curi·ous {Old French curios} Drawn to investigate, prick up the ears, ponder for the sake of pondering. Enticed by mysteriously labeled bottles.
vo·luptu·ary {Late Latin volupturius} A lass devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. An unabashed epicurean, hedonist, libertine, sensualist, lotus-eater.
My day began in the company of three kids, two grown-ups, a dog, and a curious kitty who would have been quite interested in a certain exhibit at the Museum of Jurrasic Technology…
Also on display were the Micromosaics of Henry Dalton. This image is through a microscope, and made of bits of butterfly wings.
We also saw the Floral [...]
“(Swinburne is) a braggart in matters of vice, who has done everything he could to convince his fellow citizens of his homosexuality and bestiality without being in the slightest degree a homosexual or a bestializer.”
Damn, Oscar Wilde, throw down the decadent gauntlet! Nevermind Wilde himself was derided by Edmond de Goncourt as lifting his poncy [...]
Lost a day and night to food poisoning, both of us, presumably via the dreaded shellfish! Discover a passion for oysters and the price of such passion in one go…
We did manage to drag ourselves through the Louvre, where Alfonso had never been. It was a sea of humans and alleged “masterpieces.” When the Mona [...]
Le pâle squelette/De mes amourettes/Joue des castagnettes…
(The pale skeleton/Of my little loves/Plays castanets…)
[...]
He was a man so cranky he seemed a character in a story by Dickens. This man–let’s call him Ebenezer–spit a response to my innocent inquiry, “Please sir, where is the real cricket playing tiny violin?”
No matter, we found said cricket–and the flea in golden horseshoes, and the whole herd of camels in the [...]
“Can I ask you a terribly rude question?” the woman with the kind smile, beaming eyes and slight limp said. She had pretended to be looking for the “ladies,” to broach this I later realized, and so I had a moment to decide I liked her, so I said yes.
“The man you are with—are you [...]
It is perched in a blown glass egg, the base of which reads Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza. The right middle finger of Galileo–this heretic’s reliquary–is tucked in a case among telescopes, celestial globes, solar orbs, and tellurium.
Or it would be, if the museum’s wonderous objects were not mostly hidden away while they [...]
Three of my favorite parts of this journey were found when righteously lost, and I’m feeling that is something worth noting. It is also ironic as the adventure included a visit to Alfonso’s cousin Antonio, who designs software for Fiat, most particularly GPS, or Global Positioning Systems.
We began by driving to Torino–Turin–by way of mistake [...]
In the museum of Mr. John Tradescant are the following things: the hand of a mermaid…a number of things changed into stone…a picture wrought in feathers…a cup of an east indian Alcedo, which is a kind of unicorn…the passion of Christ carved very daintily on a plumstone…a hat band of snake bones.~ Georg Christoph Stirn, [...]
Easter water is thought to have healing properties–farmers once herded their cattle to brooks on Easter morning to protect them from illnesses. Another tradition calls for young women (ahem) to bathe in the early morning on Easter to secure everlasting youth and beauty. Who am I to doubt it?
All bathed and youthful, we had [...]