112 ocean avenue (13. 086)

Having moved in less than a month earlier, on this day in 1976, newly-weds with three children from a previous marriage, George and Kathy Lutz, claiming to have been terrorised by paranormal phenomena fled their home in the Amityville neighbourhood on the south shore of Long Island New York. The the five-bedroom Dutch Colonial property on a canal was vacant for a little over a year after a brutal mass-homicide of the former residents, the DeFeo family killed by their second-eldest son, and the realtor whom sold the house disclosed this gruesome murder to the couple before closing the deal—with the discount asking price too good to pass up. The place came fully furnished with much of the DeFeo family possessions included, and an acquaintance of Lutz’, having learned of the notorious history, convinced them (Kathy was a lapsed Catholic and George a non-practising Methodist) to have the home blessed by a priest as they were moving in. Father Pecoraro, a psychotherapist and lawyer for the ecclesiastic court residing in the local rectory, giving the benediction in a room on the first storey heard a gruff, disembodied masculine voice demanding he get out but refrained from letting the couple know until a week later on Christmas Eve to avoid that space, which was planned to be a sewing room after developing a sort of stigmata on his hands and wrists. Nothing unusual was experienced by the family at first but by mid-January the horrors became intolerable, declining to relate all the details so as not to relive the fright and left, abandoning all their possessions, once a brackish slime began covering the staircase. An editor of publishing house, Prentice Hall, a year afterwards introduced the Lutz family to writer Jay Anson, whom acquired the rights to the story, novelising the account, which was turned into a cinematic franchise in 1979 with several sequels and reboots. Subsequent owners of the property when it returned to the market reported no usual occurrences, other than the nuisance caused by the book and movies. The Shinnecock Nation, a tribe of the Algonquian Native Americans and indigenous residents of area, further objected to the suggestion that the address (now slightly altered to 108 to discourage visitors) was the site of what has since become a trope in the genre being an ancient Indian burial ground. An open-house was held after its most recent sale in 2010 but no one was allowed upstairs or in the basement.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ), earthstreak plus an auroral almanac

twelve years ago: a professional footballer comes out 

fourteen years ago: sovereign debt crises plus US forces in Germany 

fifteen years ago: realigning the zodiac 

why, he’ll have you back here before you can say schicklgruber (13. 085)

As our faithful chronicler reminds, not long before the collapse of the Third Reich the Merrie Melodies animated short film, the penultimate in their anti-Nazi propaganda series, premiered in theatres with news reels before the main feature on this day in 1945. After a prologue describing the downfall of Nazi Germany, a furrow ending in a rabbit hole emerges in the woods with Bugs Bunny, realising he is in the Black Forest laments that he knew he should have “taken that left turn at Albuquerque”—the first occurrence of the catchphrase. A chase ensues with Hermann Göring pursing his quarry, hoping for a bit of relaxation and distraction but Bugs manages to evade capture whilst eliciting some anti-Hitler sentiment. Musical, operatic interludes from Wagner’s Tannhäuser (see also here and here) and Strauss waltzes punctuate the encounter. Though not banned per se from the studio’s catalogue, the cartoon only saw limited releases in 2001 and 2007, likely due the amount of footnoting when the bounty presented to the Führer emerges as Bugs disguised as Joseph Stalin with the question “Does your tobacco taste different lately,” a reference to popular advertising campaign for pipe-smokers.

9x9 (13. 084)

foreverware: Eerie, Indiana was the Stranger Things of the late 1990s 

correlation is not causation: the mullet index of South American regime change—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

thirty-six views of the eifel tower: Henri Rivière’s woodblock prints inspired by the ukiyo-e scenes of Hokusai—via Messy Nessy Chic  

yakity-yak: prolific toy inventor Eddy Goldfarb at 104—via Damn Interesting  

the high price of exceptionalism: America’s problems are solved problems  

classifieds: an appreciation of the enduring earnestness of Craigslist, one of the few remaining refugees of the early internet before everything was commodified  

waggle dance: an optical compass inspired by bee navigators  

business in front, party in back: an annual hairstyle competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg  

mr burns: a post-electric play: post apocalyptic Simpsons stage show to have cinematic adaptation

heesch’s problem (13. 083)

Ranging from zero (in the case of the circle) and infinity for squares—with seemingly few values in between—in the study of tessellations (see previously here, here and here) a Heesch number pertaining to a geometric shape is the maximum number of layers of identical copies of the same figure will bear with no gaps or overlaps. Named for the geometer and mathematician Heinrich Heesch, who also made significant contributions to the field of tiling patterns and then unproven for colour theorem (the first mathematical proof by a computer) for mapping boundaries, he noticed that a one sort of planar shape, a square fused with a triangle would only accommodate one extra layer, as illustrated with these spandrels (from an architectural space between the top of arch and the ceiling) term referring to the teardrop arranged by contemporary Walther Lietzmann, and posed it as a general puzzle. Beyond the core, one can only form a signal corona of identical shapes—and whilst blocky polyominoes and tetrominoes seem to hold limitless promise at first glance, there still seems to be a limiting factor with no more than six deep.

