Larders

 
From House and Garden:

Larders started out life as stone-walled storage areas where meat could be preserved by covering it in fat, but later on, by the 19th century, became more all-purpose places to prepare and store food. Before the days of glorious electric appliances like fridges and freezers, the world of the kitchen was a very different place, and in order to cool meat and dairy products, they had to be kept as well-insulated as possible from the warmth of the kitchen. Larders tend to be a little more compact than walk-in pantries or sculleries, which are rooms (separate from the kitchen) used for storing bulkier things like soft drinks, wine, canned goods and often also appliances, vases and tableware.

Named a ‘larder’ because of the ‘lard’ that was historically used to preserve meats, the rooms tended to feature cool quarry tiled flooring, a fixed metal window (perforated to let in the cold air), stone slabs or ‘thrawls’ to keep food fresh, pine shelving, and pale blue walls because Victorians reportedly believed that it kept the flies away. Ice would harvested in the winter and kept in the larder surrounded by layers of hay insulation to retain its coldness all through the warmer months. Victorian pantries would have been managed by the ‘pantler’ or ‘pantry butler.’

Many kitchen designers have now started incorporating freestanding or built-in larders into their schemes: floor-to-ceiling cupboards, sometimes deeper than the surrounding kitchen cabinets, which include shelving, drawers, and often a countertop as well. The range of freestanding and built-in pantries by Smallbone is particularly nifty, and they're available in a wide range of finishes including sustainable European oak, rosewood, mahogany, American walnut and maple. (Read more.)

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Jim Jordan Calls Out Feds For Staging A Coup

 From the Jim Jordan Report:

FBI and Big Tech personnel, along with subpoenaed nonpublic internal documents and communications demonstrate that months before the election, the FBI fed social media companies a bunch of bull to cover for the Bidens.  

The report shows:

• WHO: Russia. The FBI repeatedly warned Big Tech of a potential influence operation by Russian actors targeting the 2020 election.

• WHAT: A hack-and-leak operation. The FBI repeatedly warned Big Tech that the Russian influence operation would likely take the form of a hack and leak, similar to the leak of Democratic National Committee emails in 2016.

• WHEN: Late September or October 2020. The FBI repeatedly warned Big Tech that this hack-and-leak operation would come right before the election, either as "an October surprise"  or "as soon as the first Presidential debate on September 29th."

• WHY: To reveal "evidence" regarding "links between the Biden family and Ukraine," including "Burisma." The FBI warned Big Tech that the Russian hack-and-leak operation would likely involve "real or manufactured evidence concerning links between the Biden family and Ukraine, including the oil company Burisma." Internal Microsoft notes state that a "week" before the New York Post story broke on October 14, the "FBI tipped [Big Tech] off" that "this Burisma story was likely to emerge."

Boil it down and you find the FBI–presumably with the knowledge and consent of the DOJ and Joe Biden–was doing its best to create and disseminate a false narrative because it was fully aware that Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell was real, damning to the Biden family, and had to be suppressed. 

Boil it down further: the federal government conspired to interfere with an election by covering up the deeply corrupted Biden crime family.     

The lies misled tens of millions of voters. There’s no disputing that. If the truth about Hunter’s laptop had been known before the New York Post articles came out, would it have changed the election in Trump’s favor? Probably. (Read more.)

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One Of Italy's Most Underrated Cities

 Turin. From Islands:

One special northern Italian city feels more like Paris than Rome, with wide cobbled boulevards, decadent Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture, and a riverside promenade. Turin, located in the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont halfway between Milan and the French border, has a rich and unique history. Following centuries of occupation by the French Savoy family, Turin was named the first capital of united Italy from 1861 until 1865. Since then, the city has gained many other accolades, from being the birthplace of Fiat and vermouth to housing the second-largest Egyptian museum in the world, Museo Egizio.

The city is known for its food and architecture, with a smattering of Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as landmarks like the Mole Antonelliana, whose pyramidal base and spindly tower can be seen across Turin, and Piazza San Carlo, a Baroque square at the heart of the city. With proximity to Milan and Gran Paradiso National Park, the oldest national park in Italy, Turin is a great jumping-off point for exploring northern Italy. Tour royal palaces, stroll beside the tranquil Po River, or sink your teeth into hearty Piedmontese dishes in one of Italy's most underrated cities. (Read more.)

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Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

  From Anthony Esolen:

Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) is the manager of a small, well, fly-by-night air mail service in South America, and he’s trying his hardest, and pushing his fellow pilots to the limit, to secure a government contract which will set the company up for sure success. The thing is, the route he and they have mostly to use takes them through a pass in the Andes, and the weather in that part of the world during the rainy season can be quite variable, what with two oceans nearby, one rather warm (the Atlantic) and one quite cold (the Pacific), not to mention the effects of the tropical latitudes and the great height of the peaks. You may have read Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s novel Night Flight (1931): it is set in Argentina, and it too involves the sacrifice of the men who fly the postal delivery planes to the greatness of their cause. We get some of that idealism also in Only Angels Have Wings, but the heart of the movie is love: for Geoff, against his inclinations, falls in love with a singer who has just recently arrived at their port town, and she, Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), against her inclinations, falls in love with him. I suppose that women are attracted to men who do dangerous but necessary things, though they often wish they could lay down those jobs and do something else instead.

