Curio Cabinet
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April 14, 2021
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5 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree3 CQ
Many refugees have already been vetted and approved for entry, but President Joe Biden has yet to make an official commitment to rebuilding the US refugee pr...
with PRI's The WorldMany refugees have already been vetted and approved for entry, but President Joe Biden has yet to make an official commitment to rebuilding the US refugee pr...
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
The cryptocurrency exchange company will be the first major crypto business to go public in the U.S. Plus, the Ever Given cargo ship of Suez Canal fame is st...
The cryptocurrency exchange company will be the first major crypto business to go public in the U.S. Plus, the Ever Given cargo ship of Suez Canal fame is st...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : April 14, 2021
discomfit \diss-KUM-fit\ verb
Definition
1 : to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment : disconcert
2 a : to f...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 14, 2021
discomfit \diss-KUM-fit\ verb
Definition
1 : to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment : disconcert
2 a : to f...
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FREEUS History Daily Curio #2217Free1 CQ
Friday the 13th? That's child's play when it comes to actual bad luck days. On her album release of Time (The Revelator) (2001), alt-country singer Gillian Welch crowned April 14th "Ruination Day" in America, and with good historical support for her claim. The earliest date mentioned in Welch's song Ruination Day (Part II) is April 14, 1865: that evening, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater while watching Our American Cousin. The second April 14th tragedy occurred in 1912 when the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, and some 1,500 people died in the freezing North Atlantic waters. The third and final date was April 14, 1935, when the "black blizzards" of dust reached the droughted southern plains states, causing the Associated Press to coin the term "Dust Bowl."
Welch took musical inspiration for Ruination Day from the works of folk singer Woody Guthrie and bluesman "Blind" Willie Johnson—though one doesn't have to dig into the lore of 20th century folk music to get a handle on how bad the middle of April is in U.S. history. A 2014 Vice article highlighted some of the worst American tragedies that happened not only on April 14th, but the third week of April, and they're a doozy: the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred April 19, 1995, and the Columbine massacre in Colorado happened on April 20, 1999.
So what's with all the bad luck and trouble in April? In the northern hemisphere, there is evidence that warming temperatures have some correlation with rises in crime rates, but causation hasn't been scientifically determined in such studies. Or maybe there's something to the T.S. Eliot quote from "The Wasteland" that "April is the cruelest month." Barring natural disasters or an anachronistic rise in unsinkable boat-theories, April 2021 is looking to be a transitory time at the end of covid rather than a tragic one. Let's remember to stay safe, follow CDC guidelines, and thank the artists who's creative works have kept us entertained and intrigued during these trying times.
Below: Ruination Day (Part II) by Gillian Welch.
[Image description: The bow of the sunken Titanic. Located 370 south-southeast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.] Credit & copyright: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2004.
Written by: Esther P.Friday the 13th? That's child's play when it comes to actual bad luck days. On her album release of Time (The Revelator) (2001), alt-country singer Gillian Welch crowned April 14th "Ruination Day" in America, and with good historical support for her claim. The earliest date mentioned in Welch's song Ruination Day (Part II) is April 14, 1865: that evening, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater while watching Our American Cousin. The second April 14th tragedy occurred in 1912 when the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, and some 1,500 people died in the freezing North Atlantic waters. The third and final date was April 14, 1935, when the "black blizzards" of dust reached the droughted southern plains states, causing the Associated Press to coin the term "Dust Bowl."
Welch took musical inspiration for Ruination Day from the works of folk singer Woody Guthrie and bluesman "Blind" Willie Johnson—though one doesn't have to dig into the lore of 20th century folk music to get a handle on how bad the middle of April is in U.S. history. A 2014 Vice article highlighted some of the worst American tragedies that happened not only on April 14th, but the third week of April, and they're a doozy: the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred April 19, 1995, and the Columbine massacre in Colorado happened on April 20, 1999.
So what's with all the bad luck and trouble in April? In the northern hemisphere, there is evidence that warming temperatures have some correlation with rises in crime rates, but causation hasn't been scientifically determined in such studies. Or maybe there's something to the T.S. Eliot quote from "The Wasteland" that "April is the cruelest month." Barring natural disasters or an anachronistic rise in unsinkable boat-theories, April 2021 is looking to be a transitory time at the end of covid rather than a tragic one. Let's remember to stay safe, follow CDC guidelines, and thank the artists who's creative works have kept us entertained and intrigued during these trying times.
Below: Ruination Day (Part II) by Gillian Welch.
[Image description: The bow of the sunken Titanic. Located 370 south-southeast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.] Credit & copyright: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2004.
Written by: Esther P. -
FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
Marvel and Disney Plus' hit show WandaVision sure bewitched viewers with its nod to sitcom nostalgia. To help tap into the retro charm of TV theme songs, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were recruited to add a bit of their Oscar-winning musical magic (Remember Me from Coco and Let It Go from Frozen). Whether it was homages to I Dream of Genie, The Partridge Family, or a host of TGIF '80s themes, the duo wove a central four-note motif throughout that relies on octaves and tritones to give a bit of otherworldly, dissonant, and spacey-feel to each episode's theme song. Besides giving millions of viewers a crash course in how small motifs can be used to build incredible musical ideas, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez also gave the world another gift: the iTunes #1 track Agatha All Along. The four-note motif reappears here in the melody of a kooky and spooky homage to the show's big bad villain. We're happy to do the twist to Agatha All Along, but that doesn't mean we won't try to pogo or electric slide to some of the other hip tunes from WandaVision!
Below: an analysis of the four-note motif that reappears throughout the sitcom themes and other songs in WandaVision. And a short video of Agatha Harkness' theme song Agatha All Along.
[Image description: Marvel's Scarlet Witch and Vision are fractured into contemporary and 1950s sitcom selves.] Credit & copyright: Marvel Studios and Disney.
Written by: Esther P.
Marvel and Disney Plus' hit show WandaVision sure bewitched viewers with its nod to sitcom nostalgia. To help tap into the retro charm of TV theme songs, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were recruited to add a bit of their Oscar-winning musical magic (Remember Me from Coco and Let It Go from Frozen). Whether it was homages to I Dream of Genie, The Partridge Family, or a host of TGIF '80s themes, the duo wove a central four-note motif throughout that relies on octaves and tritones to give a bit of otherworldly, dissonant, and spacey-feel to each episode's theme song. Besides giving millions of viewers a crash course in how small motifs can be used to build incredible musical ideas, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez also gave the world another gift: the iTunes #1 track Agatha All Along. The four-note motif reappears here in the melody of a kooky and spooky homage to the show's big bad villain. We're happy to do the twist to Agatha All Along, but that doesn't mean we won't try to pogo or electric slide to some of the other hip tunes from WandaVision!
