Month: November 2011

I really enjoyed this article in the NY Times about horses in Pleistocene cave art. From what I have seen in the literature, most researchers seem to believe that animals represented in Eurasian cave art are accurate depictions of the animals living in our ancestors’ environment. For example, in The Nature of Paleolithic Art, Dale Guthrie uses information from cave art to produce maps that plot variation in coat color and marking patterns for various species.

One group of researchers however, believed that some animals represented may be more symbolic, diverging from reality or representing rare or even mystical creatures. Among these possible symbolic creatures were spotted horses, well known from Pech-Merle Cave.

The article tells us that recent DNA analysis has shown though, that Pleistocene horses had three color patterns: spotted or dappled; blackish ones; and brown ones. And these are the patterns that appear in cave art. People were drawing horses they actually saw – not “spirit horses.”

So there is another vote for research like Guthrie’s, assuming these are accurate representations of nature in the Pleistocene.

Also though, being a Faulkner fan, I was reminded of his novella entitled Spotted Horses.

In A Large Greek Colony, 200 BC

That things in the Colony are not what they should be
no one can doubt any longer,
and though in spite of everything we do go forward,
maybe—as more than a few believe—the time has come
to bring in a Political Reformer.

But here’s the problem, here’s the hitch:
they make a tremendous fuss
about everything, these Reformers.
(What a relief it would be
if no one ever needed them.) They probe everywhere,
question the smallest detail,
and right away think up radical changes
that demand immediate execution.

Also, they have a liking for sacrifice:
Get rid of that property;
your owning it is risky:
properties like those are exactly what ruin colonies.
Get rid of that income,
and the other connected with it,
and this third, as a natural consequence:
they are substantial, but what can one do?
the responsibility they create for you is damaging.

And as they proceed with their investigation,
they find an endless number of useless things to eliminate—
things that are, however, difficult to get rid of.

And when, all being well, they finish the job,
every detail now diagnosed and sliced away,
and they retire, also taking the wages due to them—
it will be a miracle if anything’s left at all
after such surgical efficiency.

Maybe the moment has not yet arrived.
Let’s not be too hasty: haste is a dangerous thing.
Untimely measures bring repentance.
Certainly, and unhappily, many things in the Colony are absurd.
But is there anything human without some fault?
And after all, you see, we do go forward.

– C.P. Cavafy

Several of my great-plus grandfathers made a very good living manufacturing patent medicines in the South from the 1870s – 1930s. Their best known product was Nash’s Chill and Liver Tonic, which was a big seller in an era when that part of the country was still plagued with yellow fever and malaria.

I have been looking for a bottle for years, and during one of my searches I found this picture taken in Alabama in the 1930s. You can see tin Nash’s Chill and Liver Tonic ads tacked to the doors of this shed. I hadn’t seen those before, and I guess I need to be shopping for those as well.

If you are looking for a reason to be cranky, check out this snotty, condescending, know-it-all explanatorium about us benighted prairie-dwellers lost in flyover country that was vomited up in the NYRB blog section. The comments are a kick, too. Dissect at your leisure.

The Department of Defense has big plans to keep our soldiers going on caffeinated jerky. (H/T Via Meadia)

And keeping with the jerky theme, a guy who was in my Boy Scout troop in Memphis is CEO of a company that is producing bacon jerky. Coming to a Walmart near you.

My fellow Faulkner fans will enjoy this story of how the old master got the idea of using plantation ledgers as a plot device in “Go Down Moses”. I bought a copy of Faulkner’s collected speeches and essays in a used bookstore in Santa Barbara a few years ago. The clerk gave me an arch look and proclaimed, “NOBODY reads Faulkner anymore!”

Enjoy this review of Tom Waits’ new album, “Bad As Me”.

The Hopi are very unhappy about the quality of water used for snow-making at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area.

Charles Mann wrote this review of Hugh Thomas’ new installment in his history of the Spanish Empire, The Golden Empire. It’s on my wish list.