You can talk but I'm not fine

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

and EVEN WHEN things were more muted/neutral, the neutrality was OFFSET by ACCENT COLORS and HIGH CONTRAST between the wood tones and everything ELSE

ALSO AMERICAN COLONIAL INTERIORS POPPED OFF, Y'ALL (IN TERMS OF COLOR/COZINESS)

PEOPLE USED WHITEWASH AND COLORFUL TRIM OR EVEN JUST COLORFUL FURNITURE IF THEY COULD AFFORD TO DO SO

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON FRENCH AND BRITISH AND AMERICAN WALLPAPERS

"ELIZABETH" YOU CRY, "WHY ARE YOU BEING SO EXTRA THIS MORNING?! IT'S MONDAY"

Because, my friend, my war on GREIGE will NEVER end.

Historic interiors were filled with LIFE and LIGHT and COLOR. ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.

Part of the reason we don't see a lot of textile art is because, frankly, textiles tend to degrade over time - especially ones that had utility! And yes, pigments and weaving and dying all boosted the expense of things, when we were finally reliably block-printing fabrics and broad reams of paper, it was no longer just the wealthy who could afford pretty patterns!

In the Americas, a far wider variety of pigments also became available because of the abundance of... well, a shitton of flora and minerals, some of which weren't as common in Europe.

WHY THE HIGHLIGHTER COLORS? you ask.

CANDLES.

Those colors reflect candlelight and natural sunlight REALLY WELL.

Humans LOVE bright colors, it's NOT just a thing for kids. We live in a brilliant, vibrant, multifaceted world. We ALWAYS have.

(If ever you have the opportunity to visit the Stencil House at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont (pictured above at 3, 4, and 5), I highly recommend.)

And that's before you get into American painted murals:

quote from the prelude to "sleep" performed during my chemical romance's "long live the black parade" tour

Source details and larger version.

See, bridge records make a distrinction between “height off the ground” and “structural tallness”.

The Millau Viaduc was one of the highest off the ground at the time of construction (2001-2004) (top 2 when it was started, top 4 when it was finished) and is still the highest in Europe. But now in 2026, it is the 57th highest bridge in the world (53 are in China, 1 in Papua New Guinea, 1 in Mexico, 1 in India, 1 in the Usa).

There are also other cable-stayed bridges that are higher, in fact the second highest bridge in the world is a cable-stayed one, the Duge Bridge in China (which is still between one’s house and their mom’s, I presume)…

…but it doesn’t have the separate pillars :

(and it means the Millau Viaduct also has one single set of cables in the middle instead of two on each side.)

BUT, as you might have noticed, the Duge Bridge doesn’t have a pillar going down in the canyon, while de Millau Viaduc does. Which means it is higher off the ground, but not taller structurally.

And the Millau Viaduc is tall indeed. His tallest pillar is 343 m (1,125 ft).

It was built in 2004. The tallest bridge in the world, as of 2026, is the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, and it was built in 2025.

For 21 years, the tallest bridge in the world was the Viaduc Millau.

It was started in 2001. No smartphones. Only cathodic screens. Internet was starting : it was long before any site we use today, before youtube, the same year as Wikipedia was lauched. Ten years after the fall of the URSS. Reagan died the year it was finished. So did the Bigdil. It was a Big Deal.

Still now, 21 years later, it is still in second place.