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May 2005 Archive After a long recess, Janus Museum Radio returns with a stirring program of music from the Civil War. link home 30 May - Memorial Day  Today is Memorial Day, originally created after the Civil War as Decoration Day - the day to decorate the graves of those who fell during the war. Take a moment to reflect on their sacrifice and all of the others, before and since. And for the servicemen and women who put their lives at hazard today. The tintype pictured above is from the Museum's extensive collections. Also called a ferrotype, the process was patented as the melainotype by Hamilton L. Smith, a professor at Kenyon College, in 1856. Since no negative is involved in the process, multiple copies of an image were possible by using a multiple lens camera, or a sliding plate holder, or a combination of the two - the photograph was finished and then cut apart. This image was made in a sliding plate camera, but was left uncut - a very rare example. link home 29 May - An Experiment in Smoke  At this very minute I'm trying out a caper I saw Alton Brown perform on Good Eats on the Food Network - making a smoker out of a large clay flowerpot and an electric hotplate. One puts a pie plate full of hickory chips on the hotplate and a grill over the chips, and a clay basin overall, and smoke results. Here's an important detail that Brown failed to mention - one should fashion a drip pan out of aluminum foil and place it under the grill - I discovered this when the contraption went woof and a conflagration ensued - very exciting. The first experiment involves ribs - will report on the results. link home 29 May - Lunch with Rummy A Friend of the Museum sends this report of a recent lunch with Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense. Most interesting, especially the last paragraph: Today I dined at a meeting of the World Affairs Council at the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia. The guest of honor, who circulated among us shaking hands and chatting us up before lunch, then gave a speech and answered question afterwards, was 13th and 21st Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. link home 29 May - Constantinople  A sultan with janissaries, c.1600. Courtesy, The Janus Museum Today's the anniversary of the day in 1453 that Constantinople, the final remnant of the Roman empire, fell to the Turks under Sultan Mehmet II. The last Roman emperor, Constantine XI Paleologus died fighting in the breach of the city walls. link home May 28 - The Customary Law of the Straw Hat  Several alert readers have contacted me to suggest that Gus Norbeck, the Museum's maintenance man, was in error in wearing his elegant panama hat, as seen below, last week at my nephew Robert's graduation - that straw hats are not to be worn until Memorial Day. As noted previously in these pages, Straw Hat Day is May 15, so Gus was perfectly correct; and I never thought that I would ever have to say that Gus was correct in any matter relating to fashion - or to anything, really. Above, Gus models another of his straws. Remember, Gus likes hats. link home 27 May - Busy Times Once again, my apologies for the long silence - I had to review, on a rush basis, the edited text of the book. Then family matters took over - my nephew, Robert Szégy-Légy, graduated (cum laude) from law school, and there was a full slate of exciting familial activities. My brother, Granville Szégy-Légy, came from his Idaho cabin to take part and stayed with me in the carriage house, which was nice, but was a further call on limited blogging time. And then, of course, I needed to recover from the full slate of exciting familial activities.  Robert Szégy-Légy, Juris Doctor. Gus (right) examines the velvet facings on the doctorial gown. The ceremony was a weird mix of the medieval and a modern sporting event - there were the grads and their professors and deans in their gowns and cowls and a nice variety of mortarboards and academic tams, berets and beanies. There was a ceremonial mace. There was also a pipe band - why a pipe band? - in their Napoleonic bearskin busbies and the traditional Victorian-era imaginary traditional highland garb.  Busbies meet Mortarboards All very grand, and I was grateful that the pipers didn't make an attempt on "Pomp and Circumstance". But the uproar of the ceremony! The families and friends of the graduates howled and shrieked throughout the endless recitation of the names as the grads received their diplomas. The howls were mostly the high-pitched drawn-out whoooh! one hears at drag races and NASCAR events, a sound I privately call the American ululation. One large party seated near me brought tamborines and a drum, which they used vigorously whenever a family member, or a friend of a family member had his or her name called. Sometimes they tambored and drummed at random, just to stay in practice. They had a monk with them - long white beard and hooded habit - who raised his pectoral cross during tamborational activity - an attempt at exorcism? What with the whoohing and the drumming and the piping, I was fair mazed by the end of the three hour ceremony. And, since I was seated in the bleachers, my butt was paralyzed. I was in desperate need of a stiff drink, but