Month: February 2022

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848)

Tiffany was an American artist and designer best known for his work in stained glass. He studied painting with George Inness and later established an interior-decorating firm that came to be known as Tiffany Studios. The firm specialized in favrile glass work, characterized by iridescent colors and natural forms in the Art Nouveau style. After 1900, Tiffany’s firm ventured into jewelry, pottery, and lamps, which became enormously popular in the 1960s and were widely imitated. Who was his father? Discuss

Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption

Rosenzweig was a Jewish philosopher who almost converted to Christianity before immersing himself in the Hebrew classics. His major work, The Star of Redemption, described the relationships between God, humanity, and the world, as they are connected by creation, revelation, and redemption. When diagrammed, the six concepts form a Star of David. In 1929, just eight years after publishing The Star of Redemption, Rosenzweig died. What were his last words—and how did he express them? Discuss

seats

dress circle – So called because it is a circular row of seats at an entertainment, the spectators of which are expected to be in dress clothes. More…

sedile – A seat by the altar for a member of the church clergy. More…

tandem – From Latin, literally “eventually, at length,” and then, metaphorically, “acting conjointly”; in the 1880s, it was transferred from a two-horse carriage to a bicycle with two seats, one behind the other. More…

circus – Latin for “ring,” its first use was for the arena of Roman antiquity, an oval or circular area enclosed by tiers of seats and usually covered by a tent. More…

The Southern Leyte Mudslide (2006)

After 10 days of heavy rains and a minor earthquake, a cliff face in the Southern Leyte province of the Philippines collapsed, initiating the world’s deadliest single landslide in nearly two decades. More than 1,100 people were killed when a torrent of rocks, mud, and debris buried the village of Guinsaugon. The international community quickly came to the aid of the island nation, but difficult conditions hampered the relief effort. What do some believe also contributed to the deadly landslide? Discuss

Bonden Festival

At the Bonden (or Bonten) Festival at Yokote in the Akita Prefecture of Japan, each district of the city has a team of young men to carry its bonden in a race to the Asahiokayama-jinja shrine. The bonden is a 10-foot (3-m) bamboo pole, draped with heavy cloth and topped by a platform holding a figure of the Animal of the Year. Those carrying the bonden gradually increase their pace until they are running, often pushing members of competing teams to the ground to be the first to the top. The team that arrives first wins the privilege of offering its bonden to the kami, or god. Discuss

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836)

One of the best 19th-century lyric poets, Bécquer was a Spanish poet and writer of romantic tales. Orphaned by 11, unhappily married, and living in poverty for most of his brief life, he became lonely and introspective. His celebrated suite of poems, Rimas, is characterized by the melancholy and resigned bitterness of the romantics. He was moderately well known during his life but gained wider acclaim following the posthumous publication of many of his works. What caused his early death? Discuss

Peter Abelard

Abelard was a 12th-century French philosopher and teacher whose career was derailed by a scandalous relationship with a tutee named Heloise. After a son and a secret marriage, Abelard sent Heloise to a convent to protect her from her disapproving family. In response, her uncle had Abelard castrated. Heloise became an abbess, while Abelard sought refuge as a monk. After his first theological work was burned as heretical, he established a monastery and resumed teaching. What were his last words? Discuss