If you’re wondering why a new instance, see here.
Frances Glessner Lee, “Parsonage Parlor” (detail) (1946-48) (Collection of the Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, courtesy Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Baltimore).
Frances Glessner Lee was a fascinating person, and one Marcus blogged about some time ago.
Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death is October 20 to January 28, 2018 at Renwick Gallery (1661 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC). You can read all about it at Hyperallergic.
Open thread, don’t be an asshole.
Thanks for the link to Glassner, a woman after my own heart!
Her work is exquisitely gory and informative. I would love to see it in person, which I probably will never get to, but I am inspired to seek out more information about her and her work in general.
She was amazingly talented. Marcus gave away a book about her, see his post. I’d love to see the dioramas in person, too. I don’t think it’s possible to get the full impact otherwise.
I’m sad I missed the giveaway, but I think it has a well-deserving new owner. At least I know what to put on my christmas wish-list for whenever someone might ask for it.
I let Marcus know about the show, he’ll probably be able to make it. Jealous.
T’anké,
I hadn’t considered this, which alone gives me much to mull.
I am so sorry, but also happy for you that you found where you needed to be, what you needed to do.
It’s nice to come here. It feels like it has a crackling fireplace, robust glass at the windows against which raindrops softly rattle. Good books. Halls to roam, breathing-in the artwork. Conversation—or not—as preferred. A space to seethe, and a space to sleep. Little rat ears to scritch. An ocean sky, frosted at night.
I . . . really have been away a long time.
I’m reminded of two other fields: social work (especially as relates to children and the horrors visited upon them), and oncology. Both have high burn-out rates. The emotional toll of daily hell and death sentences tends to lead to some dedicated work for several years, after which there’s a high rate of moving into another field, relocating geographically, taking time off.
Someone once said something about abysses and reciprocal gazes.
Thank you for this. I need to remember to give myself permission to do exactly what you said.
Here is Heather McHugh with some reflections: http://www.theartdivas.com/2017/09/from-towers-by-heather-mchugh.html
I bid TNET goodnight, with wishes for peaceful sleep amid the gleaming hum of all those neurons, the power-plant of us, ever ready.
Still learning,
Robert
The problem is there are a lot of seriously horrible things out there, and they’re connected -- usually by threads of genocide, racism, opportunity, and power. Before I started my blog here, I was aware of many of them, but it’s becoming a wound I have to pick at and it’s worse and worse. I have so many foul things in my “to do” list and I can’t do them justice -- so I take mental breaks. I feel self-indulgent when I do but I’d be being just as self-indulgent if I snap and go to the dark side.
I have a free day and I’ll be in Baltimore. Maybe I can swing by and see the mini murders.
By the way: the mini murders would make a great virtual reality game.
The lighting in that top picture is delicious. It reminds me of a photo by Greg Crewdson. Now I want to do a series of fine art crime scene photos….
Marcus
Hope you get a chance to see the show! I am also jealous.
As for fine art crime scene photography, well, I think that’s a wide-open niche, if you ever find a way to take it up!
Gloom. We are all doomed.
The thing is, that battling trolls and assholes is exhausting for us, but they get a kick out of threatening, ridiculing and demeaning people. So they have an inherent advantage that I do not know how to equate. A few years ago I still argued with people on the internet, but I have given up because most people just cannot be reasoned with.
Take Steve Shives or Anita Sarkeesian. Their videos have maybe a few thousand views per video at the most. Yet there is a whole industry of videomakers who make fun of them, that have tens, sometimes hunderds of thousands of views. That means that excessively more people watch lies about them, than people who watch what they actually really say.
Marcus:
Yep, same thing happened to me. I’m not feeling so self-indulgent anymore, because it’s not indulgence, it’s survival, and if I’m good at anything, it’s that.
Charly:
When I consider the self-proclaimed shitlords, I think of A Clockwork Orange. Specifically, how it ended, with Alex maturing. Yeah, I know a certain percentage of them have reached or gone beyond the regular ‘age’ of maturity, but most of them are still quite young, and happily stupid. I also think it’s a much smaller percentage of people than they’d like us to think, just like the actual percentage of self-proclaimed shite supremacists in uStates is quite small, in comparison the whole population.
As always, I don’t think the big problem rests with them; it rests with all those who simply cannot be arsed to take a side, those who just shove their hands in their pockets and shrug. I don’t think there’s a need to constantly engage with the shitlords, when it comes to them, I think ignoring them is best, because that’s what they can’t stand. The whole point of what they do is to get attention. What does matter, I think, is how we all act, interact, and react within the sphere of our lives. Do we challenge what we hear from the people around us in meatspace? I do, and so do most of those I know. Those actions make a difference. Insisting that people think and learn, that makes a difference. Sure, it’s a slow ripple, but it does matter.
I’m not here to give joy to morons on the net who are busy playacting at being a big, bad, villain. I ignore them the same way I’d ignore a child having a tantrum in order to gain attention.
Rober, Desert Son
Thanks.