what did I find in the refreshment tent afterwards? Lemonade! And I had forgotten to bring my flask... link home 17 May - Blimp Dreams  US Navy B Type Airship, c.1917 I have to report the convergence of two occasional themes on these pages: blimps and dreams. The other night, I dreamed that I was called in to consult at a famous air and space museum in downtown DC - let's call it the Museum of Chopped Liver, so as to protect the innocent. I was called in because of my knowledge of matters lighter than air, you see. In my dream, the Museum of Chopped Liver had decided to enter into a partnership with a designer and builder of highly advanced new-technology airships. If I approved, the skies would soon grow dark with these highly advanced MoCL airships, in my dream. But it was decided to call me in to have a look at the project before construction actually began. So, in my dream, I enter into the conference room at the MoCL and gaze at the model of the proposed highly advanced new-technology airship, while the suits nervously await my verdict. Well, it's to laugh! The design, in my dream, is merely a crudely modified update of the ancient US Navy B Type airship (see photo above), first built in 1917! I announce this to the suits, and guess what - they're mad at me - I'm thrown out of the meeting, damn them. See, it was a done deal, and I had spoiled it. Everyone knew that it was a crudely modified update of the ancient US Navy B Type airship rather than a highly advanced new-technology airship - I was just supposed to play along, bless the project, collect my fee, and run along. Well, in my dreams, I don't play that way - I call blimps as I see them, and they can like it or lump it. Besides, no one had told me it was a done deal. One might think that the B class of airships orginated the word "blimp" - one story has it that the word came about as a contraction of the classification of the "B type - limp" airship. But I have a couple of problems with this story - the word "blimp" was coined by the British, and they had no airship designated "B" - the American B Type was not used by the British. And the word appears in 1915, two years before the B Type was born. And finally, I put it to you that no military man would ever, ever designate a piece of military equipment as "limp" - it would never do. Here's the true story of the Naming of the Blimp. link home May 16 - Cat Kokomo  We received the sad news today that Cat Kokomo over on Brown Street died on Friday. I had the honor of photographing her back in October - she was a sweet, gentle old Siamese, who will be missed. link home 15 May - Cats of Washington Grove  A rare sighting of the elusive Cat Maple, who lives on the other side of The Circle from The Historic Cottage. She and Cat Natasha are pals, sort of in the Thelma and Louise mold. link home 14 May - Jai Santoshi Maa  Satyavati (Kanan Kaushal) breaks the bad news to Birju (Ashish Kumar)  Birju doesn't like leftovers. We watched Jai Santoshi Maa (1975) last evening; very interesting - scenes from the troubled lives of two very devoted devotees, Satyavati and Birju, of the goddess Santoshi Maa (Anita Guha), with lots of singing and dancing. Great storm and stress occurs when Satyavati informs her husband Birju that he's been fed leftovers from his brothers' meals - they live in the traditional big house with the extended family, and the mean sister-in-law who dishes out the grub has it in for Birju. Birju goes nuts - throws a fit and leaves the house. Apparently, serving up leftovers is extremely disrespectful. Myself, I like leftover Indian food a lot, but I'm the first to admit that the nuances of Indian culture are still a mystery to me. The film made a deep impression on Indian audiences, who would leave their shoes outside the theaters as a mark of respect to the goddess. The cult of Santoshi Maa seems to have only appeared in the 1960s, and her place in the Hindu pantheon was assured by the success of the film. link home 12 May - Azalea Season  Cat Natasha in the Circle  Leroy at the Historic Cottage The famous Janus Museum azaleas are now in full bloom, bringing bus tours from near and far. After closing hours, though, the Circle Cats emerge from their hidey holes and take back the joint for themselves. link home 11 May - Search Party  Cat Natasha (right) searches for Pringle, who lives down on 5th Avenue. Natasha knows she's in there, somewhere. link home 10 May - Shattered Calm  The Sacred Circle's tranquility has been shattered due to a generous, though ill-advised gift from the Washington Grove Pacer Farm's Winthrop to our maintenence man, Gus. It's a god-damn whistle, a genuine British constable's whistle. As previously reported, Gus is a block captain in the Grove's neighborhood watch (Winthrop is his "block lieutenant"), and now he's constantly on the prowl for infractions and threats to the peace so he can blow the wretched thing and raise the alarm or the bloody hue and cry or whatever. And he's been practising, of course:  Here's a brief Quicktime movie of Gus blowing the damn thing (1.85mb). The Circle cats go nuts when he blows it, of course. Gus also has his own flag, too. link home 10 May - Squid News Scary squid stories, via Pharyngula, via Cronaca. They're not really very scary, though. link