Below: an analysis of the four-note motif that reappears throughout the sitcom themes and other songs in WandaVision. And a short video of Agatha Harkness' theme song Agatha All Along.
[Image description: Marvel's Scarlet Witch and Vision are fractured into contemporary and 1950s sitcom selves.] Credit & copyright: Marvel Studios and Disney.
Written by: Esther P.
April 13, 2021
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4 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree3 CQ
England’s potential COVID-19 certificate scheme would require customers to show proof of vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test or immunity status to gain ent...
with PRI's The WorldEngland’s potential COVID-19 certificate scheme would require customers to show proof of vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test or immunity status to gain ent...
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
Economists say there’s nothing inherently wrong with the federal government spending more than it has, given its borrowing power and this pandemic emergency....
Economists say there’s nothing inherently wrong with the federal government spending more than it has, given its borrowing power and this pandemic emergency....
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1 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree1 CQ
Word of the Day : April 13, 2021
minatory \MIN-uh-tor-ee\ adjective
Definition
: having a menacing quality
Did You Know?
Knowing that minatory means "th...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 13, 2021
minatory \MIN-uh-tor-ee\ adjective
Definition
: having a menacing quality
Did You Know?
Knowing that minatory means "th...
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FREEDaily Curio #2216Free1 CQ
In early March, The Conversation caught the internet’s attention with a story about alewives—female ale brewers in the 14th to 17th centuries who often owned alehouses, before the process of ale-making was industrialized. The story claimed that some classic witch iconography, such as black hats, was based on the garb of alewives, and that women were driven from the brewing profession due to accusations of witchcraft. However, Smithsonian Magazine later added an editor's note to their re-publication of the story, pointing out that historians disagreed with certain parts of it. So what is the truth about women brewers? Were they really pushed out of the brewing industry due to discrimination? Were witch’s wardrobes really based on their clothing?
The history of women and brewing goes back a long way. The earliest fermented beverage, a mixture of fruit, honey and rice, is dated to around 7000 to 5700 B.C.E. It was discovered in what is now Jiahu, China, and evidence suggests that the beverage was created by women. In fact, for thousands of years, women were the ones to gather ingredients for and brew fermented drinks while men hunted. Even some mythology recognized women’s part in producing beverages like beer. In Slavic and Baltic myths, the goddess Raugutiene divinely protected all beer. Ale, a low-alcohol drink that was often safer to drink than water due to fermentation killing off bacteria, was also brewed by European women for centuries.
However, the 1600s saw a rise in religious persecution of women in England and Germany, with thousands being killed for supposed witchcraft. At the same time, Europe was becoming increasingly industrialized. Home-brewing and small alehouses run by local alewives gave way to larger taverns, and men began stepping in to replace women, and make money. Depictions of alewives in literature and art became more negative. Some historians believe that there may be a connection between anti-witch propaganda and the sidelining of alewives–after all, alewives did wear large black hats, stir pots of frothing liquid, and hang brooms outside their doors to indicate that drinks were available. Other historians, however, say that depictions of witches as black-hat-wearing broomstick-riders didn’t appear until the 18th Century, long after most European women had stopped brewing. What’s known for sure, however, is that women brewers played an important and often-overlooked role in history. All hail the alewives!
[Image description: a black and white photo of three women in historical alewife costumes, drinking from mugs.] Credit & copyright: Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty Images
Written by: Maria C.In early March, The Conversation caught the internet’s attention with a story about alewives—female ale brewers in the 14th to 17th centuries who often owned alehouses, before the process of ale-making was industrialized. The story claimed that some classic witch iconography, such as black hats, was based on the garb of alewives, and that women were driven from the brewing profession due to accusations of witchcraft. However, Smithsonian Magazine later added an editor's note to their re-publication of the story, pointing out that historians disagreed with certain parts of it. So what is the truth about women brewers? Were they really pushed out of the brewing industry due to discrimination? Were witch’s wardrobes really based on their clothing?
The history of women and brewing goes back a long way. The earliest fermented beverage, a mixture of fruit, honey and rice, is dated to around 7000 to 5700 B.C.E. It was discovered in what is now Jiahu, China, and evidence suggests that the beverage was created by women. In fact, for thousands of years, women were the ones to gather ingredients for and brew fermented drinks while men hunted. Even some mythology recognized women’s part in producing beverages like beer. In Slavic and Baltic myths, the goddess Raugutiene divinely protected all beer. Ale, a low-alcohol drink that was often safer to drink than water due to fermentation killing off bacteria, was also brewed by European women for centuries.
However, the 1600s saw a rise in religious persecution of women in England and Germany, with thousands being killed for supposed witchcraft. At the same time, Europe was becoming increasingly industrialized. Home-brewing and small alehouses run by local alewives gave way to larger taverns, and men began stepping in to replace women, and make money. Depictions of alewives in literature and art became more negative. Some historians believe that there may be a connection between anti-witch propaganda and the sidelining of alewives–after all, alewives did wear large black hats, stir pots of frothing liquid, and hang brooms outside their doors to indicate that drinks were available. Other historians, however, say that depictions of witches as black-hat-wearing broomstick-riders didn’t appear until the 18th Century, long after most European women had stopped brewing. What’s known for sure, however, is that women brewers played an important and often-overlooked role in history. All hail the alewives!
[Image description: a black and white photo of three women in historical alewife costumes, drinking from mugs.] Credit & copyright: Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty Images
Written by: Maria C. -
FREESTEM Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
Earth is facing some unprecedented challenges, but researchers won’t let their hopes be eclipsed! After all, the moon is a mere 238,855 miles away. Why not use all that empty space to store seed, sperm and egg samples in case of an earthly catastrophe? One researcher from the University of Arizona, along with a team of his students, recently presented a proposal for just such a “Lunar arc” at the IEEE Aerospace Conference, in early March. Jekan Thanga, a Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, created detailed plans for a moon-based facility that could store biological samples from around 6.7 million Earth species. Similar to Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault ("doomsday vault”), which holds over a million seeds in case of a catastrophe, Thanga’s lunar arc is more likely to be left untouched by disaster. The moon is even equipped with the perfect infrastructure for the arc. Lava tubes, naturally occurring tunnels beneath the moon’s surface formed by lava billions of years ago, would provide adequate protection from solar radiation and temperature changes.
Samples would have to be stored at incredibly cold temperatures, some as low as minus 320 degrees. This would be accomplished via special floating shelves made of a cryo-cooled superconductor material. It would utilize quantum levitation, a process in which superconductive objects are levitated over a magnetic source, similar to the way that some high-speed trains work. “When you get to cryogenic temperatures, strange things happen. Some of it just looks like magic but is based on tried and laboratory-tested physics principles at the edge of our understanding,” Thanga explained, in an interview with CBS News. It’s safe to say that Thanga’s proposed lunar arc is cool in more ways than one. Let’s just hope that we never have need of it![Image description: vials of sperm samples with differently-colored caps inside a circular, metal cooling container.] Credit & copyright: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
Written by: Maria C.
