২০ জানুয়ারী, ২০১৪

"The ceruse or white Lead, wherewith women use to paint themselves was, without doubt, brought in use by the divell, the capitall enemie of nature..."

"... therwith to transforme humane creatures, of fair, making them ugly, enormious and abominable... a man might easily cut off a curd or cheese-cake from either of their cheeks."

Wrote Thomas Tuke in "A treatise against Painting and Tincturing of Men and Women," in 1616.



Found on this page about make-up in Elizabethan times, which I was looking up in an effort to gain insight into some lines of Shakespearean sonnet that someone quoted the other day:
When forty winters have besieged thy brow
And dug deep trenches in thy beauty's field...
That was quoted a propos of a discussion I started about the use of the word "winters" in place of "years," which I'd seen reading "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle." I was reading that because I was reading about the "Harrying of the North," because I was researching the origin of the term (and tactic) "scorched earth," which I got to  wondering about only because an entomologist named Schorsch read (and commented on) my post "Flesh! and calenture," to respond to my question whether insects have flesh, which came up as a consequence of another commenter pointing out a health-and-virtue food product made from "cricket flesh" on a post about the history of Velveeta, which I'd only noticed because I was reading about some Japanese scientists visualizing cultivating human organs inside the living bodies of pigs. 

Where have your idle thoughts taken you lately and in winters past?

২৪টি মন্তব্য:

George M. Spencer বলেছেন...

In "Inside Llewlyn Davis," is the title character dead, a suicide or killed in the alley, and endlessly repeating his last days?

Sorry for the spoiler, but I can't figure how the movie makes any sense, especially considering his last and first words.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley, with his pointed shoes and his bells, speaking to some French girl… send a message to find out if she’s talked...

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent বলেছেন...

Maybe Llewlyn was showing everyone his gun...

rhhardin বলেছেন...

I can't tell women apart with makeup.

Simple test yourself.

There's no such trouble with men unless they're news anchors.

Amexpat বলেছেন...

Where have your idle thoughts taken you lately
I'm currently reading a history of Cleopatra and "Ptolemy" in various forms is used. I knew who Ptolemy was, but never heard his name pronounced. I looked it up and, as suspected, the "P" is not pronounced. So I've been wondering why the "P" is used in English.

Nonapod বলেছেন...

I was reading about the places on Earth with the strongest tidal flows, which lead me to the wikipedia article on the Skookumchuck Narrows, which in turn lead me to the article on the Chinook Jargon of the Pacific Northwest.

Hagar বলেছেন...

"The word ptarmigan comes from the Scottish Gaelic tàrmachan, literally croaker.[17] The silent initial p was added in 1684 by Robert Sibbald through the influence of Greek, especially pteron (πτερον), "wing", "feather" or "pinion"

In other words - for no good reason at all.

chickelit বলেছেন...

Michael Faraday advocated for white lead, (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2), and red lead, 2 PbO·PbO2, as durable outdoor pigments suitable for painting things such as lighthouses: link. Iconic things often have practical utility.

TiO2 replaced white lead in paint for obvious reasons.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

"So I've been wondering why the "P" is used in English."

To avoid inptolerance.

Amexpat বলেছেন...

To avoid inptolerance.

Not sure how to inpterrupt that.

Amexpat বলেছেন...

Sorry, meant to write "inpterepert that".

Schorsch বলেছেন...

I was going to respond in the previous thread, but this one has my own tag!

You asked if I specialize in a particular insect: I do for now, but I have moved about and likely will again. Each insect has its own charms. I studied how moths smell out prospective mates, then how cockroaches walk, and now how praying mantises catch their prey. All of it has to do with mucking about in their tiny brains.

Another commenter suggested that what ants and bees and wasps do is politics. From my buggy point of view, they never change their rules, so they have no need for a political process.

But take it from someone who should know: the philosopher and cockroach, Archy, as relayed by Don Marquis:
"one thing that
shows that
insects are
superior to men
is the fact that
insects run their
affairs without
political campaigns
elections and so forth"

Naked Surfer বলেছেন...

