No. CLXVI - The Pergamon Museum, Part II: The Ishtar Gate.
Bonus: the sirrush, the mythical creature depicted on the Ishtar Gate alongside very real beasts like lions and aurochs, is thought by some to be the "dragon" from Chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel, "Bel and the Dragon," which our heretical Protestant brethren consider, in their folly, to be Apocryphal.
I strive not to use the same photographs as the Wikipedia, but in some instances, and this is one, those photos are simply the best available. And "The Explorers Club" deserves the best.
Hindustan
"Hindustan" is a new occasional feature devoted to the Sub-Continent, in the spirit of of such long established, occasional Secret Base stalwarts as "Proud Europa" & "Under the Rhodesian Sun." Our first episode is a troubling one: perhaps echoing those that arose during the Great War and the Second World War, a Hindu-German conspiracy for the 21st century? Führerprinziplink.
And in the interest of full disclosure, I read Mein Kampf, translated into English, in the 9th grade, for an Honors English 9 project that required us to read a biography or autobiography and then make a presentation in character as the subject. The book was of my choosing, and I had to get permission from my teacher, because I wished to gain some insight into how a man could perpetrate such profound evil. What I learned instead was that Adolf Hitler could neither write coherently nor think logically, and evil remained as opaque as it had been before. I am not opposed per se to the reading of Mein Kampf, my concern is with the foolhardy and dangerous attempt to find the "positive" side of Hitler. Evil is seductive, and is rarely kind enough to announce itself as evil; once you try to use evil as the means of accomplishing some good end, "forever will it dominate your destiny."
The Jolly Roger
Again, the pirate is hostis humani generis, the enemy of all Mankind, able to be tried in any court, anywhere. Piracylink. The only part of the article to which I've hyperlinked that makes sense is that the Kenyans don't wish to bear the costs of these piracy trials alone. But why are so many pirates being tried in Mombasa? Why aren't they subjected to drumhead trial aboard whatever warships interdict their raiding? Or tried back in the home countries of those warships? Piracy is one of the oldest and most awful crimes to plague Mankind; I am staggered and not a little embarrassed that we who fancy ourselves so sophisticated here in the 21st century seem scarcely able to cope with this ancient scourge.
The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "They Came to Boston" from More Noise and Other Disturbances (T.L.A.M.)
Commentary: "They Came to Boston" is a rant against tourists visiting and college students residing in Beantown. I've only ever been a visitor to Boston, The L.A.W. went to law school in nearby Cambridge, and Brother-in-L.A.W. spent his undergrad career at the same institution; so, I suppose this song is directed against my family. My friends are a more mixed bag. The Gal went to Northeastern and then left, but The Watergirl appears to be a lifer, a Bostonian. Sorry, Dicky?
"I was here before they came,
I'll be here long after,
Don't wanna share but it seems clear
That I'm gonna have ta."
I'm so overjoyed by the return for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones that I've decided to dedicate the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. for the remainder of June to their catalog, drawing one song from each album, retroactively designating "Howwhywuz, Howwhyam" from Tuesday as the representative of Devil's Night Out. Consider this my own pale imitation of the Hometown Throwdown.
8 comments:
You're right- those are gorgeous photos of an amazing site. It's fun to see you mixing it up and doing some history posts here again.
My fellow chosen ones at work and I were quite horrified by that Hindustan link. Even the few and far between sub-cultures in India have a population that dwarfs some of our smaller States. Not good.
Yes, that link was horrifying to read. Add that to the growing list of highly dangerous trends to monitor across this troubled world.
History will always be my first love; so, "The Explorers Club" will always circle back to history sooner or later. Of course, a significant part of the appeal of history is that it encompasses every field of human endeavour, allowing my magpie mind both to flit from subject to subject and yet remain focused on the mission of "The Explorers Club."
As ever, gang, my sincerest thanks for your readership.
If the tourists could learn how to walk on a sidewalk and not stop, blocking the entire thing in the middle, we wouldn't have to hate them. I mean, I travel places and I don't do that. These aren't like, travelers, they're tourists. There's a difference, in my mind.
And the students people usually hate on go to NEU and BU, not Harvard. People complain about Harvard the entity, not the students.
The fiends at Google ate my rather lengthy comment. Monopolist scum.
Reconstruction
Thank you for the insight, The Watergirl. Unfortunately for my sister & brother-in-law, the native Bostonians of The Bosstones draw no such distinction between the different colleges:
"They came to Boston for an education,
Live in the dorms, join a frat.
Jam my bars and subway cars,
Now, what the fuck is that?
Spend year one having fun
And causing aggravation,
Spend your daddy's cash on a toga bash.
When the hell's graduation?
I was here before they came,
I'll be here long after.
Don't want to swear
But it seems clear
That I'm gonna have to:
Aw, fuck!"
Still sounds like BU kids to me. No one else jams up the subways quite like them.
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