May 5, 2024

Five for Friday 524

Welcome to the first weekend of summer,

Here are five things I thought worth sharing this week:

In nineteenth-century Ireland, tea drinking could be a fashionable society ritual or hazardous to your health, depending on your social status.

“[I]f there’s anything I know about practicing it’s that it isn’t about rules or consistency …: it’s about coming back. A practice is built on the movement of return.”

During the early days of Hollywood, production companies released films in stages; first downtown in the largest cities, then in the suburbs, then in more rural areas. It could take two years for a film to make its way across the country. This kept costs down by ensuring only a few copies were needed at any time. This also contributed to the loss of most of the age’s films. Something like three-quarters of Hollywood’s golden age movies have been lost, most without a trace.

Deleting Delusions.

It’s 2023, and yes, you can still buy a physical 22-volume set of the Encyclopedia.

Currently reading: The Wandering Mind by Jamie Kreiner


Image credit: Spray of Sunflowers on a Stone Ledge. Roosenboom, Margaretha, (1843-1896).