"I'm the kid who thought we'd someday be lovers / always held out that time would tell ... "

[larryhammer]

" ... as we're walking toward the train station / there's a whispering rainfall / cross the boulevard you slip your hand in mine / in the distance the train calls ... "

Signal boost: How to Discuss Race and Racism Without Acting Like a Complete Jerk:

Intentions aren't the only thing that matters. Suppose I step on someone's foot. They say, "hey, ouch, you stepped on my foot." My proper response is, "Gosh, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful." Depending on the situation, I might add something like, "I was looking for my kid's sneaker that she always kicks off," or "I've got something in my contact," etc. My proper response is not, "Well, I didn't mean to step on your foot, so why are you angry?!"

And since I'm linking, this week it's more like a plate of stir-fried greens -- we've been getting a lot from our CSA:

• Clay Shirky on the difference between information overload and filter failure. He has some chewy points to make in there. (via)
  
  
• Fun with shiny happy mud balls.
  
  
• The last paragraph of the review is, uh, more than a little bizare, but the book looks like a fascinating peek at life in North Korea after generations of propaganda. If accurate, I do not envy South Korea's job of integration, should they get the chance to reunify. (via)
  
  
• Further proof that inequality hurts everyone, including those on top of the scrum. (via)
  
  
• A collection of urban legends from late 19th century Japan including, yes, phantom trains.
  
  
• Photo of a lonely snowbound restaurant in Hokkaido.
  
  
• For connoisseurs of crashingly bad verse translations, Matt at No-Sword brings us the 1890 McClatchie translation of No plays into the style of The Ingoldsby Legends (the most famous of which is "The Jackdaw of Reimes").
  
  
• Sometimes, maps lie. Like that one of New Amsterdam? It's really Lisbon.
  
  
• A 1903 silent film version of Alice in Wonderland -- print's not perfect, but it's still just as trippy as you might expect. (via)

" ... I'm the kid who has this habit of dreaming / sometimes it gets me in trouble too / but the truth is I could no more stop dreaming / than I could make them all come true"

---L.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

Intentions aren't the only thing that matters. Suppose I step on someone's foot. They say, "hey, ouch, you stepped on my foot." My proper response is, "Gosh, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful." Depending on the situation, I might add something like, "I was looking for my kid's sneaker that she always kicks off," or "I've got something in my contact," etc. My proper response is not, "Well, I didn't mean to step on your foot, so why are you angry?!"

That. So very that.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Speaking of bad poetry, The First Little Pet Book with Ten Short Stories in Words of Three and Four Letters (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/31483), by Aunt Fanny, just posted to Project Gutenberg.

[larryhammer]

Oh my. Not quite words of one beat, as she uses words like a-way and mam-ma, but at a glance she hyphenates all of them. (Is "mamma" a word of three or four letters? Is "a"?)

Will read more later.

---L.

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

I tried that mudball thing once. Either I wasn't playing music perky enough, or this should only be done at home ... if your home is on Japan and on special, special dirt.

But that clip almost made me want to try again. Blessed be the insane.

[larryhammer]

At least one of those links is to an Albuquerque artist who makes them from dirt around northern New Mexico.

---L.

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

We must have played the wrong music, then.

Snark not withstanding, I wonder what the magic in the dirt is. Our mudballs cracked and broke on the outside long before the inside dried out. Does that indicate too much water-retention materials, or not enough? The goal was to wick the moisture out fairly smoothly and consistently, and ... total fail.

But the mudballs made by people who do it right? Very cool.

[larryhammer]

If you ever find a master who can answer that, I'd be interested to hear the response.

---L.