Earth is facing some unprecedented challenges, but researchers won’t let their hopes be eclipsed! After all, the moon is a mere 238,855 miles away. Why not use all that empty space to store seed, sperm and egg samples in case of an earthly catastrophe? One researcher from the University of Arizona, along with a team of his students, recently presented a proposal for just such a “Lunar arc” at the IEEE Aerospace Conference, in early March. Jekan Thanga, a Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, created detailed plans for a moon-based facility that could store biological samples from around 6.7 million Earth species. Similar to Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault ("doomsday vault”), which holds over a million seeds in case of a catastrophe, Thanga’s lunar arc is more likely to be left untouched by disaster. The moon is even equipped with the perfect infrastructure for the arc. Lava tubes, naturally occurring tunnels beneath the moon’s surface formed by lava billions of years ago, would provide adequate protection from solar radiation and temperature changes.
Samples would have to be stored at incredibly cold temperatures, some as low as minus 320 degrees. This would be accomplished via special floating shelves made of a cryo-cooled superconductor material. It would utilize quantum levitation, a process in which superconductive objects are levitated over a magnetic source, similar to the way that some high-speed trains work. “When you get to cryogenic temperatures, strange things happen. Some of it just looks like magic but is based on tried and laboratory-tested physics principles at the edge of our understanding,” Thanga explained, in an interview with CBS News. It’s safe to say that Thanga’s proposed lunar arc is cool in more ways than one. Let’s just hope that we never have need of it![Image description: vials of sperm samples with differently-colored caps inside a circular, metal cooling container.] Credit & copyright: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
Written by: Maria C.
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FREEGolf Photo CurioFree1 CQ
That’s one fancy jacket! Taken on this day in 1997, this photo captures one of the most important moments of famed professional golfer Tiger Woods’ career. Woods had just become the youngest player, at 21 years-old, to win the The Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf. The tournament’s previous winner, Nick Faldo, helps Woods into the tournament’s traditional symbol of victory—a green golfer jacket. Woods, wearing a red Nike shirt, grins. Woods’ victory was groundbreaking in more than one way. His Masters victory represented the first time a Black man had won on a golf course which had only begun allowing black players in 1975, and had only admitted its first black member seven years prior to Tiger’s victory, in 1990. Two months after this photo was taken, Woods set another record, this time for the fastest ascent to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings. While Woods has made headlines for everything from his marital affairs to his recent car crash, today is a great day to reflect on the ways that Woods re-shaped the sport of golf throughout the 90s and early 2000s.
[Image description: Former Masters Tournament Champion Nick Faldo places a green jacket on Tiger Woods’ shoulders. ] Credit & copyright: AP Photo/Dave Martin
Written by: Maria C.
That’s one fancy jacket! Taken on this day in 1997, this photo captures one of the most important moments of famed professional golfer Tiger Woods’ career. Woods had just become the youngest player, at 21 years-old, to win the The Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf. The tournament’s previous winner, Nick Faldo, helps Woods into the tournament’s traditional symbol of victory—a green golfer jacket. Woods, wearing a red Nike shirt, grins. Woods’ victory was groundbreaking in more than one way. His Masters victory represented the first time a Black man had won on a golf course which had only begun allowing black players in 1975, and had only admitted its first black member seven years prior to Tiger’s victory, in 1990. Two months after this photo was taken, Woods set another record, this time for the fastest ascent to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings. While Woods has made headlines for everything from his marital affairs to his recent car crash, today is a great day to reflect on the ways that Woods re-shaped the sport of golf throughout the 90s and early 2000s.
[Image description: Former Masters Tournament Champion Nick Faldo places a green jacket on Tiger Woods’ shoulders. ] Credit & copyright: AP Photo/Dave Martin
Written by: Maria C.
April 12, 2021
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4 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree3 CQ
The Biden administration faces pushback from Republicans as it tries to pass legislation to further regulate "ghost guns" assembled with homemade parts.
with PRI's The WorldThe Biden administration faces pushback from Republicans as it tries to pass legislation to further regulate "ghost guns" assembled with homemade parts.
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: Restaurants can also serve diners outdoors, and nonessential stores can reopen, as England starts to relax COVID restrictions. Pl...
From the BBC World Service: Restaurants can also serve diners outdoors, and nonessential stores can reopen, as England starts to relax COVID restrictions. Pl...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : April 12, 2021
gallant \GAL-unt\ adjective
Definition
1 : showy in dress or bearing : smart
2 a : splendid, stately
b : spirited, brav...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 12, 2021
gallant \GAL-unt\ adjective
Definition
1 : showy in dress or bearing : smart
2 a : splendid, stately
b : spirited, brav...
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FREEArchitecture Daily Curio #2215Free1 CQ
When we think of great architects like Frank Lloyd Wright or an I. M. Pei, we often marvel at what they could build with materials and space. This year's Pritzker Architecture Prize has gone to two French architects who seemingly buck all the trends of building new and marvelous structures: Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have made careers out of restoring and repurposing existing buildings in what The New York Times called an effort of "architectural ingenuity and civic rejuvenation." For example, their work on the Palais de Tokyo gallery in Paris, pictured above, found Lacaton and Vassal extending the usable space into the basement with minimalist materials to reflect the aesthetic of the former 1937 World's Fair building. At the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, the two collaborated with Frédéric Druot to extend the floor plates to increase the room sizes in the 1960s housing project, and added balconies and gardens to the location—an effort that won a Dezeen Award from the design magazine of the same name.
To add to the completely unorthodox nature of their work, Lacaton and Vassal did not displace the residents of the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre while completing their work, and they are known for disturbing the inhabitants of their residential projects about as much as they are for changing the facades and overall structures of their commissions. That is to say, their holistic approach to design attends to the housing and other human needs, which is no doubt a benefit in covid lockdown times. Even more unique are their efforts to work inside out on their projects, as Lacton once noted "we like to assemble, to mix, to adapt and to recompose in order to design and invent each new project." As a result of their approach, fans of architecture and design are unlikely to discover a uniform aesthetic to the outer facades of Lacaton and Vassal's works. Those more interested in preservation, functionality, and the environmental impact of design might just find themselves right at home in a building that Lacaton and Vassal have beautified with their unique visions.
