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Gather around, kids. We have a guest reader for today’s story time. Mr. Martin usually writes books for grown-ups, but he’s modified a few nursery rhymes for us.
-via The Mary Sue
The highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings LEGO line was unveiled at a party in conjunction with the International Toy Fare 2012 in New York. Or, at least most of the sets. The Hobbit set is still under wraps. But representatives from TheOneRing.net were there and took pictures. The sets themselves, which feature Lord of the Rings minifigures, are expected to be introduced in stores starting in June. See more photographs in their report. Link -via The Daily What Geek
Brian Joseph Davis uses a law enforcement composite sketch program to create pictures of literary characters. This is how the program saw Humbert Humbert from the physical description of him in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. I’d love to see a rendering Bel-ka-Trazet from Shardik using this method. Which literary figures would you like to see as a composite sketch?
Are you tired of catching flack from hardcore Harry Potter fans about how you’ve never sat through all eight of the movies?
Do you want to check out all the films without committing more than a minute of your time to the task?
Is watching a recap of Harry going from apprentice wizard to defeater of Voldemort the only way you can start your day?
Well then this snack sized video should satisfy any/all of these requirements as quickly as possible.
–via The Mary Sue
Not just “a” raven, but “the” raven that inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write the poem The Raven, is on display now at the Free Library of Philadelphia as part of their Dickens collection. The bird, named Grip, was author Charles Dickens’ pet, and was enshrined in more than one classic work of literature.
The raven appeared as a minor character in Dickens’ book Barnaby Rudge, which Poe reviewed and criticised for the bird’s small role.
Four years later, in 1845, he penned his immortal and haunting poem The Raven.
It told of a talking raven visiting a distraught man whose lover had just died, arriving ‘as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door’. The paragraphs then trace the man’s slow descent into madness.
The carefully preserved and stuffed raven is one of the more unusual items in the Philadelphia library’s valuable Dickens collection.
Link -via The Daily What
The Free Library of Philadelphia is celebrating Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday all year long. Link
The Lair of the Clockwork Book, the latest serial from Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual by Bradley W. Schenck is subtitled “A Tale of Privacy and Adventure from the Future that Never Was.” The Clockwork Book is a book that constantly adds to its own knowledge.
The Book accumulates stories. It does this by trading the stories it knows for new stories. This sounds harmless: in fact, it sounds beneficial, until you think about it.
Because stories are not neutral. Stories always say something about the person who tells them. They often say more than the teller realizes, and it’s easy to become so wrapped up in the telling that we tell too much.
Everything that the Book learns becomes part of the Book. And the Book grows by trading the stories it knows – to anybody who asks. Anybody. If that doesn’t worry you, you’re probably one of those people that natural selection hasn’t noticed yet.
Over the many years since the Clockwork Book collected its first story people have gradually learned to avoid the Book despite the fact that, in general, people really want to know things. And there must be a reason.
There’s a way to find out for certain, of course: you just have to be willing to ask.
Our story follows those who are brave and curious enough to ask. The beautifully illustrated serial began a year ago, so you can read just about all of it now, and the last few chapters will be posted twice a week until the story is completed in April. Link
Eventually, a printed book may be available. Link
Maria Popova of the always neat Brain
Pickings has a great review of The Art of Medicine: Over 2,000 Years of Images and Imagination
The iconic image above is the classic 1926 illustration by Fritz Kahn titled Der Mensch als Industriepalast / Man as Industrial Palace
Wish
there were words to describe how you feel while you travel the globe?
The Lonely Planet blog coined some brand new travel-related words that
may come in handy in your next journey:
automobilogic n.
The state of mind unique to road trips that convinces travelers that gummi bears and fried onion rings count as a daily serving of fruits and vegetables. Studies indicate that this may lead to automobesity.bratpacker n.
Someone who believes they have a revolutionary system for packing luggage and insists on explaining it to anyone who will listen.comeuppants n.
When an obnoxious person loses their luggage and has no change of clothes.crankophone n.
Someone who tries to make themselves understood in a foreign country simply by speaking louder in their own tongue.filibluster v.
To cause pointless delay by creating a scene in the airport security line to prove some point about personal privacy rights that no one behind you cares about.
Come to think of it, I know a few crankophones! Read more at the Lonely Planet Blog: Link
Newspaper Blackout is Austin Kleon’s latest poetry project. He’s taken pages of text, often from newspapers, and blacked out words so that those left behind form free verse lines.
Link -via My Modern Met
Previously by Austin Kleon
How to Steal Like an Artist
Tea Stain Drawings
Atlas Obscura has a roundup of tragic love tales from classic literature.