unwörter des jahres (13. 082)

The jury that selects the German Un-Word of the Year (see below) went with one of the candidates from Deutschland’s Word of the Year in Sondervermögen, meaning special assets and sparking a lot of political debate but whose nuance isn’t immediately apparent and is intentionally misleading or euphemistic language used for investment and public debt. Runners up include the metaphoric Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz, the “inflow limitation act” using terminology associated with low-flow shower heads and the like to address immigration concerns and Umsiedlung for the “resettlement” of Palestinians advocated by Israel and the US.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Unwort of the Year (with synchronopticæ), a non-alcoholic glossary, the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: a time cafe plus terms for family members

thirteen years ago: a trillion dollar coin 

fourteen years ago: monitoring social media 

fifteen years ago: winter flooding 

sixteen years ago: a devastating earthquake in Haiti 

novus ordo seclorum (13. 081)

Though the Donroe doctrine and new world order is disruptive and regressive enough as it is with its spheres of influence and manifest destiny—as well for the unrestrained impulse for branding, there’s likely something more sinister underpinning it, though a noble joke to supporters, with the geopolitical goal aligned with the nationalist and expansionist policies of Lebensraum of the second and the third Reich. The ideology of course has antecedents in colonialism and settler mentalities, perfected in the melting-pot of America, which informed Nazism with eugenics and segregation as tools of tribalism and othering. Also saying the quiet part out loud, the principle was used as justification for Hitler’s territorial extension into central and eastern Europe, a necessity for security and survival with the mass-deportation of native populations to places like Siberia and ultimately extermination, supporting similar narratives espoused by other Axis powers, spazio vitale and hakkō ichiu, shifting dependence for trade to their own imperial hinterlands, and during a speech in December of 1940 delivered at the Berliner Sportspalast: “He who does not possess the force to secure his Lebensraum in this world and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by. This was so at all times. The world will not be an empty one because one Volk renounces its life. Rather the Lebensraum will be filled up by other peoples, other beings. There is no vacuum in nature.” By dint of political expediency, the definition of who was German and who was not was fluid though always undergirded with a quasi-religious sense of fate.

7x7 (13. 080)

good vs ice: Jesse Welles’ (previously) ballad for the woman murdered by an immigration agent in Minneapolis  

what fresh hell is this: an appreciation of Dorothy Parker  

specimen: over the decades, forty thousand individuals have claimed 078-05-1120 as their US social security number 

things to come: a look at Taliban censorship after a new law comes into effect banning images of people and animals  

spicy mode: Elon Musk won’t shut down his non-consensual deepfake generator until faced with legislation  

whodunit: a rare interview with Dame Agatha Christine revisited on fifty years since her demise  

fed chair: Jerome Powell responds to the Trump administration’s threats of indictment—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump indicted for misuse of campaign funds for hush money (with synchronopticæ), the prescience of George Orwell, the Great Game, MAGA infighting plus US neighbours snap back

twelve years ago: a pedestrian bridge for the Thames plus monograms and ciphers

thirteen years ago: lost infrastructure plus hen parties 

fourteen years ago: GMOs and food safety 

fifteen years ago: The Blow Monkeys 

sixteen years ago: saunas for a frigid day 

cordiform (13. 079)

Via {feuilleton} we are directed to an analysis of the origin of the inverted pear-shaped symbol representing the heart (see previously) ahead of Valentine’s Day through a catalogue of heart-shaped books from the fifteenth century, like the small bound volume held by St Catherine of Alexandria seating with St Jerome (replete with their respective visual attributes) in this anonymous painting from Bruges or Brussels. Such an elaborate manuscript was probably a secular songbook featuring verses on courtly love, the now familiar iconography and association of the organ as the seat of romance cemented in popular culture by the early Renaissance in part by its appearance on playing cards. Though there’s no definitive answer for the origin of ❤️—some speculate it may be inspired by other anatomical features, like breasts or the buttocks that have more to do with carnal thoughts whilst others suppose it might drawn from the shape of ivy leaves long associated with fidelity or to the seeds of silphium—the now extinct herb being both an aphrodisiac and a form of contraception—with others arguing that the iconic heart is not that far-removed from the beating organ with the fovea, the dip at the top between the auricles being the chief feature transmitted through the circles of early medicine, regarding as the most vital because of its pulsating.