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Promoting Fatherhood in Japan

June 15, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo:  Ken Yoshida at CarterJMRN.
Gen Z Japanese men are leading a cultural change that the government is fully supporting.

When my husband worked in Rochester, New York, we knew several coupes from Fuji Xerox who settled there for a period of years. I remember the laughs my friend Yuriko had over the effects of a different culture on Japanese men. She couldn’t get over the memory of a Japanese husband in a laundromat doing his own laundry. That would not happen at home in the 1970s.

Other cultural changes have been taking place since then.

Patrick Winn reported at Public Radio International’s The World about fatherhood in Japan, where traditionally, dads were not engaged with the daily lives of their children.

Winn writes, “Yuko Kuroda and her husband, Takashi Kuroda, live in a modest, two-story home in Tokyo’s outskirts. Both in their early 40s, Yuko Kuroda works at a daycare center, while Takashi Kuroda has a white-collar job. …

“In contemporary Japan, roughly one-third of women under the age of 50 do not have children. Couples who choose to raise kids usually stop at one. …

“Takashi Kuroda, his face streaked with black marker, just emerged from a rolling-on-the-floor play session with his son and daughter, aged 3 and 6, on a Sunday afternoon. The children drew whiskers on his cheeks while shouting, ‘Neko! Neko!’ (Japanese for ‘cat’). 

“ ‘I really recommend this lifestyle,’ he said. ‘Raising five kids is fun.’ …

“Officials warn that if the birth rate doesn’t rise, Japan could become unrecognizable in decades to come: less affluent, less vibrant and less powerful.

“What currently is deterring couples from raising children is being associated with overwork and sky-high housing prices. 

“But one of the major factors concerns dads ‘doing too little around the house,’ according to Mary Brinton, a Harvard University sociologist who has studied Japanese demographics for decades and has even advised Japanese officials.

“Traditionally, when Japanese couples have children, ‘women do most the housework and child care,’ Brinton said, and for working moms, the idea of holding down what is essentially a second, unpaid full-time job is ‘not very attractive.’ …

“Among the world’s high-income countries, including the US, fathers average more than two hours of daily housework and child care. In Japan, the average is only about 40 minutes. 

“But what erased Yuko Kuroda’s reluctance in raising five kids was that Takashi Kuroda wasn’t afraid to wipe a butt or wash a dish. 

“ ‘If one of the kids falls ill, he’ll immediately ask for a day off from work,’ she said. …

“Takashi Kuroda believes raising Japan’s birth rate requires a revolution in fatherhood. More than a decade ago, the government launched a social engineering campaign urging fathers to become ikumen, a Japanese word that loosely translates to ‘super dads.’ 

“Through public service announcements, namely posters, websites and online videos, Japan promoted this ideal of fatherhood. The ikumen eagerly burp babies, change diapers and walk toddlers to the park. …

“Fathering Japan, a nonprofit organization, contracted with the government to promote an ‘ikumen boom’ and teach fathers, through in-person classes, how to care for kids and do chores. 

“Manabu Tsukagoshi, a director with the group, believes it has successfully shifted fathers’ mindsets across Japan. But workplace culture is much harder to change. 

“Plenty of dads now want to live as ikumen, Tsukagoshi said, but — especially in white-collar jobs — they might toil for old-fashioned bosses who pressure workers to stay late and, after hours, bond over beer and sake. 

“Japan’s paternity-leave policies are now among the best in the world, but too many fathers fear taking time off work and risking the disapproval of their bosses or colleagues.

“ ‘I’m actually a bit ashamed of our Japanese men,’ Tsukagoshi said. ‘As employees, we have rights, but men hesitate to break from the norm. If other guys in the office aren’t taking paternity leave, they won’t feel keen to be the first.’

“But Takashi Kuroda is hopeful. He believes the revolution in fatherhood — in which dads stand up to corporations and put family first — is on the horizon. 

“Fifteen years ago, the rate of fathers taking paternity leave was almost zero. Only in recent years, it’s edged up to roughly 15% while by the decade’s end, Japan’s government hopes to up the rate to 85%.

“[Takashi Kuroda] credits Gen Z fathers for helping redefine what it means to be an attentive dad, unlike their own fathers, who often stuck with a corporation their entire working lives.

“ ‘Younger Japanese dads don’t feel like they have to belong to one company. So, they’re not so terrified of their bosses … and will stand up for themselves,’ he said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, which saw more parents working at home, spurred a higher number of fathers to refocus on family, Takashi Kuroda said. He’s among the fathers who not only demanded paternity leave but took an entire year off for his third child, also insisting on remote work. …

“By late afternoon, Yuko Kuroda read to her children from a storybook while Takashi Kuroda was in the kitchen, elbows deep in dirty dishes. The sink was full of bowls used for breakfast, and water-logged noodles swirled around the drain. He looked silly — the cat whiskers remaining on his face — as he radiated joy.

“ ‘I’m very, very, very happy,’ he said.

“When asked if he’d be happy to have a sixth child, he answered maybe, as Yuko Kuroda popped in to end the questioning.

“ ‘No way,’ she said. ‘Our car only seats seven people. This is it.’ ”

More at The World, here. Lovely pictures. No firewall.

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Duolingo Adds isiZulu. And More.

June 14, 2025 by suzannesmom

The Duolingo bird can be very encouraging to a language learner. But it can also get angry.

With Suzanne’s family leaving soon for six months in Stockholm, I’ve been trying to learn some Swedish. I hope to try it on my grandchildren come next January. So it’s daily Duolingo for me. If I ever get to the point where I can understand Erik when he uses Swedish with the kids, I might also try expanding my French. I like the way the silly Duolingo bird cheers me on.

I was surprised to learn how many new languages the app has been adding lately. In the beginning, it didn’t even have Swedish. Now, according to an article in the Verge, it’s adding things like Maori, Tagalog, Haitian Creole, and isiZulu.

Jay Peters reports, “Duolingo is ‘more than doubling’ the number of courses it has available, a feat it says was only possible because it used generative AI to help create them in ‘less than a year.’

“The company [said] that it’s launching 148 new language courses. ‘This launch makes Duolingo’s seven most popular non-English languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin – available to all 28 supported user interface (UI) languages,’ dramatically expanding learning options for over a billion potential learners worldwide’ … the company writes.

“Duolingo says that building one new course historically has taken ‘years,’ but the company was able to build this new suite of courses more quickly ‘through advances in generative AI, shared content systems, and internal tooling.’ The new approach is internally called ‘shared content,’ and the company says it allows employees to make a base course and quickly customize it. …

“ ‘Now, by using generative AI to create and validate content, we’re able to focus our expertise where it’s most impactful, ensuring every course meets Duolingo’s rigorous quality standards,’ Duolingo’s senior director of learning design, Jessie Becker, says in a statement.

“The announcement follows a recent memo sent by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to staff saying that … it would ‘gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.’ AI use will now be evaluated during the hiring process and as part of performance reviews, and von Ahn says that ‘headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.’

