· There was a small African tribe that had a terrible problem. Every morning a neighboring herd of wildebeasts would stampede through the village, knocking down cooking pots, smashing water jugs and trampling the vegetable gardens. The chief had tried everything, with no success. He built fences, but the gnus ran right through them. Finally, one morning the chief woke up and didn't hear the thunder of hooves. He went out, and the gnu herd was nowhere to be seen. They were gone at last! So, the chief called all the people of the tribe together, and announced, "NO GNUS IS GOOD NEWS!"
· A German farmer with relatives in the US sent them a package consisting of some pork sausages made from his old pig. When they complained that the package had not yet arrived, he wrote: "Cheer up. The wurst is yet to come."
· This psychic is jailed for false prophecies, but because he is only 4'7" tall and extremely slender, he is able to slip under the bars and make his escape. Newspaper headline the next day? "SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE"
· It was once the custom for Watusi chiefs to be inaugurated on wooden thrones. After the inauguration, the thrones were discarded. However, a certain tribesman, who had been elected chief several times, kept all his old thrones in the top part of his grass hut. One year, the weight of the thrones caused the hut to collapse, killing him. The moral being: He who lives in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones. http://www.macscouter.com/stories/ShaggyShorts.asp
San Francisco contractor, David Hewes, friend of Central Pacific President Leland Stanford, was disappointed to discover no one had prepared a commemorative item for the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which was scheduled to be finished on May 8, 1869. Unable to persuade anyone to finance the casting of a solid gold or silver section of rail, Hewes decided upon a more practical token. Using $400 of his own gold, he had the William T. Garatt Foundry of San Francisco cast a golden spike. The spike was 5 5/8 inches long, weighed 14.03 ounces and was made of 17.6 carat gold. Only about $350 worth of gold, however, was used to make the actual spike. After casting, the golden spike was engraved on all four sides and the top. Two sides bore the names of railroad officers and directors. Another side was engraved, “The Pacific Railroad ground broken Jan 8th 1863 and completed May 8th 1869.” The fourth side was engraved, “May God continue the unity of our Country as this Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world. Presented David Hewes San Francisco.” The top of the spike was simply engraved, “The Last Spike.” https://www.nps.gov/gosp/learn/historyculture/four-special-spikes.htm Thank you, Muse reader!
William Caslon I (1692/93–1766), also known
as William Caslon the Elder, was
an English typefounder. The distinction and legibility of his type
secured him the patronage of the leading printers of the day in England and
on the continent. His typefaces transformed English type design
and first established an English national typographic style. In 1716, he
started business in London as an
engraver of gun locks and barrels and as a bookbinder's tool cutter. Having contact with printers, he was induced
to fit up a type
foundry,
largely through the encouragement of William Bowyer.
Caslon's typefaces were inspired by the Dutch Baroque types, the
most commonly used types in England before Caslon's faces. Caslon typefaces were
immediately popular and used for many important printed works, including the
first printed version of the United States Declaration of
Independence. Caslon's types became so popular that the
expression about typeface choice, "when in doubt, use Caslon," came
about. The Caslon types fell out of
favour in the century after his death, but were revived in the 1840s. Several revivals of the Caslon types are
widely used today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Caslon SIMILAR
FONTS: Baskerville and Ehrhardt https://www.typewolf.com/caslon
Cited
as the first original typeface of English origin, Caslon is a serif typeface
types, characterized by short ascenders and descenders, bracketed serifs,
moderately high contrast, robust texture, and moderate modulation of stroke. Type historians Stanley Morison and Alfred F.
Johnson, a scientist who worked at the British Museum, point out the close
similarity of Caslon's design to the Dutch Fell types cut by Voskens and other
type cut by the Dutchman Van Dyck. One
of the earliest mentions of Caslon as a punch-cutter and typefounder appears
in John Nicols, Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer
1782, where he writes: "he
(Caslon) cut the beautiful fount of English." Nicols describes this character as far
superior over contemporary Dutch founts used in English books at this
period. With the rise of hot metal
typesetting in the late 19th century, existing foundry metal typefaces such as
Caslon's had to be adapted to specific typesetting technology. This was true again with phototypesetting in the
60's and 70's, and then again with digital typesetting from the mid-80's to
today. As a result, there are many
typefaces called "Caslon" which reproduce the original designs with
varying degrees of faithfulness. https://www.caseyprinting.com/blog/2013/typography/caslon-when-in-doubt-use-caslon
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg primary (PRY-mer-ee, -muh-ree) adjective: First; main; most important; basic. noun: Something that is fundamental or first in sequence, rank, or importance. verb tr.: To field a candidate against an incumbent of one’s own party. From Latin primus (first). Earliest documented use: 1425; for verb: 1916. fractal (FRAK-tuhl) noun: Something, such as a shape, curve, pattern, etc., where smaller parts have the same characteristics. adjective: Having the form or qualities of a fractal. Coined by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010), from Latin fractus (broken), from frangere (to break). Earliest documented use: 1975.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2743 November 10, 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment