Petrified faces speak to me

[sovay]

My poem "Fascination" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It was inspired by my remembering the discovery of a so-called sorceress' toolkit at Pompeii in 2019. English fascinate derives from Latin fascinō—charm, enchant, bewitch. It all goes back to the winged phallus of the fascinus, such as resides in my glass-fronted cabinet beside the wooden puzzle of a sphinx, the piece of sea-blue Roman glass from Caesarea and the chunk of concrete and white tesserae from Campania, and necklaces by handful_ofdust and elisem. Everyone has their talismans. Have some links.

1. The City of Somerville has approved a mask mandate for all indoor spaces effective immediately. One should probably not say, finally.

2. Courtesy of a friend who is not on DW: "a friendly request for visitors not to try to use the Magna Carta to seize The Museum of English Rural Life." The comments go on to be delightful.

3. Courtesy of selkie: star stones. I had known about snake-stones, but not these.

4. Courtesy of same: Loki at Pompeii. It makes me extremely happy to know that Tom Hiddleston has a use for his double first in Classics in his ordinary life.

5. I don't have access to the original paper, but I love the news: "Baby bats babble, much like human infants."

I am frequently indifferent to TCM's Summer Under the Stars, but today's star is Van Heflin, to whom I am not indifferent at all. There are even films on the schedule I haven't seen. I want to be able to write about things again.

Comments

[kathmandu]

I hope the mask mandate will help. Even when it was in force before, there were a lot of people not masking correctly.

[sovay]

I hope the mask mandate will help. Even when it was in force before, there were a lot of people not masking correctly.

The City of Boston just implemented one, too, and ditto. I spent months furious with those people and I see no reason for my tolerances to have changed. If anything, I somehow suspect they've dropped.

[sholio]

Oh, the star stones are lovely! They don't even look like a real thing.

[asakiyume]

So perfectly five-pointed!

[sovay]

Oh, the star stones are lovely! They don't even look like a real thing.

I've never even seen starfish that tiny. They're exquisite.

[selkie]

Felicitations on the speedy and deserved acceptance! That nice Mr. Benson.

It's Hiddleston's satisfied "Well, I for one feel much better" head-nod, really. He's certain of a pointless job well done. I'm not sure there's much more chaotic than that.

I had meant to have a line about Rose being fascinating as opposed to anything else in the eye of the beholder, but even without a double first in classics I just always start thinking of Catherine the Great's particular wing chair, and it's over.

[sovay]

Felicitations on the speedy and deserved acceptance! That nice Mr. Benson.

Thank you!

He's certain of a pointless job well done. I'm not sure there's much more chaotic than that.

VOS OMNES MORITURI ESTIS.

(His classical pronunciation, heart-eyes.)

I had meant to have a line about Rose being fascinating as opposed to anything else in the eye of the beholder, but even without a double first in classics I just always start thinking of Catherine the Great's particular wing chair, and it's over.

Oh, yeah, that's a hard difficult one to get past.

[asakiyume]

The star stones! They are amazing! (I did not know about snake-stones, but I made a quick visit to the internet, and now I do.)

The baby bat story was playing on repeat on the BBC last night. Sweet ^_^

Congratulations on the poem. I love it, and I'm happy it's going to Not One of Us, which is a great venue.

[sovay]

The star stones! They are amazing! (I did not know about snake-stones, but I made a quick visit to the internet, and now I do.)

I kind of want one now.

The baby bat story was playing on repeat on the BBC last night. Sweet

Aw. I find it a very cheering thing, so I am glad people are getting to hear it.

Congratulations on the poem. I love it, and I'm happy it's going to Not One of Us, which is a great venue.

Thank you! I am, too. That magazine matters a lot to me.

[yhlee]

Yay poem!

[sovay]

Yay poem!

Thank you!

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the poetry sale to Not One of Us!

I'm glad to hear about the mask mandate, tardy though it is.

Those star stones are adorable.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poetry sale to Not One of Us!

Thank you!

I'm glad to hear about the mask mandate, tardy though it is.

It is better than nothing and I hope people can stick to it. This is a terrible time.

Those star stones are adorable.

The color is wonderful, too. I wish I knew what minerals they were fossilized with.

[sara]

Well, I liked it, makes sense other people do too.

[sovay]

Well, I liked it, makes sense other people do too.

Thank you!

[thawrecka]

Baby bats babbling utterly delights me!

[sovay]

Baby bats babbling utterly delights me!

It's the cutest news I've seen all week!

[choco_frosh]

The person demanding his rights to pasture various animals in royal forests officially wins.

[sovay]

The person demanding his rights to pasture various animals in royal forests officially wins.

"we usually say we have shortbread fit for a king and on this case it may even be demonstrable"

[thisbluespirit]

The Magna Carta thread was great! I especially liked everyone being all, "that wasn't even the right country" over Edinburgh Castle, because, um, yeah. lol.

Congrats on the poem acceptance!

[sovay]

The Magna Carta thread was great! I especially liked everyone being all, "that wasn't even the right country" over Edinburgh Castle, because, um, yeah. lol.

I believe the people who indulge in these gestures often fail the due diligence on whether they have pointed it in the right direction, but . . . yeah, seriously.

Congrats on the poem acceptance!

Thank you!

[tree_and_leaf]

Wow, Tom Hiddlestone is clearly enjoying using his Latin.

[sovay]

Wow, Tom Hiddlestone is clearly enjoying using his Latin.

It's heartwarming to watch.

[rushthatspeaks]

I knew I wanted to find an excerpt of the scenes in which Richard E. Grant plays old and embittered alt-Loki, but I didn't know Tom Hiddleston got to speak Latin. That's great.

Also, the Museum of English Rural Life continues to be an absolute gem. Thanks.

[sovay]

I knew I wanted to find an excerpt of the scenes in which Richard E. Grant plays old and embittered alt-Loki, but I didn't know Tom Hiddleston got to speak Latin. That's great.

He also sings in Norwegian.

(I do still want to see Richard E. Grant.)

Also, the Museum of English Rural Life continues to be an absolute gem. Thanks.

You are very welcome.

[luzula]

English fascinate derives from Latin fascinō—charm, enchant, bewitch. It all goes back to the winged phallus of the fascinus

Is this, or is it not, related to the etymology of "fascism"? It's easy to find out that that word comes from "fascis" for rod, but not so easy to see whether that word is related to "fascinus".

And image-searching "fascinus" was delightful! Awww, the little wings!

[sovay]

Is this, or is it not, related to the etymology of "fascism"?

I don't know. It doesn't look semantically implausible: a fascis is a bundle or a burden and a spell may be a binding. Both Lewis & Short and, more authoritatively, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae give them different Greek cognates, however, so they may just be tantalizingly homonymous. I don't have access to the Oxford Latin Dictionary to triple-check.

And image-searching "fascinus" was delightful! Awww, the little wings!

Someone once spray-painted a penis in the middle of a street adjacent to our former apartment. spatch does not believe there is photographic evidence, but we did take sidewalk chalk and vandalize it into a protective amulet for the entire neighborhood.

[luzula]

Oh, interesting, thanks. And I can see why you couldn't resist that bit of graffiti. : )

[nineweaving]

What a lovely double handful of talismans!

Nine

[sovay]

What a lovely double handful of talismans!

I do not covet any of them as strongly as the goat-fish stamp-seal at the MFA, but a couple are close.