“Spokesperson Sam Dalsimer tells The Verge in response to questions sent following von Ahn’s memo. ‘We’ve already been moving in this direction, and it has been game-changing for our company. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI, under the direction of our learning design experts. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language courses today.’ …

“Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been ‘negative reactions’ to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer also notes that Duolingo has ‘no intention to reduce full-time headcount or hiring’ and that ‘any changes to contractor staffing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.’ “

Hmm. That is giving me pause. But I do like the app and the way that for English-speaking students like me, Duolingo starts out with some vocabulary that sounds like English. It makes me wonder if it does the same for learners who come from other languages. That could be really tricky.

Have you used Duolingo? I know that blogger Asakiyume, a mega language learner, used Duolingo to add Spanish and Portuguese to what she already knew in Japanese and more obscure languages. One thing I know for sure: she won’t like that Duolingo contractors will lose jobs thanks to AI.

More at the Verge, here.

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The Radio Reading Service Nobody Knows

June 13, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Nieman Labs.
Volunteers reading the newspaper for radio listeners who are not able to read for themselves.

I’d like to say a word for radio. Every time a new, shiny technology comes along, we hear that the old ones are dead. Especially radio. Radio is dead more often than than theater.

But I love radio, and I’m not the only one. I love it for news without pictures, because pictures alter the story. I love it for interesting stories that are not news. I can find those online, too, but the human voice is the part that means most to me. I like it better than podcasts, which seem to overdramatize, as if I need scary music to understand the next bit might be important.

In today’s story, from Nieman Labs, Neel Dhanesha reports on a little-known radio service that means the world to a particular audience.

“A few years ago the staff at Aftersight, a nonprofit radio service based in Boulder, Colorado, got an angry call from a man whose child was trying to watch Barney on PBS Kids.

“ ‘All we can hear is you guys reading the paper!’ the man said.

“His child had accidentally switched the audio channel on their TV, and the family had stumbled onto a form of broadcasting that, for the most part, remains hidden away by design: They had discovered a radio reading service.

“When color television arrived in the United States, [it] was the product of many technological breakthroughs, but the one most relevant to our story is the sideband, or subcarrier: a modulated radio wave that can, in essence, carry more information on the same frequency. Color TV worked by sending a black and white picture in the main band of a frequency and a color picture in the sideband, and the two bands would then be recombined in the tubes of a color TV.

“Radio reading services work on the same premise, except instead of pictures they transmit a radio broadcast. Where color TV brought more vibrant pictures to living rooms around the country, radio reading services, which are also called audio information services, have almost the opposite audience: every day, across the country, hundreds of volunteers read newspapers, magazines, and books on the radio for thousands of listeners with blindness or vision loss, bringing them access to local, national, and international news around the clock.

“ ‘I always tell folks we’re on super-secret radio stations,’ said Bekah Jerde, executive director of Radio Talking Books Service, a reading service based in Omaha, Nebraska. She’s also the vice president and treasurer of the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS) a collective of 39 audio information services that are mostly based in the U.S. (and one in Australia). The stations are ‘super-secret’ because they are designed to be used by people with vision impairments and other disabilities that can make reading or turning pages difficult. Thanks to a provision in copyright law, copyrighted materials like books, magazines, and newspapers can be reproduced for free for the sake of accessibility.

“The first radio reading service debuted in Minnesota in 1969 as a side-channel on KSJR — the birthplace of Minnesota Public Radio. That first ‘Radio Talking Book’ schedule included two hours of the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in the morning and two hours of the Saint Paul Dispatch in the evening, with readings from magazines and books in the intervening hours. More than 50 years later, the live morning newspaper reading — now from the Minnesota Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press — remains the service’s most popular programming.

“Today there are 79 of the services across the country. … In the past, listeners who wanted to tune into those super-secret stations would have to send in an application for a radio that could pick up their signal or, as the man in Colorado learned, switch their audio language on certain TV channels. But streaming has come for the radio reading services, just as it has for TV.

“ ‘We went online three years ago, which did wonders for our listenership,’ said Michael Benzin, executive director of the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading service in Buffalo, New York. ‘The big restriction we always had was that our listeners needed one of our radios, so we were managing a large inventory of radios, picking them up and dropping them off all the time. But now anybody with an internet connection can play our live feed on a tablet or a cell phone or a computer.’

“The majority of the listeners for these services are over the age of 65 and have aged into vision loss or other disabilities that prevent them from reading the news on their own, Jerde told me. That means they often don’t know how to use technology like screen readers, which don’t play well with many websites anyway. The radio reading services provide their listeners with an experience that’s hard to replicate with a computer: reading a newspaper or magazine from cover to cover, including comics and grocery ads. …

“For many people, especially in rural areas with poor internet access, the reading services’ radio and TV broadcasts are essential lifelines to the outside world. Some of the services even allow people to listen by dialing a phone number.

“ ‘Part of our goal is to go out in different parts of the state, especially the rural areas, and ask how people are getting their information,’ said Kim Ann Wardlow, executive director of Aftersight and president of the IAAIS. ‘We’re trying to figure out if there are other things we should be reading to best serve folks who are seeking hyperlocal information that isn’t necessarily in the traditional newspaper anymore.’ Both Aftersight and the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service have started offering programs in Spanish. ….

“Every service in the network is tiny, often run on a shoestring (usually) nonprofit budget: Benzin, in addition to making programming decisions, told me that part of his job as executive director includes mowing the lawn, vacuuming, and washing the windows at the Niagara Frontier service’s office. IAAIS has a program share, similar to the Public Radio Exchange, that allows member stations to share content to help fill the schedule. And while each has its own ways to raise funds, Wardlow, Benzin, and Jerde all told me one thing is the same across the country: the volunteers are incredibly committed to their work.

“ ‘I’ve got volunteers who’ve been coming in every week for thirty years,’ Benzin told me. ‘I’ve been working in the nonprofit world for going on 40 years, and I’ve never had a volunteer base this dedicated.’ ”

I’m thinking of other groups that could benefit: English language learners and people who simply never learned to read. I wish there were more publicity for this service.

More at Nieman Lab, here.

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Astonishing Fingernails

June 12, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Prestel Publishing.
Kumi Chantrill (@nailsbykumi on Instagram) is a resident of Queensland, Australia, She began her nail business in 2019.

People can create art that lifts up any aspect of life, and if they do, I want to write about it here.

Today it’s about miniature art on fingernails — intriguing in ways that most other art isn’t. It’s easily destructible but must be used in constantly in life. With nails like these, how do you not have a meltdown when you break one immediately after leaving the salon?

At Hyperallergic, Rhea Nayyar explains her own interest in the fingernail phenomenon: “As a small-scale painter, I’ve been interested in meticulous manicures since 2005, when my mom presented me with the holy text — Klutz’s Nail Art tutorial book with six peel-off nail polishes. Twenty years later, I’m pivoting into DIY gel nails and poring over beauty and culture writer Tembe Denton-Hurst’s Fresh Sets: Contemporary Nail Art from Around the World (2025), which contextualizes advanced manicures as a form of visual art and cultural expression. …

“Casting a wide net, Denton-Hurst included select interviews and work samples from 35 international artists from Mexico, India, Japan, Korea, and across the United States and Europe. In a brief introduction, she traces the exponential growth of salon culture and nail art in the last two centuries, highlighting how Vietnamese immigrants began to shape the industry in the United States in the 1970s and the historical significance of custom nail art as a form of personal style for Black women.

