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May 10, 2021

Things I learned while looking up other things, 2021.5.11

Dear friends,

Last week I had shot #2 (with only a tiny bit of Pfizer Phlu afterwards). The hardest part has been having to reset my notions of what would be possible this summer (ngl, I would have been fine staying indoors and reading, just as I spent every summer of my childhood). Probably the biggest indicator of my new understanding that leaving the house might be possible is that I made a new dress, for the first time in a year. 

"By the Statute of Vagabonds (1547), under Edward VI ... brawlers were ordered to be branded ... with F for 'fraymaker'." (Obligatory "that's a great name for a band" comment.)

"Fashion is a monarch whose realm is hereditary, it is a Parliament which renders femininity obligatory, like public education or military service"—almost every page of The Fashion System by Roland Barthes is quotable, although it's not what I would call a page-turner. I'm finding this fascinating now, although a part of me is grateful I didn't read this when I was younger and far more susceptible to the lure of describing systems. 

"To denote maturity (thirteen or fourteen years of age), a ceremony called bin-sogi (bin, temple or sidelocks; sogi, cut) is held and the hair around the temple is cut to about one foot in length. This coiffure is limited to the upper classes."

Simon 'the stuffa' Wilson of Bovingdon is evidently the taxidermist to watch (uh, if you watch taxidermists?) and is responsible for the "Floating Giraffe" of Aynhoe Park. (Of course he has an Instagram.)

"'Shut up, humans' was a typical response to audience requests."

"Many things that today we consider routine – the posting of job openings inside of a company so that anyone could apply, formal job descriptions for every position, and so forth—were her creations." 

The Antitactes were a sect that believed that the "true Christian must show his adherence to the Omnipotent by breaking the laws of the Decalogue,—the more the better."

If you can't decide between Wolverine and Batman, good news—you don't have to choose.

Cacholong is a kind of opal (also called Kalmuck agate); turns out it makes a very pretty polar bear clock.

Here's hoping you too are on the road to full vaccination—

Your friend,

Erin
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