Archive for June, 2007


Postcards from Sealy Mattress Factory carpenter

Patrick Mortensen, former Sugar Land, TX resident and fellow Brooklyn transplant, offered some context for my great-granddad’s philanderings after I posted about his predilection for dragging the family to construction sites and then abandoning them to shack up with someone new. “Based on the pretty faces I remember from 63 years or so after Zone was there,” said Mortensen, “he . . .

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Twain on Whitman, 125 years later

In a previously unpublished defense of Walt Whitman, Mark Twain argues that the poet’s obscenities are nothing compared to what you’ll find in the classics. (Via.)

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Robotics and the Iliad

Hellenic Studies scholars are using a robot arm to scan the oldest known copy of Homer’s Iliad, with an eye toward creating a 3-D replica of the manuscript. (Via.)

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