(Roughly) Daily

n the spirit of earlier postings on topics colossally carnivorous (e.g., “If Three is Good, Four is Surely Better…“), an exciting new find at SuperSizedMeals.com:  “The Meat Ship.”

17,000 calories (and Lord knows how many grams of fat)… Part recipe; part model assembly instructions– all finger-licking good!

As we reach for our towelettes, we might recall that on this date in 1903, the Cuban-American Treaty was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, as a condition of which Guantanamo Bay was leased to the U.S. in perpetuity.  The Cuban government has claimed that the lease should be voided, citing the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which declared a treaty void if its conclusion had been procured by the threat or use of force. (The Cuban-American Treaty was signed on the heels of the Spanish-American war, as a product of which Spain ceded the U.S. the Philippines, Guam, and Cuba; Roosevelt granted Cuba independence via the treaty…).  The Cuban government also cites the language of the treaty/lease itself: the base is “to be used for coaling and naval purposes only, and for no other purpose.”

Gitmo

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From those wonderful folks at WFMU:  “ten albums in ten minutes“…  ten sixty-second remixes of classic albums (among them, Magical Mystery Tour, Hair, The Mothers’ We’re Only In It For The Money, Smile… and Nirvana’s Nevermind)– with a second bonus ten, and downloadable mp3 files!

As we take them out for a spin, we might find time to celebrate the birthday of yet another classic:  Oscar Wilde’s hilarious Lady Windermere’s Fan opened on this date in 1900 at the St. James Theatre in London…

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Further to recent notes on the grammar and syntax of comic captioning (and Understanding Comics), and extraordinary resource from Chris Mullen:  The Visual Telling of Stories— an embracing (and still-growing) collection of instructions and examples… or as he puts it, “a lyrical encyclopedia of visual propositions… a treasure trove!

As we consider our poses, we might recall that on this date in 1975 (on the 127th anniversary of Marx’s publication of The Communist Manifesto in 1848) former Nixon administration officials John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were all sentenced to (2-8 year) prison terms for their roles in the Watergate affair…

Haldeman and Ehrlichman (source)

The Futurist Manifesto (download it here) is 100 years old today.  The creation of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti– who authored the manifesto, used his private fortune to publish it (on this date in 1909), then recruited artists to his banner– Futurism paved the way for Dada and Surrealism…  and suggested some pretty evocative imagery to the likes of Fritz Lang…

Metropolis source: Getty Images, via BBC

Jon Haeber has done the world the inestimable service of compiling a compact but thorough history of that most delicate of games– miniature golf.  Replete with illustrations, it starts with the 1867 formation of the Ladies’ Putting Club in St. Andrews, Scotland, essentially the first putting-only course, and traces developments up to the present day.

It’s teed up for the reader here.

As we meditate to avoid the yips, we might recall that on this date in 1872, three years after the Scottish ladies reached for their putters, Luther Crowell patented the first machine capable of manufacturing a paper bag.  It was a big day for innovation:  that same day Silas Noble and JP Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing machine… oh, yes, and on that same day, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened…

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