October 27, 2021
The United States Postal Service: "Non oficialis motto!"
That's right... the USPS has no official motto! But it does host an official website full of Postal Facts—Fun facts! Facts and Figures! Postal History! STAMPS STAMPS STAMPS! Sustainability, size and scope, diversity facts, and more!
As an added bonus, here's a twitterbot that posts a picture of a different post office every thirty minutes.
As an added bonus, here's a twitterbot that posts a picture of a different post office every thirty minutes.
PennDOT would like to sell you a bridge
Really. Pennsylvania's Historical and Museum Commission and PennDOT have a collection of historic steel truss bridges lovely described, photographed, and available for sale to appropriate homes. Link is to Issue 7 of the Bridge to Success newsletter; more eligible bridges in the archives on the site.
"It's a celebration of a technology"
Bob's 8-Track Garage Sale is, according to Bob, the only live 8-track radio show on earth. The show has a narrow focus. Bob only plays music directly from 8-track tapes that he finds locally in central Iowa. If you're in the central Iowa area, you can catch new shows every Thursday morning on 89.1 KHOI FM. The rest of us can stream them from the KHOI Archive for a couple weeks after their air date. [more inside]
Fare Thee Well, Glen Creason
"I knew how crazy people were long before the internet made it crystal clear." Having worked in the L.A. Central Branch Library for 42 years, Glen Creason muses about the time he's spent in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles and says goodbye.
MetaFilter Takes On Halloween
From the Projects page: The Worst House On The Internet by missjenny, Ha-Ha-Haunted House... of Comedy by under_petticoat_rule, and two short horror/gothic stories by Countess Elena.
14 visions of folk horror
"There are witch-hunting narratives, and pagan community narratives—there are all kinds of them!” Kier-La Janisse (Wikipedia, IMDB), director of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, describes her 24-hour, international folk horror film festival to the Onion's A.V. Club. [more inside]
You misunderstood me on purpose!
Short Story Filter: Grace Paley's "A Conversation with My Father" read by Ali Smith. Followed by a brief interview with Smith: "It's the life force right up against the brutality of life"
Consider also George Saunders' tribute - Grace Paley: The Saint of Seeing.
Word-portals between worlds
Two scifi stories about literary professions in uncertain futures. "The Bookstore at the End of America" by Charlie Jane Anders, about a bookseller at the border between California and America: "Some of those screaming people were old enough to have grown up in the United States of America, but they acted as though these two lands had always been enemies." "Apologia" by Vajra Chandrasekera, about a poet visiting "the committee’s carefully Chosen Moments of history": "This guilty poet, this raging poet, he could retroactively make the apologies that we had never made the first time around. It was, or would be, never too late for the big sorry."
Chicago Blackhawks Covered Up Allegations of Sexual Assault
The Chicago Blackhawks chose chasing a tarnished Cup instead of doing what’s right. (CW: sexual assault) In the wake of an independent investigation that determined that the Chicago Blackhawks covered up allegations of sexual assault by one of their coaches in 2010, president of hockey operations Stan Bowman resigned. Other executives who knew about the allegations are employed with other teams. [more inside]
“Garum has long been considered the dodo of gastronomic history.”
Culinary Detectives Try to Recover the Formula for a Deliciously Fishy Roman Condiment is an article by Taras Grescoe about recent attempts to recreate the Roman Empire’s most beloved sauce, garum (previouslies on MeFi). In Spain and Portugal, you can now buy it in stores, but the problem is that it’s “liquamen”, one of two different garum sauces, while the other, “garum sociorum”, remains a mystery. Grescoe posted a Twitter thread on how to make homemade liquamen. [via Cheryl Morgan]
What happens when your favorite thing goes viral?
No Children, a 2002 song by The Mountain Goats is having a moment on TikTok. TV's Wonder Woman approves and other long time Mountain Goats fans are working through their feelings. John Darnielle, singer and songwriter in the band, seems to be letting it all wash over him.
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