Been reading your replies. Good that you have a cushion. Good luck with the next thing
06.03.2026 19:27
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Been reading your replies. Good that you have a cushion. Good luck with the next thing
Oval goa stone, bearing traces of gold foil on the outside, in an elaborate silver case, on a silver tripod, possibly 17th century
Well if it’s 6 March, that means it must be... of course! The 335th anniversary of Jesuits in Goa being granted a monopoly on the production and export of Goa stones to Portugal – a mere century or so after a doctor proved they didn’t actually protect you from poison 🧵
Almost nominative determinism
Pop Art portrait of Belmondo in greay, wearing a straw hat, surrounded by an orange background, his hat topped by a giant red flower
Obviously, that first image has been labelled ‘sexually suggestive’. That was the point. She also posed naked in front of her portrait of Jean-Paul Belmondo. She was celebrating her sexuality, instead of apologising for it
...and today has reminded me that I was planning to spend my birthday book tokens on this, so I think I shall order it now
Every so often she enjoys a ‘revival’ and a few more people hear of her – this article says her work is enjoying one, and it was published in 2013
BUM, by Pauline Boty, described by the Art Newspaper as "a cartoonish depiction of a fleshy female bottom framed by a proscenium arch"
Hadn’t realised it was (or would have been) Pauline Boty’s birthday. She was amazing, and was only 28 when she died in 1966. This was her last work, commissioned by Ken Tynan for ‘Oh! Calcutta!’
Heading in newspaper clip: David Frost chooses...
... My Ideal Girl - Pauline Boty
Today would have been Pauline Boty's 88th birthday. David Frost was a fan.
Yes, doing better than the poor bloody Yangtze River dolphin
Really interesting. I see completely what you both mean, but I rather liked the tone. It seemed to fit, because the supernatural element made the show strange. I quite liked the fact that Brigham didn't really need to be there, or maybe the Father Christmas sequence. The oddness worked for me
Glad you're enjoying them. Always nice to hear
Always good to hear encouraging news about “the world's largest, fattest and least-able-to-fly parrot”
People seem to get to the end and then ask the thread unroller to do its thing! Who am I to question it…?
...and at least tomorrow, it’s Fat Ox Day at the Plymouth Fair, which is a bit nicer than all this.
If you want to read this thread on one page, by the way, you can:
Another smooth round stone-like thing, this time in an ornate gold tripod case, with domed (filigree?) lid
Gordon Bennett. Anyway, you can still see Goa stones in places like the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Wellcome Collection in London – often in ornate gold or silver cases
An hour later, having heard of it, I asked M. de La Trousse to let me go and see him, and he sent me thither with three of his archers. I found the poor cook on all fours, going like an animal, his tongue out of his mouth, his eyes and his face flaming red. made him drink about half a sextier of oil, thinking to save his life; but it was of no service, being given too late, and he died miserably, crying out he had better have died on the gallows: he lived about seven hours."
Still, the story (from Stephen Paget’s Ambroise Paré and his times, 1510-1590) can’t get worse. Must have a happy ending. Is it at least quick...?
The cook very willingly agreed, saying he would far rather die of poison in prison than be hanged in the sight of the people. Then an apothecary gave him a certain poison to drink, and forthwith the bezoar-stone. Having these two fine drugs inside him, he began crying out he was on fire, calling for water to drink, which was not refused him.
Well, this all sounds marvellously ethical, and I’m sure the cook doesn’t feel pressured into...
Ah
Then the King sent for M. de La Trousse, his Provost, and asked him if he had anyone who deserved hanging. He said that he had in his prisons a cook, who had stolen two silver dishes in his master’s house, and was to be hanged to-morrow. The King said he wished to make trial of a stone which they said was good against all poisons ; let them ask the said cook, now he was condemned, if he would take a certain poison, and forthwith they would give him an antidote, and if he recovered he should keep his life
Remarkably for a 16th-century monarch, Charles asked his surgeon, Ambroise Paré, if this was true, and – equally unusually for a quack of that era – Ambroise said no, it’s balls. So, they tested it with Actual Science
A bezoar (not the one referred to in the post, as far as I know). It looks like a haggis, or perhaps a giant bollock, with a gold or brass band around it, with lettering on it which reads PIEDRA BESOHAR FINISS
Anyway, back in 1567, “A gentleman at the [French] court showed to Charles IX a bezoar-stone, as was the fashion then to show all sorts of odd things to Royalty, and told him it was an antidote to all poisons”
The word bezoar, apparently, comes from either the Persian pahnzehr or the Arabic badzehr, which both mean antidote or ‘counter-poison’, and they were also said to be a universal antidote – which is *entirely* logical when you think that they largely consist of food, gallstones, and animal hair
Goa stones were invented by a Jesuit brother, Gaspar Antonio, because bezoars were too rare. Bezoars are “a calcareous deposit which forms in the stomach and gall-bladder of ruminants such as deer, sheep and antelopes, most particularly ... wild goats that inhabit the northeast corner of Persia”
A lump of ambergris being held by a gloved hand. It looks like a stone, but with a hint about it of having been retrieved from something's innards, too
Here is some ambergris, by the way – a waxy gunk that forms in sperm whales’ intestines. No one knows why, although it sometimes contains bits of squid beak, so some scientists say it protects whale innards from sharp objects. Either way, why you would want to ingest it yourself is also a mystery
...which is ASTONISHING, given that their ingredients could include amber, ambergis, coral, crushed gemstones, fossil shark teeth, hair, narwhal horn, shells, and tusks (usually covered in gold leaf), and that the wonderdrug was administered by shaving a bit off into water or wine and drinking it
Oval goa stone, bearing traces of gold foil on the outside, in an elaborate silver case, on a silver tripod, possibly 17th century
Well if it’s 6 March, that means it must be... of course! The 335th anniversary of Jesuits in Goa being granted a monopoly on the production and export of Goa stones to Portugal – a mere century or so after a doctor proved they didn’t actually protect you from poison 🧵
Yes, I know what you mean. I think if there's one person who won't fuck a task like that up, though, it's Mackenzie Crook
And what a track
Yes! And building the bird box. Amazing
Brilliant book. He can make you cry when his dog dies and laugh out loud two pages later when he compares talking to Sharon Stone to a conversation with a homeless person. Recommend
We apologise to people with screen readers: this is a flowchart aimed at answering the question "Which Greek Philosopher Are You?" First question is: "Do you prefer the indoors or outdoors?" If you choose "indoors", the next question is "Do you feel disdain for the common man?" If Yes, you're Plato. If No, you're Aristotle. If you reply "Outdoors", the follow-up is "Do you enjoy masturbating in public?" If yes, you're Diogenes. If no, the next question is, "Do you like crowds?" If yes, you're Socrates. If no, you are asked "Porch or garden?" If your reply is "Porch", you're Zeno; if it's "Garden", you're Epicurus.
Couldn't trace this back to a definitive creator, but: Epicurus all the way, bro