“In an interview, Denton-Hurst told me that the driving force behind the project was not only to get readers to appreciate their nail artists more, but also to call attention to both the fine arts and fashion applications of the form by highlighting artists who are doing boundary-breaking work in the field.

“  ‘The thing that was most interesting to me was the range of experience across each included artist,’ she said in a phone call. …

Denton-Hurst noted that many art and design workers ended up pivoting to nail art in 2020 during quarantine.

“I did, too. With the pandemic raging around us, nail art became an outlet for both anxiety and boredom, allowing artists to regain a sense of control and reignite their creativity during a time of uncertainty and limited resources. …

“This new era of avant-garde nails has continued to evolve in the last few years, as material science advances in tandem with human imagination. Denton-Hurst cites the 2017 inception of the Aprés Gel-X nail extension system as a catalyst for experimental nail art, and new products for two- and three-dimensional designs regularly shake up the industry. From 3D elements on natural nail foundations to what I could only describe as wearable sculptures sprouting from fingertips, nail art has far exceeded the boundaries of a curved millimeters-long canvas.

“Photographed in Fresh Sets, sculpted novelty nails by Juan Alvear and Nathan Taylor stand out as structurally and conceptually marvelous. Moscow-based artist Margarita Tsibizova embraces the grotesque with her signature ‘dirtycore’ claw extensions, while Tahvya ‘Tav’ Krok‘s fine-line precision makes references to art historical forms, from Manga to mandalas and Victor Vasarely’s Op art to Claude Monet’s Impressionism.

“Fresh Sets ultimately emphasizes manicures as a medium for cultural and personal expression for artists and clients alike. Shirking racialized and gendered critiques of nail art as impractical, frivolous, and unprofessional, Denton-Hurst emphasizes that this wearable art form isn’t just an extension of our fingertips, but an extension of ourselves, our heritage, our interests, and our stories.”

See some fantastic photos at Hyperallergic, here. (No paywall, but please consider donating to keep their art coverage alive.)

I myself have always felt funny wearing nail polish. Like those baby turtles that ignorant five and ten stores used to paint with a kid’s name in the 1950s. I can feel the smothering quality of paint. And then, after chemo in 2002, my nails have been a mess anyway and definitely not worth decorating. But what about you? Have you ever tried nail art?

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Hilma af Klint, the Underground Version

June 11, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Maya Pontone/Hyperallergic.
Grand Central Station hosts the New York subway system’s newest public artwork, “Abstract Futures” (2025) by a collective called Hilma’s Ghost. The work was supported by the city’s Percent for Art program, which has brought more than 400 commissioned public works into the transit system.

Hilma af Klint is having a moment. I hadn’t heard of this mystical Swedish pathbreaker before the Guggenheim mounted a retrospective in 2018.

Now some artists inspired by her work have merged her eerie geometric style with Tarot cards to make beautiful subway art beneath New York’s streets. Maya Pontone at Hyperallergic has a report.

“Celestial motifs and cosmological geometries strewn across a prismatic landscape comprise ‘Abstract Futures’ (2025), the newest public artwork to grace the walls of the New York City subway system. Designed by the feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost, the 600-square-foot glass mosaic mural now greets transit riders between the turnstiles and escalators at the 42nd Street entrance to the 7 train in Manhattan’s Grand Central Station. …

“The project was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Arts and Design program through the four-decade-old Percent for Art initiative, which has brought site-specific works by more than 400 artists into the city’s subways, buses, commuter rail stations, and other transit areas. …

‘Abstract Futures’ [fuses] reinterpreted tarot archetypes with classic heroic tales to highlight the shared transformations experienced by commuters on their individual journeys.

“The first segment of the mosaic begins with the story of ‘The Fool,’ a tarot card signifying new beginnings and opportunity. … The next panel is laden with earth-toned tiles as the fool grapples with challenges and spiritual evolution, represented by the symbol for the ‘Wheel of Fortune‘ tarot archetype in the center. Situated closer to the subway turnstiles, the final section of the mosaic traces a spiritual metamorphosis in which the main character discovers a deepened [self-knowledge]. …

“Brooklyn-based artists Sharmistha Ray and Dannielle Tegeder, the founding duo of Hilma’s Ghost, told Hyperallergic that the artwork was developed over two years and executed in close collaboration with master mosaic fabricator Stephen Miotto, who has been working with the MTA since the 1980s. It shares the same name as their first visual art project, which consisted of a limited-edition abstract tarot deck, building on the collective’s commitment to reimagining historically under-recognized spiritual practices and gendered cultural narratives.

“Inspired by the work of Swedish Theosophist artist Hilma af Klint, Hilma’s Ghost has engaged in a variety of art projects since its founding in 2020. …

“Ray and Tegeder described their new mural as ‘both a celebration and a meditation on the city’s perpetual cycles of arrival, growth, and renewal honoring New York’s resilience, ambition, and the shared sense of collective belonging.’

“ ‘Our intention is to create a contemplative space that centers inclusivity, connection, and healing,’ the pair added.”

More at Hyperallergic, here. No firewall, but membership are sought.

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Bookshop Plus Cats

June 10, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photos: The Literary Cat Co.
Since Literary Cat Co. opened in Kansas about a year and a half ago, 32 of the store’s foster cats have been adopted by bookstore customers.

Today’s story is about a business in Kansas that meets two very different goals at the same time — and makes a lot of people in the community happy.

Sydney Page reports at the Washington Post, “At a bookstore in this Kansas town, three cats are on the full-time staff. Hank, a domestic longhaired cat, is the ‘regional manager.’ His job duties involve keeping track of the computer cursor and ‘sleeping in adorable positions 22 hours a day,’ according to the bookstore website.

“ ‘He’s the boss of this place,’ said Jennifer Mowdy, owner of the Literary Cat Co. in Pittsburg, Kansas — a bookstore that doubles as a cat lounge and feline foster home.

“Scarlett Toe’Hara, a black short-haired cat, who is polydactyl — meaning she has extra toes — is the ‘assistant (to the) regional manager.’ She is the front door guard, plant inspector and treat tester.

“Mike Meowski — a domestic longhaired cat with one eye, named after Mike Wazowski in Monster’s Inc. — is ‘assistant (to the assistant to the) regional manager.’ His role involves cuddling guests and quality control for boxes. …

“Mowdy opened the store in 2023 after 17 years as an educator. While teaching, Mowdy volunteered with animal rescues and fostered cats. She also loved bookstores. …

” ‘I decided I could do it; I could create something,’ Mowdy said.

“There are typically about seven cats — in addition to Hank, Scarlett and Mike — who live in the bookstore as foster cats. They’re ‘temporary staff,’ and Mowdy’s goal is for her customers to adopt them.

“ ‘We partner with a rescue, and when they get a cat that they think has a personality that would fit, or they haven’t been successful in adopting a cat through other means,’ she said. ‘If we have the room, we take them in.’ … The cats come from SEK Animal Advocates, a local rescue network. …

“Lori Seiwert and her husband adopted a brother-sister duo from the Literary Cat Co. shortly after it opened. The cats are named Frog and Toad after the picture book. …

“Frog, who is male, and Toad, who is female, turned 2 in February. Seiwert said she and her husband often stop by the store to visit Mowdy and play with the other cats.