I know the US is not the place. He’d probably already be dead if we lived in the US, not the least due to lack of healthcare. I think our system does a relatively good job until the point when people become totally beyond control, theirs respectively. We also still completely fuck up when it comes to psychological harm. The rationale why they cannot commit him for a longer time so far has been that “he hasn’t hurt anybody”. This completely ignores that people are harmed when somebody walks into a bank screaming that this is a robbery. They cannot know that this is just a poor mad soul who doesn’t know any better. Her terrorises his dad, constantly phones police and emergency services, but that’s not something that is considered “harm”.
It is kind of funny how Mr keeps talking while watching football as if I listened.
But one of the German players is cute.
Charly at #9,
I know this feeling intimately.
I have a lot to say about it, but maybe the thing to say at this moment is simply: I hear you, I stand with you.
Affinity—and TNET—seem(s) to me a good place to set down some thoughts and then take some time before picking them up again. Maybe enjoy a stroll through the art gallery or watch the birds. Perhaps I’m just reminding myself.
Gestures of care to you.
Still learning,
Robert
I want to hug all of you. And then have some drinks, or tea, wallow a bit, solve all the world’s problems, escape from Life for a short while. Thank you for being here. You all help me, too.
Oh yes, please.
I simply cannot despair. Maybe I’m like Caine in that respect: I’m a survivor, it’s what I do. I know Stephanie Zvan once blogged about how having to live through abuse gave her strength when she had to deal with the atheist dudebro harassers, and I think there’s some truth to it. Not in the sense of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” but in the sense of “if you learned to survive you learned some useful skills.
I also need all my strength to not kill my early puberty kid who thinks it’s child abuse when I ask her to put her own fucking custard cup into the bin.
Giliell
Well you certainly have some nerve, forcing your children to pick up after themselves. I swear mine die every time I tell them to pick their clothes up off the floor. And by “die” I mean loudly and with drawn-out drama. I’m surprised they’re still alive; I must be killing them wrong.
Gilliel:
I know that I have been on the receiving end of only a fraction of the abuse that others (like Stephanie Zvan) have received but, for me, it has drained my strength. Sometimes I really wonder why I bother trying to fight — politically, socially, morally. The shitlords enjoy this, they thrive on it. I feel like I suffer whenever I speak up.
Also, Gilliel and rq, it doesn’t actually get better. It gets different, but not actually better.
==========
I went to a marriage celebration on Saturday night. Girl’s fiance’s sister got married last spring so that her spouse would have health insurance on her plan. They are both gamers — fantasy games are their hobby and much or their social life. Every table had games on them — from Othello and Connect Four to some really strange games I never even heard of. (Sorry — …of which I have never heard (I just heard some English teachers cringe)).
Wife and I were trying to figure out a gift. Wife had a brilliant idea.
Stashed on one of my bookshelves, I had the original paper books from the white box as well as three of the earliest expansion books from the original Dungeons and Dragons. One missing a cover. From back in the days before D20, D10, D8 and D4. Back when all we had was paper, pencils, little pot metal figures (that we had to paint), and six-sided die. Yeah. That long ago. And I had used them to run dungeons until AD&D took over and things went all wahoonie shaped.
So Wife suggested those books as a gift.
Wow. The reactions from the almost-newlyweds and their friends was mind-blowing. Once they realized what they were, all other conversation stopped. One young man said that he had written about these early books (not sure where) in a history of fantasy gaming (no idea if it was published on paper or on line) and had only ever seen them in photos. They were taking pictures and putting them on Facebook as if they were a new-born babe. They plan to photograph every page, put the originals in a controlled-environment to preserve them, and use the copies to run some olde-schoole D&D campaigns.
I had considered, in the past, donating them for our local library sale. I’m glad I didn’t. Nice to know that the kids these days do have an appreciation for ancient history. Y’know, the 1970s.
————--
All: stay safe.
Ogvorbis:
I think it’s important to not go overboard on projecting here. Each of us, our situations are different in many respects, while the same in many, too. For Giliell to say “I can’t despair” is not the same as saying “hey, it gets better.”
My alternative to despair was cutting back, and making brutal decisions about what was realistically within my capability to do, long term. So, for me, yes, things did get better, because they were damn fucking bad there for a while. It was crucial for me to pay acknowledgement to my brokenness, to find a better balance for myself.
As Giliell noted, that was me in survivor mode; I’m still there, I’m always there, although it doesn’t always take precedence these days. Being a survivor can help; it can certainly make a difference. It’s not up to me to say what quality of difference when it comes to other people.
Sorry. I meant that as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the stages of bringing a newborn up to adulthood. My bad. I was unclear.
In that case, I apologize! Parenting and the problems thereof don’t even enter my parentless head. :D
Again, sorry for being unclear. I reread what I wrote and really should have had a stronger break between the paragraph on the shitlords and the attempt at parenting humour.