Where have your idle thoughts taken you lately and in winters past?

To the eternal-insatiable promiscuity of vaginally-monologonous blog-wenches.

LYNNDH বলেছেন...

Ann, if you like fiction, and are interested in this time in Britain, try reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales. Interesting reading. He is also author of the Sharpe series set in time of Napoleon.

Simon Kenton বলেছেন...

Her face it was pitted by years of abuse
Of mucus and fucus and use of ceruse.

-- Browning

Michelle Dulak Thomson বলেছেন...

Hagar,

In other words - for no good reason at all.

I think that P.G. Wodehouse named one of his recurring characters "Psmith" (silent "p") for the very good and entirely sufficient reason of fun.

Michelle Dulak Thomson বলেছেন...

Hagar,

In other words - for no good reason at all.

I think that P.G. Wodehouse named one of his recurring characters "Psmith" (silent "p") for the very good and entirely sufficient reason of fun.

Hagar বলেছেন...

Yeah, but I thought ptarmigan was some kind of exotic bird in the great wastes of the Canadian arctic, and was disappointed to find it was just a fancy name for plain old upland grouse.

Rockport Conservative বলেছেন...

I'm pondering over your scorched earth origins and thinking of a story in the Bible, Judges 15:5 which is what always comes to my mind on scorched earth theories.
http://biblehub.com/judges/15-5.htm
Samson Defeats the Philistines
…4Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. 5When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves. 6Then the Philistines said, "Who did this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion." So the Philistines came up and burned h

Rusty বলেছেন...

chickenlittle said...
Michael Faraday advocated for white lead, (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2), and red lead, 2 PbO·PbO2, as durable outdoor pigments suitable for painting things such as lighthouses: link. Iconic things often have practical utility.

TiO2 replaced white lead in paint for obvious reasons.

In the machining trades, what was white lead used for?

নামহীন বলেছেন...

I'm stilling ruminating over arm pit vaginas. Why haven't I heard of this before and what does it all mean?

southcentralpa বলেছেন...

Back in the heyday of Syphillis, some people would have fake eyebrows, since the Big S could make your hair fall out.

Fun fact: A mirkin is a pubic wig, first developed for pretty much the same reason ... love to see a post about the (unlinkable) OED entry for that word ...

Megaera বলেছেন...

Ann, The Harrying of the North? Sounds like you might be interested in reading "The Steel Bonnets" by George McDonald Fraser, his history of the reaving clans (the source of the word 'bereaved') of the Scots/English border marches. One of Fraser's best non-fiction works, full of great phrases ("red hand and hot trod") and wondrous above all for its inclusion of the Archbishop of Glasgow's unforgettable 'Monition of Cursing' against the reavers. The aforementioned Harrying, IIRC, was James' effort to rid the North of the riding clans by scorching the earth under their hooves, bloody and destructive, but largely successful. Great reading.

Christy বলেছেন...

You might like The British History podcasts, free on iTunes. He has several episodes on the Anglo-Saxons and has a lot of fun with the culture. Apparently they were great punsters and riddlers.

A comment on the WWI thread where someone listed the myth that the upper class got off lightly took me to Ziegler' s bio of Lady Diana Cooper. I remembered her writing of her heartbreak over losing so many of the young men she grew up with in the war, including the son of the prime minister. Diana´s son, John Julius Norwich, wrote a wonderful 3 volume History of Byzantium which for some reason drove me to a collection of G.K. Chesterton short stories, The Man Who Knew Too Much. But my attention was quickly diverted to check out Amazon for the latest Maisie Dobbs novel. Maisie was a nurse in WWI turned private detective who sees shell shocked veterans at every turn. At that point I gathered up a couple of younger than 18 nephews to take with me to Lone Survivor. My guilt over taking them to an R rated movie vanished when I recognized the language and violence was no worse than their typical video game. I think. I closed my eyes more than once. Very good movie.