“ ‘It’s a nice thing for such a small community,’ she said. ‘It’s very homey.’

“Most cats are adopted within six months of arriving at the bookstore, though some find homes much faster; others have stayed for up to a year. …

“Mowdy looks after the cats with Caitlin Fanning, a bookseller. They also have a volunteer who visits the store on Sundays and Mondays when it is closed to feed the cats and care for them.

“The bookstore is near Pittsburg State University, so college students often bring their own books to study there and snuggle some cats.

“ ‘We’ve got lots of cozy chairs and reading nooks,’ Mowdy said. ‘Lots of people don’t buy anything, they just come and play with the cats. That’s perfectly okay. We need to get the cats socialized, too.’ …

“The bookstore has become an environment for shy or unsocialized cats to get comfortable around people. …

“Before leaving work for the day, ‘we just make sure everybody is fed and watered, and anybody that needs meds gets them,’ Mowdy said. ‘We tell them goodnight and don’t cause any trouble, and we see them in the morning.’ …

“As far as books go, the Literary Cat Co. carries a wide range of authors and genres.”

This bookstore sounds like a place that “shy or unsocialized” humans could make friends, too, but I can’t help wondering how long a bookshop can last if it doesn’t matter that “lots of people don’t buy anything”!

More at the Post, here. Lots of pictures.

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Breaking News on Shakespeare’s Wife

June 9, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Hereford Cathedral and the Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust.
The letter fragment seems to place Anne Hathaway in London with William Shakespeare. 

Where do our firm convictions about history come from? Sometimes the accepted wisdom is based on facts, sometimes on what the influencers of the time thought, sometimes on mistakes. If for example, we have always thought Shakespeare had a bad marriage because his wife never came to London with him, what does new information contradicting that do to the accepted wisdom?

And there’s always new information.

Dalya Alberge writes at the Guardian, “It has long been assumed that William Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway was less than happy. He moved to London to pursue his theatrical career, leaving her in Stratford-upon-Avon and stipulating in his will that she would receive his ‘second best bed,’ although still a valued item.

“Now a leading Shakespeare expert has analyzed a fragment of a 17th-century letter that appears to cast dramatic new light on their relationship, overturning the idea that the couple never lived together in London.

“Matthew Steggle, a professor of early modern English literature at the University of Bristol, said the text seemed to put the Shakespeares at a previously unknown address in Trinity Lane – now Little Trinity Lane in the City. It also has them jointly involved with money that Shakespeare was holding in trust for an orphan named John Butts.

“Addressed to ‘Good Mrs Shakspaire,’ the letter mentions the death of a Mr Butts and a son, John, who is left ‘fatherles,’ as well as a Mrs Butts, who had asked ‘Mr Shakspaire’ to look after money for his children until they came of age. It suggests the playwright had resisted attempts to pay money that the young Butts was owed.

“Steggle said: ‘The letter writer thinks that “Mrs Shakspaire” has independent access to money. They hope that Mrs Shakspaire might “paye your husbands debte.” ‘

“They do not ask Mrs Shakspaire to intercede with her husband, but actually to do the paying herself, like Adriana in The Comedy of Errors, who undertakes to pay a debt on her husband’s behalf, even though she was previously unaware of it: “Knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.” ‘ …

“The fragment was preserved by accident in the binding of a book in Hereford Cathedral’s library. Although it was discovered in 1978, it has remained largely unknown because ‘no one could identify the names or places involved,’ Steggle said.

“Crucial evidence includes the 1608 book in which the fragment was preserved, Johannes Piscator’s analyses of biblical texts. It was published by Richard Field, a native of Stratford, who was Shakespeare’s neighbor and his first printer.

“Steggle said that it would be a ‘strange coincidence’ for a piece of paper naming a Shakspaire to be bound, early in its history, next to 400 leaves of paper printed by Field, ‘given Field’s extensive known links to the Shakespeares.’

“John Butts seems to have been serving an apprenticeship because the letter mentions ‘when he hath served his time.’ Scouring records from the period 1580 to 1650, Steggle found a John Butts, who was an apprentice, fatherless and in the care of his mother. …

“Steggle found John Butts in later records, placing him in Norton Folgate, outside the city walls, and living on Holywell Street (Shoreditch High Street today), home to several of Shakespeare’s fellow actors and associates.

“It was an area in which Shakespeare worked in the 1590s, first at the Theatre in Shoreditch, the principal base for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men throughout those years, and then at its near neighbor, the Curtain theatre. Shakespeare’s lifelong business partners, the Burbages, were involved in innkeeping and victualing nearby.

“Steggle said: ‘The adult John Butts, living on the same street as them, working in the hospitality industry in which they were invested … would very much be on the Burbages’ radar. So Shakespeare can be linked to Butts through various Norton Folgate contacts.’

“If the writing on the back of the letter – in another hand – was written by Anne, the words would be ‘the nearest thing to her voice ever known,’ he noted.

“The research is being published in Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association.”

What accepted wisdom will future historians overthrow by their scouring of our — probably digital — records? And will they draw such broad conclusions about what they find? I myself don’t see how you claim that Shakespeare had a good or bad marriage on the basis of his wife’s residence in London. But it’s fun to see how long new ideas can keep turning up.

More at the Guardian, here.

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A Neanderthal Paints a Nose

June 8, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Álvarez-Alonso et al.
The archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of Segovia, Spain, noticed there was something odd about this stone.

Today we ask ourselves the timeless question, “Did Neanderthals ever just horse around?”

Sam Jones has a scenario at the Guardian, “One day around 43,000 years ago, a Neanderthal man in what is now central Spain came across a large granite pebble whose pleasing contours and indentations snagged his eye.

“Something in the shape of that quartz-rich stone – perhaps its odd resemblance to an elongated face – may have compelled him to pick it up, study it and, eventually, to dip one of his fingers in red pigment and press it against the pebble’s edge, exactly where the nose on that face would have been.

“In doing so, he left behind what is thought to be the world’s oldest complete human fingerprint, on what would appear to be the oldest piece of European portable art.

The discovery, which could enrich our understanding of how Neanderthals saw and interpreted the world, has come to light after almost three years of research by a team of Spanish archaeologists, geologists and police forensic experts.

“The dig team noticed there was something odd about the stone – which is just over 20cm [~8 inches] in length – as soon as they found it while excavating the San Lázaro rock shelter on the outskirts of Segovia in July 2022. It did not look like something that had been used as a hammer or an anvil; it didn’t look like a tool at all.

“ ‘The stone was oddly shaped and had a red ochre dot, which really caught our eye,’ said David Álvarez Alonso, an archaeologist at Complutense University in Madrid. … We were all thinking, ‘This looks like a face.’ But obviously that wasn’t enough.

” ‘As we carried on our research, we knew we needed information to be able to advance the hypothesis that there was some purposefulness here, this was a symbolic object and that one possible explanation – although we’ll never know for sure – is that this was the symbolization of a face.’ …

“The team enlisted the help of other experts. Further investigations confirmed that the pigment, which contained iron oxides and clay minerals, was not found elsewhere in or around the cave.

