Happy Birthday Emily Dickinson
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” “In 1984”, Huxley added, “people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.” In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”
Neil Postman
A few years ago I posted a story about the smallest indie bookshop in New Zealand, which is most definitely the littlest bookstore that I’ve ever found. You can revisit The Twizel Bookshop right here. But ‘The Exceedingly Tiny Bookshop’ featured in Tom Gauld’s cartoon for Guardian Books occupies record territory for small bookstores anywhere.
New York City’s famous Rockefeller Center is taking tourism to new heights. They’ve just launched a new, immersive experience called “The Beam” which offers visitors the chance to recreate the iconic “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” picture that was taken in 1932.
The original photo featured eleven ironworkers eating their lunch on a steel beam hundreds of feet above the ground, during construction of what is now 30 Rockefeller Plaza.While many people assume the photo was a candid shot, it was actually a publicity stunt.
Set outdoors, on the 69th floor of 30 Rock. The Beam lifts people 12 feet above the observation deck and spins 180 degrees to give an unobstructed view of Central Park and the New York City skyline.
The ride lasts less than two minutes, and unlike the workers in the iconic photograph, visitors to The Beam are secured down with seatbelts.
“The idea of creating The Beam so that people could feel directly connected to that iconic photo really appealed to us,” said EB Kelly, the head of Rockefeller Center.
Tickets to the Top of the Rock start at $40 for adults; admission to The Beam is an additional $25. For more information visit here.
It’s always a treat when two of one’s interests intersect. In my case, I’m a huge comedy fan and a big old geography nerd. So I was happy to recently discover that Geographical magazine has a profile of the Map Men—that is, Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, who’ve been posting funny videos on YouTube that explain some cartographical or geographical silliness since 2016, on and off.
‘As little as ten years ago, maps were something that you just had to live with and everybody had an A-to-Z in the car,’ says Jay, who is the main comedic influence behind the channel, having already found success with a series on London’s architecture called Unfinished London. ‘But now that everyone has a sat nav, I think maps have become, for want of a better word, more geeky. You get people who didn’t realise that they were interested in maps or geography until they see an episode of Map Men and they’ll say: “Oh, yeah, maps are my guilty pleasure.” And I don’t think people would have necessarily talked like that about maps ten years ago, because they used to be something that we depended on. And now they have become something that we enjoy.’
Born in England in 1651, William Dampier embarked on a life of piracy in 1679 in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche after a number of unsuccessful early jobs. He changed his fortunes by joining the rapidly growing field of high seas raiding and pillaging. But along with his busy career in piracy, Dampier was also an avid diarist. He kept a journal wrapped in a wax-sealed bamboo tube throughout his journeys. During a prison stay in Spain during 1694, Dampier turned his journal into a novel that became a bestseller and an early travelogue.
A New Voyage Around the World reads like an episode of No Reservations, with Dampier playing a 17th century Anthony Bourdain. Along with his writing about piracy, he also ventured into meteorology, maritime navigation, and zoology. Food was also an important focus of Dampier’s attention. He frequently documented the eating habits of locals he observed on his voyages around the world.
The English speaking world can thank Dampier for the words “tortilla,” “soy sauce,” “barbecue” and “breadfruit,” and the first ever recipe for guacamole. In A New Voyage Around the World Damier wrote of a fruit “as big as a large lemon … [with] skin [like] black bark, and pretty smooth.” Lacking distinct flavor, he wrote, the ripened fruit was “mixed with sugar and lime juice and beaten together [on] a plate.” This was likely the English language’s very first recipe for guacamole.
In the years after its its publication, A New Voyage became an international bestseller, earning Dampier wealth and fame. The book created a renewed interest among European audiences for travel writing. It also inspired Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Charles Darwin brought a copy of A New Voyage with him aboard the Beagle’s voyage to South America, having cited the book as a “mine of information.”
Sadly, Dampier died in debt due to legal problems. But the next time you enjoy some guacamole and chips, pause to remember Dampier’s contributions to our eclectic menus.
Thank you for waiting.
At this moment in time, we’d like to invite First Class passengers only to board the aircraft.
Thank you for waiting.