[Image description: An interior view of the Palais de Tokyo Gallery in Paris, France, with a grand staircase.] Credit & copyright: Source
Written by: Esther P.When we think of great architects like Frank Lloyd Wright or an I. M. Pei, we often marvel at what they could build with materials and space. This year's Pritzker Architecture Prize has gone to two French architects who seemingly buck all the trends of building new and marvelous structures: Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have made careers out of restoring and repurposing existing buildings in what The New York Times called an effort of "architectural ingenuity and civic rejuvenation." For example, their work on the Palais de Tokyo gallery in Paris, pictured above, found Lacaton and Vassal extending the usable space into the basement with minimalist materials to reflect the aesthetic of the former 1937 World's Fair building. At the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, the two collaborated with Frédéric Druot to extend the floor plates to increase the room sizes in the 1960s housing project, and added balconies and gardens to the location—an effort that won a Dezeen Award from the design magazine of the same name.
To add to the completely unorthodox nature of their work, Lacaton and Vassal did not displace the residents of the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre while completing their work, and they are known for disturbing the inhabitants of their residential projects about as much as they are for changing the facades and overall structures of their commissions. That is to say, their holistic approach to design attends to the housing and other human needs, which is no doubt a benefit in covid lockdown times. Even more unique are their efforts to work inside out on their projects, as Lacton once noted "we like to assemble, to mix, to adapt and to recompose in order to design and invent each new project." As a result of their approach, fans of architecture and design are unlikely to discover a uniform aesthetic to the outer facades of Lacaton and Vassal's works. Those more interested in preservation, functionality, and the environmental impact of design might just find themselves right at home in a building that Lacaton and Vassal have beautified with their unique visions.
[Image description: An interior view of the Palais de Tokyo Gallery in Paris, France, with a grand staircase.] Credit & copyright: Source
Written by: Esther P. -
FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Jumpei Mitsui (1997-)
2021
LEGO bricks
Hankyu Brick Museum, Osaka, JapanWho says you can't teach old art new bricks? Few pieces of art are more recognizable than Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Although the original woodblock print was created between 1829 and 1833, it still appears on cards, posters and other commercial products today. Recently, the famed image took on another new form: a LEGO sculpture by Japanese artist Jumpei Mitsui. The sculpture seeks to recreate the original print down to the finest detail. Blue and white LEGO bricks make up the main wave, including the iconic white curls along its crest. Ridges on the wave's underside create the lines present in the original artwork. Three boats full of rowers are positioned in the choppy water. The massive LEGO sculpture is over five feet long, contains 50,000 pieces, and took Mitsui around 400 hours to complete. It's all in a day's work for Mitsui, though. In 2011, at 24 years old, he became the youngest LEGO Certified Professional in the world. His job is to create one-of-a-kind LEGO artworks by sketching out detailed designs, turning them into blueprints involving specific LEGO pieces, and then rendering them in bricks. Sounds like a dream job worth the difficulty!
[Image description: A recreation of Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa made from LEGO bricks, complete with blue and white waves and three boats with blue-clad figures inside.]
Below: the original painting, The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, and Mitsui's working on his LEGO version.
Written by: Maria C.The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Jumpei Mitsui (1997-)
2021
LEGO bricks
Hankyu Brick Museum, Osaka, JapanWho says you can't teach old art new bricks? Few pieces of art are more recognizable than Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Although the original woodblock print was created between 1829 and 1833, it still appears on cards, posters and other commercial products today. Recently, the famed image took on another new form: a LEGO sculpture by Japanese artist Jumpei Mitsui. The sculpture seeks to recreate the original print down to the finest detail. Blue and white LEGO bricks make up the main wave, including the iconic white curls along its crest. Ridges on the wave's underside create the lines present in the original artwork. Three boats full of rowers are positioned in the choppy water. The massive LEGO sculpture is over five feet long, contains 50,000 pieces, and took Mitsui around 400 hours to complete. It's all in a day's work for Mitsui, though. In 2011, at 24 years old, he became the youngest LEGO Certified Professional in the world. His job is to create one-of-a-kind LEGO artworks by sketching out detailed designs, turning them into blueprints involving specific LEGO pieces, and then rendering them in bricks. Sounds like a dream job worth the difficulty!
[Image description: A recreation of Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa made from LEGO bricks, complete with blue and white waves and three boats with blue-clad figures inside.]
Below: the original painting, The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, and Mitsui's working on his LEGO version.
Written by: Maria C.
April 11, 2021
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1 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree1 CQ
Word of the Day : April 11, 2021
drub \DRUB\ verb
Definition
1 : to beat severely
2 : to berate critically
3 : to defeat decisively
Did You Know?
Spor...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 11, 2021
drub \DRUB\ verb
Definition
1 : to beat severely
2 : to berate critically
3 : to defeat decisively
Did You Know?
Spor...
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1 minFREEPoetry Poem CurioFree1 CQ
In the Basement of the Goodwill Store. By Ted Kooser.
with Poetry FoundationIn the Basement of the Goodwill Store. By Ted Kooser.
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
As it turns out, there’s a Dollar General within 5 miles of 75% of Americans, the company says. The U.S. government is considering using Dollar General store...
As it turns out, there’s a Dollar General within 5 miles of 75% of Americans, the company says. The U.S. government is considering using Dollar General store...
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6 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree4 CQ
When drinking bubble tea — the straw is essential. How else can you suck up all those chewy tapioca balls? Complaints from bubble-tea drinkers have sparked a...
with PRI's The WorldWhen drinking bubble tea — the straw is essential. How else can you suck up all those chewy tapioca balls? Complaints from bubble-tea drinkers have sparked a...
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FREELiterature PP&T CurioFree1 CQ
It takes quite an author to successfully release a novel about travel during lockdown! Then again, bestselling Korean-American author Chang-rae Lee is known for his bold writing choices. Unlike the dystopian novel Lee released in 2014, My Year Abroad, released February 2, 2021, is so optimistic that the New York Times Book Review called it “a manifesto to happiness.”
Born July 29, 1965, in South Korea, Lee’s family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old. Although he earned a B.A. in English from Yale University in 1987, it wasn’t immediately clear to Lee or his family if he would choose to write professionally. In fact, following his graduation, he took a job on Wall Street as an equities analyst. It wasn’t until a year later that Lee decided the finance world wasn’t for him, and began working toward his Masters of Fine Arts degree in writing at the University of Oregon. The manuscript he’d been writing in his spare time became his thesis, and would eventually transform into his first novel, Native Speaker, in 1995. Realizing his passion for teaching, Lee became an assistant professor of creative writing at the very university he’d just graduated from. Over the following years, Lee would hold teaching positions at several universities, including Stanford and Princeton.
Lee’s novels often explore issues of identity and belonging, especially relating to the experiences of Asian-Americans. Lee’s first book, Native Speaker, focuses on the internal struggle of a young Korean-American man who is hired to ruin the reputation of a Korean-American politician in New York City. In A Gesture Life, released in 1999, an ethnically-Korean man, who was adopted by a Japanese family and served in the Japanese army, deals with haunting memories and struggles to break out of his routine in order to reconnect with his estranged adopted daughter. 2004’s Aloft features Lee’s first non-Asian-American protagonist, an Italian-American retiree who is forced to grapple with the fact that his life and family aren’t as perfect as he had always supposed. Lee’s 2011 novel The Surrendered, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, tells the story of three characters who survived the Korean war and are reunited years later. On Such a Full Sea, published in 2014, takes place in a dystopian future-Baltimore. It’s Chinese-American protagonist works a dangerous job as a diver at a fish farm.