The complications in Only Angels Have Wings are both personal and logistical. This work in bad weather will require you to set safety aside and put your life on the line, yet the men do it — and one of them, Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess), has gotten a bad reputation back in America for having bailed out of a plane to leave his mechanic to die. That mechanic was the brother of “Kid” Dabb, Geoff’s elder friend and fellow pilot, played by the many-talented character actor Thomas Mitchell, whose work we’ve often featured at Word and Song: for instance, in another film with a problematic air flight in it, Lost Horizon. Bat has that tag of the coward to live down, or to triumph over. The trial period for the government contract is nearing its end, and all looks well, when the storms come, and Geoff must decide what to do. And let us say that what to do means also what to do with Bonnie, and she must also decide; because if she stays with him, if she marries him, gone are the happy-go-lucky days on ships, singing before rich and pleasant crowds. (Read more.)

 

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Cover-ups

 From Tierney's Real News:

I’ve uncovered some new theories about what the virus we called COVID really was and the vaccines and treatments that were released by the Trump administration in 2020. I think this is important information that everyone should know and analyze themselves.

In March of 2020, I wrote one of the first in-depth articles about COVID using public sources - which back then I called the Wuhan virus. It was obvious to me back then there was more to the story - because the dots did NOT all connect. There were still way too many inconsistencies in the story we were told by the media and the administration. Before you read this newsletter about what I think really happened in 2020, re-read my newsletter about what we knew about the Wuhan virus back then. (Read more.)

 

From Sharyl Attkisson:

Now—we have remarkable new information: a respected pro-vaccine medical expert used by the federal government to debunk the vaccine-autism link, says vaccines can cause autism after all. He claims he told that to government officials long ago, but they kept it secret.

Yates Hazlehurst was born February 11, 2000. Everything was normal, according to his medical records, until he suffered a severe reaction to vaccinations. Rolf Hazlehurst is Yates’ dad.

Rolf Hazlehurst: And at first, I didn't believe it. I did not think that, I did not believe that vaccines could cause autism. I didn't believe it.

But there's a hard reality for Yates. The trademark brain disease, pain and inability to communicate that’s common with severe autism.

In 2007, Yates’ father sued over his son’s injuries in the little known Federal Vaccine court. It was one of more than 5000 vaccine autism claims.

Congress created vaccine court in 1988, in consultation with the pharmaceutical industry. In the special court, vaccine makers don’t defend their products—the federal government does it for them, using lawyers from the Justice Department. Money for victims comes from us, not the pharmaceutical industry, through patient fees added onto every vaccine given.

Denise Vowell, Vaccine Court Special Master: Our hearings are all closed to the public. And that’s statutory.

In 2007, Yates’ case and nearly all the other vaccine autism claims lost. The decision was based largely on the expert opinion of this man, Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a world-renowned pediatric neurologist shown here at a lecture.

Dr. Zimmerman was the government’s top expert witness and had testified that vaccines didn’t cause autism. The debate was declared over.

But now Dr. Zimmerman has provided remarkable new information. He claims that during the vaccine hearings all those years ago, he privately told government lawyers that vaccines can, and did cause autism in some children. That turnabout from the government’s own chief medical expert stood to change everything about the vaccine-autism debate. If the public were to find out. (Read more.)

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Bactrian Gold

 From The Greek Reporter:

What is referred to as Bactrian Gold is a collection of approximately 20,600 artifacts. Gold offerings, gold and silver coins, ornaments, medallions, exquisite jewelry, and a crown were discovered in six graves of five women and one man. These date back to between the first century BC and the first century AD.

Other than more obvious influences in the region, the particular findings had elements of Greek, Indian, and Chinese culture. Experts have compared the Tillya Tepe treasure and the findings therein to Tutankhamen’s tomb in terms of value.

The renowned archaeologist Sarigiannides claimed that the ancient Greek gold findings indicate the influence of Hellenism in the area. According to his theory, there is evidence that connects the Oxus civilization with the Minoan-Mycenaean civilization.

At the same time, he theorized that Zoroastrianism first appeared in the region in palaces and altars accompanied by evidence of pyro-worship. During rituals, a narcotic substance made of opium, hemp, and ephedra was used. (Read more.)

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The Pumpkin

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,--our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own pumpkin pie!
By John Greenleaf Whittier (Via Recta Ratio)

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Mom Olympics

 From Matriarch Goals:

I am hosting only my family for Thanksgiving dinner this year, but many uncles and cousins will stop by midday for post-football beers and apps, and I need to bring several pies to my brother’s house for our great post-feast jam session. The extended family on my side gets together to sing and teach the kids how to play and sing in a band, with multiple guitars and bass, keyboard, drums, and sound boards and amps and mics. I haven’t added my requests to the spreadsheet of songs we are supposed to practice before Thursday. But there is still a little time. Perhaps tonight after choir rehearsals. 

Do I want to try to make everyone learn Lord Huron or should we just stick to old reliables: Beatles, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, and the Cranberries? Definitely Starship’s We Built This City and The Outfield’s Your Love are going in the request line this year.

