Reviews and News:
A history of plywood and how it helped the Allies win WWII: “From the early 20th century, with the use of synthetic water-resistant glues, it emerged as the ideal material for aeroplane construction reaching technical perfection with the engineering of Geoffrey de Havilland’s Mosquito aircraft during the second world war, the plane that flew higher and faster than any other wartime bomber. Its military use — ‘Wood flies to War’ — raised plywood’s status but also revealed our odd, emotional attitude to different kinds of stuff. Plywood planes were entirely practical but because aviation was linked so firmly to progress its continuing use came to seem eccentric and retardataire.”
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Enough with the healthy food fads already: “I recommend Warner’s astringent and meticulous denunciation of every health stunt, food fad and wisdom-of-the-ancients hopmadoodle going: paleo, antioxidants, alkaline ash, lo-carb, hi-carb, Atkins, fat-free, fat-rich and the intellectually insupportable GAPS diet, which desperate parents have used to treat their children’s autistic spectrum disorders, inflammatory bowel disease and cystic fibrosis. Which leads us to the big problem: the foodsters have blood on their hands. Their obsession with nutritional magic and their abandonment of fact or reason, together with the glossy, thin, preternaturally limber, shiny, thin, and terribly happy but totally thin and at peace lifestyle they promote, pushes vulnerable people into risking malnutrition and, worse, the relentless curse of anorexia nervosa, the most often fatal of all psychiatric disorders. Food fads kill. The obsession with control of the body, and what we put into it, kills.”
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Museum discovers three cases of Madeira wine from 1796 and 42 demijohns from the 1820s in cellar. The wine was stocked in anticipation of John Adams’ presidential election.
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Card catalogs were the best: “Each one is a perfect melding of design and utility, a marvel of informational compression and precision.”
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Scientists uncover St. Columba's cell on Iona: “They have used radiocarbon dating to place samples of burned wood in the middle of Columba's time there almost 1,500 years ago. The charred remains of a hut were excavated in 1957, but it has taken until now for science to accurately date them.”
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Earliest known mosaic of Jonah and the whale discovered in Israel: “Artwork uncovered at Roman-era synagogue in Huqoq also shows building the Tower of Babel and a Greco-Roman calendar.”
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Essay of the Day:
In Virginia Quarterly Review, Oliver Bateman writes about the culture of juicing at the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest:
“The Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest, which has been held in Las Vegas since 1999, and the Arnold Classic, held annually in Columbus, Ohio, since its inception in 1989, constitute the fall and spring formals, respectively, for the bodybuilding community. Both events crown bodybuilding champions, but the Olympia is the older and more prestigious of the two. Since 1965, when a handsome, tanned Mormon named Larry Scott wowed a small but dedicated crowd with his twenty-inch ‘tape-measure’ biceps, the Olympia has fulfilled founder Joe Weider’s dream of crowning the ‘champion of champions’ among the heavily muscled set.
“In the fall of 2016, this championship of champions and the fitness exposition with which it was combined sprawled across 500,000 square feet in the Las Vegas Convention Center, welcoming 1,100 vendors and exhibitors, a new high for the event. More than 55,000 men and women (another milestone) roamed the vast space, most clad in muscle-baring finery, in Zubaz pants that billowed around their quads and spaghetti-strap tank tops that clung to their lats. Many attendees looked like they could be competing in the Olympia finals themselves. They were bodybuilders, after a fashion, united by a common vision of better bodies through chemistry. They were packed in and giddy, these large people carrying large bags of nutritional supplements from booth to booth. Respite could only be found outside in the 100 degree heat or at the convention center’s cafeteria, where they could eat grilled-chicken salads and discuss the impressive bodies they had seen and the muscle-building supplies they had purchased.
“There, at a table with filmmaker Chris Bell, retired World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) pro wrestler Matthew Wiese, and Wiese’s bodyguard, Tony, a conversation was taking place, which, like so many other conversations that would take place over the weekend, was primarily about drugs.
“Bell, an ex-powerlifting champion who directed the 2008 steroid documentary Bigger Stronger Faster, had just returned from a rally in Washington, DC, where thousands of aggrieved users of an herbal supplement called kratom were petitioning against the federal government’s decision to classify it as a controlled substance. According to its proponents, kratom aids with opioid withdrawal, eases musculoskeletal pain, and increases energy, although so far no clinical tests have been carried out that substantiate these claims.
“Gaining access to steroids and other related drugs can be challenging, but disciples of steroid culture, like cannabis enthusiasts, have found both legal and illegal ways to secure their fix, through licensed physicians prescribing human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone replacements (which are rarely covered by health insurance) or more casual connections at the gym, or on the dark web, or on steroid forums like Reddit’s ‘Steroid Source Talk’ board, where the drugs are usually cheaper and far more ubiquitous (though poor quality is always a risk).
“Wiese, who wrestled for World Championship Wrestling as a catchphrase-spouting monster named Horshu (working the sound ‘shu’ into nearly everything he said) and for the WWE as one half of a powerhouse tag team under the moniker Luther Reigns (who partnered with the even larger Mark Jindrak), had come to Las Vegas with the intention of buying as much kratom as possible. Tony was Wiese’s added muscle, which seemed superfluous since Wiese himself is six-four and around 280 pounds, and Tony is eight inches shorter and at least forty pounds lighter.
“‘I’ve taken good stuff and bad stuff all my life, and this kratom is good stuff,’ Tony said. ‘I mean, I sold crack in South Central, and you don’t get anywhere with that. But kratom, you take it and you’re, you know, just woken up. Like a cup of coffee but sharper.’”
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Photo: Nebelwelle
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Poem: Ernest Hilbert, “House and Home”
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