Escape Blouse
When basic necessities are scarce, you make do with what you have. This blouse used to be an escape map, and was probably made by a woman who was already familiar with the process of repurposing sack cloth for clothing, curtains, and toys, a widespread practice in North America in the first half of the 20th century.
"During World War II many materials were unavailable to the public because of government rationing. This blouse is an inovative[sic] example of a woman repurposing the silk escape maps that her husband used while flying combat in Europe."
More:
- Here's more on the history of sackcloth clothing: Fashion History: Feed Sack Fashion.
- Maps weren't the only tools soldiers were given in case they needed to escape enemy territory; some were also given escape cards.
I’m Going to Spoil Your Favorite TV Show
By Anna-Lisa Cohen. NYT (gift article)
Because I respect the agency of others, I think this is basically right:
You don’t mention the ending of a television show or movie if the person you’re talking with hasn’t seen it yet. It’s just basic human decency. Premature plot revelations are so far out of bounds that their name alone stands as a warning: spoilers.”
But I've argued for a long time that great stories remain great—readable, watchable, listenable—even if they’ve been “spoiled." Why else would so many of us return to the same media, the same stories, over and over again? Knowing the end of a story in advance ultimately just doesn't matter—does it?
“Spoiler alert: It doesn’t.”
VIDEO: Why New York’s Billionaire Row Is Half Empty
By Fred Mills. The B1M.
I first saw New York City's new, super thin towers while walking through Central Park. With my untrained eye, I assumed they were part of the inevitable evolution of the architectural grandeur of an iconic American city, an architecture rooted in a specific time and place. This video helped me understand that these towers, and similar building projects in cities around the world, are part of a very different kind of cultural evolution.
"...zombie urbanism isn't unique to Midtown Manhattan. In Paris, second homes are on the rise, and in a handful of its districts, a quarter of of the homes are sitting empty. Some of the most expensive neighborhoods in London are eerily quiet at night, as many of the properties are second residences. In Melbourne, experts warned an entire district in a prime location could become a suburb of ghost towers due to unused property."
More:
- Curious, as I was, to understand how we talk about architecture of specific times and places? One helpful term is "vernacular architecture."