Things to do on the Monday before Thanksgiving: get ahead on laundry, make broth, assemble menu, delegate tasks to kids, go to the grocery store. When I was younger I used to have to take out all recipe cards and make lists, and do one giant trip to the grocery store; now I’ve been doing the same thing for so long, plus we have all the meat and most of the goods already in our deep freezer/panty, I barely need to get anything today. There’s no pressure to remember it all, anyway: the six gallons of milk I bought won’t last us through Thursday. I’ll be back. (Read more.)

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Ancient Egyptians, Modern Catholics, and Cremation

 From The Catholic World Report:

The museum has a small but rich collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts whose main attraction, obviously, is mummies. But the exhibition also contains canopic jars. In case you’re wondering what canopic jars are, they are the vessels in which Egyptian embalmers preserved certain organs (the viscera and lungs) they extracted from a body during mummification.

It struck me that, in one sense, the pagan ancient Egyptians in one respect had a greater respect for human embodiment and incarnation than many modern semi-gnostic “Christians”.

Surveys indicate that Catholic acceptance of cremation largely mirrors that of the general population. This should be surprising because, as French philosopher Damien Le Guay has pointed out, burial was for the longest time the funerary practice of Christians while cremation was the hallmark of pagans.

Why did Boston’s canopic jars trigger that association for me? Because they show that it’s not just the taxidermized shell of a body that mattered to the Egyptians. What the embalmers removed wasn’t just “junk,” “medical waste,” or “clumps of cells” to be discarded. Even those elements not put into the mummy case were honored.

This, of course, is not alien to Catholicism. On October 24th, Pope Francis issued his encyclical Dilexit Nos, on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Savior’s Heart is a symbol–but not “just” a symbol–of the center of Jesus’s Love. This is far removed from disincarnate modern thought. (The ancient Egyptian mummifiers also left the heart intact.)

But, you object, the Church permits cremation today. That’s true. Since rescinding its outright ban on cremation in 1963, the Vatican permits cremation today. But much depends on what “permits” means.

The Church “permits”–in the sense of “tolerates”–cremation. But the Church also “prefers” earth burial, in imitation of Jesus who lay in a tomb. It is like Friday abstinence in the United States: the Church in this country “permits” the eating of meat on non-Lenten Fridays provided Catholics perform some other penitential act. But we all also know the dirty little secret: people heard the permission but ignored the condition. The same is true with cremation.

The Church’s preference for earth burial is connected to her preference for bodily integrity, which is why the Church objects to some practices that cremation has otherwise made commonplace. Examples include the scattering of ashes, denying the deceased a final resting place (which is not an urn resting on the mantel over your fireplace), and the commodification of cremains (e.g., crystallizing human ashes into jewelry). It is why the Church generally sought the burial of bodies intact. Something of that same sentiment found echoes in Egyptian burial treatment of body parts, which mirrored something of their concept of life-after-death. (In the Christian West, parcelization of bodies was usually a punishment for serious malefactors, e.g., traitors whose drawn-and-quartered limbs and torso were publicly displayed at various city gates as part of deterrent punishment.)

I find it striking that the pagan Egyptians appear to have a respect for the body similar to what would be later developed more fully by Christians. It was also striking that many Christians seem to be backtracking on their own heritage. (Read more.)

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Holiday Etiquette Tips

From Kitchn:

When to arrive at a party?

If you live by the motto that it’s “better late than never,” you may be on to something. Although Martha doesn’t suggest showing up to parties two hours late, she does say that not showing up at the time it is scheduled to start is just fine. “A little past call time is always nice for the host because they’re never quite ready,” Martha suggested.

How long you should wait for a tardy guest before serving dinner?

“Not too long,” said Martha. “Just leave the plates — actually, push their plates to the end of the table.” (Note to self: Do not arrive late to Martha’s party.)

If you can move place cards if you don’t like the person you’re seated next to?

“No,” warned Martha. “You’re not allowed to. On Thanksgiving, my daughter moved all the place cards without my knowledge. That didn’t go over so well.” Check out the full segment below, along with Martha’s recipe for molasses-ginger crisps. We think they make a thoughtful gift, even if the eggs you use come from the grocery store. (Read more.)

 

More tips, HERE.

 

The comfort of scruffy hospitality, from Treehugger:

My friends Dana and John perfectly practice what the Rev. Jack King referred to as "scruffy hospitality." Their kitchen is small. The wood cabinets are dark and a few decades old. Spices and jars for sugar and flour line the countertops because there's nowhere else to put them. A tall, round table shoved in a corner has mismatched bar stools crammed around it.

The sliding glass doors in the kitchen lead to a back deck with a well-used chiminea, an outdoor table and a large variety of chairs and cushions, many of them bought at yard sales. We circle the chairs around the chiminea on weekend nights during all four seasons, whenever Dana and John put out a simple call out through text or Facebook that says, "Fire tonight!"

There will always be food, but like the bar stools and deck chairs, the food is mismatched. Our hosts provide some food; John may have the urge to make jalapeño poppers or Dana may put together some version of salsa with whatever's fresh from the garden, but there's not a formally prepared meal. Everyone just brings something. It's perfectly acceptable — encouraged even — to bring odds and ends of foods that need to get used up. I often bring wedges of cheese that have already been cut into or half a baguette to slice up and toast to dip in hummus. Everyone brings a little something to drink. And it's a glorious feast.