While many of Lee’s books focus on older characters, 2021’s My Year Abroad stars a young college student named Tiller, who describes himself as “twelve and one-half percent Asian.” Unlike the older, world-weary protagonists of Lee’s most famous novels, Tiller is portrayed as ordinary and relatively unremarkable. However, when Chinese-American business mogul Pong Lou brings Tiller along on a trip across Asia, a range of wild experiences open Tiller’s eyes to the wider world. Tiller also finds that, although his ethnicity causes him some difficulty fitting in, in the U.S., he is also considered foreign in Asia, leading him to question where he truly belongs. In an interview with NPR, Lee described My Year Abroad as a subversion of the typical American story, where a white protagonist travels abroad to expand their horizons. “We all know that story, of course. And it's essentially a colonial story. And I think we're all done with that story. And what we want is to find out a little bit more about ourselves, as we always do, as peoples everywhere do. But the ways in which we get that story isn't as easy and simple as it's been told to us before,” he explained.
My Year Abroad has already garnered praise from critics, many of whom see the novel as a lampooning of capitalism as well as an exploration of identity. As Tiller faces increasingly bizarre situations on his trip, sometimes fueled by expensive alcohol or drugs, the novel makes it clear that luxuries don’t always equate to a great time, and there is such a thing as too much excess. Readers who have been stuck at home for the past year, however, may well find My Year Abroad's wacky misadventures in far-flung locales a welcome break from the COVID-19 blues.
[Image description: Author Chang-rae Lee, wearing a blue shirt, sits at a table in an otherwise empty library.] Credit & copyright: Penguin Random House
Written by: Maria C.It takes quite an author to successfully release a novel about travel during lockdown! Then again, bestselling Korean-American author Chang-rae Lee is known for his bold writing choices. Unlike the dystopian novel Lee released in 2014, My Year Abroad, released February 2, 2021, is so optimistic that the New York Times Book Review called it “a manifesto to happiness.”
Born July 29, 1965, in South Korea, Lee’s family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old. Although he earned a B.A. in English from Yale University in 1987, it wasn’t immediately clear to Lee or his family if he would choose to write professionally. In fact, following his graduation, he took a job on Wall Street as an equities analyst. It wasn’t until a year later that Lee decided the finance world wasn’t for him, and began working toward his Masters of Fine Arts degree in writing at the University of Oregon. The manuscript he’d been writing in his spare time became his thesis, and would eventually transform into his first novel, Native Speaker, in 1995. Realizing his passion for teaching, Lee became an assistant professor of creative writing at the very university he’d just graduated from. Over the following years, Lee would hold teaching positions at several universities, including Stanford and Princeton.
Lee’s novels often explore issues of identity and belonging, especially relating to the experiences of Asian-Americans. Lee’s first book, Native Speaker, focuses on the internal struggle of a young Korean-American man who is hired to ruin the reputation of a Korean-American politician in New York City. In A Gesture Life, released in 1999, an ethnically-Korean man, who was adopted by a Japanese family and served in the Japanese army, deals with haunting memories and struggles to break out of his routine in order to reconnect with his estranged adopted daughter. 2004’s Aloft features Lee’s first non-Asian-American protagonist, an Italian-American retiree who is forced to grapple with the fact that his life and family aren’t as perfect as he had always supposed. Lee’s 2011 novel The Surrendered, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, tells the story of three characters who survived the Korean war and are reunited years later. On Such a Full Sea, published in 2014, takes place in a dystopian future-Baltimore. It’s Chinese-American protagonist works a dangerous job as a diver at a fish farm.
While many of Lee’s books focus on older characters, 2021’s My Year Abroad stars a young college student named Tiller, who describes himself as “twelve and one-half percent Asian.” Unlike the older, world-weary protagonists of Lee’s most famous novels, Tiller is portrayed as ordinary and relatively unremarkable. However, when Chinese-American business mogul Pong Lou brings Tiller along on a trip across Asia, a range of wild experiences open Tiller’s eyes to the wider world. Tiller also finds that, although his ethnicity causes him some difficulty fitting in, in the U.S., he is also considered foreign in Asia, leading him to question where he truly belongs. In an interview with NPR, Lee described My Year Abroad as a subversion of the typical American story, where a white protagonist travels abroad to expand their horizons. “We all know that story, of course. And it's essentially a colonial story. And I think we're all done with that story. And what we want is to find out a little bit more about ourselves, as we always do, as peoples everywhere do. But the ways in which we get that story isn't as easy and simple as it's been told to us before,” he explained.
My Year Abroad has already garnered praise from critics, many of whom see the novel as a lampooning of capitalism as well as an exploration of identity. As Tiller faces increasingly bizarre situations on his trip, sometimes fueled by expensive alcohol or drugs, the novel makes it clear that luxuries don’t always equate to a great time, and there is such a thing as too much excess. Readers who have been stuck at home for the past year, however, may well find My Year Abroad's wacky misadventures in far-flung locales a welcome break from the COVID-19 blues.
[Image description: Author Chang-rae Lee, wearing a blue shirt, sits at a table in an otherwise empty library.] Credit & copyright: Penguin Random House
Written by: Maria C.
April 10, 2021
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : April 10, 2021
fatuous \FATCH-oo-us\ adjective
Definition
: complacently or inanely foolish : silly
Did You Know?
"I am two fools, I k...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 10, 2021
fatuous \FATCH-oo-us\ adjective
Definition
: complacently or inanely foolish : silly
Did You Know?
"I am two fools, I k...
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
The president says Congress should repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability. Plus, money from the latest round of COVID relief to address affordable...
The president says Congress should repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability. Plus, money from the latest round of COVID relief to address affordable...
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5 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree3 CQ
Wood used to rule much of the building world, and now, it’s poised for a comeback, as engineered wooden buildings start to become an eco-friendly alternative...
with PRI's The WorldWood used to rule much of the building world, and now, it’s poised for a comeback, as engineered wooden buildings start to become an eco-friendly alternative...
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FREEPlay Teaser Curio #281Free1 CQ
For many American college students, traveling or studying abroad is an opportunity of a lifetime. Being immersed in new cultures can widen your perspective and maybe even shape your future. Or at least that's the case for Tiller, the American college student and protagonist of Chang-rae Lee's new novel, My Year Abroad. If you're feeling cabin fever, join us in reading Lee's novel this month. At least we can still travel in our imaginations!
