Kai ran into a SCUL armada last time he was visiting. They made a documentary about their organization, which showed in August.
I finally sat down and fixed all those broken links on the sidebar! Check out Cecil Kleakins. Matt's been moonlighting.
I just finished reading Oreille Rouge by Eric Chévillard. It was great, as usual. I've liked everything I've read by this author.
Here is a list of words I don't know found in this book:
un aerolithe
un pleutre
un lopin
chiquenaude
s'enticher
un tuffeau
un griot
idoine
chitineux
torve
pétochard
chapardeur
postillon
raffut
caravelle
rônier
le balanzan
haltérophile
une calebasse
ahan
le pilon
une gravide
razzié
Yesterday near Davis Square, we stumbled upon a yard sale of half-broken violins, Chinese instruments, wooden flutes, rejected jewelry, hundreds of cds, old cameras, and miscellaneous curiosities.
I think this one qualifies as a real White Elephant Sale.
It was the joint effort of Micheal Knoblach, a local dealer in antiques and musical instruments and his friend, a retired dealer, who has a home at the prime Davis location.
Erik got a snare drum.
I got a shoe horn and a Brownie Hawkeye Flash box camera. The camera has a little nick on the body, where the two halves join, which I'll have to cover with tape. I think the flash was there in the pile of junk, but I didn't look for it because I know I'll never use it.
My Brownie cost $3.00, which is $2.50 less than it originally cost when it was America's favorite camera between 1949 and 1961. I'm particularly excited because I love square photographs.
It takes 620 film, which is identical to 120 film except that its spool ends have a smaller diameter. I'm hoping I'll be able to just trim the 120 spool ends rather than having to find an extra 620 spool somewhere so I can respool the film onto it.
I even found the owner's manual (pdf) online.
I went online today to buy stamps and was struck by the quantity of people I had never heard of, for whom commemorative stamps had been issued.
I've heard of Theodore Seuss Geisel, James Baldwin, Moss Hart, Robert Penn Warren, Lewis and Clark, Ronald Reagan, Henry Fonda, and the Pacific Coral Reef.
But who are these other characters, surely people any American should know. I'll see what I can glean from the stamp design before googling.
R. Buckminster Fuller. Looking at the stamp, I would guess that he built something. There's a fifties feel to the design. The wacky bus in the foreground. The guys in wide-legged pants looking up at him with wonder. Bucky Fuller is the idealist inventor of the geodesic dome. "On the verge of suicide, it suddenly struck him that his life belonged, not to himself, but to the universe. He chose at that moment to embark on what he called, 'an experiment to discover what the little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity.'"
Arthur Ashe appears to be a tennis player. Not so surprising that I've never heard of him. "For Arthur Ashe, tennis was a means to an end."
Yip harburg. Looking at the stamp, I guess he's the guy who wrote the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," from the movie The Wizard of Oz. His real name was Edgar.
Martin Johnson Heade. Painter of flower arrangements?
Marian Anderson. Black Heritage. Nice jewelry. I have no clue. She is a singer.
You know what? I don't really know who Robert Penn Warren is. People are standing behind him with signs. Political activist? Politician? Poet, novelist, political activist. Read a couple of his poems.
"So hangs the hour like fruit fullblown and sweet,
Our strict and desperate avatar,
Despite that antique westward gulls lament
Over enormous waters which retreat
Weary unto the white and sensual star."
Once and for all, why are there no Kinder Surprise eggs in the US?
According to an unofficial Kinder site, "In an informal conversation in August 1996 between one Kinder collector and a Marketing Manager at Ferrero Canada Limited, the collector was told that the US had two laws that prevented the sale of Kinder Surprise in the States.
The first was to do with the 'small parts regulations' that require the phrase "Not suited for children under three years of age" to appear on the product. The second states that an edible item cannot completely enclose a non-edible object.The Marketing Manager stated that, while the first law could be easily complied with, the fact that the chocolate egg completely surrounds the capsule inside prevented Kinder Surprise from being sold in the States.
He went on to say that Ferrero Canada Limited had been trying to persuade Ferrero to produce an "American" version with two half shells and the capsule.
It is hard to verify this, but Brazilian collectors will tell you that the Kinder Eggs marketed there are sold in two halves, with one half of the egg being a creamy chocolate confection, while the other half contains the toy, so it is possible that there may be other reasons for the non-apearance of Kinder on the American market."
In 1997, there was a recall.
As a side note, one site I read claimed that German Kinder Surprise toys are better than Italian ones. Toys for German Kinder eggs are made in Germany, and Italy makes the toys for the whole rest of the world.
Kinder Surprise eggs are of Italian, not German, origin.
An erudite critique of the film Fight Club.
(This comes from my Tribe friend Blade.)