Sign on my street last night.

Let not thy breeches be too tight, or hang too loose about thy thighs, like the trunk-hose of our ancestors.

–a just medium prevents all conclusions.

Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (I could quote this whole book)

– By all that is hirsute and gashly!

Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

Nothing is more human and fallible than the dynastic or hereditary principle, and Islam has been racked from its birth by squabbles between princelings and pretenders, all claiming the relevant drop of original blood. If the total of those claiming descent from the founder was added up, it would probably exceed the number of holy nails and splinters that went to make up the thousand-foot cross on which, judging by the number of splinter-shaped relics, Jesus was evidently martyred.

Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great (zing!)

Autotune the Cosmos

Carl Sagan accompanies himself in this, the best “autotune the” video I’ve seen so far.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

The album art for Cul de Sac’s Death of the Sun has always intrigued me. Not having a physical copy of the album meant I had no access to the liner notes. I decided that I needed to know who the painter was, and put it up on Ask Metafilter. No luck, although they turned me on to Corot. One person had the contact info for the album art designer, whom I emailed – and shortly after got a reply from the main guy in the band. The artist is Antonio Fontanesi, a Barbizon school painter who actually lived in Japan during their 19th century policy of isolation.

There are a few of his paintings available in high quality here, including “Aprile,” (above) which was cropped down for Death of the Sun. Very desolate, very beautiful.

Great frame from Criminal, a relatively new comic from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.