gasmantell

@gasmantell.bsky.social

coffin dodger. Mainly outside.

Outside today, I accidentally summoned the Corvids. A large crow pecked at the window—drawn by the nearby hazel-stick framework I'd rigged up for something else entirely. It tapped and cawed, insistent. Over and over again. A toad too, pressed against the rotten wood. #hookland #booksky

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The Agate,found in the eagle's nest, is of two sorts - male and female. The virtue of this stone is to maketh a person sober, and increaseth riches. There is a certain snayle, rarely found, who makes the Shells of agate. Any person who finds and holds such Shell shall have great fortune #booksky.

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IF this stone be placed on coals in the four corners of the house, or be pounded and sprinkled on the coals, sleepers will flee the house and quite forsake it, and then thieves can see after all that they please. Quote from " Of the Virtues of Stones." by Albertus Magnus, c1200-1280 #booksky

Flies are unquiet, and importunate, and malicious, sting-ing and worrying. Flies, like bees, if killed in water, sometimes revive after an hour. If Flies be burnt, and smeared with honey on bald places, they produce hair. - Hortus Sanitatis, De Avibus #flies #surprise

"I've made a song for the poorly loved And songs for everything I grieved – For unaccompanied slave and shark, For queens who've gone into the dark." Guillaume Apollinaire was born #otd 1880 🎨 Giorgio de Chirico "The Red Tower" (1913)

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"This eerie candy will test the sanity of all but those who possess the strongest of constitutions. Strange congeries of almonds and walnuts dance hypnotically within, promising to reveal their eldritch secrets to anyone foolish enough to take a bite of these ancient nut clusters!" buff.ly/FfsXmaQ

Selections from H.P. Lovecraft’s Brief Tenure as a Whitman’s Sampler Copywriter

“This eerie candy will test the sanity of all but those who possess the strongest of constitutions. Strange congeries of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios dan...

mcsweeneys.net

Lord Lovat by Hogarth. While waiting to be executed a stand collapsed killing 9 spectators. His own head was removed as he laughed and laughed. The phrase ‘laughing your head off’ a result. His head still rumoured to roll around Boleskine House

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If you were living in Europe in the 1580s and 90s, you would likely have heard a few herring prophecies from Norway. Fishes with words about evil, fighting knights symbolizing the Ottoman conflicts of the Habsburg monarchy etc. appeared, and they all predicted something about the state of the world.

a German broadside with a wondrous fish caught off Norway. Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-0710-3466 fishes with words from a small print of 1598 ("Prophetia halieutica nova et admiranda...", Source: https://www.e-rara.ch/zuz/content/titleinfo/1489626A broadside from 1587 showing a fish with wondrous inscriptions which reads 'Vici Malum' caught off Norway. Source: https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freytag/content/pageview/8433201

You will rarely see such a beautiful coin anywhere in the annals of history. No larger than a fingernail, this electrum stater from Lampsakos (Greek polis on the eastern shore of the Hellespont) depicts Pegasos, with curved antique-style wings. 🏺 1/ 520-480 BCE. #GettyVilla 📸 me

This incredibly detailed electrum stater from Lampsakos depicting Pegasos (with antique-style curved wings - upper body only, no rear) is no bigger than a pinkie fingernail. It boggles the mind, thinking of how an artist engraved such a tiny coin stamp with so many details. Lampsakos was an ancient Greek city located in modern day Turkey, strategically situated on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad. An inhabitant of Lampsakos was called a Lampsacene.

Minted ca. 520-480 BCE.

On loan to the Getty Villa from the American Numismatic Society (1967.152.411)

for JD Twitch's birthday in 1992 I gave him a Joe 90 annual where I had tippexed out every mention of Joe 90 and added Keith 1992 and his battles with the nefarious World Turntable Network (WTN) which was an in-joke between us