varietà antica (11. 976)

Via Pasa Bon!, we are directed to the Italian scientist Isabella Dalla Ragione who scours medieval archives, cloistered orchards and Renaissance paintings for produce that has disappeared from daily cuisine to bring some diversity back to the table in the form of gnarled but hardy and delicious apples, pears, peaches, quinces, grapes and other forgotten heirloom fruit. Dalle Ragione’s family home with its ancient grounds has become a showcase and incubator for this effort as the interviewer acts as a docent through a quite remarkable gallery of art works that display this culling of an overwhelming abundance of cultivars down to monoculture, hoping to reverse the trend. With a little detective work, an amazing catalogue of outmoded varietals emerge from generally overlooked details, instilled themselves with symbolism and hence the importance of accurate representation to convey the message. Much more at the links above.

omg monteagle—if someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time (11. 975)

Guardian columnist Marina Hyde welcomes the arrival of the fifth of November, admonishing us to remember another guy—Guy that tried to blow up the whole system of government, quite literally even if Fawkes and compatriots might argue that the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder were a metaphor. Ultimately thwarted by an internal leak, a warning to a relative in the House of Lords on a piece of parchment—“that could have also been a social media post on X (which back in the seventeenth century was known as Twitter)” and publicly condemned by ye olde fake news media, the failed insurrection is a day of celebration for Britain.

your terror is the hallmark of a functional state and nausea us the most civic emotion (11. 974)

McSweeney’s contributors have a selection of postings for US election day, finally arrived after a seemingly endless and surprising campaign which may still be far from over. There’s the usual advice columns and election day bingo plus this list of “I voted” stickers for voters outside of the narrow band of battleground precincts that have been receiving all the coverage and overtures by dint of America’s electoral college system and minoritarian rule. We’re sure they’ll be updates through the day.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica), WoTY: AI plus The Sinister Urge

seven years ago: imaginative play

eight years ago: more links to enjoy plus election influence peddling

nine years ago: Hilbert Hotels, Rasputin’s daughter plus esoteric influences in aerospace

ten years ago: theorising language families, circadian rhythms plus urban algae

so it goes (11. 973)

Illustrator Igor Karash reimagines the disassociation and chiaroscuro of Kurt Vonnegut’s classic Slaughterhouse-Five, following protagonist Billy Pilgrim’s time-jumps across a far-flung utopian planet, a mundane existence as a suburban eye-doctor and World War II Dresden during the fire-bombing. The commission coming as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Karash drew from his experiences of reluctant, ridiculous conscription and connections to a besieged land, finding Vonnegut’s message and mantra PEOPLE DO NOT LEARN FROM THEIR PAST particularly resonant—also drawing from his many readings of the author’s work, being available in translation in the Soviet Union by dent of his criticism of the West and anti-war message.

sancarlone (11. 972)

Fêted on this day, following the sainted Milanese archbishop’s death in 1538, Carlo Borromeo, is celebrated for his reforms and the introduction of seminaries for the education of priests as a force, along with Ignatius Loyola, of the Counter-Reformation. Though we didn’t make it to his home town of Arona to see the colossal bronze created in his likeness during the seventeenth century on a recent visit to Lake Maggiore (at twenty metres tall, the world’s largest statue of the kind second only to the Statue of Liberty and hollow on the inside for visits up to the head), we did see some of his family’s other properties. Carlo’s patronage ranges from the obvious catechists and spiritual directors to the more obscure apple orchards and starch-makers and is invoked against a range of stomach diseases and digestive ailments.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a German supermarket chain allows customers trade worthless NFTs for coupons (with synchronoptica) plus leap minutes and seconds

seven years ago: electric VM mini-buses

eight years ago: statues celebrating women’s suffrawicker ge in the US Capitol, Türkiye requests rendition of disloyals in Germany, a magazine for discerning sweater-wearers plus self-repairing materials

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus the wicker peacock chair

ten years ago: DNA is not life’s only blueprint, charivari plus the Fall of Rome

stratocracy (11. 971)

Coming into force six months later as an amendment to the Meiji Constitution of 1890, the current supreme law of Japan was promulgated on this day in 1946, drafted primarily by American civilian officials of the occupation after the country’s unconditional surrender. The document provides for certain fundamental human rights and the supremacy of the parliament (the national Diet, favouring the British model though eliminating peerage with the upper house, like the House of Lords, formerly restricted to the nobility), reducing the role of the emperor to a symbolic head of state with only a ceremonial role. Also referred to as the Peace Constitution (Heiwa-Kenpō, 平和憲法), its composition was supervised by Douglas MacArthur with input from Japanese scholars and subject matter experts, Article 9 renounces the country’s right towage war or raise armies despite its military capabilities and sending forces in presence of a substantial American military presence. Sovereignty restored in 1952, attempts for further revision were frustrated over a number of legal hurdles and the requirements for change built into the system.

top of the rock (11. 960)

In a surprise cameo appearance, Kamala Harris appeared as dressing room mirror reflection of the comedian, Maya Rudolf, who reprised her role on Saturday Night Live after Harris became the candidate for a mutual pep-talk. After a day spent campaigning in the battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina, Harris took an unannounced detour to New York City, her plan to be in the show’s cold open kept a secret until after the motorcade arrived at the studios in Rockefeller Plaza—a kilometre away from Trump’s past venue. “I’m going to vote for us!” Rudolph proclaimed at the end of the sketch—to which Harris countered, “Any chance you’re registered in Pennsylvania?”

synchronoptica

one year ago: an occasional blog at twenty (with synchronoptica) assorted links worth the revisit plus a psychedelic collage by William S Burroughs (1991)

seven years ago: Germany’s Facebook Law, Dalí’s The Wines of Gala plus internet tarot

eight years ago: exoskeletons plus assorted things entering their fourth decade

nine years ago: November holidays and observances

eleven years ago: a visit to Delitzsch 

the balfour agreement (11. 959)

In anticipation of control of Mandatory Palestine from the Ottoman Empire as a result of ongoing negotiation and with the express understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities,” the British government proclaimed its support of a “national home for the Jewish people” in a missive from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfoud to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild on this day in 1917. The pledge to this community leader appeared in the press a week later. First drafted three years earlier to secure Jewish support in a wider war by appealing to ambitions for statehood, an exploratory committee was launched by Sir Mark Sykes (see above) but without consultation with the local Palestinian population. Although Israel did come into existence until after World War II concluded (the term used, “national home” was intentionally ambiguous and had no basis in international law, unclear how it might manifest, as a republic, a territory within the mandate or a spiritual centre), the declaration of support (with approval from the US and other Allies) strengthened the movement and has led to one of the most intractable geopolitical situations of the twentieth century and beyond.