Posts Tagged ‘alchemy’
The pursuit of the hirsute…
From the doers…
…to the done…
… it’s all at The Hair Hall of Fame.
As we let it all go to our heads, we might wish a mystically happy birthday to mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, alchemist/occultist, navigator, and champion of English expansionism John Dee; he was born on this date in 1527. Widely regarded as the smartest man and/or most powerful magician in the Europe of his time, Dee was an intimate advisor to Queen Elizabeth I and her closest ministers. But Dee, a student of Copernicus and a friend of Tycho Brahe, was also a serious scholar (his library was the largest in England, perhaps in Europe) and one of the most learned men of his day– a central figure in the development of modern science… and underneath that cap, he had a killer head of hair.
Transmuting base (instincts) into gold…
The folks at 826LA (an institution inspired, it seems, by 826 Valencia in SF) have performed an alchemical feat: they’ve made cheating good!
click here for a larger view, and sign-up info
One simply forms a team, raises tax-deductible contributions to 826LA– then spends that loot on “cheats” (explained here) in the contest. A good time is had by all– and 826LA gets to continue its work “helping students across Los Angeles finish all their homework, write their first books, and become all-around more confident writers.”
As we practice recognizing diphthongs by ear, we might recall that it was on this date in 1811 that Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron) returned from the two-year trip that was the inspiration for Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812)… as a result of the publication of which, Byron became a major pop star– whose taste, manners, and fashion were all widely imitated. Quoth the startled poet: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.”
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