they have come to save us

boy, we know how to have some fun

horchata

Not, strictly, a milkshake. 'This chilled almond milk is on tap in heaven.' Who said that?

Kielce

Concealed by the woman's head: the word 'you'. Sometimes you're in a hurry and you can't find a 'native speaker' to run your new slogan by ...

ea

A strong contender for '2-letter Word of the Year 2007'?

From the OED: 'A river, running water. Still in use in Lanc.; in the fen-country applied to the canals for drainage, in which sense it is usually spelt eau [as if a. F. eau water].'

Unlike many of the two-letter oddities with which internet scrabblers have been confounding me of late, this one I could see myself getting some use out of.

who really is the patron saint of the milkshake?

just a little axolotl

(molto) ben trovato

se non è vero è (molto) ben trovato wł., jeśli to nie jest prawdziwe, to jednak (bardzo) dobrze wymyślone.
	Etym. - z Giordana Bruno (Gli eroici furori; 1585 r.).

I didn't know what ben trovato meant. Now, thanks to this place, I do! It's probably the best Italian phrase of all time, wouldn't you say?

two poles

stook convention

thanks, Andrew!

your starter for 10

rewir mój

cutting and sticking

unhemmed's new favourite blog.

Tworki

Almost a month ago (ach, how the summer slips by!) I went one morning on a mildly eccentric excursion with my friend, P. It was a lovely warm day and I thoroughly enjoyed the cycle into town - something I'm ashamed to admit I'd never done before (the journey was shorter and more pleasant than I imagined it would be - particularly the spruced-up chunk of park between the metro stations Pole Mokotowskie and Politechnika). We met at the foot of the Marriott Hotel and caught the suburban train southwest out of Warsaw, making sure to buy extra tickets for our bikes. Where were we headed? To visit the village of Tworki and the adjacent town of Pruszków. Why? Well, Tworki is dominated by an enormous psychiatric hospital that has more than you might think to offer a day-tripper on two wheels. And Pruszków is not only renowned for its gangsters, but also because P grew up there in the 1980s.
P tells me that when the hospital was built, before the Second World War, it was one of Europe's most modern. Today I would guess that it's one of the least (although that's a guess made purely on the grounds of a tour of the grounds - we didn't march into any of the wards). The imposing gates stand right by Tworki station. You get the sense that the hospital is the village: the church and a couple of shops are within its grounds. It's on a grand scale, with its red-brick buildings keeping their distance from each other, some of them hidden away in the forest, some seemingly abandoned and overgrown. Having said that, from the photos I took, the place looks in quite good nick ...
Tune in next month for Pruszków!

full steam ahead

Bob on Balzac

Shortly after first arriving in New York, Bob Dylan, if his Chronicles can be trusted, spent many nights on a sofa belonging to Ray and Chloe, and many hours reading in Ray and Chloe's extraordinary library. He was particularly taken by Thucydides. I like what he has to say about Honoré de Balzac:

'Balzac was pretty funny. His philosophy is plain and simple, says basically that pure materialism is a recipe for madness. The only true knowledge for Balzac seems to be superstition. Everything is subject to analysis. Horde your energy. That's the secret of life. You can learn a lot from Mr. B. It's funny to have him as a companion. He wears a monk's robe and drinks endless cups of coffee. Too much sleep clogs up his mind. One of his teeth falls out, and he says, "What does this mean?" He questions everything. His clothes catch fire on a candle. He wonders if fire is a good sign. Balzac is hilarious.'

a new face in town

hollyhocks

These hollyhocks have no idea we are here: they're looking in the wrong direction.

the baking heat led me here

S-e-r-i-o-u-s local meteorology!

2 legs in the afternoon

I'm taller: I've just been out to stretch my legs.
My legs are green: what could they be jealous of?

agresty

crazy map

Click here for a better view of this extraordinary map. What's your favourite metamorphosis? I like the idea of Missouri turning into Poland. And the Alabama-Iran and Wyoming-Uzbekistan pairings appeal.

Agnieszka Osiecka

squint! you won't regret it

Dudek

In a roundabout sort of way, may I present the mighty hoopoe as a contribution to today's celebrations of American Independence.
As I type, the good pundits on Radio Trójka are chewing the fat over Bruce Springsteen. Blah blah blah surowy rockandroll blah facet z New Jersey blah blah blah. Super!

Falowiec

To the best of my knowledge the Falowiec - which roughly translates as The Wave, and you can see why - is the longest continuous concrete block in Poland. Perhaps in the world. When we were in Gdańsk a couple of years ago, Emma's old Polish teacher took us on a detour to take in its awesome size. Its size, let me tell you, is awesome. For reasons not entirely clear to me, I had something like an epiphany when I saw a photo of Julita Wójcik's knitted version in this week's Newsweek. (Some photos of Julita wearing a traffic-light apron here.) I'm very pleased that her handiwork is going to be part of an exhibition about concrete and I look forward to admiring the Falowiec in the flesh. Or should that be in the stitch?

someone to bear in mind when you're choosing your Trombonist Hero

Or perhaps what I mean is someone for me to bear in mind when I choose my Trombonist Hero. I've recently been claiming that Glenn Miller's principal instrument was the trumpet. How wrong I was. Never has it been more clear to me that I am no King of Jazz.

