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7QT: The Hat of Scotland and the Sleeves of Me

7QT: The Hat of Scotland and the Sleeves of Me

Last updated on: September 19, 2014 at 6:56 am by Leah Libresco

7QT: The Hat of Scotland and the Sleeves of Me 2014-09-19T06:56:01-04:00 Leah Libresco

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Happy Absence-of-Scottish-Independence Day! Perhaps you would like to celebrate/mourn by learning more about a famous Scottish monument’s famous hat?

THIS MY FRIENDS IS THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON STATUE IN ROYAL EXCHANGE SQUARE IN GLASGOW AND YES HE HAS A TRAFFIC CONE ON HIS HEAD NOW LET ME TELL YOU I HAVE LIVED IN GLASGOW FOR 18 AND A HALF YEARS AND NOT ONCE HAVE I SEEN THIS MAN WITHOUT A CONE ON HIS HEAD IT HAS BEEN REMOVED SO MANY TIMES BY THE COUNCIL BUT SOMEHOW IT ALWAYS SEEMS TO GET BACK UP THERE AND ITS NOT A SMALL STATUE ITS PRETTY FUCKING BIG SO WHOEVER KEEPS ON PUTTING UP THERE IS A DETERMINED WEE FUCKER IT HAS BECOME A NATIONAL SYMBOL FOR GLASGOW CAUSE ITS JUST THE EPITOME OF GLASWEGIAN HUMOUR AND THEY EVEN PAINTED THE CONE FUCKING GOLD FOR THE OLYMPICS AND A FEW MONTHS AGO THE COUNCIL SAID THEY WERE GOING TO RAISE UP THE STATUE SO PEOPLE COULDNT PUT THE CONE ON AND LET ME TELL YOU IT WAS FUCKING PANDAEMONIUM ABOUT GLASGOW IT WAS AS IF WORLD WAR THREE HAD BROKEN OUT THERE WERE FACEBOOK PAGES AND PROTESTS AND PETITIONS AND ALL SORTS TO KEEP THE CONE ON SO LONG AND SHORT OF IT IS THAT THIS STUPID STATUE AND ITS STUPID CONE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SCOTS IN PARTICULAR GLASWEGIANS CAUSE WE CANT DECIDE WHETHER WE WANT TO RULE OUR OWN COUNTRY OR NOT BUT IF YOU FUCKING DARE TRY TO TAKE THE CONE OFF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTONS HEAD THERE WILL BE A NATION WIDE OUTRAGE AND GLASGOWS OWN VERSION OF LES MIS WILL HAPPEN I AINT FUCKING KIDDIN

There’s more details (and the picture you’ve presumably been waiting for) at the link.

— 2 —

Meanwhile, re our conversation about loneliness and dating, and found via the same person as above, this historical periodical. I wish so much that the text inside had also been posted.

— 3 —

It can be hard to start or sustain a connection, even when it feels like a matter of life and death. And that’s just as true of cowpox as it is of romance. And that’s all the excuse I need to tell you about the Balmis Expedition:

Smallpox ravaged the New World for centuries after the Spanish conquest. In 1797 Edward Jenner showed that exposure to the cowpox virus could protect one against the disease, but the problem remained how to transport cowpox across the sea. In 1802 Charles IV of Spain announced a bold plan — 22 orphaned children would be sent by ship; after the first child was inoculated, his skin would exude fluid that could be passed to the next child. By passing the live virus from arm to arm, the children formed a transmission chain that could transport the vaccine in an era before refrigeration and other modern technology was available.

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I only just learned about Balmis this week, even though I’ve read more than one book on smallpox. But that wasn’t the only piece of history that turned up anew in my past week’s reading. The New York Times profiled the people bringing back longsword fights (a technique you may recognize from the excellent Gunnerkrigg Court).

— 5 —

Still on the topic of fighting, but dropping the ‘s’ and just talking about ‘words,’ I appreciated this quote from Michael Oakeshott’s Hobbes on Civil Association (via Alan Jacobs):

Thinking, for Hobbes, was not only conceived as movement, it was felt as movement. Mind is something agile, thoughts are darting, and the language of passion is appropriate to describe their workings. And the energy of his nature made it impossible for him not to take pleasure in controversy. The blood of contention ran in his veins. He acquired the lucid genius of a great expositor of ideas; but by disposition he was a fighter, and he knew no tactics save attack. He was a brilliant controversialist, deft, pertinacious and imaginative, and he disposed of the errors of scholastics, Puritans, and Papists with a subtle mixture of argument and ridicule. But he made the mistake of supposing that this style was universally effective, in mathematics no less than in politics. For brilliance in controversy is a corrupting accomplishment. Always to play to win is to take one’s standards from one’s opponent, and local victory comes to displace every other consideration.

Tis germane to yesterday’s post on offense and argument.

— 6 —

In fairness, it can be hard to not get entirely swept up in the struggle for dominance. I’m not an enormous fan of either the A Song of Ice and Fire books or the Game of Thrones show, but I am a big fan of this fan-made GoT video:

— 7 —

This was a tremendously productive Halloween week (since I finally had a weekend free). Last week, I had the core of the bodice, and this week, it’s acquired a lining, cuffs, a collar, and (one of the two primary banes of my sewing work) sleeves! I’m away this weekend, and booked several weeknights of the coming week, so my progress next week will probably be a lot slower. But I do have the Sculpey clay I need for one of the accessories now. And, as you all ponder your own Halloween costuming plans, I want to pass along this delightful idea:

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