This kitchen and deck won't be featured in Better Homes and Gardens anytime soon, but maybe they should be. They are two of the most hospitable spaces I know. By opening up their home as-is, Dana and John are the most gracious hosts I know. I almost wrote "by opening up their home with its imperfections," but that's not accurate. Their home is perfect — just like it is. (Read more.)

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Behind the Scenes

 

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I Refuse to Watch Season 2 of 'The Empress'

 I could not even make it through Season 1 because of all the bizarre liberties taken with history, as if the life of Sisi and her tumultuous marriage to Franz Josef needed embroidering. But this is hilarious. From Frock Flicks:

Last year, for Snark Week, I suffered through season one of Netflix’s The Empress (2022-), allegedly set in the 1860s and purportedly about Austria-Hungary’s Empress Elisabeth aka Sissi. It was painful. I refuse to fall on that grenade again, and have serious doubts that Trystan or Sarah will either, so let’s snark the preview for season two (coming Nov. 22, 2024) and call it good.

According to Netflix’s site, the same costume designer is responsible for season 2, although previously she was listed as Gabrielle Reumer and now Netflix is spelling it Gabriela. (Read more.)

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Previewing 'The Flood' (2024)

The real Marie-Antoinette in a redingote – by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, 1788 | Chateau de Versailles

A fashion historian assesses the trailer of Le Déluge. It is incorrect to show Madame Elisabeth always in black. Why would she be in mourning while the rest of the family is not? And Madame de Lamballe did not have red hair; she was a blonde. From Frock Flicks:

The Flood (2024), aka Le Déluge, is opening in late December in France. It tells the story of the final days/weeks/months of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France, as the French Revolution gets going and the two eventually lose their lives. Given my interest in the period and all things Marie-Antoinette-y, you can bet I’m waiting impatiently for this to be released in the US!

[...]

The film stars Guillaume Canet (Cézanne et moi) as Louis, Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, Operation Finale) as Marie-Antoinette, and Roxane Duran (The White Ribbon, Mary Queen of Scots, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Marie Antoinette, and Interview with the Vampire) as the Princesse de Lamballe.

The film’s costumes are designed by Massimo Cantini Parrini, so they’re going to be good! (Read more.)

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Save Them Now

 From Sara Carter:

In this episode, Sara discusses the critical issue of human trafficking, particularly child trafficking, in the context of the current border crisis.

Guests Tara Rodas and Jaco Booyens share their experiences and insights into the government’s systemic failures in protecting vulnerable children. They highlight the alarming statistics of missing migrant children and the complicity of various government agencies in facilitating trafficking networks. The conversation emphasizes the urgent need for accountability, reform, and a united effort to rescue and protect children from exploitation. (Read more.)

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Release the JFK Files

 From Tierney's Real News:

You see, by 1963, the Central Intelligence Agency had become increasingly eager to involve the United States in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately for them, they were faced with a President who had decided to withdraw the small number of troops they had there. With Vietnam and its potential profits slipping away, the CIA was confronting its second failure, the most significant in its unchecked history.

Why Vietnam? Vietnam represented more in terms of raw materials than any other location available to them in the world. They HAD to get into Southeast Asia and control it.

Today, China controls 36.7% of global rare earth reserves. Brazil and Vietnam are next with 18.3% each. They are followed by Russia, with 10%. Raw materials are the basic resources indispensable for producing key technologies of the green transition – such as wind turbines, solar panels and batteries for electric vehicles– and the digital transition. The countries that control these resources - and the distribution of them - will control the ‘digital’ world of the future. Make sense now? (Read more.)

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Restoration of the Salon de Diane

 From ArtNet:

King Louis XIV’s Versailles party room is getting the royal treatment. American Friends of Versailles aims to raise some €1.2 million (about $1.3 million) for the restoration of the Salon de Diane, which begins this month. Two years from now, the antechamber’s tired, cloudy ceiling paintings honoring the Roman goddess of the hunt will regain their divine glow—just in time for the 250th celebration of American independence, secured with help from France.

“It’s really important to continue strengthening ties between France and America,” Alicia Bryan, the impassioned new San Antonio, Texas–based president at American Friends of Versailles, told me over the phone. “Our collective mission should be to all come together to preserve our great histories.” (Read more.)

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Mass Deportation

 From Culturcidal:

The reason people say, “If you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country” is because that has proven true over and over and over again throughout history. Once a group of foreigners with no allegiance to you can cross into your country at will, very often your country turns into “their country.”

Why do you think China built that massive wall? It was to try to keep the Mongols from looting, raping, and conquering their people.

How do you think Texas became part of America? Mexico initially encouraged Americans to move into the area. Eventually, once their numbers were large enough, they declared independence, fought off Mexico, and down the line, threw their lot in with the United States.

What happened to the Roman Empire? They lost the will to secure their borders, ceased splitting up tribes that they allowed to settle in their empire and eventually, they started moving Germanic tribesmen into their military. Once the Germans became dominant in the military, they decided they might as well be in charge. So, they took over the Western half of Roman Empire and put a German on the throne.

