Headlines on 2020-09-25

Under a canopy skya man settles down a plastic apron on. As the train slips away evenly, a ghost is left back on the tracks, I open the window, glance into the courtyard, at the statue of Kirov. The Marshall as usual is raising his hand: Greetings, People Hello-Hello, fellow Communist Party members. The pigeons shitting on it belong to this land, not to the hand that is hiding the clouds with its greeting, while flies attack a fruit stand, and melons spill from a pile, and armor-plated bursts...

Tell them to keep their eyes, their brawn, the tentacles of their need sticking to my skin. Their bluff and bluster. Poisoned tongues saying thirst as spell, hips as prophecy. I’m loomed together, stars pinned to my hair, waiting for my ship to come in. No water, but a dress made of salt. The only blue—my pulse when I couldn’t get out of bed. My heart’s rough gem, calcified, fossil of some long-ago feeling— shatter-ready and stubborn. Everywhere I splinter. Everywhere they hold dominion....

Mona Lisa's hidden detail discovered by high-tech camera

I’ve posted before about how the language we’ve been conditioned to use about slavery and the Civil War obscures reality. From historian Michael Todd Landis: Likewise, scholar Edward Baptist (Cornell) has provided new terms with which to speak about slavery. In his 2014 book The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books), he rejects “plantations” (a term pregnant with false memory and romantic myths) in favor of “labor camps”; instead of “slave-owners”...

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As winter approaches in North America and Europe, cities should be thinking about how to encourage and enable people to spend as much time outdoors as possible to help keep everyone sane and safe from Covid-19. From a great piece in CityLab by Alexandra Lange: Dress in layers, invest in silk and wool long underwear, get over your prejudice against parkas. Many people do this as a matter of course when gearing up for a day of skiing or a turn around the ice rink. But in cities, people dress for...