What Does John Know? Gordon & MacPhail introduces world’s oldest whisky.
“Released under Gordon & MacPhail’s ‘Generations’ brand, Mortlach 70 Years Old Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky was finally revealed – and tasted – by special guests at a launch in the atmospheric setting of Edinburgh Castle’s Queen Anne Room. One precious bottle of Mortlach was piped into the Castle, escorted by guards from The Highlanders (4th Battalion).” Via Belle de Jour’s Twitter.
Just Creative Design: Milton Glaser & Chip Kidd In Conversation.
”He mentioned how resistance to his work, for example a marketing department not approving a cover design, has actually served him well. Glaser’s process has been to work through the resistance and design new concepts. He feels that the end result has always been more successful than the original design.” ‘Work through the resistance.’ Sometimes it becomes an all-out war. Nice that he’s had success with it ... the name, no doubt, helps. And this is going to go over like a lead balloon: “Graphic designers shouldn’t use a computer until they’re 40-45.” There’s a distinct difference between an analogue designer and an all-digital one. My fear is, as with low MP3 quality, culture will just accept the change without considering it.
Hemmings Auto Blogs: Panhard EBR
I remember the Matchbox toy of the six-wheel tank, but an eight-wheel one?
LastInterceptor.com.
For fellow “Road Warrior” fans. Replica Interceptors. Gotta have the supercharger with a clutch, though ...
The Atlantic: Household Debt Shrunk at Fastest Rate on Record in 2009.
“Household debt shrunk by 1.7% in 2009. That might not sound like much, but it’s the largest decline since the Federal Reserve began keeping track in 1946. In fact, it’s the only annual decline in household debt over that period—even in 2008 household debt increased slightly by 0.1%.” That is indeed incredible.
CNN: Former NFL star, actor Merlin Olsen dies.
”On television, Olsen played the gentle Jonathan Garvey opposite Michael Landon on ‘Little House on the Prairie’ from 1977 to 1981, and the lead role in ‘Father Murphy’ from 1981 to 1983, according to entertainment database imdb.com.” One of those “B” television actors you assumed would be around forever. Loved his gentle demeanor. Rest in peace.
Miller-McCune: Get Your Nose Out of That Book.
“At long last, scientists have developed a ‘sniff test’ to measure the telltale aroma of old books and irreplaceable historical documents. You know the smell — that ‘combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness,’ as the authors put it. Inhale and smell the Industrial Revolution!” A Kindle or iPad will never attractively pong ... unfortunately.
Design You Trust: Buick Streamliner.
Now we’re talkin’. Put this at the top of my automotive ‘want’ list. It’s just stellar. Beautiful curves make my world spin.
Illinois.EDU: 20th Century American Bestsellers.
By decade. Via Metafilter.
WSJ: TV Host Silvano Vinceti Probes History’s Coldest Cases.
“For many months, Mr. Vinceti and a team of scientists have been exhuming remains they believe are Caravaggio’s in hopes of performing a belated autopsy. After digging up dozens of bodies, Mr. Vinceti has narrowed the field to a handful of long-buried corpses.” Lovely.
NY Times: Caravaggio in Ascendance - An Antihero’s Time to Shine.
“Caravaggio, who somehow found time to paint when he wasn’t brawling, scandalizing pooh-bahs, chasing women (and men), murdering a tennis opponent with a dagger to the groin, fleeing police assassins or getting his face mutilated by one of his many enemies, has bumped him [Michelangelo] from his perch.” I hate playing with sore losers, for just this reason.
Physically, he was a shadow of his former self.
But his creative artistry shone through, in spite of his age. Stokowski, L’apres-midi d’un faune, Parts One and Two. One of the greatest examples of the art of conducting. A reminder that youth does not own everything. [Someone else I read mentioned Debussy/Faune last week, and got me looking around, and I found this. THANKS in absentia.]
Jalopnik: Dude, Where’s My Flying Car?
Ah, finally ... someone delivers.
Washington Post: ‘Al-Qaeda 7’ smear campaign is an assault on American values.
“If Cheney and her group object, they should prepare a blanket denunciation of the federal judiciary. Or maybe what they really don’t like is that pesky old Constitution, with all its checks, balances and guarantees of due process. How inconvenient to live in a country that respects the rule of law.” Presumably, they’d oppose Abraham Lincoln, for his creative ‘moonshine’ defense of murder suspect William Armstrong ...
Bike EXIF: Cafe racer Guzzi.
”The overall effect is molto bella; the perfect marriage of classic Italian style and subtle modern updates.” And Moto Guzzis run forever, too. I would’ve given an eye tooth in college to have one of these ...
SF Gate: Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution.
“If I’m planning to write a curriculum, and I want to write it in a way that will appeal to home-schoolers, I’m going to at least find out what my demographic is.” Once again, capitalism doesn’t give a damn about what is right ... only about what is profitable. Simple social responsibility would dictate that you’d want to encourage kids to have the tools they need to create the next engineering or scientific marvels, raising us all up ... instead, they’re being primped as Wal-Mart cart corral managers.
5by5: The Pipeline 6: Matt Haughey.
Nice podcast interview with Matt Haughey.
NPR: The Original Fly Girls.
”Now in 1944, it is on the record that women can fly as well as men.” I was lucky enough to have known one of these fine women, who maintained her own cabin up in the Pecos Wilderness (at the end of a rocky 4WD ‘road’).
Good grief.
Don’t tell me this thing could fly. Ah, only in ground effect. Wouldn’t these be good for driving off Somali pirates?
CNN: Bill Mauldin stamp honors grunts’ hero.
“… the United States Postal Service deserves a standing ovation for something that’s going to happen this month: Bill Mauldin is getting his own postage stamp.” Abso-f’ing-lutely. If you don’t know Willie and Joe, you know nothing about WWII.
Aspen no. 5+6, item 3: Three Essays.
I take you directly to The Aesthetics of Silence / Susan Sontag. Via wood s lot.
NPR: Top Republicans: Yeah, We’re Calling Obama Socialist.
So, Socialism is the new Communism.
Newsweek: Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History.
”The site isn’t just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture — the first embers of civilization.”
BBC News: Dinosaur extinction link to crater confirmed.
“The explosion of hot rock and gas would have looked like a huge ball of fire on the horizon, grilling any living creature in the immediate vicinity that couldn’t find shelter. [snip] The final nail in the coffin for the dinosaurs happened when blasted material was ejected at high velocity into the atmosphere. This shrouded the planet in darkness and caused a global winter, killing off many species that couldn’t adapt to this hellish environment.” Cue Pat Benatar.
The Nation: Back Talk: Martha C. Nussbaum.
“Disgust, though, is different because it has this singular type of irrationality. It’s not noncognitive; it has an idea. But the idea repudiates some aspect of ourselves. It embodies a kind of self-loathing.”