We now extend our invitation to Exclusive, Superior, Privilege and Excelsior members, followed by Triple, Double and Single Platinum members, followed by Gold, Silver, Bronze card members, followed by Pearl and Coral Club members.
Military personnel in uniform may also board at this time.
Thank you for waiting.
We now invite Meteorite customers, and passengers enrolled in our Rare Earth, Metals points and rewards scheme and thank you for waiting.
Accredited beautiful people may now board, plus any gentlemen carrying a copy of this month’s Cigar Aficionado magazine, plus subscribers to our Red Diamond, Black Opal or Blue Garnet schemes.
We also welcome Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald members at this time, followed by Amethyst, Onyx, Obsidian, Jet, Topaz and Quartz members.
On production of a valid receipt, travellers of elegance and style wearing designer and/or hand-tailored clothing or flaunting individual pieces of jewellery including wristwatches with a minimum purchase price of 10,000 US dollars may now board.
Also welcome at this time are passengers talking loudly to cell phone headsets about recently completed property acquisitions, share deals and aggressive takeovers, plus hedge fund managers with proven track records in the undermining of small to medium-sized ambitions.
Passengers in Loam, Chalk, Marle and Clay may also board.
Thank you for waiting.
Mediocre passengers are now invited to board, followed by passengers lacking business acumen or general leadership potential, followed by people of little or no consequence, followed by people operating at a net fiscal loss as people.
Scroungers, malingers, spongers and freeloaders may now step forward.
Those holding tickets for zones Rust, Mulch, Cardboard, Puddle and Sand might want to begin gathering their crumbs and tissues ready for boarding.
Passengers either partially or wholly dependent on welfare or kindness, please have their travel coupons validated at the quarantine desk.
Sweat, Dust, Shoddy, Scurf, Turd, Chaff, Remnant, Ash, Pus, Sludge, Clinker, Splinter and Soot, all you people are now free to board.
Yesterday’s post on the dictionary word of the year reminded me of a recent book listing for the enduringly popular satirical book The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
Bierce was one of America’s most popular humorists, journalists, and short story writers from the 19th century. A veteran of the American Civil War, Bierce’s most anthologized titles include his war stories “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga”. Some of his other stories are classics of genre fiction, with the notable horror story “The Damned Thing” and the science fiction story “Moxon’s Master” both regularly appearing in genre anthologies. But his most popular book-length work is The Devil’s Dictionary, a classic satire of cynical and humorous word definitions. First published in 1906 under the title The Cynic’s Word Book, it is considered one of America’s best satires of its era. With it and his other works, Bierce made a lasting impact on American fiction. Bierce mysteriously disappeared in Mexico in 1913, so the actual date and circumstances of his death are unknown. To this day, no one has ever discovered what happened to him.
This edition was published in 1972 by the Limited Editions Club and features woodcut illustrations and devilish ornaments by German artist Fritz Kredel (1900-1973). The marbled paper used for the endpapers and the slipcase are patterned using a fantasy design in red and black that is described as a “harmonizing flame pattern” in the prospectus.
The 2023 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year shortlist is out and it’s a doozy. As tradition demands, the winner is in your hands as the shortlist goes to a public vote on The Bookseller website here. The poll is open until 1st December with the winner revealed on the 8th.
Here’s the short list, so make your vote count. Personally, I’m partial to any Monty Python inspired title.
The author of Rumpelstiltskin’s Secret: What Women Didn’t Tell the Grimms looks at how a raucous drinking song became a festive favourite.
The “beguiling weasel” at the centre of this book is “more than a charismatic minifauna; it is the covert ambassador of a critical ecosystem,” says the author.
Charts the device’s lifespan from “metallic shriek that first shocked pedestrians” to its use in the trenches in the First World War.
The only non-academic contender is a “judgement-free” handbook from a podcaster and self-described “sober sexpert”.
“Covers every aspect of abdominal gas” in movies, music and TV, combined with “philosophical positions on colonic expression”.
An interdisciplinary look at classic canonical works and how “sea, rivers, pools, streams and glaciers all participate in a violent decolonialism”.
Travel Between The Pages 