At least, the United States would never do something as stupid as that, right? (Read more.)

 

From "Bannon Unchained" by Robert Malone:  

Deep State mouthpiece Atlantic Monthly has written so many hit pieces on Bannon that Bannon should be forced to pay rent for living in Atlantic owner Laurene Powell Jobs’ head. Laurene Powell Jobs who notoriously hung out with imprisoned child sex trafficking madame Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell who is now serving a 20 year prison sentence. Social media speculation being that this association has allowed the Deep State/Intelligence Blob to control both Jobs and the Atlantic. Sort of a 2 for 1. By all appearances, Laurene Powell Jobs holds almost sole responsibility for advancing the career of her BFF Kamala Harris to her current Peter Principle level of incompetency. Let’s file that fact under “good to know”. (Read more.)

 

News from Christine Niles.

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One Universal Word

 From IFL Science:

Word sounds, whatever language you are talking in, are generally assumed to not be connected to the meaning that word conveys. There are many different possible sounds available in languages, and across languages without common roots there is little crossover where words with the same meaning have similar sounds to them. The word dog, for example, used in one study, is "Hund" in German, "chien" in French, and "inu" in Japanese.

But one word appears to buck this trend, with the linguists finding it may be universal. That word is "huh". Huh?

"A word like Huh? – used as a repair initiator when, for example, one has not clearly heard what someone just said – is found in roughly the same form and function in spoken languages across the globe," one team of linguists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics explained in the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study, published in PLOS ONE in 2013, adding "the similarities in form and function of this interjection across languages are much greater than expected by chance." (Read more.)

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Greek Myths That Inspired Cinema

 From The Collector:

The story of Pygmalion has had such an influence on popular culture that most will recognize its themes, even if they are not familiar with the original myth. Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who became horrified by the prostitution of a group of women named the propoetides. He went into self-imposed isolation where he set about creating the perfect woman carved out of stone.

Pygmalion’s creation was so perfect that he fell hopelessly in love with it. He began to treat his work like his wife, dressing the statue up in fine clothing and sleeping next to it. Eventually, the Goddess Aphrodite granted Pygmalion’s greatest wish and the statue came to life.

The most famous cinematic adaptation of this myth is George Cukor’s 1964 film, My Fair Lady, based on the 1913 stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. In this story, linguist Henry Higgins plucks a common flower seller, Eliza, from obscurity and instructs her in the mannerisms of high society. Once she sheds her cockney accent and corrects her posture, Professor Higgins realizes that he has created the perfect lady and he falls in love with her. While the film wraps up on an ambiguous note, in Shaw’s original play, Eliza rejects Professor Higgins which subverts the happy ending of the myth. This feminist take on Pygmalion has been explored in several other films, most notably Ex-Machina and Her, which both tell the story of men falling in love with robots. (Read more.)

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Protecting Women's Spaces

 

 

Who is privileged? From Culturcidal:

One thing you will notice with liberals is that they always define the people who don’t support them as the “privileged” ones and the groups they believe are “on their team” as the outgroups. In other words, the privileged ones are the non-liberal white people (particularly the men), Christians, and conservatives, and the “outgroups” are people who are trans, gay, women (when it’s convenient), and black Americans. Asians, Jews, Muslims, and Hispanic men are harder to categorize because liberals will sometimes claim they’re outgroups but will also attack members of those groups for not doing what the Left wants.

In Western culture, this is a way of thinking that comes right out of the Middle Ages, where kings and noblemen were privileged by virtue of their birth, and everyone did what they were told because they were paid to do so or out of fear. You could also make a case for it in a heavily class-based society, like India where they have a caste system. But in America, who is a member of the “privileged” or “outgroup” at any given time is almost entirely situational. Don’t believe me? (Read more.)

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The Surveillance State

 From Kerwin:

As I discussed in this post from a couple weeks ago, computer devices (including cell phones) are paradoxical insofar as they’re both maximally private yet maximally public simultaneously. You have an audience of potentially anyone, yet you’re thinking thoughts that could only occur to someone who feels alone, sitting there in solitude, unburdened by the need to behave respectably as when surrounded by people in a shared three-dimensional space. Essentially, when you’re submitting a video of yourself behaving like a spaz, you’re looking for an audience of people who feel exactly the same way you do in this intensely emotional private moment, and people do in fact sometimes resonate with your exhibitionistic display, themselves off in their own isolated headspaces. Just don’t expect all these people to get along with you if you were to invite them to a big party.

But all the same, in the back of people’s minds, they do know that they are Being Watched in a much deeper sense, a sense that extends beyond whatever they choose to submit to their faceless audience of wayward onlookers. People know that everything they do is being monitored by higher forces in both the public and private sector. This deeper sense of knowledge isn’t intrusive, either; in fact, advertisers and the government go out of their way not to remind people of it.

