May 13, 2018

Doreen Simmons, British-born sumo wrestling commentator, dies at 85

Ms Simmons began her tenure as the English-language commentator on NHK in 1992. She also got her first tattoo at age 71. She led an incredible life.
posted by nerdfish at 11:34 PM PST - 13 comments

One day they will have to stand up to themselves

I'm freshly home after seeing U2 on their current eXEPERIENCE + iNNOOCNCE tour and so hey, here's the most recent U2 album, Songs Of Experience. The production on this album alludes strongly to past albums while always returning to U2 being a 4-piece rock band. It's 40 years of U2 condensed into one truly classic album. . Side One: Love Is All We Have Left, Light Of Home, You're The Best Thing About Me [video], Get Out Of Your Own Way / American Soul [GOOYOW video, AS official lyric video] [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:15 PM PST - 17 comments

Richardson-Olmsted Historic Insane Asylum

Richardson Romanesque with grounds by Olmsted now a hotel. The asylum was abandoned and required much restoration, but now it's become a fancy hotel in Buffalo with the grounds by Olmstead restored. Richardson was such an important architect that his style was named after him. This page on Pinterest shows a number of his buildings, including the Glessner House, where the Mother of Forensic Science lived for most of her life. Richardson Romanesque images
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:45 PM PST - 19 comments

I am who I am and you are Fidel Castro

In top-secret reports from the era, those officials speculated about “a physical relationship between” Howard and Castro and feared she would use her position at ABC News to break the story of Washington’s secret talks with the Cuban comandante. But both she and Castro took the secret of their intimate diplomacy to their graves. Only now, thanks to declassified official documents and, most important, Howard’s own unpublished diaries and letters, can the story finally be told of how one tenacious journalist earned the trust of the legendary leader of the Cuban revolution, and cajoled two U.S presidents into considering peaceful coexistence with him.
The story of reporter Lisa Howard, her relationship with Fidel Castro, Cold War politics and how much of a bawse she was. from Politico.
posted by Grandysaur at 8:10 PM PST - 17 comments

Women going their own way, alone, in the woods

Misadventures Magazine: "I would not have gotten to know myself in the same way if I’d let the fact that I was a woman alone stop me from going out into the wild."
She Explores: "I spend a lot of my time moving at someone else’s pace, trying to accommodate, appease, and appeal. [...] I lose my sense of adventure entirely. I took that back the weekend I spent on the Berg Lake Trail."
On Being a Woman Alone in the Woods: "...being solo in the backcountry is one of the only times in my life that I’ve been able to exist as a body and a person without worrying about how other people might try to claim my body as their own." [more inside]
posted by AFABulous at 7:30 PM PST - 29 comments

It feels like the right time to share how the rest of us are doing

"As the Great Writer tours the country for his children’s book, he comes to my city. We meet. We speak about our past and say what we have already said hundreds of times to one another—my hurt, his apology, his trauma, his everything. He had already shared a rough draft of his confessional piece with me. He spoke to his editors as I drove him around town, on whether his piece should directly invoke the #MeToo movement or not. What I had not seen was the short paragraph he added referencing our specific past. To be a pit stop in a city he considered an isolated maw and follow the deep sigh of the phrase, in the meantime, perhaps says it all. To be named, and yet not named. Something broke in me when I read his synopsis of us, as if I had been summarily dismissed after twenty long years. Absolute erasure is a place without speech; a partial disclosure is like a door or window cracked open ever so slightly." [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 7:06 PM PST - 28 comments

I knew the jet fuel of love couldn’t melt the steel beams of my heart.

The 2018 winners of the Lyttle Lytton Contest have been posted. (previously) [more inside]
posted by crazy with stars at 3:59 PM PST - 25 comments

Keep Cool, Spunky California Woman

Labeltime is an instagram account that just posts pictures of old clothing labels, featuring such famous brands as Tomato, Protest Boys, and Picture. [more inside]
posted by moonmilk at 12:03 PM PST - 12 comments

Delaware Bans Child Marriage

On Wednesday, Delaware became the first U.S. state to totally ban people from marrying where one (or both) are under the age of 18. There are two reasons usually cited for forcing a child into marriage: if someone is pregnant, or religious reasons. But no major religion promotes child marriage. And in some states, there is no minimum age to marriage. Wedlocked is a Teen Vogue series about child marriage in the United States that examines the history of the practice and its modern realities. Also see: PBS Frontline: Child Marriage in America [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:34 AM PST - 37 comments

"Hi, I'm Kara, and I inadvertently helped make a meme."

Some meme doing the rounds. Me: is this the best of the web?
posted by MartinWisse at 8:33 AM PST - 24 comments

If you don't stop crying your head will fall off and laugh at you

Being a mom is a tough job, in large part because you just can’t reason with small children. What you can do, however, is lie to them. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked Atlas Obscura readers to send us the most outlandish white lies their mothers ever told them. As it turns out, moms all over the world are telling some wonderfully inventive lies.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:27 AM PST - 115 comments

One of the world’s most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure

The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver looks at the biology, technology and culture of working at the bottom of the ocean.
posted by gen at 6:58 AM PST - 17 comments

Going underground

In London’s richest boroughs vast subterranean enclaves are being carved out over several floors to house cars, wine, saunas and private nightclubs. How did underground living become an investment scheme for the uber-wealthy? What lies beneath: the subterranean secrets of London's super-rich
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:32 AM PST - 32 comments

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