Fed by Birds

Everyone with a blog seems to be going crazy for the Typealyzer, where you put in the website address and it tells you what personality the author has.

Fed by Birds, it claims, is written by type ESTP - The Doer: "The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities. The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

This couldn't be more wrong. There's absolutely no joking or action-filled work around here, and remaining inactive for long periods of time is not a problem.

Even more confusingly, when I ask it about my other site, it tells me I'm writing in Chinese (Simplified).

Posted by at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Bibliodyssey has a great post at the moment about board games over the centuries, and among them are some that are really due for a revival. The Swan of Elegance instructs players in morality with the examples of Cruel Philip, Obstinate Sue or Polite Phoebe.

Oxford Digital Library has an exciting-sounding variation: swan-hopping

What I really want to play is the Mansion of Bliss:

Posted by at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This 1946 advertisement for Casco was illustrated by the Russian-born surrealist Boris Artzybasheff. I'm not completely sure what Casco was/is, but they promise "new and unusual contributions to better living", and they certainly knew how to commission an eye-catching advert. Artzybasheff also illustrated this "improved design for modern man":

I can't find a big enough image to read the writing, unfortunately, but it's good to see Improved Man has a built-in filing cabinet, birdcage and some kind of early iPhone, with detachable heart and champagne glasses. I like the look of him a lot. And Improved Woman has a twig and is that a newt? - plus rear view mirror, martini, and I think it says that trapdoor in her head is for easy access by a psychoanalyst. Bring on the future!

Posted by at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Walking through the British Museum I came across this strangely modern-looking owl sculpture, actually an Aztec vessel for sacrificial offerings. Interesting to see that if you were born on 1-Rain in the Aztec calendar you were liable to turn into a deadly tlacatecolotl, or human owl. (I can't work out what that is in the Gregorian calendar but here is a fascinating article about the Aztec calendar, which begins on 1-Crocodile and goes through Ocelot and Death's Head, ending with 13-Flower.)

Owl men were also popular in Seventies Cornwall, it seems.

Posted by at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Talking of owls, a kind correspondent sent me this image from the Owles Almanacke of 1618, by Thomas Dekker, or possibly Thomas Middleton. In this mock almanac an owl makes predictions for haberdashers, grocers and ironmongers, and gives still-valid advice for the coming year, including, "Evacuate by vomit when The Sun in New Fish Street draws excellent French wines that leap up in your face." Also, "Those that would be taken for a gentlewoman must sue for shoes that creak like a frog but our shrewd dames will have dumb bottoms that they may rush upon their maids as 'twere out of an ambush."

Posted by at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back from the West, with some sounds of autumn on the Cornish coast:

Birds on the cliff path above a bay, with the sea below:

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Dry leaves rustling in the breeze:

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And church bells floating from across the river, as three pirates or possibly smugglers trudge up the hill complaining about how Paul broke the dredger:

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Posted by at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)