An ad company can easily determine if a woman is pregnant based solely on her engagement with social media and search engines, but the same company won’t deliberately bombard her with ads specifically about pregnancy. Instead, it will prepare an array of ads with maybe one about diapers here, another one about baby toys there, and they’ll be placed strategically so as to be visible without feeling invasive. Yet invasive they are, and people know it. If you were to ask the pregnant woman being targeted, “You know that companies are recording everything you do online, right?” she’d answer in the affirmative and probably even be aware that this is why she’s getting baby-related ads. We don’t mind being recorded, just as long as we don’t have to be reminded about it and forced to endure the shame that must accompany any serious reflection on this state of affairs. That’s why software companies that emphasize privacy, like Signal or Tor, tend not to be especially popular. Even being reminded that privacy is a good idea in the first place is unpopular, since it forces us to think of why we might need it. Essentially, we haven’t been coerced into accepting the reality of 24/7 surveillance and data mining, but we have been massaged into it. (Read more.)

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Marie-Antoinette and the Mob

From Nobility:

At length the crowd began vigorously to shout “The queen! The queen!” demanding that she should appear upon the balcony. She immediately came forth, with her children at her side, that, as a mother, she might appeal to their hearts. The sight moved the sympathies of the multitude, and execrating, as they did, Maria Antoinette, whom they had long been taught to hate, they could not have the heart, in cold bold, to massacre these innocent children. Thousands of voices simultaneously shouted, “Away with the children!” Maria, apparently without the tremor of a nerve, led back her children, and again appearing upon the balcony alone, folded her arms, and, raising her eyes to heaven, stood before them, a self-devoted victim. The heroism of the act changed for a moment hatred to admiration. Not a gun was fired; there was a moment of silence, and then one spontaneous burst of applause rose apparently from every lip, and shouts of “Vive la reine! Vive la reine!” pierced the skies. (Read more.)

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‘I’m Going to Fight like Hell’

 From The Daily B.S.:

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said on Tuesday that she was working on additional legislation besides her resolution prohibiting biological males from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol.

Mace introduced a resolution covering the Capitol complex’s restrooms in response to the election of Sarah McBride to Delaware’s at-large congressional seat. Mace told reporters that even though her proposal for restrooms could pass in a package of House rules, she was planning additional resolutions.

“I’ve been attacked today and last night for fighting to protect women and girls,” Mace told reporters. “It’s ridiculous. So if that, being a feminist makes me an extremist. I’m totally here for it.”

A reporter asked Mace if the resolution was in response to McBride, a transgender woman, becoming a member of Congress. (Read more.)

 

Women have not been safe in America for a long time. From Tierney's Real News:

These girls and women, and many others, should be alive today. So should Dru.

I spent the rest of that day, and several days after, researching Dru’s life and her story. I watched documentaries and read dozens of news articles and testimony from trial transcripts.

Dru was kidnapped from a shopping mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota (near the Minnesota border) as she walked to her car after she finished her afternoon shift. Her body was found five months later.

A 50-year-old registered level 3 (most serious) sex offender, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., was arrested and prosecuted federally because he crossed state lines with Dru while committing his crimes. He was convicted on kidnapping, rape and murder charges and sentenced to death. But that’s not the whole story. The devil is in the details.

I woke up one morning with the firm belief that I was supposed to write the real story about Linda’s daughter so that the world knows and the world remembers. Dru was a sign - an early warning of what was to come if we didn’t change our ways - and, frankly, we ignored it.

I asked her mother, Linda, if it was okay if I wrote a newsletter about Dru. She said yes. This year is the 21st anniversary of her murder. This is a compilation of published sources & I have NOT “fact-checked” it all. I’ve asked her mother, Linda, to read it first and correct any glaring errors.

Who was Dru? (Read more.)

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American Academy Plan For Education

 From The Easton Gazette:

Last week we wrote about Trump's plan for education in the United States using his campaign web page as reference. A large part of Trump's education plan is the "American Academy." He explains it in this video posted on "X."

Jack Montgomery on X: "Trump's best education policy, announced as part of 'Agenda 47' in November 2023, is the American Academy. This completely free, online institution, funded by taxes on woke universities' endowments, will offer full degrees, and college credits to people with incomplete degrees: https://t.co/0GWnJmloWK" / X

One of the most interesting parts of this plan is the idea that large universities endowments need to be taxed, particularly in this era of ridiculously high college tuition. Here are the top ten endowments in the U.S. by university: (this data was by September 30, 2022.) (Read more.)

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She Never Said It

From Reading Treasure:

Marie Antoinette did not say "Let them eat cake!" 

Yet "Let them eat cake!" isn't the only phrase frequently attributed to the last queen of France. A quick cursory search on Google or numerous social media platforms reveals many quotes supposedly said by Marie Antoinette. But did she really say them? Where did these quotes come from? In this new post series, 'And Marie Antoinette Said...' we will be taking a closer look at some of the most famous quotes attributed to the queen  (yes, including "Let them eat cake!") to uncover their origins and hopefully their veracity.

 

"I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long."

This popular quote is credited as having been said by Marie Antoinette at her trial. In addition to being frequently shared online, the quote was commonly included in 19th century history books and can be even bound in books published in the last hundred years. The short speech is usually placed after Marie Antoinette's death sentence is read or when she is asked if she has anything to say in her own defense before the jury begins their deliberations.

It is a moving, novel-worthy quote to be sure--something that evokes a hauntingly elegant image of the burdened former queen, slowly rising in her tattered mourning gown, addressing the Revolutionary Tribunal with all the grace and wit of a daughter of the Caesars.