“ ‘We then got in touch with the scientific police to determine whether we were right that the dot had been applied using a fingertip,’ said Álvarez Alonso. ‘They confirmed that it had.’ The print, they concluded, was human and could be that of an adult male. …

“Álvarez Alonso argues that the dot’s existence raises questions that all point in the same direction.

“ ‘It couldn’t have been a coincidence that the dot is where it is – and there are no markings to indicate any other use,’ he said. ‘So why did they bring this pebble from the river to the inside of the cave? And, what’s more, there’s no ochre inside the cave or outside it. So they must have had to bring pigment from elsewhere.’

“The team’s findings, reported in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, reinforce the idea that Neanderthals – who died out some 40,000 years ago – were capable of acts of artistic and symbolic creation, meaning modern humans were not the first to use art as a means of expression.

“ ‘The fact that the pebble was selected because of its appearance and then marked with ochre shows that there was a human mind capable of symbolizing, imagining, idealizing and projecting his or her thoughts on an object,’ the authors write.

“ ‘Furthermore, in this case, we can propose that three fundamental cognitive processes are involved in creating art: the mental conception of an image, deliberate communication, and the attribution of meaning. These are the basic elements characterizing symbolism and, also prehistoric – non-figurative – art. Furthermore, this pebble could thus represent one of the oldest known abstractions of a human face in the prehistoric record.’ …

“ ‘We’ve set out our interpretation in the article, but the debate goes on,’ he said. ‘And anything to do with Neanderthals always prompts a massive debate. If we had a pebble with a red dot on it that was done 5,000 years ago by Homo sapiens, no one would hesitate to call it portable art. But associating Neanderthals with art generates a lot of debate.’ I think there’s sometimes an unintentional prejudice.’ “

More at the Guardian, here.

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Why She Saves Seeds

June 7, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Dani Anguiano.
Haleigh Holgate, seed collection manager at Heritage Growers, inspects a seed in the San Luis national wildlife refuge complex on March 2025. Only the correct species will do.

I have blogged about seed banks in various countries (search on “seed bank”), and particularly about the global one that will keep seeds safe forever — if it stays frozen.

Today we learn what’s going on in California, where Heritage Growers is focused on local flora.

Dani Anguiano reported at the Guardian, “Deep in California’s agricultural heartland, Haleigh Holgate marched through the expansive wildflower-dotted plains of the San Luis national wildlife refuge complex in search of something precious.

“She surveyed the native grasses and flowering plants that painted the Central valley landscape in almost blinding swaths of yellow. Her objective on that sweltering spring day was to gather materials pivotal to California’s ambitious environmental agenda – seeds. …

“As a seed collection manager with the non-profit Heritage Growers native seed supplier, Holgate is tasked with traveling to the state’s wildlands to collect native seeds crucial for habitat restoration projects.

“The need has become particularly acute as California aims to conserve 30% of its land by 2030, with the governor pledging to restore ‘degraded landscapes’ and expand ‘nature-based solutions’ to fight the climate crisis. …

“But the rising demand for seeds far outpaces the available supply. California faces an ‘urgent and growing need’ to coordinate efforts to increase the availability of native seeds, according to a 2023 report from the California Native Plant Society. There simply isn’t enough wildland seed available to restore the land at the rate the state has set out to, Holgate said.

“Bridging the gap starts with people like Holgate, who spends five days a week, eight months of the year, traveling with colleagues to remote spots across the state collecting seeds – an endeavor that could shape California’s landscape for years.

“That fact is not lost on the 26-year-old. It’s something she tries to remind her team during long, grueling, hot days in the oilfields of Kern county or the San Joaquin valley. …

“Seeds play a vital role in landscape recovery. When fires move through forests, decimating native species and leaving the earth a charred sea of grey ash, or when farmlands come out of production, land managers use native seeds to help return the land to something closer to its original form. They have been an essential part of restoring the Klamath River after the largest dam removal project in US history, covering the banks of the ailing river in milkweeds that attract bees and other pollinators, and Lemmon’s needlegrass, which produces seeds that feed birds and small mammals.

“California has emphasized the importance of increasing native seed production to protect the state’s biodiversity. … Three-quarters of native vegetation in the state has been altered in the last 200 years, including more than 90% of California wetlands, much of them here in the Central valley.

“For the state to implement its plans, it needs a massive quantity of native seeds. … Enter Heritage Growers, the northern California-based non-profit founded by experts with the non-profit River Partners, which works to restore river corridors in the state and create wildlife habitat.

“The organization takes seed that Holgate and others collect and amplifies them at its Colusa farm, a 2,088-acre (845-hectare) property located an hour from the state capital. (The ethical harvesting rules Heritage Growers adhere to mean that they can take no more than 20% of seeds available the day of collection.) …

“Currently, the farm is producing more than 30,000 lbs of seeds each year and has more than 200 native plant varieties.

“The goal, general manager Pat Reynolds said, is to produce source-identified native seed and get as much of it out in the environment as possible to restore habitat at scale. …

“The benefit of restoring California’s wildlands extends far beyond the environment, said Austin Stevenot, a member of the Northern Sierra Mewuk Tribe and the director of tribal engagement for River Partners.

“ ‘It’s more than just work on the landscape, because you’re restoring places where people have been removed and by inviting those people back in these places we can have cultural restoration,’ Stevenot said. ‘Our languages, our cultures, are all tied to the landscape. … It’s giving the space back to people to freely do what we would like for the landscape and for our culture,’ he said. …

“The mission is worthwhile, Holgate said. The seeds she collects are expensive, but if they can be amplified and expanded, native seeds will become more abundant and restoration projects can happen more quickly.

“ ‘We can restore California faster,’ she said. … ‘I know that when I’m dreaming about a certain species, I should go check that population and see what’s happening. And normally there’s something going on where it’s like grasshoppers came in and ate all the seed, or the seed is ripe and ready, and I gotta call in a crew,’ she said. ‘I’ve really put my whole heart into this job.’ “

More at the Guardian, here. No firewall at this outstanding news site, but please support it.

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Traveling without Flying

June 6, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Thor Pedersen.
Thor Pedersen took a container ship from Praia, Cape Verde, to Guinea Bissau — one step in his quest to travel the world without flying. 

I recently met a couple who are unusually thoughtful about their footprint on Planet Earth, to the point of investigating how they could get to Europe without flying. There are ways to travel without flying, as we learn from today’s story in the Guardian, but they all have a cost in carbon emissions — ocean-going vessels especially. Unless you’re talking sailboats, which are not practical for most people.

Nevertheless, experiments in avoiding airplanes are consciousness raising — and often fun. Thor Pedersen reported on his own effort to travel everywhere without flying. It took him 10 years!

He writes, “Growing up, it seemed as if all the great adventures had happened before I was born. But in 2013 I discovered that – although it had been attempted – no one had made an unbroken journey through every country without flying. I had a shot at becoming the first to do it. …

“At 34, I set off – and didn’t return home until almost a decade later. These are the lessons I learned along the way.

