The day in posts: 7/5/2020

July 5, 2020

RIP Nick Cordero

He was a Broadway actor who went through extreme complications of coronavirus before finally dying today. "Since being diagnosed with what was thought to be pneumonia in late March, the Canadian actor spent weeks in intensive care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, had his right leg amputated, lost more than 60 pounds and was hoping to receive a double-lung transplant." [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 PM PST - 40 comments

We want a smaller head, which means it must be pickled for several hours

“안녕~! (Annyeong!) Dollightful is a channel where old toys are transformed by the power of art into unique, one-of-a-kind characters. Whether you're here for a tutorial, or just to laugh and have fun with the ups and downs of a creative process, there's something here for everyone. "Come for the dolls, stay for the cats" as they say.” [more inside]
posted by brook horse at 8:16 PM PST - 5 comments

Democracy Wins In The Cereal Aisle

In these uncertain times, it is reassuring to hear that a proven case of voter fraud has been corrected. I am referring, of course, to Kellogg's releasing Green Onion Flavor Chex in South Korea. [more inside]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:29 PM PST - 44 comments

Unfortunately, there's no scratch n' sniff

"Owen Simmons' 1903 'The Book of Bread', is famous in the book world as, arguably, the first photobook" (threadreader version) Thus begins @incunabula's brief paean to this remarkable, but rare object. Luckily, a scan of the book is available at the Wellcome Collection website.
posted by gwint at 4:02 PM PST - 7 comments

Thucydides in Times of Trouble

What the historian’s account of an ancient plague taught me when my father died 8,000 miles away "In the slow, turbid dive of the pandemic, Thucydides’ account of the Athenian plague has been my distance line through the compound shocks of public catastrophe and private bereavement. And in the still greater depths of the urgent, unfinished history of racism that kills with both sly neglect and dehumanizing violence, I recall Thucydides’ interpretation of another epidemic as a metaphor for the health of the body politic. "
posted by hippybear at 3:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Steam is just ghost water /macintosh plus plays

The death of the bra: will the lingerie liberation of lockdown last?

Lockdown has changed a lot of things about the way we present ourselves to the world, and for many women, ditching their bra has been a particularly popular one. (Emine Saner, Guardian) “I just don’t see bras making a comeback after this,” tweeted the Buzzfeed writer Tomi Obaro in May. Her tweet has been “liked” more than half a million times. The feminist satire website Reductress ran a headline last week reading: “Bra furlough extended.”
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:29 AM PST - 117 comments

How AIDS was spread through the blood supply

A number of companies were selling HIV-contaminated blood factor for treatment of hemophilia, first from ignorance and then from irresponsibility. I first ran across this about Bayer's complicity, and was pointed at The Origins of AIDS. The first review (by John P. Jones) pointed me at Haemo-Caribbean, a Haitian company which was part of the problem. [more inside]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 8:32 AM PST - 7 comments

The Hurdy-Gurdy Carnival is Present to Conduct You Into the Big Tent

Thomas Pynchon Predicted the Pandemic in ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’—Now Aren't You Sorry You Didn't Read It? by Tom LeClair
posted by chavenet at 4:34 AM PST - 35 comments

TV Themes Go Pop

Darrell Maclaine is an impressionist who has been making videos in lockdown singing UK TV themes in the style of famous artistes. [more inside]
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:27 AM PST - 4 comments

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