Footnotes to a Conversation, February 12, 2024
“Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake.” – Edgar Wallace
Love Your Neighbour
A new building in London, England, was deliberately designed to show off rather than hide a neighbouring building. Original plans for a new building were to take it right up to the street edge, but the church next door was recessed and would have been hidden from view. To prevent this from happening, the architects designed a two-storey gouge in the new building that precisely frames the church’s rose window. [The Guardian]
Wild Toileting
I looked out my apartment window one day to see a man urinating behind a bush. He may have thought he was hidden, but that wasn’t the case. Admittedly, we need more public toilets as they aren’t always readily available. But all the same, I don’t like walking along smelly streets or spotting men going about their “business”.
On a tour of one of Norwich’s oldest areas, the guide pointed out an anti-urination device. In the late 19th century, property owners in the crowded city centre were annoyed by the frequency of men urinating against buildings as they came out of the pub late at night, and the property owners installed a number of anti-urination devices. Built of sloped or curved stone, men could no longer hide in a corner and the urine would splash back on them from the curved surface. Other devices consisted of a spiked metal bar to dissuade men from getting too close. There is now a water-repellent paint that causes splash-back on the man’s trousers and shoes. [Scholarly Community Encyclopedia, Gloucestershire Live]
Norwich was obviously not the only community trying to address this problem. I took this photograph in Vannes.
Breton Curry
I bought spice mixes from two French companies this week and am excited about the exotic options. The Breton Curry mix includes dulse, wakame, and sea lettuce in addition to more traditional curry flavours: “This spice mix whisks us back to the 17th century to the times of the East India Company. These hardy sailors from Saint-Malo, sailed the seas in search of the world's most exceptional spices…returning home to use them in their local seafood cuisine.” The Ma Khaen berry supposedly has aromas of mandarin and smoked tea. It’s traditionally used by the Akha people in North Laos and harvested solely by women. The third is an Iranian blend. Saravane is owned by a husband and wife who brings spices back from their travels.
Old as Time
Thirteen of the world’s oldest artworks include a colourful Indonesian pig, eagle talon pendants, and female busts carved in stone or bone. [Live Science]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.