Come and lose your eyes and limbs for thirteen pence a day

[sovay]

I have spent yet another day contending with various bureaucracies and I think the bureaucracies are winning. My body seems to have established a new baseline for pain levels and it's just much higher than it's been in years. My dreams have returned to unsubtle but consistent nightmares. The combination is enervating. Have some links.

1. I am most familiar with the author's poetry, but I am glad to have run across this story: Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, "Vyvyan's Father."

2. Courtesy of moon_custafer: the liminal nature of sheydim.

3. Courtesy of skygiants: signal-boosting COVID-19 resources for the Navajo.

4. For readers of the Boston Globe: the continuing adventures of the lion's mane.

5. From another article about the custom of the black wedding: "It is important to note that the shvartze khasene existed alongside other, more distinctly Jewish traditions to ward off disease. For example, many Polish Jews placed signs over their gates saying 'Typhus has already reigned here' or 'Nobody is inside.'" This does indeed strike me as deeply Jewish and also hilarious.

Comments

[asakiyume]

(1) Oh man. Me too. Totally traumatized. Been listening to this, which I guess was written during the time of Ebola but which is reprised briefly in the song for a time of Corona that I posted about some time ago. I don't understand anything but the chorus but the feeling is right.

ETA: Great; now the video in the second link has been removed -_- replacement link

[sovay]

Oh man. Me too. Totally traumatized.

*hugs*

ETA: Great; now the video in the second link has been removed -_- replacement link

Thank you! I remember the song from your post in April, but it's good to hear it again. I don't know that I had ever heard the original, either, and it is powerful.

[selkie]

Nobody is inside!
This just keeps getting stressful.
Tomorrow is New Anthology Day and I just want to scream into a bucket.

[sovay]

Tomorrow is New Anthology Day and I just want to scream into a bucket.

I'll scream about the anthology and you can scream into a bucket.

*hugs*

[rosefox]

Something about "Nobody is inside" feels like the custom of renaming a child to evade the angel of death.

[sovay]

Something about "Nobody is inside" feels like the custom of renaming a child to evade the angel of death.

The author of the article considers it linked. I just find the house signs an even more extreme example of the idea that the Angel of Death can be confused by no forwarding address and rather love it.

[moon_custafer]

Now I’m picturing typhus as the character in that meme who declares “That sign won’t stop me because I can’t read!”

[sovay]

Now I’m picturing typhus as the character in that meme who declares “That sign won’t stop me because I can’t read!”

DAMMIT TYPHUS.

(I want it to have worked just once, you know?)

[cmcmck]

Giggles.

That is exceedingly Jewish for sure! :o)

[sovay]

That is exceedingly Jewish for sure!

I'd never heard of the custom before and while I find the black wedding haunting, there is something about the straightforward NOPE of this technique that I love.

[oracne]

La La La no humans to see here...pass on by....

[sovay]

La La La no humans to see here...pass on by....

If it works . . .

[batdina]

So sorry about your pain levels. (Empathy from here on the left coast.) But thank you kindly for the reading material.

[sovay]

So sorry about your pain levels. (Empathy from here on the left coast.) But thank you kindly for the reading material.

Thank you, and empathy back, and you're welcome!

[gwynnega]

I'm so sorry about your pain level.

I really love "Nobody is inside." It does seem deeply Jewish. I can also imagine it being used in a Warner Bros. cartoon.

[sovay]

I'm so sorry about your pain level.

Thank you. Is your vertigo treating you any better these days?

I really love "Nobody is inside." It does seem deeply Jewish. I can also imagine it being used in a Warner Bros. cartoon.

Totally.

[gwynnega]

My vertigo has been a little better, probably due to massage therapy. I'm going to continue going once a week as long as my therapist can stay open, even though going makes me nervous.