I spent the summer (what I can remember of the summer (during June and July, my dosage was 20mg of oxycodone every four hours, plus flexerol (a muscle relaxant), plus some anti-depressant that also blocks nerve pain (which I stopped taking after two weeks because they were not kidding when they warned of the possible side effect of suicidal ideation!))) engaging in a great deal of self care. Of course, a lot of that was: get out of bed, go to the bathroom, go downstairs, get a drink, go back to bed exhausted, repeat as needed. Read a lot (I still love Pratchett) — read some African history (Pakenham and Nutting), a lot of military history (especially naval history), a lot of palaeontology books, some WWI history, some science fiction, a lot of Pratchett, etc. I had no energy at all for keeping track of Trump and Team Tang and all of their illegalities. Which was refreshing. Not having cable TV helped a great deal as I could not watch CNN and MSNBC. Wife was very helpful, pushing me to do more physically while understanding my limits and the limits under which my brain was operating.
Higs to you, Caine.
So… 12th of october. Over 500 years ago, a bunch of people from Europe arrived to the Caribbean. But when Europe sent its people, it wasn’t sending their best. It was sending people that had lots of problems, and they brought those problems with them. They brought disease. They brought crime. They were rapists. And none, I assume, were good people. In Argentina we now know this day as “Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural,” Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity, to remind us not to be like those bad hombres. So from here, I’d like to wish a good day for the culturally diverse people who visit this blog!
((nostalgia))
Hugs and higs to you, Ogvorbis.
Ogvorbis
Oh I know. I will say that so far each stage of parenting has held its own problems, but also delights. There hasn’t been a phase yet that I also didn’t enjoy. That includes puking babies and terrible twos.
Yet, still, #1 is testing my limits. I have no clue why she is behaving like an arsehole with no reason whatsoever, especially towards us. You say something normal or nice like “good morning” and you get back something snappy or just plain insults. I think part of it is her not being exactly neurotypical, which also means she can switch gears at a speed that I simply can’t. She can have the biggest fight, most horrible drama, crying, screaming, yelling, pushing all the buttons she knows (You hate me, you don’t want me to be your child, you love my sister more than me,…) and 2 minutes later she is happy and calm and expects us to act as if nothing happened. But I simply can’t do that. It’s not physically possible because there’s still so many hormones raging through my bloodstream that I am upset.
Australian desert reaches peak budgie as thousands dazzle wildlife photographer: “Steven Pearce captures up to 10,000 birds swooping for a drink at an outback water hole in rare display he describes as a marvel of agility”. Pictures and a video at the link.
Fuck. I sneezed and my leg went numb. Time to head out and I don’t know if I can walk. I WANT MY LIFE (sad as it is) BACK!
More hugs.
Now this looks like an interesting movie! In part because of the unique way in which it was made, but also after watching some of the trailers, it just seems good. 65,000 portraits of the artist: how Van Gogh’s life became the world’s first fully painted film:
There’s another trailer at the link.
The BBC also did a story on this film.
And here is a short documentary by co-director Hugh Welchman, Loving Vincent, behind the scenes.
One of joys of being a senior citizen is getting spam/phishing phone calls. Just got one, a robocall made obviously with a voice synthesizer, claiming the IRS had an arrest warrant out for me. I hung up without saying anything. Did a reverse check on the caller id. Fraudulent/spam number. Unfortunately, some confused/scared senior citizen could fall for the obvious ruse.
I didn’t feel inspired to write about it on my blog, but I was so amused I had to share this story about Moorish funerary textiles in Viking graves.
The research itself is interesting enough, and carried out by researchers at Uppsala University who may know a bit more about Viking culture than your average internet troll, but it really is the widespread freakout by racists in the US and the UK that makes the story gold.
I’ll be making my tea with racists’ tears today. Mmmm, delicious, delicious racists’ tears.
CD @ 32:
Atlas Obscura has that story: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/viking-clothes-with-allahs-name-embroidered-in-silk
Who knew The Thirteenth Warrior was a documentary.
@Giliell, my thougsht exactly. And I have as well gotten a little chuckle out of this when I read about it on rawstory yesterday evening.
Sigh. My father is angry with me and my mother, because we did not stick the middle figner to my uncle. He has never forgiven him the chikanery he had to endure from him when they were children and when they were young, and he will never forgive him that he fought with the whole family to get a huge villa he subsequently has let go to ruin and filled with garbage. He keeps pointing out that if we let the old man rot, we would not have the stress and work we do have with him now. And he does not undrestand that we simply do not have the mentality to do that.
I have never met my grandfather, but if I did, I would kick him in the ass for the damage he has done to his children. And what I see is probably only the tip of the iceberg. Fucking catholics with their twisted notions of morals.
Charly, you are a good person!
An estimated 300 000 barnacle geese were resting on their way to the winter pastures in the Netherlands, on a flooded field. The place is in Elimäki, in southeastern Finland in the region Kymenlaakso (River Kymijoki valley/basin).
The photo of the geese is taken at Lake Elimäenjärvi. 300 000 is about third of the world population of barnacle geese. On Thursday, a gaggle of about 150 000 geese was reported.
In this articlethere are some photos of the autumn migration of barnacle geese from Iitti, which is close to Elimäki, from 2015, from a tourism website.
The geese are migrating from the shores of the Arctic Ocean and according to the article, hunting in Russia and the fact that barnacle geese are protected in Finland has caused them to choose a more westerly route than before in the last 10 or so years. White-tailed eagles (a.k.a. ern, erne or Eurasian sea egle) have started to take advantage of the situation, however. This has often forced the geese spread out to a wider area.