home 10 May - The Writing Life; What is Home Without a Mother? I believe that I've mentioned a project I've been working on that's been preventing me from doing much in the way of entries here. I am now at liberty to reveal that as part of my job, I've been working on a book in association with another museum. For complicated contractual reasons, I won't actually be listed as the author of the book, but a nom de plume will be on the cover, instead. Gad, the things I do for a paycheck, such as it is... Anyway, the ms. finally went off to the poor long-suffering publisher at the end of last week, and I retired to a darkened room with a moistened cloth on my forehead to recover over the weekend. The book is scheduled for fall publication, and I'll have more news of it - even the title, maybe - later on. Meanwhile, I'll think about attempting to resume something like a normal update regimen. On Saturday, I emerged briefly for a bit of grocery shopping; stocked up on Kraft Macaroni Dinner and Vienna Sausages, and went through the checkout line. As we completed the transaction, the cashier, a nice young lady, said to me, "And have you finished your Mother's Day shopping, sir? ME: "Er... ah, no." CASHIER (very jocular and arch): "Well, you'd better get it done! What would your mother say?" ME: "Yeah, right. Thanks." CASHIER: "No, really! Better do your Mother's Day shopping!" ME: "My mother's dead." CASHIER: "Oh. Oh, I'm SO sorry, sir. (Pause) Well, then, how about for your wife?" ME (gasping like a fish): "Er..." CASHIER (very jocular and arch again): "Better do that shopping for your wife, then!" ME: "I'M NOT MARRIED, DO YOU HEAR ME?! I'M NOT MARRIED, I HAVE NO FRIENDS, AND I LIVE IN A SHIPPING CONTAINER! HAPPY?!" D'you know, I didn't even get a "have a nice day" out of her, after that. link home 3 May - Puddings at War  Here's an interesting advertisment from World War II for Mrs. Peek's tinned puddings from Steve Johnson's pages of women in British World War II ads, via grow-a-brain. It's also a poignant wartime drama about duty to one's country and also to one's selfish unpatriotic toad of a husband. I think it's rather hard that the lady whose story is illustrated, bravely volunteering as an air raid warden, no doubt during the darkest days of the Blitz, dodging bombs and AAA shrapnel - should have to put up with her miserable cad of a husband, no doubt a slimy war-profiteer and black marketeer, actually encouraging her to quit the ARP so he can have his hot dinner - I bet he's a hun spy, the bounder. And what's he doing out of khaki? Someone ought to give him a white feather, the damn conchie... Sorry, I got a little carried away. There are some things that affect me deeply, and pudding is one of them. By the way, Mrs. Peek's Puddings are still available. My favorite wartime pudding reference is the title of an exciting wartime spy adventure, The Fangs of Suet Pudding, by Adams Farr:  From the publisher's description: In the heart of France, May 1940 . . . Loreley Vance is suddenly awakened from her sleep by the entry into her room of, so she thought, a burglar. It may be that because he happened to be English, handsome, young and appealing, that she allowed him to hide under her bed, but whatever the reason it began the series of strange and startling events that brought her into the orbit of "Suet Pudding Face" Carl Vipoering, the master Nazi Spy, whose tentacles had spread over a small band of English folk who dared to oppose his machinations. And here's a bit from the book itself: But Suet Pudding's fat, sunken-eyed egotism was not yet satisfied. If he had a whip I knew he would have cracked it. Instead he clicked his heels smartly to attention. And, for the first time that night, I smelt the stench of crushed violet...From a wonderful book, Bizarre Books by Russell Ash and Brian Lake. Oh! Friend of the Museum Steve Phelps has just sent this Telegraph article from last year on bizarre books - Suet Pudding is mentioned, and Brian Lake is interviewed. link home 3 May - a Strange Device  Glimpsed on the roof of a government building in downtown Washington DC. I wonder if the curious red contraption could be part of the new laser warning system for the DC airspace? Here's a merry story of the south from Hank Burchard, the Squire of Pecker Wood: A very genteel Southern lady was driving across a Savannah River Bridge in Georgia one day. As she neared the middle of the bridge, she noticed a young man ready (fixin') to jump. She stopped her car, rolled down the window and said, "Please don't jump, think of yoah deah momma and daddy."link home 1 May - May Day, May Day!  Happy May Day, comrades. Oh! Here's a non-political song for the other sort of May Day celebration - The Padstow May Song, sung by Maddy Prior with Steeleye Span (from Tempted and Tried). The Cornish village of Padstow celebrates May Day each year with an extraordinary festival. There are two hobby horses (the red or old 'oss and the blue or temperance 'oss) that dance through the streets led by a "teaser" surrounded by the whole village and onlookers. All day they dance with short breaks for refreshments with mesmeric drums beating the winter out and the spring in.Borrowed, with thanks, from Reinhard Zierke's (Mostly) English Folk Music Website. link home |
