The Leaning Tower of Texas, a water tower lies right alongside the former path
of Route 66, which has since been paved over to create US Interstate 40. During the early and mid 20th century,
passersby on the Mother Road were intrigued by the severe tilt of the tower,
asking themselves what on Earth could have caused it. It was the work of a heavy-duty vehicle and a
bulldozer. Ralph Britten, a man who
wanted to start up a truck stop and restaurant off Route 66 in Groom, bought
the water tower from the town of Lefors as an ingenious marketing technique to
attract new visitors. He towed the
enormous thing 34 miles to Groom, wrote “Britten USA” on top, and then, using a
bulldozer, elevated two of its legs off the ground, dangling them in midair
without support, so that the water tower made an 80 degree angle with the
ground. This helped his business
immeasurably. It would catch the eye of
every passing motorist on the route for years, many of them becoming terrified
that the tower was in the process of collapsing. Britten’s manipulation of the
tower required sufficient knowledge of physics.
If the water tower were completely empty or completely full, its center
of mass would be directly in the middle of the can, making it topple when
slanted. So Britten filled it only
partially, so that the low level of water would place the can’s center of mass
near its base, directly above the two supporting legs, keeping it aloft. Unfortunately, after many years of success,
Britten’s truck stop burned down in a devastating fire, closing down all
sales. Despite this unfortunate event,
the leaning water tower is still one of the most photographed oddities on the
way out west. See pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-leaning-tower-of-groom-texas
The Famous CIBI Soba Salad by Meg Tanaka In Japanese ‘cibi’ (pronounced ‘chi-bee’)
means ‘a little one’. Each one of us was
once a cibi, enjoying that pure and innocent time, when we could do whatever we
liked. A cibi is always curious,
exploring and playing. A cibi treasures
their favourite things and relishes favourite foods to satisfy a healthy
appetite. We opened CIBI, our concept
store--a multipurpose cafe, store, event and neighbourhood space--in 2008 as a
way to enrich the everyday lives of our customers, team suppliers and our
neighbours. We have been serving our soba salad since we opened CIBI. When I created this dish, I wanted to add a
touch of western flavour so that it became a cafe-like dish as well as a CIBI
dish. Many of our regulars come in just
for this salad. This is a simpler
version that you can cook at home anytime.
All you really need in your cupboard is soba noodles, soy sauce and
lemon! Find recipe at https://thedesignfiles.net/2018/06/the-famous-cibi-soba-salad/
One of the most famous works in
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection is the ‘The Tower of Babel’ by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Babel, a city in the land
of Shinar, was
the first city built by the descendants of Noah after the Great Flood. Their leader, Nimrod, planned to build a
tower of bricks and lime that would reach to the heavens. He changed what was once a nation with one
language into numerous peoples that were spread across the face of the earth,
each speaking a different language. From
then on the different peoples lived in a ‘confusion of tongues’. Bruegel made ‘The Tower of Babel’ when
he was approximately 35 years old. He
visited Rome and took inspiration from the Colosseum for the
tower’s architecture. Towards the top of
the building, however, the arches take on the more pointed form found in Gothic
cathedrals. The Tower of Babel was a popular theme in the 16th century,
especially in Antwerp, where Bruegel worked. Antwerp was a busy harbour city,
visited by ships from all over the world and numerous languages could be heard
on its streets. This made the Old
Testament story of the confusion of tongues all the more relevant. Bruegel painted two other versions of the
‘Tower of Babel’. One is in the Kunsthistorisch Museum in Vienna. The painting is smaller than the version in
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the construction of the tower is depicted at
an earlier stage. The other version is a
miniature painted on a piece of ivory.
The whereabouts of the latter work are unknown. ‘The Tower of
Babel’ undertook an incredible journey from the moment it left Bruegel’s
workshop 450 years until it arrived in the museum in 1958. Only part of its travels can be traced. Around 1600 the painting was in the art
collection of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, along with other paintings by
Bruegel. Around 1620 the work was back
in Antwerp. See beautiful graphics at https://www.boijmans.nl/en/collection/in-depth/bruegel-s-tower-of-babel
babble verb mid-13c., babeln "to
prattle, utter words indistinctly, talk like a baby," akin to other
Western European words for stammering and prattling (Swedish babbla, Old French babillier,
etc.) attested from the same era (some of which probably were borrowed from
others), all probably ultimately imitative of baby-talk (compare Latin babulus "babbler," Greek barbaros "non-Greek-speaking"). "No direct connexion with Babel can be traced; though association with
that may have affected the senses" [OED]. Meaning "to talk
excessively" is attested from c. 1500.
babble noun c. 1500, "idle talk," from babble (v.). In
16c., commonly in reduplicated form bibble-babble (1530s).
Meaning "inarticulate speech"
is from 1660s. https://www.etymonline.com/word/babble See
also "BABEL" BABBLE at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/myl/languagelog/archives/004232.html
Maqaniq (pronounced
"mahAHNnik") is a thin mutton or beef sausage typically served as
part of a meze table
in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine. Find recipe at http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/recipes/display/bycategory.php/recipe_id/738/id/33/
humbug noun 1751,
student slang, "trick, jest, hoax, imposition, deception," of unknown
origin. Also appearing as a verb at the
same time, "deceive by false pretext" (trans.). Meaning "spirit of deception or imposition;
hollowness, sham" is from 1825. https://www.etymonline.com/word/humbug
humdrum adjective
"routine,
monotonous, dull, commonplace," 1550s, probably a reduplication of hum. As a noun, "monotony, tediousness,"
from 1727; earlier it meant "dull person" (1590s). https://www.etymonline.com/word/humdrum
humdinger noun probably from dinger,
an early 19c. slang word for anything superlative https://www.etymonline.com/word/humdinger
hummer noun c. 1600, of
insects, agent noun from hum (v.). Meaning "energetic person or thing"
is 1680s; that of "excellent person or thing" is slang from
1907.
As short for Humvee,
attested from 1983. https://www.etymonline.com/word/hummer?ref=etymonline_crossreference
A Philosopher
Lecturing on the Orrery, or the
full title, A Philosopher giving a Lecture on the Orrery in which a
lamp is put in place of the Sun, is a 1766 painting by Joseph Wright of
Derby depicting a lecturer giving a demonstration of an orrery to a small audience. It is now in the Derby Museum
and Art Gallery. The painting preceded his similar An
Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (National Gallery,
London). The first of
Wright's candlelit masterpieces, Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight,
was painted in 1765, and showed three men studying a small copy of the "Borghese Gladiator". The Gladiator was greatly
admired; but his next painting, The Orrery, caused a greater stir,
as it replaced the Classical subject at the centre of the scene with one of a
scientific nature. Wright's depiction of
the awe produced by scientific "miracles" marked a break with
previous traditions in which the artistic depiction of such wonder was reserved
for religious events, since to Wright the marvels of the technological age
were as awe-inspiring as the subjects of the great religious paintings. See picture at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philosopher_Lecturing_on_the_Orrery
An orrery is a mechanical model of our solar system. See http://longnow.org/clock/orrery/
and
We vs. Us
We is a pronoun. Specifically, it is a first person plural pronoun,
so it refers to a group of people that includes the speaker or
writer. For example, “We
play for keeps.” Us is also a
first person plural pronoun. Like we, us refers to a group of two or more people. The difference between we and us is
that we is a subject pronoun, and us is an object pronoun. Object pronouns are the grammatical object of
sentences. They receive the action of
the verb. For
example, “This is what you get when you mess with us.” https://writingexplained.org/we-or-us-difference
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2059
March 8, 2019
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