Charly
You and your mum aren’t taking care of your uncle because he’s a good person, but because you are.
+++
Yay, I have a kitchen door! And a curtain. If only you could ever do something in this house that you just do and that doesn’t require about 10 additional steps…
But I’m still very happy with our house, especially when I hear what happened to other people who bought and renovated or even worse, built a house.
+++
My students are the best. We have to give something called “time-span grades” which reflect how well the students work in class. I quite like them, because especially for the weak students they are life-savers. You always have your material ready, you do your homework, you volunteer to read something out and don’t annoy the fuck out of me and you can kind of make that bad class test vanish.
I told my final year graders to tell me what they think they deserve and why. The answers are the best. “I try to watch TV in English”…
Charly, what Giliell says. You are good people. Hugs and tea if you want ’em.
Charly:
There was a lot of that in my fucked up family, all my sympathies.
Thanks for the support, it is much appreciated.
Giliell
I warned you :). As an experienced house owner I can tell you that such a thing doth not exist in any house, not in this world. I found out that on a house there is never anything finished, there is always something more to do and if by some miracle thing A is finished, then thing B pops up as a necessary follow up. And sometimes thing C pops up unrelated.
This year I had a new pavement made. After it was finished I found out that next year I wil have to make a pergola for shade because it blinds when the summer sun shines on it. I also had my plans for this winter and my cherry tree has thrown a wrench in them becase it developed a rot and I have to fell it before it cracks and kills someone. Etc. ad infinitum. What is not helping that my body frame is quite weak, so I simply am not capable of doing the same amount of manual labor that others in my place would be.
It is fulfilling and frustrating at the same time. I see progress, but I also see the huge amount of things that are not done, and never will be. Being a house owner is a sysipheian task.
This article features a video on the massive gaggle of barnacle geese in Elimäki, that I linked to yesterday. The video is from Sunday 16th October and the article states that the number of geese may have increased from Saturday.
In the map “pesintäpaikka” = nesting site, “välilasku” = stopover and “talvehtiminen” = wintering.
+++
Here are some game camera videos of wildlife in the border zone between Finland and Russia. There are bears, moose, badgers, boar and raccoon dogs.
We have municipal elections today.
I am mostly … meh.
But I will do my civic duty.
OUr park is preparing for Hallowe’en. We’er having a kids event. Should be fun. Right now, there is an inflatable pumpkin sitting next to the air duct that routes sound to my desk. And it has “Monster Mash” on continuous loop. AAAAAAAIIIIIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, that’s awful -- The Monsters Hop is much better.
I hate my job.
Not my actual job, just my supervisors and everything that has to do with the fucking “training” I’m supposed to be getting. It’s like trying to watch inzto a crystal ball to see what they want.
BTW, my dear native speakers, would you raise your eyebrows if someone said “in the year seventeen hundred nineteen”?
Something good: We had a lesson about sexual violence harassment. and our instructor made it very, very clear that there’s no such thing as an innocent gesture and that how you mean it is fucking irrelevant when it comes to how the other one understands it and that the onus is always on us to keep the students safe and comfortable.
Well, not all old white dudes who are also priests are shit.
Even if he keeps nicking my unicorn mug.
sez Giliell @48: “BTW, my dear native speakers, would you raise your eyebrows if someone said ‘in the year seventeen hundred nineteen’?”
I would, because that’s a rather archaic way of saying it. It’s valid, mind you, but… kind of like saying “Aye” instead of “Yes”. Maybe there’s a particular social context in which “in the year seventeen hundred nineteen” would be the preferred/standard way of expressing the year, just as “Aye” is standard in certain military contexts?
Giliell#48
No.
…Maybe one eyebrow.
as cubist says, it’s a bit archaic
or maybe poetical.
I think it unlikely to be misunderstood.
Well, I was reading out a pirate story.
I just got two evaluations of the same thing and one says I do too much X and the other says I don’t do it enough.
You really feel like this is an objective and valid evaluation of your work.
The Difficult Birds Research Group† and Possum Keeper-Outters! Sounds like a joke, but it isn’t, Who is more clever, a teeny-tiny glider or a fancy bird scientist? (cartoon): “How can we keep the evil yet adorable sugar glider from eating all the swift parrots? Here’s where Operation PKO and you come in!”
† They do not seem to have a project on the mildly deranged you-know-who. Fortunately, she approves of frustrating evil hungry sugar gliders — who are an introduced invasive species in Tasamina, where they like to munch on the critically endangered swift parrots — so she isn’t too annoyed at the omission.
Canadian music lost an icon today. I have mixed feelings for several reasons but here’s a long-standing favourite.
British birds evolve bigger beaks to use garden feeders:
I put it down to different factories making the rat-propelled puppets. Also, continental rats don’t have to deal with British food, meaning they don’t have to stay as far away from the alleged food as possible, allowing shorter puppet’s beaks.
If you have around €250,000, then you can have your very own cave troll lair / batcave, Balearic cave home (photos): “This two-bedroom natural cave in Menorca is full of quirky artwork that might just rock your world”.
