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Month: June 2016
How did you get your nickname?
They’re defunct nicknames, and I’m answering this for my fans. 🙂 When I was in Year 8 in high school: Acka Nicka. Because I hit puberty a little early, and acne (Australian slang: ackers) followed soon after. When I went to a less Lord Of The Flies high school in Year 9: Nick Squared. Because […]
Was Brexit’s 50% threshold too low?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegrin_independence_referendum,_2006 A referendum that is of epochal consequence for a polity needs to be decisive, in order to settle the issue, instead of converting the referendum to a neverendum. Which is why referendums to change constitutions (for those countries that have them) don’t have a 50% threshold; and why federal polities require enhanced majorities of […]
What song makes you so sad that you actually tear up?
Gustav Mahler: Der Tambourg’sell. It’s an wrenching, heart-on-sleeve story of a soldier about to be executed. And the stanza that resounds with me most is not the final (“Farewell, marble rocks; farewell, mountains and hills”); it’s not even the second (“Oh, gallows, you tall house, you look so frightening”). It’s the third: Wenn Soldaten vorbeimarschier’n,bei […]
A comic strip on Arnold von Harff
This is for Dimitra Triantafyllidou and for Kelvin Zifla. It’s in Greek, so it’s not for most of you. One of the first records of Albanian is in the travelogue of Arnold von Harff, as he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem via the Balkans in 1496. Everywhere he went, he recorded a few words […]
In memoriam Gerasimos Arsenis
Context: Dimitra Triantafyllidou’s answer to How does one cook lokma? I was bantering with Dimitra on the Melbourne nouveau Lokma place, St Gerry’s. Named after the patron saint of Cephallonia, Gerasimus of the Jordan. Which reminded me of the funniest joke I’ve heard in Greek, told by the late Gerasimos Arsenis, another Cephallonian. As recounted […]
Is there a piece of Classical music you wanted to like, but just couldn’t?
OP, and I’ll go first. Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1 “The Gothic”. I first heard of Brian from the Guinness Book of Records, back before it became a picture book. My curiosity was reawakened this past year through some random link taking me to the Havergal Brian Society’s pages. His life story is cool; his […]
Whence this blog
It all began with Karen Chung’s answer to What did someone do that made you think they were really smart? Karen most awesomely illustrated the scenario she described, with XKCD-style stick figure art. Well, I exclaimed in comments. If she can do something so awesome, I can certainly do something half-arsed and attention-grabbing. Some of […]
Wanted: For Crimes Against Lara
https://www.quora.com/What-is-th… Context: Lara’s horror story about her religious geography teacher. To help stop this horrible person, I have sourced a Wanted poster! Make sure this is plastered across Novi Sad! Posted 2016-06-16 [Originally posted on https://galleryofawesomery.quora.com/Wanted-For-Crimes-Against-Lara]
Nick hides from Lyonel in a map of Australia
Context: Lyonel Perabo’s answer to What does your accent sound like in English? In which Lyonel once again regaled us with his Mad Map Skillz: I commented: Your maps are awesome! Keep them up. In fact, I think I’ll start doing those as well… Lyonel threatened appropriate retaliatory action, involving dead fish. To which I […]
Lara will not eat green beans or aspic
Context: Lara Novakov’s answer to What was the worst meal that you ate out of politeness? Lara declared her dislike of пихтије/πηχτή (aspic), which she said she dislikes even more than бораније/φασόλια (green beans). We had some banter on this, which I ended up rendering in art: https://www.quora.com/What-was-t… And who am I to disappoint… Posted […]