In Ovid’s story of Pyramus and Thisbe, two young lovers, forbidden to marry because of family rivalries whisper their forbidden love through cracks in the wall. Their story met its fateful end when the lovers decided to escape their families, and meet under a mulberry tree. Thisbe arrived at the rendezvous first, and narrowly escaped a lion attack, dropping her distinctive veil in the process. When Pyramus arrives and finds the blood soaked veil, he throws himself on his sword; when Thisbe returns to the scene, she does the same.
Does that plot sound familiar? Pyramus and Thisbe are considered to be the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. There are several more stories in the post, plus links about places connected with the tragic lovers. Link
Image supplied by Stanley Gould
On September 8, 1908, Mark Twain's home was burglarized. From that point forward, the author had this "Notice To The Next Burglar" posted prominently on his front door.
From the always fascinating Letters of Note:
NOTICE.
To the next Burglar.
There is nothing but plated ware in this house, now and henceforth. You will find it in that brass thing in the dining-room over in the corner by the basket of kittens. If you want the basket, put the kittens in the brass thing. Do not make a noise — it disturbs the family. You will find rubbers in the front hall, by that thing which has the umbrellas in it, chiffonier, I think they call it, or pergola, or something like that.
Please close the door when you go away!
Very truly yours,
S.L. Clemens
It’s impressive enough that ShadowCa7 decided to perform a musical version of J.R.R. Tolkiens “Over The Misty Mountains Cold/The Dwarven Song Of Old Wealth” and committed to doing all 27 verses, but the fact that she does all the harmonies by herself while playing acoustic guitar makes this a beautiful performance to behold.
It takes a bit of a commitment just to sit through the entire video, but it is so good from beginning to end, so throw up your hairy feet, pack a pipe and pour yourself a pint if you’re ready to go there and back again.
–via Topless Robot
This ridiculous mashup, which combines Chunk’s confession to the Fratelli gang in Goonies with a scene from the Game of Thrones TV series featuring Tyrion confessing to some rather nasty deeds, has some great reaction shots from the surrounding characters in the scene, and makes me want to demand a truffle shuffle from that wicked little man!
–via The Mary Sue
This hand crafted sword looks waaaaay too big to be lugging around all day during a convention cosplay session. Inspired by the sword carried by the main character Guts in the anime/manga series Berserk (as seen in the poster above the sword), it’s a super sized prop that looks really hard to handle. I applaud your effort sir, now get to work on that Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword stat!
Comic artist Stephen McCranie has been very busy the past few months, and the result is a new book called Mal and Chad: Food Fight! featuring boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad. To publicize the book, Stephen is running a special Fill in the Bubble Contest at his website. Your caption could win you a personalized comic portrait and the book! Link
Jim Hines wanted to show off his body make a statement about the sexist depiction of women on the covers of fantasy novels. So his wife took photos of Hines while he awkwardly posed like the cover girls.
Forget paperbacks or even Kindles - the future of reading, as this eBay listing shows, is in toilet paper! From the_heppcat's auction listing:
MOBY DICK TYPED ON TOILET PAPER
My friend and I once joked that toilet paper should have instructions printed on them for certain people.
One day, the conversation grew from there and turned into a wager that i couldn't (or wouldn't) be able to type out a novel on toilet paper.
Yes, we did have some time on our hands but, as you can see from the photos, I won the bet.
There are four full rolls, one roll (epilogue) is about 1/5 of a roll and one half-roll
All of the rolls of TP came out of a brand new -- clean -- package of 2-ply Cottonelle.
They've been handled very gingerly and infrequently.As you'll see in the following photos, one or two rolls have a tear at the beginning.
This is where i was trying to pull the paper through the typewriter.I've kept this mod oddity in a box in a cool, dry place for the last 10 years
and have only broken it out to prove to doubters that I actually did it.Considering what it's been through, it's in amazing condition.
Link - via @brainpicker
See also: Moby Dick Postertext from the NeatoShop
Judging by the artwork from Mexican Novelas, pulp novels that Latin America eats up like literary junk food, these stories are as terrifying as they are hilarious. Full of masked wrestlers, shadowy demonic forces, Frankenbirds and Yetis, these stories would make a person suffering from paranoid schizophrenia feel sane in comparison.
The only thing you’re missing out on by not being able to read these stories for yourself is the story behind each panel, so head to the i09 link below and read the clever descriptions Cyriaque Lamar has come up for them all, or make some up for yourself and write your own SuperNovela.
Are Women People? is a book of poetry by Alice Duer Miller, published in 1915. Lili Loofbourow downloaded the book through Project Gutenberg and was delighted to find that it was a book of satirical suffragist poetry, and passed along several of the passages to us. Here is a excerpt from the poem called Women:
I went into a factory
to earn my daily bread:
Men said: “The home is woman’s sphere.”