I admit I had to look up just where Menorca (also known as Minorca) is — it’s one of the Balearic Islands islands, somewhat southeast of Barcelona in the Mediterranean Sea — not a million miles away from me.
blf @ 55
Wow. not sure if I wanted to sleep there, but looks interesting.
The neighbouring island Mallorca (Majorca) is a huge tourist destination, so getting there from the South of France (or most other parts of Europe) is probably quite easy.
Ice Swimmer@56, Yes, my understanding is the whole of the Balearic Islands is a well-known (well-known, that is, to perhaps everyone but myself!) tourist spot. I haven’t looked, but concur that getting there from here is probably straightforward.
Hey, guess who is currently typing from the children’s ward after her kid managed to break her wrist!
But yay for socialised medicine. She was x-rayed and had surgery already and the worst financial woes might be my stay for tonight and a parking ticket.
Ouch! Hope it all goes well. I fractured both my wrists inside of two weeks when I was around 10.
We’re back home. Everything went as well as can be expected, but I’m just too damn tired and wayyyyyyyyyyyyy beyond schedule.
Also, #1 “dealt” with the situation by being a complete arsehole, which doesn’t make things any easier.
I guess TNET isn’t showing up in comments anymore.
Giliell *hugs* and hooray for being at home, and hooray for socialised medicine, and hooray for kids feeling well enough to be assholes about everything.
+++
Sometimes, I feel my greatest accomplishment is getting two of every sock out of the washing machine. Such a magical feeling -- especially when I realize I didn’t put two of every sock into the washing machine…
I need to get the winter tires on the car, preferably by first removing the summer tires. We’re to expect snow this week in parts of the country, though nobody know which parts -- the frost was supposed to only be way up near the border with Estonia, but it’s certainly frosty outside this morning and we’re nowhere close to that border to qualify for that particular forecast. So yay snow?
I know the comments stopped showing; I’ll have a new thread up on Nov. 1st. I won’t be around on Monday, maybe Tuesday, too. I’ll try to have the regular stuff up. My pain levels have been at the scream level for months, and after today, I’m out of meds until fucking Tuesday. I hate the drug laws here. I don’t have pain clinic until Nov. 5th, so I’m not going to be in any sort of human mood for the next couple of days, at least.
Sometimes I am amazed at how angry I am.
For such a long time.
About so many things.
.
I have this thread bookmarked.
I try to check in every day or so.
On Australian TV tonight -- a Q&A special on our equal marriage debate :
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/
My question for tonight’ panel (Actress and author Magda Szubanski,Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies
Jesuit priest and law professor Frank Brennan, No campaign spokesperson Karina Okotel) is : What do they make of the Bible verse 1 Samuel 20:42 where (after kissing each other*) Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn in the name of Yahweh that Yahweh will bond you and me and your descendants and my descendants forever’ and King David’s bisexuality more generally?
http://www.thebricktestament.com/david_vs_saul/jonathan_and_david/1s20_42a.html
If I could get a second question asked for them it’d be : What do some Christian extremists think gives them the right to impose their particular interpretation of their religion over everyone else in society?
* See : 1 Samuel 20:41 “They kissed each other.”
http://www.thebricktestament.com/david_vs_saul/jonathan_and_david/1s20_41b.html
Doubt they’ll ask my question(s) but still could be worth watching if folks are interested which hopefully they are.
There’s been a butter shortage here in France for much of this year (Sacré beurre: fears over croissant price hike as France faces butter shortage, June-2017) due to “falling milk yields […], together with rising demand both domestically and internationally and the fact that most milk is used to make cheese or cream, not butter.” However, until this morning, I hadn’t really noticed the shortage (I suppose croissant and butter prices have increased, but not to levels I’ve consciously noticed).
This morning I popped into the local store where I routinely buy butter and various other supplies. There was no butter. the entire display case was empty. Just a sign apologizing for problems with “distribution”(? “supplies”?).
Also see ‘Worst since the war’: Just how bad is France’s butter shortage?.
Grumble.
blf, I’d be grumbling too.
I don’t use alot of butter but I’d be pretty whiny if I had to go without.
Blf, my sympathies.
Butter has become expensive, but no shortages. I probably should increase the shortage by stocking the freezer for Christmas already…
Can
youone make shortbread without butter?I mean,
youone can put all the other ingredients into the bowl BUTif there is no butter
is it shortbread?
???
I still have some butter in the freezer. My cardiologist wanted me on a diet low in dairy fat, so I spray olive oil on my toast in the morning instead of using butter.
Shortbread needs butter. While vegetable shortening could give the texture, the aroma and taste of the shortbread will be off.
Some more on the grumble butter shortages here in France, Croissants in crisis: could French bakers crumble amid butter shortage?:
The Grauniad doesn’t include a link to the film. At the moment I can’t find it. However, I did find a short article about the making of the film, Court-métrage. En manque de beurre salé, des zombies envahissent Morlaix, which has a short video interview (French) with its makers and includes scenes of the film being made: “A funny filming took place in Morlaix […]. Dozens of extras, haggard and skin peeling, wandered the streets. All because of a lack of salted butter” (Generalissimo Google translation).
