Five things make a tidy desktop

[shewhomust]

- well, tidier, I hope, by the closing of some tabs...

• The Guardian reviews an exhibition of linocuts at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (here's the gallery's own publicity). It looks wonderful, but is only on through the simmer, so there's no way I'll get there...



• There's a 'cutting edge' theme going on at Dulwich (their lone, not mine): looking for that exhibition, I also found Nahoko Kojima's 'Sumi', a paper-cut crocodile - I was going to say 'a gigantic paper-cut crocodile', but perhaps that's just how big crocodiles are. What do I know, I took it for a dragon at first. More (and better) pictures on the artist's website, not to mention the eagle, the blue whale and the honeycomb.



• Someone has translated the Bible into Polari:
  "And Gloria cackled, Let there be sparkle: and there was sparkle.
  And Gloria vardad the sparkle, that it was bona: ..."



• I expect everyone but me already knew about the Yiddish Book Center? I picked up Aaron Lansky's Outwitting History in the Amnesty bookshop, curious about the title, and then intrigued by the extension title "How a Young Man Rescued a Million Books and Saved a Vanishing Civilisation". This made the enterprise sound quixotic, with all that t6hat word implies of 'quirky', 'irresistible' and 'doomed'. THat's the flavour of the narrative, too: it's very personal, lively and just a little too slick (anecdotes and conversations of twenty years ago are given in too much detail to be absolutely believable). It took a while to dawn on me that this student stunt was turning into a serious enterprise - and then, well, how could I not already have heard of this?



• Real collectors can't turn down a tempting donation: they have a collection of Yiddish typewriters.

Comments

[sovay]

It took a while to dawn on me that this student stunt was turning into a serious enterprise - and then, well, how could I not already have heard of this?

I've never visited the center myself, but I know people who are closely involved with it and I've ordered back issues of their magazine.

Real collectors can't turn down a tempting donation: they have a collection of Yiddish typewriters.

I've never seen a trilingual typewriter before! That's great.

[negothick]

They also collected the last existing Yiddish linotype machine when the Forward got rid of it.
Sovay, you've never been to Yidstock? Oh, of course not--it's been the same weekend as Readercon for years now. The first year they did not coincide, then I managed to do both, but since then I've had to miss this Klezmer festival. This year's sounds particularly awesome--notice that most of the concerts are already sold out. They never have at-the-door tix. https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/yidstock

I finally met Aaron Lansky about five years ago. I've been a fan of his since he started in 1979 (I think), and I remember reading those anecdotes at the time in his publications, so when he finally wrote the memoir, he was simply quoting himself. My mother used to urge me to write and introduce myself to him--she thought he was my basherte. When I met him, I wished my mother were still alive to see the dismay with which he greeted me. I definitely outweigh him by many pounds and even though I've lost an inch or more of height, I'm still a head taller than he is. I don't know whether that's what dismayed him, or whether he thought (as most guys do) that I'm too loud and, well, performative. Anyway, clearly not bashert.

[hunningham]

Oh! Thankyou for that link to Dulwich - very interested and will need to check dates and diaries to see if I can do it.

[sovay]

Sovay, you've never been to Yidstock? Oh, of course not--it's been the same weekend as Readercon for years now.

Correct. Various members of ABV have been asking me for months now. It's not happening.

[negothick]

I even sent an email to their administrator complaining about the conflict with Readercon, and got a polite canned reply. I guess that once it is a tradition to have the event on a certain weekend. . .it's a tradition forever.

[athenais]

The Dulwich exhibition looks marvelous! I love that artwork so much.

[shewhomust]

I've never seen a trilingual typewriter before! That's great.

Such an intricate mechanism: ot's positively steampunk!

[shewhomust]

I remember reading those anecdotes at the time in his publications...

There is a disclaimer in the front of the book: names have been changed, but the rest is "accurate within the limits of memory." But I am happier knowuing that incidents may have been recorded earlier.

Did your mother know Lansky personally, or was she just doing what mothers do?

[shewhomust]

Oh, I hope you can! That's almost like visiting vicariously myself.

[shewhomust]

I love prints!

[negothick]

My mother knew Lansky only from his work establishing the Yiddish Book Center, but she was convinced he was my perfect match, even though he is 4 years younger (she didn't know about his height). She was right that we had many interests in common, including Yiddish literature, folklore, and music --and she was doing what mothers of all times and religions do--matchmaking.
If I had the nerve back then that I have today, my life might have been different--or he might have reacted in 1980 as he did in 2014 and run for HIS life.