While you wait for your copy of My Year Abroad, can you solve today's teaser?
This is a 10 letter English word.
(The original word) Dawn lustre stirring urge to travel.
(Remove the last 4 letters) Meander, ramble.
(Add 5 letters to the end) Mendicants.
(Remove the first 6 letters) The R in LOTR.
What's the original word?
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #281" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!
[Image description: Curious Teaser Logo, a pink brain graphic overlaid on a blue virtual maze.]For many American college students, traveling or studying abroad is an opportunity of a lifetime. Being immersed in new cultures can widen your perspective and maybe even shape your future. Or at least that's the case for Tiller, the American college student and protagonist of Chang-rae Lee's new novel, My Year Abroad. If you're feeling cabin fever, join us in reading Lee's novel this month. At least we can still travel in our imaginations!
While you wait for your copy of My Year Abroad, can you solve today's teaser?
This is a 10 letter English word.
(The original word) Dawn lustre stirring urge to travel.
(Remove the last 4 letters) Meander, ramble.
(Add 5 letters to the end) Mendicants.
(Remove the first 6 letters) The R in LOTR.
What's the original word?
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #281" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!
[Image description: Curious Teaser Logo, a pink brain graphic overlaid on a blue virtual maze.]
April 9, 2021
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4 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree3 CQ
The new US-Mexico-Canada agreement paves a clear pathway for some workers in Mexico to unionize and also file labor complaints directly with governments. In ...
with PRI's The WorldThe new US-Mexico-Canada agreement paves a clear pathway for some workers in Mexico to unionize and also file labor complaints directly with governments. In ...
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: As India scales back COVID-19 vaccine exports to focus on supplying its own people, Africa looks to the U.S. for additional doses...
From the BBC World Service: As India scales back COVID-19 vaccine exports to focus on supplying its own people, Africa looks to the U.S. for additional doses...
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1 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree1 CQ
Word of the Day : April 9, 2021
vendetta \ven-DET-uh\ noun
Definition
1 : a feud between different clans or families : blood feud
2 : an often prolonged ...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 9, 2021
vendetta \ven-DET-uh\ noun
Definition
1 : a feud between different clans or families : blood feud
2 : an often prolonged ...
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FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
Title: I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
Artist: Charles Demuth (1883 - 1935)
Created: 1928
Medium: oil, graphite, ink, and gold leaf on paperboard (Upson board)
Dimensions: 35.5 x 30 in. (90.2 x 76.2 cm)
Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
For artist Charles Demuth, friends are there through good times, through bad times, and through artistic times. Demuth's I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold is an homage to the great imagist (heavy focus on sensory experiences) poet William Carlos Williams. The numbers and central color scheme are derived from Williams' poem The Great Figure: "Among the rain / and lights / I saw the figure 5 / in gold / on a red / firetruck / moving / tense / unheeded," he wrote. Demuth employs a precisionist style and geometric objects like the gold 5, the red truck, and the city lights to echo the loud and disorienting experiences in Williams' poem. To further cement the ekphrastic friendship, Demuth added his initials in red in the bottom left corner of the painting; WCW for William Carlos Williams is in the bottom middle, with a big "BILL" at the top. As far as gestures of friendship go, this one probably ranks up there with a high five and secret handshake greeting!
Image credit & copyright: Metropolitan Museum of Art
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
Title: I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
Artist: Charles Demuth (1883 - 1935)
Created: 1928
Medium: oil, graphite, ink, and gold leaf on paperboard (Upson board)
Dimensions: 35.5 x 30 in. (90.2 x 76.2 cm)
Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
For artist Charles Demuth, friends are there through good times, through bad times, and through artistic times. Demuth's I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold is an homage to the great imagist (heavy focus on sensory experiences) poet William Carlos Williams. The numbers and central color scheme are derived from Williams' poem The Great Figure: "Among the rain / and lights / I saw the figure 5 / in gold / on a red / firetruck / moving / tense / unheeded," he wrote. Demuth employs a precisionist style and geometric objects like the gold 5, the red truck, and the city lights to echo the loud and disorienting experiences in Williams' poem. To further cement the ekphrastic friendship, Demuth added his initials in red in the bottom left corner of the painting; WCW for William Carlos Williams is in the bottom middle, with a big "BILL" at the top. As far as gestures of friendship go, this one probably ranks up there with a high five and secret handshake greeting!
Image credit & copyright: Metropolitan Museum of Art
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FREELiterature Song CurioFree2 CQ
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
The great American poet Langston Hughes was known for writing about the lives of poor and working class Black people in the early 20th century, and now Louisiana-based multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla is reviving Hughes's poetry with a Southern flair. As part of its African American Legacy Recordings series, Smithsonian Folkways is re-releasing McCalla's Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes in October. The original limited release saw McCalla adding her roots-inflected arrangements to Hughes' pieces like Song for a Dark Girl, as well as revitalizing takes on traditional Haitian songs. The melancholic melody follows the life of a narrator who has seen her lover lynched "way down south in Dixie." McCalla's sparse fingerpicking-blues guitar sounds like it could fit seamlessly alongside tracks recorded by Leadbelly or Geeshie Wiley from almost 100 years ago—even if the lyrical themes are eerily present for 2020.
Other streaming options
Image credit & copyright: City Winery
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
The great American poet Langston Hughes was known for writing about the lives of poor and working class Black people in the early 20th century, and now Louisiana-based multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla is reviving Hughes's poetry with a Southern flair. As part of its African American Legacy Recordings series, Smithsonian Folkways is re-releasing McCalla's Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes in October. The original limited release saw McCalla adding her roots-inflected arrangements to Hughes' pieces like Song for a Dark Girl, as well as revitalizing takes on traditional Haitian songs. The melancholic melody follows the life of a narrator who has seen her lover lynched "way down south in Dixie." McCalla's sparse fingerpicking-blues guitar sounds like it could fit seamlessly alongside tracks recorded by Leadbelly or Geeshie Wiley from almost 100 years ago—even if the lyrical themes are eerily present for 2020.
Other streaming options
Image credit & copyright: City Winery
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FREELiterature Photo CurioFree1 CQ
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
As one of the 19th century's greatest poets, Walt Whitman once wrote, "I am large, I contain multitudes." It was no secret that Whitman was also a tall and gregarious figure in life, which makes these images of his last years in Camden, New Jersey, all the more poignant. Whitman spent years in and out of newspaper rooms in New York and New Orleans, with a role as a hospital caretaker during the Civil War. He first published his seminal work Leaves of Grass in 1855 and revised at least nine editions. Like many aspects of his life, Whitman's poetry in Leaves of Grass ignored rules about rhyme and meter, subjecting readers to a vibrant and affectionate view of the world (the erotic texts cost Whitman a job in the Boston, Massachusetts, District Attorney's office). After suffering a paralytic stroke in 1873, Whitman once again took to revising Leaves of Grass, noting it would be his final edition. He felt that the work encapsulated all things great and small: "L. of G. at last complete—after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old."
