people in far more illuminating ways than, say, a shard of pottery or broken statue. Politics, amourous declarations, personal insults, magical incantations, and even jokes can be found in ancient graffiti. City dwellers in our modern era are all too familiar with graffiti, as well. Indeed, many of the same themes that decorated the walls of the Roman Empire persist in modern graffiti.
Cleaning Out the Shop
Revolutionary Minds: Dalton Conley
Down is the New Up
Thom Yorke performing a new Radiohead song.
Grindhouse
“Grindhouses were usually in the ghetto,” Mr. Tarantino said in a phone interview. “Or they were the big old downtown movie theaters that sometimes stayed open all night long, for all the bums. At the grindhouse that I went to, every week there was the new kung fu movie, or new car-chase movie, or new sexploitation movie, or blaxploitation movie.”
U.K. Get a Mac Ads
U.K. versions of the popular Get a Mac ads.