“I have no home,” I said.But when the men all marched to war,
they cried to wife and maid,
“Oh, never mind about the home,
but save the export trade.”For it’s women this and women that, and home’s the place for you,
But it’s patriotic angels when there’s outside work to do,
There’s outside work to do, my dears, there’s outside work to do,
It’s patriotic angels when there’s outside work to do.
Read the rest of it, and more poetry of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, at The Hairpin. Link -via Metafilter
Jim Henson’s career wasn’t just The Muppets. He and writing partner Jerry Juhl worked on a project on and off over the years. The story Tale of Sand was adapted by Ramón Pérez and is now available in graphic novel form! Read a review of it at mental_floss. Link
Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston and the Boston Art Commission plan to erect a statue honoring Edgar Allan Poe, and they’ve narrowed down the design submissions to three finalists.
The finalists were selected from a pool of 265 artists from 42 states and 13 countries who submitted their qualifications for consideration. Working with the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, the Boston Art Commission will oversee the installation of the public artwork in Edgar Allan Poe Square, the city-owned plaza located at the southeast corner of Boylston Street and Charles Street South between Park Square and Boston Common.
The artists are Jennifer Bonner and her teammate architect Christian Stayner, both of Los Angeles; Ann Hirsch of Cambridge and her teammate Boston architect Robert Olson; and Stefanie Rocknak of Oneonta, New York. Their design proposals were first presented by the artists on Monday, Jan. 9, 2012, at the Campus Center of Emerson College (150 Boylston St., four doors east of Poe Square). The proposed concepts will be presented once again at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square by project manager Jean Mineo on Thursday, January 19, 2012, the 203rd birthday of the Boston-born Poe.
The design shown is by sculptor Stefanie Rocknak. See them all and read the artist’s statements at the project site. Or, if you’re in Boston, see them at the library today! Link -Thanks, J.W. Ocker!
Edgar Allan Poe fans waited after midnight this morning at the cemetery in Baltimore where the author is buried, but for the third year in a row, no “Poe Toaster” showed up. For around 70 years, a mysterious person visited Poe’s grave on the morning of January 19th, Poe’s birth date.
Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the “Poe Toaster” was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer’s legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition.
“It’s over with,” Jerome said wearily. “It will probably hit me later, but I’m too tired now to feel anything else.”
It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe’s original grave on the writer’s birthday, date to at least the 1940s. Late Wednesday, a crowd gathered outside the gates of the burial ground surrounding Westminster Hall to watch for the mysterious visitor, yet only three impersonators appeared, Jerome said.
The author was born in 1809 and died 40 years later. Link -via Fark
(Image credit: AP)
Did you know today is Winnie the Pooh Day in honor of his creator, A.A. Milne’s birthday? If Mr. Milne were still alive today, he’d be turning 130 and he would no doubt be honored to see that his creation is still bringing joy to children to this day. In honor of Milne and his beloved Pooh Bear, here are a few things you might not know about Winnie and the rest of his pals.
Image Via CorneelW [Flickr]
His name has changed over the years, but not much. When the first A.A. Milne books came out, he was originally called Winnie-the-Pooh, but when Disney acquired the rights to animate the characters, they dropped the hyphen and the hyphenless title became much more popular.
The Pooh stories have broken many book records –even in foreign languages. It has been published in dozens of languages and the 1958 Latin translation even became the first non-English book to be featured on the New York Times Best Seller List and it remains the only Latin book to ever be seen on the list.
Winnie the Pooh may seem like a silly name for a bear, but it was the name of Christopher Robin Milne’s real teddy bear, so it became the name of the bear in the books as well. As it turns out, Christopher Robin named his bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear that lived at the London Zoo (pictured above in his youth), and a swan named “Pooh” that the family met on vacation. Before the toy was given its famous name, it was originally sold at Harrods with the name “Edward Bear.” As for Pooh the swan, he was actually featured as a character in the same poetry book where Milne first introduced Winnie The Pooh to the world, although he still wasn’t named in one of Milne’s works until a 1925 Christmas story he wrote for The Evening News.
Contrary to many rumors, Winnie’s last name is not Sanders. This story was spread because Pooh’s house says “Sanders” over the door, but it is generally accepted that the name was put above the door by the home’s previous resident and that Pooh just never bothered to take it down.
Most of the other characters were named after Christopher Robin’s toys as well. That is, except for Owl, Rabbit and Gopher. Owl and Rabbit were created by Milne and illustrator Ernest Shepard solely to add a little more variety to the character list. Gopher wasn’t added until 1977, when the Disney company added the character to their animated feature, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
You can see all of the real plushies that inspired the characters at the New York Public Library. With one exception –Christopher Robin lost his Roo plush in the thirties, so it is sadly missing from the collection.
You can also visit most of the locations from the stories. The Hundred Acre Wood, Roo’s Sandpit, Poohsticks Bridget and the rest are all fictionalized names of real places in the Ashdown Forrest in Sussex, England where Milne bought a country home in 1925. For example, the Hundred Acre Wood is really the Five Hundred Acre Wood and Galleon’s Leap is really Gill’s Lap.
