[via Monkeyfilter] The full-laden containership M/V APL Panama beached in northern Baja Mexico on Christmas day. The ensuing mayhem has been amusingly & anachronistically CHRONICLED by correspondents unknown upon the PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN TO ME web-site of Countryman & McDaniel, attorneys-at-law.
S.est
Oz, indeed
Tara’s up to that memoir thing that blogs are so good at. So’s she. Check it out.
Ba'athtub
Ever wondered about the roots of pan-Arabist nationalism? The Moor Next Door has a longish essay, Three Nadhras of Michel Aflaq, which explores the ideas of a Syrian founder of the Ba’ath party, Michel Aflaq. Nouri notes that Aflaq died in Iraq in 1989. Based on the essay, Aflaq’s reinterpretation of European political ideas of the 1930s – notably including fascism – underpin the Ba’athist response to colonialsim. Fascinating.
Personally, I have always sort of understood post-colonial nationalism as a misguided rerun of the European rise of the idea. The point of contention, I guess, is whether or not the construction of a national identity is necessary in order to practice a politics of modernity. After all, the European county I have the most knowledge of and which has the longest-standing democratic form of governance confederated well before the national ideal became important in Europe and consequently has, count ’em, four national languages.
Speeding Mortorcycle
Daniel Johnston, back in the news, this time as NYT-dubbed ‘rising gallery star.’
Fez Supplier
the real MaCoy.
Tune
a guitar tuner.
Submarine plane?
Manuel seems to have spotted a sunken jet near the Renton Boeing plant.
In January, a 737 was sunk to create a divers’ reef near Vancouver Island.
Could this be the PBM-5 that was supposed to be raised about 10 years ago? It looks about the right size. However, the wing profile of the possible plane Manuel found seems more like a jet than a prop plane.
Here is a page on plane wrecks in Lake Washington. The Submerged Cultural Resources Exploration Team maintains a list of dives in the lake; no jet appears among them.
Game
Enki Bilal and Pierre Christin’s The Hunting Party.
Comet Crash?
Hannah Levin asks about rumors concerning the sale (and imputed demise) of the sainted Comet, chez Slog. Commenters finger Caffe Vitta as the likely culprit.
On a side note, Slog, please adopt conventional article-and-comment linky pages such that your occasional flashes of wit may become more widely disseminated. Thank you.