Went to a kirie workshop and had so much kiri-ing fun. Waves of Kanagawa and Fujisan :) Tired now … zzz
I dunno. The Antipodean was a bit of a let-down. Saw a huge queue and thought if I could get a table immediately I would try it out. The food was okay but the background music and the stuffiness (too many people kot) made me want to hightail it out of there asap. Halfway through my food I realised I had a throbbing headache and could no longer enjoy anything. Will not be going back.
The Passionate Pilgrim: Xuanzang (602-664)
Illustration courtesy Ivy Close Images/Alamy
In 629, a Chinese monk with a tall backpack for carrying scrolls left the Tang capital to embark on a 10,000-mile, 16-year journey to India to study and collect sacred texts of Buddhism. An indefatigable traveler and writer, Xuanzang tracked the northern route of the Silk Road, documenting regions that are now Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.He crossed the Hindu Kush to the valley of Bamian, where he described the colossal Gandhara Buddha statues (“brilliant golden color and resplendent with ornamentation of precious substances”) that received global attention when they were destroyed by the Taliban in 2000. His pilgrimage to India was arduous but intellectually fruitful. He returned to China with a massive collection of significant Sanskrit texts that illuminated the Buddhist faith and produced a definitive travel record of Central and South Asia.
Xuanzang is revered today as a linguist, historian, faithful folk hero, and—above all—a passionate traveler.
holiday’s
i was writing my moms a mother’s day card (using a cæesar cipher and invisible ink) when i got to wondering how mother’s day is supposed to be punctuated. is it:
- mother’s day (singular possessive)—a day that belongs to each mother
- mothers’ day (plural possessive)—a day that belongs to all mothers
- mothers day (plural attributive)—a day for all of us to honour mothers
it turns out that anna jarvis, the populariser of mother’s day was pretty specific with her apostrophe intentions, she stated:
it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world
so that settles that. but what about other u.s. holidays—do they all get the same treatment? it turns out that they don’t and like other aspects of government, the spelling of holidays is fraught with inconsistency. therefore i made us this handy crib sheet so we won’t embarrass ourselves when writing future columbus day and st. patrick’s day cards.
note: unbeknownst to me, presidents day is not the actual name of the holiday—it’s washington’s birthday. since presidents day is not official, there’s no official way to spell it and we are left to the mercy of car dealerships and furniture store circulars.
also inconsistent: is how it’s st. patrick’s day but columbus day.
then: there’s the odd case of veterans day.
finally: i would like to note that hallowe’en is a perfectly acceptable varient of halloween and therefore it is the only holiday that uses an apostrophe for purposes of contraction.
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is it lame or cool to note that this chart is set in itc barcelona? donald says lame but donald wears black socks at the gym
thank you pierce for your unwavering enthusiasm for all things u.s.
This is the sort of info you want before you reach the place and find it still closed.
P.s. Not happy. I waited. It’s 10 now and the damned door is still shut.
Alatna River Valley, Gates of the Arctic
Photograph by Michael Christopher Brown, National Geographic
“I paddled across this deep, slow-moving river in my small pack raft,” says adventurer Andrew Skurka. The Alatna meanders south from the Gates of the Arctic National Park.
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