Back to the Grauniad…
As the Reuters video Butter shortfall could leave French croissants half-baked points out, a shortage continuing into winter will wreak many traditional holiday baked goodies.
Back to the Grauniad…
That does partly explain why I haven’t noticed a price change.
Fascism did not start in USA with Trump. It took root when displays of uncritical patriotism became a “voluntary must” -click- Really?
Interesting, because here I have seen them. Half a pound is like 2€ now, 2,50 for organic butter, which is between 50 and 80 ct more. Now, I can fortunately simply shrug that off, because even with butter on every sandwich that vanishes in a food budget for 4 people.
+++
Technology, why does it fuck with me?
Tomorrow there’s another teaching test (If you’re under the impression that I’m constantly complaining about testing it’s because I’m constantly being tested). And of course my whole schedule flew out of the window already with the little one’s wrist. So when I wanted to print my stuff (some of it needs to be in colour) this afternoon, nothing happened. I suspected my rotting USB ports, cables, anything. I was already on my way to beg my neighbour to let me use her printer when I noticed that somehow during the day my computer had created another imaginary printer to which it was sending my files.
Don’t ask me why, or how, but once I switched back to the original one and deleted the fake one, everything worked again.
Found it! Pénurie (Shortage): “A shortage of salted butter strikes Brittany mysteriously. Things degenerate very quickly. While a small group deploys its hostile actions on the region, the Bretons find themselves facing a fatal destiny” (Generalissimo Google translation). Whilst obviously in French, much of it should make rather hilarious sense. And it’s rather well shot.
Saw mini versions of this thing in the first picture today when I went swimming in the open sea for the first time in a couple of weeks (I did swim in a seawater pool* last week). Quite a thrill to swim on big (relatively speaking) waves.
The sauna I usually go to was on a two-week maintenance break, which meant going to other places for the sauna and swimming. But now it’s back, with new stones in the kiuas (stove), new benches and other smaller updates.
__
* = They pump fresh sea water into a unheated outdoor swimming pool which is on a floating pier, from which you can see the Presidential Palace. There are heated pools as well on the pier.
In just under two hours there will be the second anniversary of the SO not dieing of a heart attack.
Success! For years, there’s been three shops (that I know of) in the village (centre) selling 100% recycled paper towels — which I’ve used for many more years — until recently, when one closed (to be replaced, paper-towel wise, by another), then two stopped selling them, leaving only one. Which appeared to stop selling them this summer, much to my annoyance. Down to my last pack, I checked that last-known shop this afternoon, and yay, restocked!
Success (mostly)!! Some time ago I broke the inner glass beaker of my espresso instrument, so was unable to brew decent coffee. (Tea is not a problem in France, nor is cafe-purchased coffee, so this was a relatively minor annoyance.) Despite being a standard part — over the years I’ve broken and replaced the part many times — I could not find any. Eh? Recently, a new coffee specialist shop opened up in the centre, and yay! They had the part. Some coffee is festering in the instrument now… (dashes off to pour a shot)… Yum! Minor(?) problem now is I (re-)discovered another part of the instrument isn’t in the best of condition, so I’ll eventually pop back to the shop to see if they have a replacement…
Success (sort-of)!!! Butter, Teh Vanished. Found some in the same shop as the paper towels, but wasn’t quite what I wanted (and I’m not — yet — that desperate). So still looking… Problem is, after now just checking, I’ve less olive oil than I thought I had… Grumble.
Didn’t search for croissants, but failed to spot any zombies…
Butter prices have nearly doubled over the last six months. Since most of it is local, there won’t be a shortage anytime soon; they just seem to be going with the general European trend of hiked prices.
Chigau @ 76:
That’s a good anniversary. Here’s to many more years of breathing together!
This morning, I woke up to 1) Fuck, seriously cold and 2) Oh fuck, snow.
Grumble brumble grrr….. bad mood alert.
I had to do some work in the garden before the snow and frost come, and I seem to be unable to rest. I cannot remember when was the last time I went to bed tired and woke up refreshed.
I wake up these last mornings to dark, misty, wet and cold weather which wil last for months. I am getting crankier by the minute. I have constantly runny nose, I sneeze all the time and my back and my shoulder joints ache for weeks non stop. I hate winter. It saps all the strength that I normally do not have anyway.
For example I compiled a long reply to Marcus on his IQ post in my head today when I was crunching data and trying to make sense out of measurements that have high noise/signal ratio but are usefull despite that. And the minute I came home and sat to the PC I was like, “meh, whats the point?”.
I am working on a knife for over three weeks now. I know that once I get in the workshop and get started, I will enjoy it and will be there for hours. But I cannot muster the energy to get there and get started in the first place. I catch myself at procrastinating my own enjoyment, because I feel like I do not deserve any, and because it is cold and wet outside and I hate cold and wet.
Grumble.
Charly, all my sympathies. I just went out and filled up all the bird feeding stations, and typing with fingers I can’t even feel.
I’m right here with you.
But that’s not true, I’m not just grumbling and grouchy.
I’m seriously at the end of my tether and it’s not a good place to be in. It’s the driving too fast because, who cares place and I know it and I hate it.
The test went half well, half bad.