“1. Human generosity can be astounding. It was a cold, dark night in December. A train had brought me to Suwałki, which people say is the coldest city in Poland. It was quiet. Snow was falling, but otherwise everything was still. I was carrying a piece of paper with a name, a phone number and an address for where I was supposed to be staying. But I had no sim card, so I began walking, looking for someone who could help me.

“Just as I was beginning to wonder if I would ever meet anyone, a woman opened her front door. I dashed over. Luckily, she spoke English and invited me in. She was happy to host me and convinced me there was no point in heading back out into the cold.

“I was quickly given a full plate of food and a spare bed. All this from a stranger. The next day, I was served breakfast and taken to the bus that would carry me to Lithuania.

“2. There are still some hidden and spectacular natural wonders. Lesotho was country No 106 on my very long journey. Its natural beauty was immediately apparent. … The mountains of Lesotho are horse country. Every now and again, riders draped in thick blankets would pass. Then I reached Maletsunyane Falls. The nearly 200-metre waterfall was glistening in the sun at the end of a canyon. And I had it all to myself.

“3. People’s resilience is powerful. In 2015, I travelled through western Africa. At the time, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia were dealing with the world’s largest Ebola outbreak. A taxi driver in Guinea said to me: ‘Here we have everything, but we have nothing.’ These countries are rich in many ways – from natural resources to beautiful landscapes – yet most of the people are not.

“But after only an hour in Sierra Leone, I had been invited to a wedding: loads of music, lots of people in fancy clothes, an abundance of food and drink, small talk and dancing.  …

“4. Isolating yourself is a mistake. When you take public transport in Denmark, where I’m from, you always pick the seat farthest from everyone else. We value our privacy and respect the privacy of others. But in much of the world, the best seats are the ones next to other passengers. Where else will you find conversation?

“In west and central Africa, I found that everyone in a bus or a bush taxi would immediately form a unit, sharing food and stories and holding babies for one another. …

“5. What you want and what you need are not the same thing. … I hit a wall after about two years, but had to push through it to reach my goal. I learned the difference between what I want and what I need. I learned to live on a rock and how to engage in conversation with absolutely anyone. Once I returned home, I realized the only things that had kept their value were the relationships and conversations I had had. Everything else seemed perishable.

“6. You can form connections without sharing a language. I once had a 12-hour train journey from Belarus to Moscow during which no one else spoke anything but Russian. It didn’t seem to bother them that I didn’t know the language beyond nyet or da; they sat and spoke to me in Russian for several hours, while we shared food and vodka.”

To see more of Pedersen’s photos and his life lessons from this kind of travel, click at the Guardian, here. No paywall.

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Senior-Friendly Urban Design

June 5, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian.
Elaine Unegbu, the chair of the Age Friendly Manchester [UK] older people’s board, and Paul McGarry, the head of the Greater Manchester aging hub. 

Where I live now, in a retirement community with various levels of care, the management favors pilot projects from academia and startup companies to test technology that can keep people independent longer. I haven’t volunteered for any of them, but I think it’s a good idea, especially as Erik still holds patents for something along those lines.

I recently read about some simple but ingenious innovations in Manchester, England, that I thought might interest readers like Making Home Home. I mean — how obvious but how overlooked is putting numbers on outdoor benches to aid in emergencies?

Chris Osuh  reports at the Guardian, “Futuristic planning for spaces where people can age well and live in an area designed for them to grow old in is accelerating in the UK with a radical project backed by £1.5bn [$1.7bn].

“The plan to transform a hospital into the first neighborhood in the country designed for people to thrive as they age will be a national testbed for holistic health and social care approaches. It will include hi-tech homes that adapt to occupants’ life stage and care needs, transport, a village green and a social calendar to combat isolation.

“The master plan for the North Manchester general hospital (NMGH) redevelopment in the Crumpsall district is the result of collaboration by public health officials, local politicians, experts and architects.

“Michelle Humphreys, the director of strategic projects for Manchester University NHS foundation trust (MFT), described it as a neighborhood that ‘adapts around people as they go through life,’ powered by advances in medical wearables and remote monitoring. …

“NMGH’s ‘healthy neighborhood‘ scheme is multigenerational. It will include family housing and will be built in line with age-friendly concepts, spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to two major trends – the aging population and urbanization.

“By 2050 60% of the global population will live in urban environments and 27% of people will be over the age of 65, the OECD predicts, yet experts say cities are often defined by spatial agism where environments are not set up for older people.

“The age-friendly movement aims to ensure older people can still play a part in civic life. The Elders Council of Newcastle, Northern Ireland’s older people’s commissioner and Wales’ commitment to becoming an age-friendly nation reflect how UK regions and devolved governments have been preparing for demographic change.

“The humble bench – improved with armrests, numbered to aid in a medical emergency, or placed strategically for wellbeing and intergenerational conversation – can be transformative, with dozens installed in Manchester, taking inspiration from New York’s CityBench initiative. However, the UK has further to go.

Akita, in northern Japan’s Tohoku region, where 30% of the population is over 65, has more than 60 heated roads to prevent slips on ice.

“In Singapore, where one in four are predicted to be over 65 by 2030, the Admiralty ‘vertical village’ has a central medical tier, so older residents, who live in slip-proof homes with alarms alerting neighbors in an emergency, can have surgery without leaving. In Germany in 2007, BMW made 70 changes to its Dingolfing factory to adapt to an older workforce. …

“Prof Stefan White, from Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester School of Architecture, said the NMGH project would exemplify how to free up hospital space and allow people to ‘age in place’ with the type of support ordinarily provided in a care home made available to the whole neighborhood on a flexible basis.

“Elaine Unegbu, the chair of the Age Friendly Manchester older people’s board, has successfully lobbied the Greater Manchester mayor’s team for transport adaptations, benches and afternoon matinees. She said the healthy neighborhood would give residents peace of mind at a time when gentrification ‘whitewashed’ older urbanites, with many forced from their homes by health crises to the detriment of communities.

“Manchester, where previous age friendly projects include the Derek Jarman Pocket Park inspired by LGBTQ+ over-50s, has been pioneering the movement in the UK since 2008. Last month the city hosted international experts at the Age-Friendly Futures Summit.

“Paul McGarry, the head of the Greater Manchester aging hub, said: ‘The task is to get a national conversation on aging.’ “

More at the Guardian, here.

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Book Towns Galore

June 4, 2025 by suzannesmom

Photo: Wigtown, Scotland, Book Festival.

Book lovers who are traveling this year may want to think about visiting one of the “book towns” profiled recently in National Geographic. Ashley Packard collected seven that sound charming.

“1. In the Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye, where sheep outnumber people and books spill onto the streets, a quiet revolution began. Antiquarian and academic Richard Booth inadvertently launched a global movement when he began filling the empty buildings of Hay-on-Wye with secondhand books.

“What started as a single decision in 1961 to fill his sleepy hometown with secondhand books to sell in numerous empty buildings, turned into the birthplace of a global literary mecca uniting villages, bibliophiles, and dreamers alike. …

“Hay-on-Wye became the first ever ‘book town,’ supporting patrons who flocked to the shops. Booth, who crowned himself ‘King of Hay,’ inspired others to turn literature into lifelines for their little towns and villages. As word of his success spread, more towns around the world embraced the concept for their communities. Before long, the International Organization of Book Towns was formed in April 2001, though it had existed without the official designation for decades prior.