11cm of siskin

Wowsers! Check this out. It's Chizhik Pyzhik!

All credit to my dear sister.

Walter Scott

I've never been to Edinburgh. I'd really like to go. My friend Dave lives there in a space-age bachelor pad. And I've just found out that they have this huge memorial to Walter Scott there:
Hideous. And awesome. But is it really 'the biggest monument to a writer in the world', as John Pemble claims?

And what's the smallest?

Gato Perez

Southampton. 18 February 2006. Or thenabouts ...

Information Centre, Szydłowiec

tenfoots

A very pleasing definition from urbandictionary.

heatwave!

the Beats go on

Konwalia majowa

Little bunches of these available on every Warsaw streetcorner at the moment. They have a lovely stink! I wish I could tell you that I'd drawn the picture myself, but that would be a fib. We have these people to thank. If I were going to do some colouring-in, I'd turn my attention to the hollyhocks and the foxgloves. Oh, and the primroses.

Eric Ravilious

Gouldian finch

Image borrowed from this page. How did I wind up there? Well, Em and I have just been enjoying Warsaw's Noc muzeów. More than 90 museums and galleries are open into the small hours and have waived their entrance fees for one night only. You can ride between them on supercool antique buses! At the Ethnographical Museum we got down to a rousing Polish folk band with two girls singing great harmonies (the line-up included what i'll call a goatpiper, more of which in a future post perhaps). We'd hoped to hear an Australian band as well, but the hall where they were due to play was already fit to burst when we arrived and the doors were barred against us. (The last time we went to this museum we were very nearly the only people there; tonight was a real crush.) As a consolation we spent some time in the Australasia room, where most of the stuff is from Papua New Guinea. Many, many boomerangs. And some amazing photos of Aboriginal rock paintings - or rather some photos of amazing Aboriginal rock paintings. I was hoping that there would be an all-singing, all-dancing site about them somewhere on the interweb. Perhaps there is: I haven't found it yet, but I did find the finch. And what a glorious finch he is!

Stevie Smith

Here's a useful poem to learn off by heart so that you can plumb any gaps in dinnerparty conversation:

NOURISH ME ON AN EGG

Nourish me on an egg, Nanny,
And ply with bottled stout,
And I'll grow to be a man
Before the secret's out.

Nourish me on an egg, Nanny,
With bottled stout to drink,
And I'll grow to be a man
Before you can think.

Nourish me on an egg, Nanny,
Don't wring your hands and weep,
Bring me a glass of stout
And close my eyes in sleep.

(the book)

cartography

Nice map!

(Thanks to Cas for the link.)

whose dinner?

famous for fifteen people

"This essay, written by Momus in 1991, was published by the Swedish fanzine Grimsby Fishmarket in 1992 ..."

rock and roll band / Marty

*** Unhemmed recommends ***

Pop in your earphones & get down to numberdan's brand new 'Rock and Roll Band'!

And here's an idea (maybe it's just a fraction of an idea) for the artwork:

"Poor old Marty!"

"Good old Marty!"

John Berryman, 1968

INTERVIEWER: You admire Stephen Crane, we know, and many of his characters are named "Henry"; is this the origin of the name?

BERRYMAN: Oh, no—that's all just accident and junk. I'll tell you how the name Henry came into being. One time my second wife and I were walking down an avenue in Minneapolis and we decided on the worst names that you could think of for men and women. We decided on Mabel for women, and Henry for men. So from then on, in the most cozy and adorable way, she was Mabel and I was Henry; and that's how Henry came into being.

(read more of it here ...)

birds / going organic

An educational short from 1977.

I'm a little bit anxious that I've linked to John Stammers's very funny poem "I Don't 'Go Organic' Often, But When I Do" before; if I have, it's evidence, if such were needed, of incipient doolalliness. But not to worry, now I've put it here, with a bit of luck I'll be able to find it when I need it again.

literature-map

I don't know what to say about this, so I'll just point at it with my mouth open. (Isn't that just what always seems to happen in these parts anyway?)

Actually, there is one thing I'd like to say about it: it needs a spellcheck. (Albert Cammus? T S Elliot? Exypery?) And it could be a bit more upfront about where its cartography comes from.
I'm now pointing at it with my mouth closed.

Szydłowiec and environs

scrummy

On Friday night I ate bibimbap, which was tasty, but not quite as tasty as its name. Bibimbap! I fondly hope that one day I'll be able to eat a more fully Korean version of the dish, so I can see how it compares with its Polish counterpart, which seemed to be missing a large number of the ingredients listed here, but was scrummy nonetheless.

I was reminded of the bibimbap by this fantastic sestina on 'Six Kinds of Noodles'.

Something from a different barrel, as they say in these parts: please note the new additions to the list of links, one of which will plug you into buildings, whilst the other mostly does sounds (though it does other things too).

current favourite sentence

I've stolen this feature off my friend James. Hope he doesn't mind! I rather think that he won't when he reads this:

"I think of some of the haughty-ass theoretico-jive that's come out of my mouth at various conferences and coffeehouse readings over the years, and I shudder." - samizdat