I told them that I hadn’t had enough time because of the kid. Later the responsible dude from our school said I should have tried to have it postponed, “the people at the seminar tend ti be very generous in such cases”.
Well yeah, thank you for nothing. “Very generous”, eh? Language is so revealing. I told him that I was afraid that in that case they’d say I just wasn’t up to it, not dedicated enough because I know that one of the former trainees had been told “why don’t you just leave and take care of your kids?” (Can you even imagine that being said to a guy?)
He probably means well, but I’m too old to believe in the “family friendly” fairy tale. I know nobody gives a shit or will cut me some slack, because we all know that working mums just are the worst, right?
Back to feeling cold in the later mornings, after I have been involved with water from several sources. My hands feel icy when I touch my face. I may have finally hit on what is needed to get warmed up. More layers than I thought necessary, but it did work today, to the point that some of the layers disappeared after lunch, and I’m still warm. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Hi, Nerd
I sleep wearing gloves (those thin dollar-store ones) because if my hands stay really warm, they can actually move, come morning.
I sleep wearing tabi (thin Japanese-style toe-socks) because … similar.
There is also a neoprene sacroiliac brace thingy that I use on bad nights.
and I have a very elaborate neoprene-vecro-elastic ankle brace that puzzles me.
And because I am in such a fine mental and emotional place, my grandma just died.
I mean, it was not unexpected, her health has been rapidly deteriorating and it’s good for her that it was not a long drawn-out suffering, but fuck.
Ah, Giliell, my sympathies. Looks like the fate has decided to crap on you these last months. Hold in there.
Oh Giliell, I am so sorry. You’re never really prepared.
Giliell, my sympathies.
Giliell:
eHugs and sympathy.
Holy shit, I just got a bunch of pics of Baird’s sparrows! Never seen them before, but I have heard them.
Gilliel, I am so sorry for your loss.
I am very silly. I found a Halloween rat skeleton and dressed it as the Death of Rats. Photos here: https://anne-d.dreamwidth.org/277730.html
The Grim Squeaker! That’s adorable, Anne.
Two thumbs up to Anne for the photo.
UC Berkeley Uses Optical Scanning to Recover Indigenous Voices from Wax Cylinders
“Among the thousands of wax cylinders in the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology are songs and spoken-word recordings in 78 indigenous languages of California. Some of these languages, recorded between 1900 and 1938, no longer have living speakers.”
The wax cylinders are not in the best condition, because decades-old and wax, but hopefully they can extract the sound data from the cylinders.
Thank you! It was great fun, which I really needed.
First. Charges. Filed.
That is all.
Giliell
BIG HUGS
to all those gramma left behind
Shit. Should have read upthread before posting.
I’m really sorry, Gilliel.
My condolences, Giliell!
Thanks, everybody.
It’s sad, it’s another closure, but I am also so grateful for having had her for so long.
Thankfully my aunt, who has occasional religious spasms (of the “public display of rituals” kind), doesn’t argue with her brothers about a religious service. My cousin wants us grandchildren to say something at the funeral. I like that idea.
My condolences, Giliell.
Hi, everyone. Just randomly thought I’d drop by to say hi.
Condolences for Giliell.
Success! I found some zombie-free butter yesterday. At, in fact, the shop which had run out earlier in the week. The display cabinet was mostly empty — I don’t know if that’s because they didn’t get much or suffered a butter-deprived zombie attack — but some of what they had just happened to be the butter I usually buy.
Giliell
*manyhugs*
Thinking good thoughts your way.
Charly
Also for you.
I do like winter, but a lot of things about it just suck, especially the darkness and the miserable weather that seems to settle in deep (and there’s far more of this weather than the lovely crispy snow).
+++
Allo, Beatrice!!
+++
I know winter is coming because I, too, have been spending a lot of time wondering what is the point in reference to several choices I have made and also life in general. At least I’ve learned to recognize this for what it is and to remind myself that it will end eventually and the thing to do is to soldier on each separate day at a time, but goddamn don’t I just want to lay down and cry with frustration most of the time.
Eh.
Beatrice!
I was thinking of you again just last night, wishing to hear from you. I’ve missed you. How’s life these days?
Could a farting statue unite Brexit Britain?:
The mildly deranged penguin hopes “catapults” means “cat-launching trebuchets”.
† “Trump” is British slang for “fart”.
Beatrice!
So glad to see you!
I should mention that things are screwed up (what’s new), and comments to TNET stop showing in the recent comment list after 14 days. I keep nagging about this, but…
Anyroad, I’ll be putting up a new instance every month, so even though it looks like there aren’t new comments, they are there, just, um, kinda invisible.
Beatrice！！！！！！
There’s a pair of *Purple Finches* at the feeder. Finches. Unreal.
And a Goldfinch! In freaking October. wtf…
Warm thoughts to everybody who is hit by the darkness, cold and the darker side of life!
Hello, Beatrice!
Finches haven’t finched off their way somewhere warmer and less snowy?
Ice Swimmer:
Yes, they finched off ages ago! They are summer birds here, and it’s definitely not summer. And Baird’s sparrows have come out of the woodwork, not being even remotely skulky, like normal.