“The organization aims to raise public awareness of book towns through online information and a biennial International Book Town Festival. It supports rural economies by facilitating knowledge exchange among booksellers and businesses, encouraging the use of technology, and helping to preserve and promote regional and national cultural heritage on a global scale.

“By definition, a book town is ‘a small, preferably rural, town or village in which secondhand and antiquarian bookshops are concentrated.’ … Today, there are dozens of towns with the designation, from Pazin, Croatia, to Featherson, New Zealand. These selected and approved locations take pride in their history, scenic beauty, and contributions to the literary world. …

“2. In a small village tucked away in the hilly countryside of Belgium, Redu is now celebrating its 41st anniversary since becoming the second book town in 1984. This idyllic village is described as, ‘fragrant with the scent of old paper.’ … It, along with its hamlets Lesse and Séchery, were recently added to the ‘Most Beautiful Villages in Wallonia‘ list in July 2024.

“3. [In Scotland] nestled on a hill overlooking the sea along a rugged coastline, woodlands, and forests, lies Wigtown, celebrating 20 years as ‘Scotland’s Book Town.’ … It has 16 different types of book shops, many secondhand, that participate in an annual Spring Weekend in early May, a community festival in July, a market every Saturday from April through late September, and the annual Wigtown Book Festival in late September through early October. The 10-day literary celebration was founded in 1999 and now features more than 200 events, including music, theater, food, and visual arts. 

“4. Turup [in Denmark] is situated 37 miles north of the Danish capital of Copenhagen, between the sea and a fjord, and has a population of 374 people. Here, locals put out the best and most high-quality secondhand books from donations out for sale along the rural roads of the 10 different shops (if you can call them that) for purchase. These ‘bookshops’ include a garage, a workman’s hut, a disused stable, a bookshelf on a farm entrance, and even a newly restored railway station. Some of these stalls process transactions on a self-help and honesty basis where customers leave their change in a jar in exchange for their purchases. The Torup Book Town Association hosts an annual Nordic Book Festival with book readings from authors, contemporary short films, cultural events, and more. 

“5. Surrounded by stunning landscapes, rolling hills, and vineyards is the quaint town of Featherston [New Zealand] … became officially recognized as a book town in 2018. It is famously known for the annual book festival held in May. They have initiatives dedicated to fostering community growth, inspire reading, writing, and idea-sharing across Wairarapa and Aotearoa, New Zealand.

“6. Offering year-round bookstalls and literary festivals, the village of St-Pierre-de-Clages is home to Switzerland’s only book village. ‘Le Village Suisse du Livre,’ translated to ‘The Swiss Book Village,’ is home to a large secondhand market, along with authors, thematic exhibitions, activities for children, and a renowned Book Festival that has been hosted every last weekend of August since 1993. … This festival takes place over three days and attracts visitors from all over French-speaking Switzerland and neighbors. It offers insight into book professions such as calligraphy and old printing techniques, a welcoming space for writers and publishing houses to meet, and various artists to display their work.

“7. The former garrison town of Wünsdorf [in Germany] is known as ‘book and bunker city’ due to the historical sites, buildings, book shops, cafes and tea rooms, and lively cultural life. Nestled about 12 miles south of Berlin, the town offers year-round events, readings, exhibitions, military vehicle meetings, and currently five different bunker and guided tours. Wünsdorf was established as an official member of the International Organization of Book Towns in 1998 thanks to its three large antiquarian shops that boast of a wide array of literary treasures on topics such as poetry, philosophy, classical literature, and many more.”

More at National Geographic, here. Great photos, as you would expect from National Geographic.

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Preserving Dance in Africa

June 3, 2025 by suzannesmom

Map: Maps of the World.
The National Ballet in the Central African Republic brings to life traditional dance forms from different ethnic groups across the country. 

In parts of Africa where colonialism glommed together disparate tribes with ancestral enmities, wars have continued off and on for decades. But the Central African Republic (CAR) is setting a different example, with the help of its national ballet company. The idea is to give all the CAR groups a moment in the sun by highlighting the dance traditions of each. The effort also brings people together in new ways.

In the following article, we learn about a number of ethnic dance groups, including the National Artistic Ensemble that performed recently at the Africa Day of School Feeding (ADSF) in Bouboui. [See the African Union site for an explanation of ADSF. Interesting.]

France24 reports: “The dancers shake their hips, kicking their feet to the beat of the age-old ‘dance of the caterpillars,’ typically performed in the south where the insects are gathered for food.

“Three times a week the National Ballet rehearses traditional dances of the many ethnic groups making up the Central African Republic.

” ‘The creations they ask of us are based on the particularities of each ethnicity. I’m Banda and I have to suggest dance steps from the Banda ethnic group,’ Sidoane Kolema, 43, said.

“They aim to preserve the heritage of the CAR, a mosaic of ethnic groups that is scarred by decades of conflict and instability and is among the world’s poorest countries.

“From behind the scenes, 26-year-old Intelligentsia Oualou began singing in Gbanu, the language of her native southwestern Ombella-M’poko region.

“To the jingle of bells and rhythmic thud of the drum and xylophone-like balafon, the spinning silhouettes of the other dancers soon appeared across the dilapidated stage, set up on waste ground in the capital Bangui.

” ‘All my relatives are artists and I’ve dreamed of being an artist too,’ said Oualou. She is one of 62 dancers in the National Artistic Ensemble, created by CAR President Faustin Archange Touadera in 2021.

” ‘Promoting our cultures means going to the hinterlands to find the different dance steps of the Central African Republic in order to create a show that is diverse,’ National Ballet choreographer Ludovic Mboumolomako, 55, said. He spent three weeks living among the Pygmies in their ancestral forests in the south in order to enrich his choreography with their dances, songs and ways of living. …

“The company is often called upon to perform the ancestral dances in public at political gatherings, inaugurations and official ceremonies. In front of officials or at festivals, they dance in costumes of raffia skirts topped with pearl belts and patterned wax-print fabrics.

” ‘We need to raise awareness among young people … by dancing the different dances of our different ethnic groups in front of everyone. Tomorrow, if we are no longer here, it will be up to them to take over,’ Kolema said.

“The dancers were even recently integrated into the civil service, just like the actors and musicians who also belong to the National Artistic Ensemble.

“One of the upsides is that the dancers ‘have not a subsidy, but a salary’ [Culture Minister Ngola Ramadan] said. …

“Kevin Bemon, 44, said he had been able to put his former ‘difficult’ life dancing at neighborhood wakes behind him, thanks to the monthly salary of [$124] – just over twice the minimum wage in the CAR. …

“For a decade until 2013, the CAR was wracked by civil wars and intercommunal conflict, and although the violence has lost intensity since 2018, tensions persist.

” ‘Traditional dance has brought us together. After the recent wars, different ethnic groups were divided. Thanks to dance, we’ve become children of the same family,’ Oualou said.”

Check out the great photos at France 24, here. No paywall.

