The ’00s
Were they the ’00s or were they the 00’s?
the Pea Green House
“Under her professional name, Pearl Younger, she showed it all nightly at the Pea Green House in Fort Smith, a gorgeous whorehouse celebrated far and wide as The Pride and Joy of the Great American Southwest.”
—Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country, 2008.
spring colors and new sap
“Pairs of great woodpeckers larger than crows, with flashing white bills and crimson crests afire in the sun, crossed the river in deep bounding flight, and hurtling flocks of small long-tailed parrots, bright green as new leaves in the morning light. The wild things were shining with spring colors and new sap and finally I was, too. I would sink my teeth into this morning land like a fresh peach.”
—Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country, 2008.
the history of typography
“My claim to fame is that I’m one of the world’s foremost authorities on the history of typography. Unfortunately, that’s also my claim to obscurity.”
—Jeremy Edwards, Rock My Socks Off, 2010.
TYPEOGRAPHY
Piet Zwart
50 additional interesting wikipedia articles
Inspired by the 50 most interesting articles on wikipedia and 50 more of wikipedia’s most interesting articles, I have been clicking away like a lab
rat at the random article button on the left hand column of every
wikipedia page, googling phrases like ‘interesting wikipedia articles’, and, I confess, borrowing heavily from the archives of best of wikipedia, to produce, for your adult edutainment, the DJ Misc list of 50 additional interesting wikipedia articles:
Stuckism
Superdollar
Chantilly lace
Oracle bone script
Alphabet
Claudian letters
Leet
Street dentistry
Dock Ellis
Sun Ra
Alchemy
Longest name
Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon
Kjerag
Pagan
Interesting number paradox
International Klein Blue
Orange revolution
Colors
Ukiyo-e
Love Land
Hitlers’ Cross
Forest swastika
Church of the SubGenius
Sandwich
Rumi
Floater
Language of flowers
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Death from laughter
Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln
Chess boxing
Warp drive
Gramophone record
Megalith
Manhattanhenge
Faux Cyrillic
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
Reality Checkpoint
Spirit of Ecstasy
Triboluminescence
Green flash
Cosmic latte
Mondegreen
Spectral evidence
The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World
Thought terminating cliché
Wikipedia
Nothing
drawing their Xs
“Ted Smallwood testified that he had not witnessed the shooting, only heard it, so he could not say that Bill House’s account was not true ‘far as it went.’ House looked disgusted but remained silent. Smallwood and a couple of others signed their names and House and the rest took pains drawing their Xs, to make sure that X would not be mistaken for somebody else’s.”
—Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country, 2008.
God ees all thees color?
“That Frenchman said he never held with no Father Who art in Heaven, ‘Man ees made in Hees ee-mage? Who say so? Black man? Red man? Which man? White man? Yellow man? God ees all thees color? Say tabsurde!’ ”
—Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country, 2008.
coral snake colors
“Mama says that Indians, too, would suffer ‘Jim Crow’ laws if we hadn’t wiped most of them out with bullets and diseases. In south Florida today, there are few left, but Papa says they have started to come in to trade at Everglade with dugouts full of deer hides, plumes, and pelts. The women like calico in yellow, red, and black—coral snake colors, says Lucius, who knows everything there is to know about Indians and the natural world of the Glades country. Probably the coral snake has sacred meaning, our little boy explains, until Eddie scoffs at this opinions, reminding him that he is only nine.”
—Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country, 2008.