Below: another view of Whitman in his house at Camden, New Jersey.
Image credit & copyright: Library of Congress
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
As one of the 19th century's greatest poets, Walt Whitman once wrote, "I am large, I contain multitudes." It was no secret that Whitman was also a tall and gregarious figure in life, which makes these images of his last years in Camden, New Jersey, all the more poignant. Whitman spent years in and out of newspaper rooms in New York and New Orleans, with a role as a hospital caretaker during the Civil War. He first published his seminal work Leaves of Grass in 1855 and revised at least nine editions. Like many aspects of his life, Whitman's poetry in Leaves of Grass ignored rules about rhyme and meter, subjecting readers to a vibrant and affectionate view of the world (the erotic texts cost Whitman a job in the Boston, Massachusetts, District Attorney's office). After suffering a paralytic stroke in 1873, Whitman once again took to revising Leaves of Grass, noting it would be his final edition. He felt that the work encapsulated all things great and small: "L. of G. at last complete—after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old."
Below: another view of Whitman in his house at Camden, New Jersey.
Image credit & copyright: Library of Congress
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FREELiterature Daily CurioFree1 CQ
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
You might be surprised to find that the best-selling poet in the U.S is not the current National Poet Laureate, or Shakespeare, or even an English speaker. It's the 13th-century Persian theologian Rumi, widely considered the greatest poet of Islamic tradition—and currently an Amazon Best Seller. He was born in 1207 C.E. in modern-day Afghanistan, as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī. He received a robust education and also benefited from extensive travel. Rumi and his family were forced to flee 2,500 miles west from Afghanistan to escape the brutal invasions of Genghis Khan. Along the way, they toured the Middle East and stopped at Mecca, before settling in modern-day Turkey. There, as an adult, Rumi became a teacher at a madrasa, or religious school. But it wasn't until after Rumi encountered a wandering holy man named Shams al-Dīn, or "Sun of Religion," that he waxed poetic. The two became inseparable friends, devout students of Islam, and possibly lovers. Then, three years later, Shams disappeared mysteriously. Some say Rumi's jealous students and family members murdered Shams; others believe he departed for mystical reasons. At any rate, Rumi was distraught. He fled his home in search of Shams, ending up hundreds of miles away in Syria. Eventually he realized that his friend was still in his heart and memory; and returned home to write 3,000 love songs to Shams, as well as 2,000 four-line quatrains and his 26,000-couplet masterwork, Masnavi. He took up dancing, better appreciated his other relationships, and lived happily until his death at 66. His cosmological philosophy is best summed up by this quote: "I have neither a soul nor a body, for I come from the very Soul of all souls." Maybe click on the Amazon link above and give Rumi a read, to honor National Poetry Month?
Image credit & copyright: BBC News
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
You might be surprised to find that the best-selling poet in the U.S is not the current National Poet Laureate, or Shakespeare, or even an English speaker. It's the 13th-century Persian theologian Rumi, widely considered the greatest poet of Islamic tradition—and currently an Amazon Best Seller. He was born in 1207 C.E. in modern-day Afghanistan, as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī. He received a robust education and also benefited from extensive travel. Rumi and his family were forced to flee 2,500 miles west from Afghanistan to escape the brutal invasions of Genghis Khan. Along the way, they toured the Middle East and stopped at Mecca, before settling in modern-day Turkey. There, as an adult, Rumi became a teacher at a madrasa, or religious school. But it wasn't until after Rumi encountered a wandering holy man named Shams al-Dīn, or "Sun of Religion," that he waxed poetic. The two became inseparable friends, devout students of Islam, and possibly lovers. Then, three years later, Shams disappeared mysteriously. Some say Rumi's jealous students and family members murdered Shams; others believe he departed for mystical reasons. At any rate, Rumi was distraught. He fled his home in search of Shams, ending up hundreds of miles away in Syria. Eventually he realized that his friend was still in his heart and memory; and returned home to write 3,000 love songs to Shams, as well as 2,000 four-line quatrains and his 26,000-couplet masterwork, Masnavi. He took up dancing, better appreciated his other relationships, and lived happily until his death at 66. His cosmological philosophy is best summed up by this quote: "I have neither a soul nor a body, for I come from the very Soul of all souls." Maybe click on the Amazon link above and give Rumi a read, to honor National Poetry Month?
Image credit & copyright: BBC News
April 8, 2021
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5 minFREEHumanities Worldly CurioFree3 CQ
Chinese families are also thinking twice about sending their children to the US to study amid growing concerns about safety and security.
with PRI's The WorldChinese families are also thinking twice about sending their children to the US to study amid growing concerns about safety and security.
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
The G-20 finance ministers from the world’s largest economies are exploring a minimum corporate tax rate that would apply nearly across the globe. Plus, the ...
The G-20 finance ministers from the world’s largest economies are exploring a minimum corporate tax rate that would apply nearly across the globe. Plus, the ...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : April 8, 2021
savvy \SAV-ee\ verb
Definition
: to understand
Did You Know?
While the noun savvy, meaning "practical know-how" (as in "...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : April 8, 2021
savvy \SAV-ee\ verb
Definition
: to understand
Did You Know?
While the noun savvy, meaning "practical know-how" (as in "...
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FREEUS History Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
The United States Postal Service has found its next unsung American hero to honor with a stamp. For International Women's Day last month, the USPS announced Chien-Shiung Wu would be commemorated with a postage stamp for her 40 year career as a prominent nuclear physicist. Wu was the first woman hired as a faculty member of the physics department at Princeton University. She also served as a design consultant for the "Wu experiment" involving parity and radioactive decay with cobalt-60, which lead to Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Wu would also be recruited to support the Manhattan Project during World War II. Later in her life she would discover molecular changes to hemoglobin in sickle cell anemia. For the USPS commemorative stamp, artist Kam Mak depicted Wu in watercolors, with a lapis lazuli background to denote her important social value. Wu is also wearing a qipao, a high-necked dress worn by Chinese noblewomen—another nod to Wu's great worth and character, and her proud Chinese-American heritage. It's definitely a different look from the physicist's lab coat, but nonetheless regal and a statement piece!
[Image description: a photo of Chien-Shiung Wu in the laboratory, and her official USPS stamp with portrait ] Credit & copyright: Columbia University, USPS.
Written by: Esther P.
