Crate of Curios part 71

The sun is heating up the air during noon these days, birds are chirping at the top of their tiny lungs, street cats are lounging on the warm sunny spots of pavement… could it finally be spring? Tourists are already sporting shorts and T-shirts in the streets, whereas the locals are carefully replacing the winter jacket to a slightly thinner one. The trees have been pruned and for a while the streets are full of light – just until the heat picks up and the new leaves will be providing a welcome shadow… But enough of the spring dreams for now – it’s time to open this week’s Crate.

  1. “I think Richard Dadd was very much of his time, right up until he killed his father,” Marc Demarest, who maintains a popular web page about Dadd, the ‘fairy painter’, told Artsy.

2. Pools can be exquisite things of beauty – especially if they are designed by Julia Morgan.

3. How common is your birthday? This chart will tell you.

4. Roeselien Raimond is a portrait photographer who portraits… foxes.

5. After the everyday politics of anger, Ece Temelkuran is proposing politics of gentleness.

6. And to finish off for this week, a little comic about life from The Awkward Yeti.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!
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If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.

Crate of Curios part 70

Two days late this week, due to my having other things to do, today under the full moon it will be done. The new Crate of Curios. Carried by the hot noon sun and days that are progressively getting milder, let’s get to opening it without any further ado.

  1. “Those damn Moomins,” Tove Jansson wrote in her notes. “I don’t want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.” – Tove Jansson was frustrated, feeling that the Moomin – literally her scribbles – were obscuring and taking necessary time from her painting.

2. Madeleine Dore, the author of Extraordinary Routines newsletter and podcast, has gathered a charming list of life lessons for her 32nd birthday.

3. How does disagreement actually work? Here’s a chart for it.

4. We already knew that crows are smart. Turns out… they are even smarter than that.

5. This week’s book (and series) recommendation is Elena Ferrante’s ‘My Brilliant Friend’, the first book of the Neapolitan Quartet.

6. And to finish off for this week, a completely absurd little comic by Joan Cornella.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!
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If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.

Crate of Curios part 69

And finally the Halcyon days seem to have arrived. The afternoon sunshine felt positively hot and the local feline population at the workplace inner yard were enjoying in full scale, occupying all the seats. It’s about time… This winter, which in all honesty hasn’t even been particularly long, feels as if it’s been dragging on for months instead of weeks. So, in order to celebrate the warmer days, let’s make haste and open this week’s Crate.

  1. “Although Miss Anderson’s limbs are not as regular from the artistic viewpoint…her general health is better,” proclaimed one article in the St. Louis Republic in 1897. “From a comparative feebleness she has grown into robust strength. From head to foot she is a mass of muscles.” – Tilly Anderson, the Swedish seamstress in Chicago found her calling in bicycle racing and helped to popularize the sports across the U.S.

2. We’ve all heard at some point that joy is contagious – unfortunately so is arrogance.

3. Whether you like or dislike precipitation – this map will help to to pick the most befitting country in Europe.

4. Rest is not always literal rest. For the brain, rest is often just doing something different, such as having unrelated hobbies.

5. A little poetry spamming from the pen of Sylvia Plath from 1962. (It’s a part of the longer poem that can be found here.)

6. And to finish off this week – a 9gag meme that feels very familiar.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!
_________________________________________________________

If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.