Bird Wizard

The best ones have advice on decor, how to select high-quality furniture, childrearing, fashion, etc--from a contemporary perspective, and the things the authors feel the need to clarify vs the wild shit that will just casually mention like it's something everyone knows and agrees on is REALLY revealing of the culture and how it's shifted.

And while a lot of the advice is WILDLY bigoted or just outright funny, you'd be surprised how much of it is...just genuinely timeless, and shockingly compassionate.

They ALSO, as a writer, have INVALUABLE resources--because, again, they're talking about things that are so MUNDANE that a lot of the time nobody really sat down to formally document what normal, everyday people thought or cared about--because that's boring! But a book written to provide advice and information to, say, a young woman who's never run her own home before? You can fully expect an entire chapter dedicated to The Types Of Oven, and which features are useful and worth spending money on, and which features are a huge hassle to clean and a waste of space, and what to spend that money on instead.

And like. As a writer who frequently works in the 1800s? Fuck inflation calculators, this is the kind of thing I need. This is absolutely priceless.

Now that being said.

My current favorite 'etiquette guide' in the world is actually like....70% purely practical advice, written by a gentleman the groupchat has affectionately dubbed History's Most Autistic Man In The World, and thank god they didn't have Aderall back then

Because the AuDHD is strong in this one and as a result, in addition to the deeply practical and useful everyday reference points, we also have:

Whiskered Auklets (Aethia pygmaea), family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes, off of Adak Island in the Central Aleutians, Alaska

Pink-eared Duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus), family Anatidae, order Anseriformes, found in disconnected regions of Australia

A selection of photos from photographer Charles Fréger’s “Wilder Mann”, a visual catalog of the “savage” archetype as it exists in European folk traditions.

“These images, like archetypes, half-man half-beast, animal or vegetable, resurface from the  depths of time on the occasion of ritualistic, pagan or religious festivals, celebrating the cycle of the seasons, the fat days, carnival or the eve of Easter. In the common fund of the European rural societies, these characters or emblematic animals represented protective figures or symbols of fertility. Today they evoke an imaginary, impulsive and physical world where everyone perceives an ancestral relationship with nature where the springs of our animality and sometimes the regressive desire inherent in some of our behaviors emerge.”

I love the depth and breathe of the characters and the materials used to create them. Fur, straw, seeds, leaves and a host of other natural materials evoke the distinctly natural (some would say, primal) role these creatures play in European folk mythology. Many of these characters and the traditions they’re part of are explicitly pagan, still evolving personages dating back to a pre-Christian Europe.   

You can also see the way these folkloric costumes influence character design across every single narrative genre from films to video games. If you’re a costume designer, concept artist, or animator attempting to create something dramatically primal, I can think of a few better places to start for visual inspiration than Fréger’s book. 

Photos + copyright belongs to Charles Fréger in their entirety. Quoted section from the website of Charles Fréger.

See more photos!!

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out at the end of the month. I'm not really worried about the procedure itself--they're not impacted, just coming out to avoid the risk of impacting later, and while I'm sure that parts of recovery will be unpleasant, I think I can get through it. But this is going to be my first time going under general anesthesia, and of that, I'm terrified. Not because I think anything will go wrong with the anesthesia process per se, but because the whole thing just feels extremely wrong. Conceptually. Philosophically.

Like...they're going to drug me. They're going to put a substance in my body that will make me go to sleep and if I tried to stay awake I still wouldn't be able to and there might be a period of time when I'm awake and talking and doing things but I won't be able to remember later what I said and did and I won't be able to accurately assess my environment or make good decisions. That's scary. Even if nothing goes wrong, that's scary.

And all the "Here's why you shouldn't be nervous!" guides I could find online haven't been helpful because they were either about reassuring the reader that nothing would go wrong (yeah I already believe that; that's not the issue) or reassuring the reader that they'll fall asleep quickly and won't remember anything or notice the time that they lose (Okay but that's worse. Do you get how that's worse?)

Tell the staff to let you know when they are giving you each medication and what it is, if that is helpful to you. In the moment, you will know what is happening and understand what is going on, right up until you go under. When you wake up, it can be a little disorienting, and you will still be under the effects of the pain medications they give you while you’re in surgery, so you will be intoxicated. It feels to me a lot like if you’re really sick and fall asleep unexpectedly and wake up on the couch or in a chair or something - sometimes confusing or upsetting, but once I gave my brain time to boot up I could comprehend where I was and settled down.

I never forgot anything immediately. I lost about an hour or so pre-anesthesia, and most of the afternoon afterwards. That lost afternoon is more uncomfortable to me than the sleep itself. Though in the moment I am accessing my memories and thinking and behaving normally for a me that’s intoxicated, and I could pretty much recall stuff that day for a day or two before it’s gone.

That’s why best practice is to have a trusted responsible adult with you for 24 hours post procedure, if possible. While you’re coming down from the anesthesia you can’t make important decisions or sign contracts or drive a car.

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Graciela Delvene of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (CSIC) has uncovered the oldest known evidence of maternal care in shellfish, revealing that some freshwater species were protecting and incubating their young more than 125 million years ago. Published today in Scientific Reports, the new research found fossilized soft tissues preserved inside ancient shells. This is a remarkable discovery because such tissues normally decay soon after an animal dies. Among these tissues were microscopic embryos and larvae preserved within the gills.

Minnie Adkins (b. 1934) & Garland Adkins (1928-1997)

Possum and Babies, 20th c.

Painted wood carvings