The United States Postal Service has found its next unsung American hero to honor with a stamp. For International Women's Day last month, the USPS announced Chien-Shiung Wu would be commemorated with a postage stamp for her 40 year career as a prominent nuclear physicist. Wu was the first woman hired as a faculty member of the physics department at Princeton University. She also served as a design consultant for the "Wu experiment" involving parity and radioactive decay with cobalt-60, which lead to Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Wu would also be recruited to support the Manhattan Project during World War II. Later in her life she would discover molecular changes to hemoglobin in sickle cell anemia. For the USPS commemorative stamp, artist Kam Mak depicted Wu in watercolors, with a lapis lazuli background to denote her important social value. Wu is also wearing a qipao, a high-necked dress worn by Chinese noblewomen—another nod to Wu's great worth and character, and her proud Chinese-American heritage. It's definitely a different look from the physicist's lab coat, but nonetheless regal and a statement piece!
[Image description: a photo of Chien-Shiung Wu in the laboratory, and her official USPS stamp with portrait ] Credit & copyright: Columbia University, USPS.
Written by: Esther P.
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
No one rocks a power ballad quite like Songwriter Hall of Famer Diane Warren. This year she was honored with her first Golden Globe win for Io sì (Seen), a song she co-wrote for Laura Pausini as part of The Life Ahead soundtrack. Much in the way Warren penned Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing for Armageddon, or Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me for Up Close and Personal, Io sì (Seen) has lyrics written from the perspective of a character professing their love and admiration for another. Through good and bad times—or in the song's case, a capella-like verses and booming orchestral choruses—the Italian singer Pausini knows that love is a steadfast thing. This is Warren's second Golden Globe win in her prolific 40-year career as a professional songwriter, and there's buzz for a potential 12th Academy Award nomination. So far Warren hasn't taken home an Oscar statue, but it remains to be seen if her luck changes this year!
[Image description: American songwriter Diane Eve Warren, poses in a black blazer and choker, with a bedazzled bug t-shirt.] Credit & copyright: Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP
Written by: Esther P.
No one rocks a power ballad quite like Songwriter Hall of Famer Diane Warren. This year she was honored with her first Golden Globe win for Io sì (Seen), a song she co-wrote for Laura Pausini as part of The Life Ahead soundtrack. Much in the way Warren penned Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing for Armageddon, or Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me for Up Close and Personal, Io sì (Seen) has lyrics written from the perspective of a character professing their love and admiration for another. Through good and bad times—or in the song's case, a capella-like verses and booming orchestral choruses—the Italian singer Pausini knows that love is a steadfast thing. This is Warren's second Golden Globe win in her prolific 40-year career as a professional songwriter, and there's buzz for a potential 12th Academy Award nomination. So far Warren hasn't taken home an Oscar statue, but it remains to be seen if her luck changes this year!
[Image description: American songwriter Diane Eve Warren, poses in a black blazer and choker, with a bedazzled bug t-shirt.] Credit & copyright: Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP
Written by: Esther P.
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FREEUS History Daily Curio #2214Free1 CQ
Cow Hollow is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in San Francisco bordered by the Marina, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, and the Presidio. It's hard to imagine less than 150 years ago, Cow Hollow was a sparsely populated valley with a picturesque lagoon. Named Laguna Pequeño by the Spanish, the little lake was fed by springs from present-day Nob Hill. Indigenous populations and Spanish colonizers used the lake to wash clothing. When gold-seeking immigrants or forty-niners inundated the region, they nicknamed it Washerwoman's lagoon. At the time, laundry was incredibly expensive. Most men had no clue how to clean their clothes. The few women laundering clothes were able to charge as much as $8 (approximately $265 today with inflation) to wash a dozen shirts in the lagoon. It was actually cheaper to send clothes to Hawaii or China to be laundered or to buy new clothing. Bayard Taylor, a journalist, reported in 1849, that a few men made a go of it, "It was an amusing sight to see a great, burly, long-bearded fellow kneeling on the ground, with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and rubbing a shirt on the board with such violence that the suds flew and the buttons, if there were any, must soon snap off." Chinese immigrants recognized the trade as a substantial opportunity, particularly as they faced xenophobia and racism in industries like mining. Eventually, competition reduced the prices of laundered clothing to $5 a dozen.
Unfortunately, all the local development destroyed the pristine lake. Soap-suds, waste from nearby dairies, slaughterhouses, tanneries, and factories, and raw sewage degraded the water. It quickly became a cesspool. Linked to cases of cholera, including one that killed then-Mayor Ephraim Burr's son, the communal washbasin was filled in on this day in 1877 by a chain gang of 200 men from the city jail. This didn't resolve the larger waste problem. Over the next 10 years, waste continued to build, eventually overflowing onto Vallejo and Franklin Streets. The 8 to 10 foot "river of filth" was only contained with the construction of new sewers and additional roads—not to mention the relocation of the more putrid enterprises. No doubt these choices took a load off locals.
[Image description: View from Russian Hill looking west to Washerwoman’s Lagoon and Spring Valley, between 1859 and 1862.] Credit & copyright: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library. Online Archive of California.Cow Hollow is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in San Francisco bordered by the Marina, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, and the Presidio. It's hard to imagine less than 150 years ago, Cow Hollow was a sparsely populated valley with a picturesque lagoon. Named Laguna Pequeño by the Spanish, the little lake was fed by springs from present-day Nob Hill. Indigenous populations and Spanish colonizers used the lake to wash clothing. When gold-seeking immigrants or forty-niners inundated the region, they nicknamed it Washerwoman's lagoon. At the time, laundry was incredibly expensive. Most men had no clue how to clean their clothes. The few women laundering clothes were able to charge as much as $8 (approximately $265 today with inflation) to wash a dozen shirts in the lagoon. It was actually cheaper to send clothes to Hawaii or China to be laundered or to buy new clothing. Bayard Taylor, a journalist, reported in 1849, that a few men made a go of it, "It was an amusing sight to see a great, burly, long-bearded fellow kneeling on the ground, with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and rubbing a shirt on the board with such violence that the suds flew and the buttons, if there were any, must soon snap off." Chinese immigrants recognized the trade as a substantial opportunity, particularly as they faced xenophobia and racism in industries like mining. Eventually, competition reduced the prices of laundered clothing to $5 a dozen.
Unfortunately, all the local development destroyed the pristine lake. Soap-suds, waste from nearby dairies, slaughterhouses, tanneries, and factories, and raw sewage degraded the water. It quickly became a cesspool. Linked to cases of cholera, including one that killed then-Mayor Ephraim Burr's son, the communal washbasin was filled in on this day in 1877 by a chain gang of 200 men from the city jail. This didn't resolve the larger waste problem. Over the next 10 years, waste continued to build, eventually overflowing onto Vallejo and Franklin Streets. The 8 to 10 foot "river of filth" was only contained with the construction of new sewers and additional roads—not to mention the relocation of the more putrid enterprises. No doubt these choices took a load off locals.
[Image description: View from Russian Hill looking west to Washerwoman’s Lagoon and Spring Valley, between 1859 and 1862.] Credit & copyright: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library. Online Archive of California.