Christopher Robin was less than thrilled about the success of his father’s stories. Apparently his grudge started when kids in school picked on him by citing passages from the stories. As he grew older, he accused his father of achieving success by “climbing on my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame.” I don’t know about you guys, but if my dad wrote awesome books about me and my toys, I’d be touched, especially as I got older and realized that if the kids making fun of me used verses from the stories –that they must have been fans of the stories themselves.
While Disney maintained Pooh’s classic red shirt look, first introduced in 1932, critics complain that the company has changed the personality and stories too drastically. Strangely, if you prefer your Pooh Bear to be closer to the original, you’ll have to sacrifice the character’s look as his most accurate animation portrayal has been performed by his Russian version. While Russian Winnei’s stories closely follow those depicted in the original trilogy of Pooh stories, he certainly looks drastically different from the illustrations created by artist Ernest Shepard. That’s him in the cartoon above, if you couldn’t tell.
As for Disney, they’re doing just fine with their own take on the bear and his friends. It turns out the company makes just as much money from Pooh movies and merchandise as they do from the same creations bearing Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.
Image Via parodyerror [Flickr]
Of course, Disney hasn’t manipulated the stories nearly as much as a few others have. The character has been used by Benjamin Hoff to explain the tenants of Taoism, by Frederick Crews to satirize philosophical approaches used by academics and by John T. Williams to illustrate the works of popular philosophers including Descartes, Pluto and Nietzsche. Apparently the little stuffed bear might just be one of the best philosophers of our time. As if that weren’t enough, Kenny Loggins even wrote a song based on the cuddly character.
He has also left his mark on the real world as well. There are streets in Warsaw and Budapest named after him. And the imaginary sport of Poohsticks, where contestants drop their stick in a stream to see whose will cross the finish line first, is now played worldwide and even has a World Championship match in Oxfordshire.
Are you a Pooh fan? Is there anything I left out here? Also, who is your favorite character in the Hundred Acre Wood? Personally, I love Eeyore, but that’s partially because he reminds me of my lazy, mopey dog.
Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, Mental Floss
The book by Greg Stones, in video form. -via Everlasting Blort
January is Braille Literacy Month. Did you know that? Here are some other things you might not know about Braille.
7. There are three different “grades” of Braille
Every grade represents a different skill level, with 1 being best for those just starting to learn Braille and 3 for the more familiar. Basic letters and punctuation characterize the first, while the second builds off of that to include contractions – making it the most common version found in public. Once a person hits Grade 3 Braille, he or she can learn the shorthand for personal use, such as lists and notes, rather than more formalized literature.
8. “Braille for feet” exists
In order for businesses to meet standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, Tilco Vanguard developed a veritable “Braille for feet” that assists the visually impaired in knowing the boundaries of dangerous areas. Technically referred to as “truncated domes,” these bright yellow strips spell out a universal message in order to keep store and restaurant patrons safe.
Read the rest of the list, and you’ll be a lot more “literate” in Braille than you were yesterday! Link
1844, from berserk (n.) "Norse warrior," by 1835, an alternative
form of berserker (1822), a word which was introduced by Sir Walter Scott,
from O.N. berserkr (n.) "raging warrior of superhuman strength;"
probably from *ber- "bear" + serkr "shirt," thus lit.
"a warrior clothed in bearskin." Illustration: Adam R. Garcia
Designer Adam R. Garcia started this nifty project called Illustrated Etymology, where he invited artists to illustrate the history of words and their origins in graphical form.
Check it out: Link - via designworklife
Logospilgrim is just a bit interested in the character of Severus Snape from Harry Potter. She has Snape tattoos, dresses like Snape, and has written two books about him. Her home office is a shrine packed with objects and decorations that would please him, including potion bottles that are presumably empty. You can view several more pictures at the link.
Uh oh! Don't tell Harry Potter but He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been reincarnated! Via Nerd Approved
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Strangest Names EVAR!
To promote an upcoming celebration of Dutch literature, the ad agency Van Wantern Etcetera carved portraits of four Dutch writers into copies of their autobiographical and biographical works. At the link, you can find other book sculptures in the series depicting Vincent van Gogh, Louis van Gaal and Kader Abdolah.
Link -via NotCot | Agency Website
It seems like every movie trailer with any trace of geek interest gets sweded by fans then put on YouTube, so why should the trailer for the upcoming Peter Jackson film The Hobbit be left out?
Although this isn’t a traditional swede, and the filmmakers from MonkeyTheater take some liberties with the lines, it’s still hilarious and entertaining to watch. My fav scene-when Bilbo is introduced to the dwarves. Haha, classic!
–via The Mary Sue
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