Kitchens, Royals, Film, Faithism, Revolution


Hic sunt camelopardus: this historical edition of The Browser is presented for archaeological purposes; links and formatting may be broken.

The Curse Of An Open Floor Plan

Ian Bogost | Atlantic | 17th May 2018

Blame Frank Lloyd Wright for the open-plan kitchen. His 1901 “prairie home” launched the trend towards open floor plans that has driven American interior design ever since. Every conversion, every renovation, seems to involve knocking through walls to create bigger communal spaces for imagined entertaining and imagined family life. But who keeps it all clean? Where does the mess go? “The kitchen became like a ship’s bridge, but absent the personnel to run the vessel” (3,750 words)

Forty Years With Britain’s Royals

Hauke Goos & Jörg Schindler | Der Spiegel | 17th May 2018

Interview with Arthur Edwards, royal photographer with the Sun newspaper for 40 years. “Diana was very aware of photographers and often helped you. One day, we were at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She was speaking with the children and we were all kicked out and there were no pictures. Then, as she left, two workmen across the road whistled out. She looked up and smiled at them and that was the picture. She was one of the great women of the 20th century” (2,750 words)

This Is Not A Review

Caspar Salmon | Pajiba | 16th May 2018

Protest against Lars Von Trier’s film, “The House That Jack Built”, and against films in general that gratuitously depict extreme violence, particularly violence against women. “In ‘Jackie Brown’, Robert De Niro’s character shoots Bridget Fonda’s character dead because he is frustrated with her and wants to shut her up. I think of this scene when I see films, because I aim to consider the artistic merit of films, and I believe it is artistically less good to kill your character than to let her speak” (890 words)

Orphan Utopia

Reed McConnell | Cabinet | 17th May 2017

The twelve adherents of Faithism, perhaps the smallest religion in the world, hold weekly prayer meetings on Skype to study their holy book, Oahspe, which was dictated by angels in 1881 to a New York dentist called John Ballou Newbrough. The angels explained how Buddha, Jove, Shiva and other divines elected Christ as Supreme God. Newbrough’s first followers set up a vegetarian commune in New Mexico to raise 10,000 orphaned babies, but collected only 28 (4,100 words)

Jean-Paul Sartre Interviews Daniel Cohn-Bendit

Jean-Paul Sartre | Verso | 16th May 2018

Conversation in the midst of the May 68 Paris insurrection. The 23-year-old Cohn-Bendit shows remarkable realism and insight, beneath the leftist boilerplate. He explains that the demonstrations will soon ebb: This is not the start of a revolution, but a moment to secure specific benefits — a minimum wage, subsidised meals — for workers and students. “We shall make particular proposals, and no doubt a few of them will be accepted because they won’t dare refuse us everything” (3,440 words)

Video of the day Why Are You Honking?

What to expect:

Jeff Seal asks drivers in New York why they honk their horns so much. Representative answer: “Man, this is New York” (5’20”)

Thought for the day

It’s not the destination that matters. It’s the change of scene
Brian Eno

Podcast The Fox And The Hedgehog | Hidden Brain

Shankar Vedantam asks whether people do better in life with a ruling passion, or an open mind
(37m 31s)

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