But did she actually say it?  (Read more.)

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Yet Another Escalation

 From Leo's Newsletter:

First the Biden regime lifts the restrictions on Ukraine using U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike targets inside Russia, making America a direct party to the nasty border war between Ukraine and Russia, and now Sky News reports that the U.S. is sending anti-personnel landmines to blow up Russian soldiers.

These landmines are banned in 150 countries, including the UK.

The U.S. and Russia have not signed on to this ban, but Ukraine has.

Susan Duclos of All News Pipeline writes, “this is yet another escalation by the U.S. in directly interfering in a war that holds no national security benefits to America. Interestingly, Ukraine is a signatory of the ban on the use of these anti-personnel lands, but is considering withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty, also known as the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.”

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, "Anti-personnel mines continue to maim and kill even after conflicts end, and it is mainly civilians who suffer the horrific consequences.”

Duclos correctly notes that the lifting of the bans on these two measures, U.S./U.K. missiles being used to strike within Russia, and the land mines, is guaranteed to make peace talks between Ukraine and Russia after Donald Trump takes office nearly impossible.

Even after Trump rescinds these latest permissions by whoever is controlling the decision-making at the White House (I believe it is most likely National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken who are running the show) Trump’s job of negotiating a peace deal becomes much more complex. (Read more.)

 

Also from Leo:

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a 7-minute speech Thursday and explained that Russia used a new medium-range missile with a hypersonic payload in its strike on Ukraine. It was essentially a test that worked perfectly.

As part of what Putin called a “combat test,” the hypersonic missile, dubbed Hazel, successfully struck a military-industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the Russian president added.

The strike was a response to Ukrainian attacks on military facilities located on internationally recognized Russian territory, the president stated. Kiev’s forces launched the strikes on Tuesday and Thursday, using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles, he said.

The Storm Shadow attacks led to at least one Russian death and multiple injuries, Putin said. He said it is becoming a global war. (Read more.)

Meanwhile, Rand Paul tries to stop WW3.

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Atlantis: How Plato’s Story Corresponds to Real History

 From The Greek Reporter:

Has the Atlantis mystery finally been solved? After years of extensive research, in conjunction with new archeological evidence, and with the aid of satellite technology, Christos A. Djonis credibly reveals that Plato based his story of Atlantis on a real prehistoric setting, now beneath 400 feet of water.

Although most people around the world agree that the original Santorini hypothesis so far made the most compelling case where Plato’s Atlantis once was, unfortunately, there are two critical flaws with that theory, which have allowed critics over the years to maintain the story was just a myth.

The first problem is that the hypothesis entirely discards Plato’s given chronology of 9,600 BC. A more significant problem with the original theory is that the primary island of Atlantis, an island the size of Crete, one Plato said was supposed to be nine kilometers away from the circular island within an island setting, is not around the Santorini backdrop of 1,600 BC. (Read more.)

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Portrait of Mary I

 From ArtNet:

A miniature painting of a woman long been believed to be Katherine Parr, Henry’s sixth wife who managed to survive the curse of his courtship, may actually be Mary Tudor, Henry’s first daughter who is better known today as “Bloody Mary.” According to art historian Emma Rutherford, it’s all in the nose. 

“Mary’s nose, frankly, was rather bulbous and upturned, while Parr’s was more aquiline,” she told the Guardian. “Both Mary and Katherine had reddish hair and blueish eyes, and were a similar age of around 30 when this miniature was done. Hence some confusion. They wore similar clothes too, though Parr’s were usually more dressy. But the noses are clearly different.”

Rutherford began studying the work while putting together the exhibition “The Reflected Self: Portrait Miniatures” at Compton Verney House, about 100 miles northwest of London, until February 23, 2025. She initially made comparisons with other portraits of the two women. Parr’s preeminent portrait is Master John’s full length painting at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The best known of Mary, painted in the 1550s while she was queen, is by Antonis Mor in Madrid’ Prado museum; another by Hans Eworth is also in London’s Portrait Gallery.

Her observations about both women’s noses led her to seek more evidence and her claim was soon backed up by Tudor jewelry expert Nicola Tallis. Tallis noted that the sitter in the miniature painting is wearing a cross with black diamonds that matches a necklace described in Mary’s expenses records. Henry VIII gave it to his daughter in 1546, the same year that the portrait was likely painted, Rutherford believes. It was very likely by Susanna Horenbout, the first known female artist in England and a friend of Mary. The portrait may even have been commissioned by Parr, who was a strong advocate for both Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth’s interests at court. (Read more.)

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Credible Scientific Evidence

 From Sharyl Attkisson:

The propagandists have important connections and plenty of money to spend to wield influence, as they long have, with federal agencies, members of Congress, and in media. They support fake “fact check” groups like Health Feedback and Science Feedback, dominate social media narratives, provide “journalism resources” that give false information, control medical information distributed by our once-esteemed public health agencies, influence medical associations, and back nonprofits that are designed to sound independent but put out industry misinformation.

They have proven they will go to any lengths to protect their billion dollar profits and to try to stop any disruption of the corrupt medical establishment built to support them. Below is a summary of some helpful information on links between vaccines and autism, with a few examples and links. Read on for details. (Read more.)