Beatrice, I am glad to read you again. I too was wondering recently how you are doing.
Central Europe had strong winds today. We had a 12 hour blackout and we are among the lucky ones in this regard, there are still thousands of people without electricity and some roads are still blocked.
My glasshouse survived, perhaps the reinforcements I build in ther after last disaser work. That is a little boon. Also, I harvested about half a kilogram of figs from there yesterday. In effin’ october. I will never get used to that.
Charly:
Figs and Finches. :shakes head:
Hello Beatrice.
Finding out unblocking the heating vent (the Redhead had a over-stuffed quilt rack in front of it) in the master bedroom means I need one less blanket.
My uncle went for heart surgery. The surgery went well, but after that he got several hours of epileptic attacks that have left him exhausted and he needs to go in a rehab because he can barely move. However he did not have a stroke, allegedly those attacks were caused by the contrast fluid used for the surgery.
So instead of improving his health, the surgery almost killed him and his health worsened (hopefully only temporarily -- the prognosis is he might make full age adequate recovery). And instead of him being in the nursing home 500 m away where I could visit him easily, he is in a care facility 40 km away where I might not be able to visit at all, because of such pesky things as sleeping and working.
At least praise is to be sung to secular society for universal healthcare, otherwise the situation would be much, much worse.
“attack” = meant was seisure, only just after posting the correct English terminus technicus kindly presented itself to my brain.
I’m ok, thanks for asking Caine. Life happening.
I kinda missed all of you folks. It’s nice to be here to catch up a bit.
Condolences, Giliell!
I was out from here for a few days, in part because of a funeral (the grandmother I mentioned upthread). Lutheran service was brief, and the priest made a good job editing and reading out the beautiful speech my mom had written for grandma.
Condolences for Charly, too!
Looks like we had first snow on the same day in South Finland and North Dakota, quite early by usual standard. Now the snow is gone, and the landscape is soaked from both snowmelt and previous heavy rains.
Beatrice, you’re always more than welcome here. We’re a small gathering, but comfortable, and no assholes.
Charly, oh, there’s just no end to things with your uncle, is there? Here’s hoping to a swift recovery, and him being back at the home soon.
Lumipuna, glad the funeral went well. Snowed again today, a thin, brittle coat, very cold.
Heya
Spent the whole day cooking and baking as we’re going to celebrate the little one’s birthday as a Halloween party tomorrow.
I even have a costume. And white contact lenses.
Last night the whole family met for dinner. My two youngest cousins turned out alright, but the oldest sadly drunk the capitalist cool aid. He’s been through two burn outs already, but believes that capitalism is the best economic system ever.
Charly
Wishing your uncle a speedy recovery.
Research breakthrough raises hope of predicting future Ebola outbreaks:
Abiding condolences to Giliell, and quiet support for Charly in difficult times.
It’s been one hell of a day, so much so that I’m too outpaced to comment on it, and still grappling with my own feelings of suspicion about premature hope.
A line from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation keeps springing to mind: “Hallelujah, holy shit, where’s the Tylenol?!”
I don’t have more at present. Merely wanted to step in and bid you all hello, hand around some digital hot cocoa or soothing tea, and simply wish health and warmth to you and your loved ones on the eve of Candy Distribution Masquerade.
I remain, as ever,
Still learning,
Robert
Thank you all for the support.
@Giliell
For me the first burn out, which triggered hyperthyreoidism, was an eye-opener. I have seen the damage that centrally led socialist economy can do, so I never can go too far left. Like most of my generation I was right of center most of the time I could vote (but left of center on an american scale, funnily enough). But I have also seen that the negotiating powers between an employee and an emploeyer are not equal by far. Both communism and (libertarian) capitalism can really only work with spherical humans in a vacuum.
I would guess that now I am probably far left for US and center-left for EU. I argue for issue oriented approach now -- there are issues where being closer to libertarian competitive approach yields the best results (speech, art, fashion, small business services) and some where socialist approach yields ghe best results (disaster relief, health insurance, police, social safety net, prevention of mono- and oligopoly), where as “best result” is measured as “vastly more people profit than are being made miserable”.
What causes me trouble when picking whom to vote is that there seems to be a tendency among people to find their favourite approach and then slap that approach on every problem ever and call that “political orientation”.
[hugs] to everyone. We’re finally getting some seasonal weather here. Drizzle and cool after weeks of hot dry and windy, and maybe even actual rain by the weekend.
Speedy recovery for your uncle, Charly!
—
In Eastern Finland, between the cities Kuopio and Joensuu, they’re building a bridge over a strait called Jännevirta. The beams (apart from the middle beam) are being winched in place by sliding the on top of the pillars.
The beams (which weigh 800 t) have to be lubricated to make the job possible. So, what did they find to be the lube for the job: Udder cream that’s used normally in cow’s udders after milking. The local brand is Tummeli, I think it could be quite similar to the Bag Balm in the US. According to the article, they’ve used 20 kg of the stuff, spreading it with a paint roller on the underside of the beam and expect to need another 5 kg.
The middle part of the bridge will be lifted on place with cranes early next year.
NEW THREAD!