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Stunning Excavation on Greek Island

June 2, 2025 by suzannesmom

Map: Lencer.
Do you see the group of three islands on the west coast of Greece? Lefkada is the furthest north of the three, kind of a bell shape.

Like many of us, I have contradictory memories of being a teenager. There’s a lot of “on the one hand,” “on the other hand.” On the one hand, when I think of my trip to Greece, there were all those confused interactions with other teens on the independent schools’ trip and with an Athenian power couple for whom I had a letter of introduction.

On the other hand, seeing the Ancient Greek ruins in the Aegean Islands was something to cherish.

I had been interested in Ancient Greece since childhood and ultimately took five years of the language. I remain curious about the old tales from that part of the world, and especially any information on new excavations — like the one in today’s article.

Min Chen reports at Artnet, “More than a century after its initial discovery, the only known amphitheater on the Ionian Islands is finally seeing the light of day.

“Perched on a hillside on Lefkada, an island off the west coast of Greece, the structure has been excavated by archaeologists from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Aitoloakarnania and Lefkada over the past decade. While the upper part of the building has not been well preserved, the team was able to study its cavea, or semicircular seating area. The researchers have also estimated that construction on the theater began around the 4th century B.C.E., when ancient Lefkada was experiencing economic prosperity.

“ ‘Although damaged by time,’ the researchers said in a press announcement, ‘the theater, fully and harmoniously integrated into the geomorphology of the hill, with a panoramic view of the wider area, is undoubtedly the most important and imposing monument that has come to light in ancient Lefkada.’

“Ancient Lefkada was settled sometime before the 7th century B.C.E. by seafaring Corinthians. They homed in on the locale for its strategic position along major sea routes, which fueled the flourishing of the city-state. …

“In 1901, the ruins of the arena were found by German archaeologist E. Kruger and later logged by his collaborator Wilhelm Dörpfeld in his 1927 volume Alt Ithaka. Following their survey, the Germans reburied the monument. Over the years, as the grounds grew over with olive groves and became dotted with makeshift warehouses, the location of the theater was lost.

“It took decades before the structure was rediscovered in 1997 by archaeologists studying the geomorphological characteristics of the area. From 2015, a systemic excavation of the building commenced. Large olive trees had to be uprooted and extensive earthworks carried out in a project that archaeologists deemed ‘particularly difficult and demanding.’ So far, the project has unearthed the building’s cavea, orchestra pit, most of the stage, and various walls.

“The cavea boasted 21 rows of seats, likely topped by a diazoma, or horizontal aisle, which led up to a further three rows. Two cavea walls were found standing at lengths from 65 to 91 feet. The theater, however, appears to have been unfinished. Still, the team calculates it could have seated about 3,500 spectators; if completed, estimates put its capacity at 10,000 to 11,000.

“The orchestra pit, meanwhile, was discovered carved into natural rock in a perfect circle some 54 feet in diameter. A stone frame encircles it. Remains of the stage area were also discovered, including parts of sandstone columns and architraves. These fragments once formed part of the Ionic facade of the theater’s loggia, or external gallery, which once boasted 16 columns and was flanked by ramps.

A highlight during the dig, the team noted, was the unearthing of fragments of three stone thrones.

“These seats, once decorated with reliefs depicting dolphins, birds, and lion paws, were intended for prominent guests, whether priests or city officials.

“Quite likely, the theater saw modifications during its lifetime before it was abandoned as Lefkada declined during the Roman era. In 31 B.C.E., Roman emperor Augustus founded Nicopolis, a new capital city near Preveza, at which the majority of Lefkada residents were made to settle. Ancient Lefkada was deserted, with many of its buildings, including the theater, being mined for construction material.

“At the remains of the monument that once dominated the ancient city, archaeologists will next survey its upper cavea and part of the stage. The team is also awaiting approval for its plans to conserve the theater.”

Interesting. I hadn’t hear of covering up a partial excavation as the German archaeologists did in the early 20th century. I assume they had reason to think the ruins need protection.

Good pictures at Artnet, here. No firewall.

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The Dying Art of Steel-Cut Letters

June 1, 2025 by suzannesmom

Illustration: Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914) via Wikimedia Commons.
Illustration of a punch (left) and matrix (right) used in type-founding, ca. 1876.

I’ve always loved the way steel-cut letters make a formal invitation look, the way they press into high-quality paper, drawing my attention to the hands of whoever did the typesetting. It’s a dying art to make the letters and even to print with them, and that inspired a filmmaker to look into the masters of the craft.

Carey Dunne writes at Hyperallergic, “In a smoky atelier in Torino, Italy, Giuseppe Branchino works as one of the world’s last punch cutters. Cutting punches, the first step in traditional typesetting, is the meticulous craft of carving letterforms into small steel billets.

“Branchino was the former head of the engraving department of type foundry and printing press manufacturer Nebiolo, founded in Turin in 1852. Along with a few others scattered across the globe, he carries on a centuries-old practice that’s becoming obsolete in the age of digital type.

“In the meditative short film The Last Punchcutter, by Giorgio Affanni and Gabriele Chiapparini, we watch Branchino create a punch. Drinking espresso and smoking a cigarette, he works silently and slowly, carving the letter ‘G’ into a thin block of steel with awls and chisels, peering through a magnifying glass to inspect his handiwork. He spends nearly seven minutes on a single letter.

“The film was created as part of Griffo, the Great Gala of Letters, a multidisciplinary project focusing on the life of Francesco Griffo, a 15th-century Venetian punch cutter and type designer. Born circa 1450 near Bologna, the son of the goldsmith and engraver Cesare Griffo, he went on to work for the house of Aldus Manutius of Venice, the most important publisher of the day. In 1501, for an edition of Virgil (the Aldine Virgil), he created what’s regarded as the first italic typeface. 

“Though his typefaces are still widely used and inspire most contemporary type designers, details of his biography are murky and, as Joseph Blumenthal put it in The Art of the Printed Book 1455–1955, ‘Griffo has never received adequate recognition for his enormous contribution to type design.’ Through videos, texts, and an upcoming exhibition, the Great Gala of Letters project aims to bring Griffo some long overdue recognition on the the 500th anniversary of his death.”

That book is out of print, but nothing stops GoodReaders from reading out-of-print books. Marc Joseph gave Blumenthal book five stars, saying, “Joseph Blumenthal was a fine printer for years at his Spiral Press. One of the great printers of the mid-twentieth century. He was also a typographer, educator, author in all things fine printing and a historian in the history of the printed word.

“Here he brings all of that acumen to bear on the history of the printed book, from 1455 to 1955. … There are multiple plates showing examples of the printing mentioned in the text, so the reader not only reads the facts, but sees them as well.

“This book forms a foundational basis for understanding the history of print. A note must also be made on the production values of this book. It is printed letterpress by the Stinehour Press (which for the size of the book and length is crazy). The tactile feel of the letterpress is amazing and shows the reader what fine press work is all about.

“The plates were printed by the Meridian Gravure Company, another fine printer, particularly of plates, either black and white or in color (black and white here). This hardbound volume was released in 1973 by the co-publishers, the Pierpont Morgan Library and David R. Godine. At the time of writing this review [December 2023], this particular edition can be had for $22.00 in ‘as new’ condition.”

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