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Bologna’s Extremely Tall Medieval Towers

 From The Mind Circle:

It’s surprising to learn but Bologna had skyscraper-like extremely tall towers in the medieval period. It is thought that there were about 180 towers in Bologna between the 12th and the 13th century. One of the tallest ones was 320 feet (97 meters) high, which is still standing today. The main aim, while constructing those towers, was to construct strong defensive buildings. Besides the towers, there are still some fortified gateways that correspond to the gates of the 12th-century city wall.

The first historian to study the skyscrapers of Bologna in a systematic way was Count Giovanni Gozzadini. He was a senator of the Italian kingdom who lived in the 19th century and wanted to raise the prestige of his hometown. Analyzing the civic archives of real estate deeds, Gozzadini attempted to arrive at a reliable number of towers on the basis of documented ownership changes. He eventually came up with an extraordinary number of 180 towers, an enormous amount considering the size and resources of medieval Bologna. (Read more.)

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When Europeans Were Slaves

An old article, but worth reading. Lately, I have been researching about the Viking slave trade, which involved kidnapping blond Saxon girls and selling them in Southern Europe and sometimes as far as Asia. But that was centuries before the time referred to in the article. From OSU:

A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before.

In a new book, Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, developed a unique methodology to calculate the number of white Christians who were enslaved along Africa’s Barbary Coast, arriving at much higher slave population estimates than any previous studies had found.

Most other accounts of slavery along the Barbary coast didn’t try to estimate the number of slaves, or only looked at the number of slaves in particular cities, Davis said. Most previously estimated slave counts have thus tended to be in the thousands, or at most in the tens of thousands. Davis, by contrast, has calculated that between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Davis’s new estimates appear in the book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan). (Read more.)

More HERE.

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Blocking Security Clearances

 From The Last Refuge:

It should not come as a surprise to see the same methods deployed against President Trump in 2024 that were used by the FBI in 2016.  The difference is now that President Trump understands the full power of his office in the security clearance process and that he doesn’t need the FBI.

In 2016 the FBI used their power to conduct security clearances as a tool to stall and block President Trump appointments.  Historically this is one of the ways a very corrupt and political FBI interfere in any system that might be against the interests of the Intelligence Community that controls them. However, in 2024 President-Elect Trump and his transition team have already taken a different approach. (Read more.)

 

Some thoughts from It Can Always Get Worse:

The Islamic State (IS) rendered its verdict on Donald Trump’s re-election in the main editorial of the 469th edition of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, published on 14 November. The editorial is entitled, “The Unbelievers Will Not Be Successful”, drawn from Qur’an 23:117.

Al-Naba begins: “Politicians have overflowed with commentary about the expected changes after the taghut Trump takes power, [speaking] in a tone that suggests the world is subject to his absolute control and whim. They talk about him with a crazy, obsessive tendency, as if he was the orchestrating master of the Affairs of Creation! This is not an exaggeration, merely an unvarnished description of reality.” (Read more.)

FEMA in Georgia. From The Daily Wire:

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer revealed Tuesday that a whistleblower claimed a FEMA supervisor in Georgia directed a family to remove Trump campaign signage from their home, saying it was not “looked kindly” on by the agency. 

Comer made the statements during a hearing where lawmakers grilled FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about an agency employee who told relief workers in Florida to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” Criswell has maintained that the guidance was an isolated incident and not the result of agency policy to skip over “politically hostile” homes.

But testimony from Comer and other lawmakers testimony casts doubt on Criswell’s comments. 

“My staff made contact with a new whistleblower who provided a credible account that a FEMA contractor visited the home of an elderly disabled veteran’s family around October 10 following Hurricane Helene,” Comer said after the committee came back from recess. “While there he recommended that they remove Trump campaign materials and signs from both their house and yard. He warned the family that his FEMA supervisor does not take kindly to Trump supporters and that they are seen as domestic terrorists.”  (Read more.)

 

From The Rand Paul Review:

Biden and the left walked right into Trump’s trap.  The former president baited the Biden-Harris team into an emotional reaction highlighted by the trash reference. 

“They treat you like garbage. They treat our whole country like garbage.  How do you like my garbage truck? Trump asked reporters. This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.” – President-elect Donald Trump

Trump made the comments during a publicity stunt in Green Bay just ahead of election night.  The best part was that The Don went to the extent of wearing a bright orange garbage collector safety vest. 

Trump even had his team pick him up from the local airport using a garbage truck.  He then rode that truck all the way to the Green Bay rally. (Read more.)

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The Strange Legend of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

 From LBV:

The French were not the only encyclopedists; nor were they the first. In fact, they were inspired by the French translation of the Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, a work published twenty-three years earlier by the Englishman Ephraim Chambers, a globe maker turned author/editor who had, in turn, translated French scientific texts. In the Cyclopaedia, he included an entry under the same heading as Diderot, Agnus scythicus, which referred to a zoophyte (an animal with plant characteristics) with the appearance of a lamb living in Tartary. Other names given were Agnus vegetabilis and Agnus tartaricus, as well as endonyms like Borometz, Borametz, and Boranetz. (Read more.)

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