Here are a few facts to BLOW YOUR MIND if you want to feel OLD!!!
Latvia’s post-Cold War declaration of independence happened closer to the moon landing than the present day.
The release of New Coke happened closer to Alaska becoming a U.S. state than the present day.
The Bay of Pigs invasion happened closer to Mussolini’s assumption of power in Italy than to the capture of Saddam Hussein in his spider hole.
The Los Angeles Summer Olympics happened closer to the founding of the Republic of Bangladesh than to the release of Windows 98.
The premiere of the first film featuring Donald Duck happened closer to the present day than to the succession of King Johann to the throne of Saxony.
The Battle of Guadalcanal happened closer to the ratification of the Twenty-Third Amendment than to the birth of Russian lexicographer Vladimir Dal.
Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain happened closer to the same declaration by Paraguay than to the present day.
The formation of the universe happened closer to the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary than the present day.
The succession of Osman III (1754–1757) as Ottoman Emperor, replacing Mahmud I, happened closer to John Flamsteed’s initial sighting of Uranus than to my graduation from high school.
The first flight of the Space Shuttle happened closer to the present day than to the Battle of Agincourt.
I’m getting ready to hit the road for a bunch of conventions! If you’re near any of these places, I’d love to see you there. I’d be pleased to shake your hand, make you a Roll-a-Sketch, or whatever!
Note as well that I’m not always listed in show programs or directories under my name, or Wondermark: sometimes I’m with TopatoCo, other times with other groups — but I always try to mention my location for each show here on the site in advance, so be sure to check in.
PLUS OF COURSE I perform improv comedy every other Monday night at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, CA with my house team “Cool Boss”! Those shows are always FREE so STOP ON BY.
My friend Matt Bennardo tweeted a link today to a lengthy article about a fairly obscure corner of literary scholarship that nonetheless completely riveted me. Whenever I worry that my attention span is becoming depleted by the constant noise-barrage of the internet, I remember that certain pieces of reading still have the power to make the world recede for a bit.
I hope I’m not overselling this piece too much. It’s (nominally) about how, in 1862, Charles Dickens may or may not have met Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Although Dostoevsky is known to have visited London for a week in 1862, neither his published letters nor any of the numerous biographies contain any hint of such a meeting. Dostoevsky would have been a virtual unknown to Dickens. It isn’t clear why Dickens would have opened up to his Russian colleague in this manner, and even if he had wanted to, in what language would the two men have conversed?…
“When Dickens Met Dostoevsky”, by Eric Naiman, The Times Literary Supplement.Read the whole thing here. Take my word for it.
A few years ago I had the delight of meeting and befriending one of the greatest stage magicians around, a true master of the old-time patter and a gentleman to boot, Pop Haydn. Pop is performing his signature show this Thursday, April 4, at Magicopolis in Santa Monica, CA — discounted tickets are available on his website.
We don’t have fraud in nature. The universe is not set up to fool us. If we find facts in nature, they’re usually pretty much what they appear to be. But when humans are involved, there is always the possibility of cheating and trickery. And that’s what magicians are here to remind us about, how easily we can be fooled, when there’s another human being using deception…
You [the public] can’t invent the solution [to a magic trick] because you don’t have the technology. You don’t know the technology of deception. We have a whole deception of camouflage, mirrors, pick pocketing, lock-picking, acting, costuming, lighting, deceit, trickery, lying. All kinds of stuff at our disposal that we’ve studied, that gives us an edge over someone who doesn’t know that technology. Because any technology that is sufficiently advanced looks like magic. Our technology is a technology of deception. That’s what looks like magic to people. (read more)
I was pleased to feature Pop at our Machine of Death Magic & Variety Show a little while back. Here’s an excerpt from his performance! (It starts with me & Ryan North chatting for a bit; Pop comes on stage around at around 2:45.)
If you’re in the L.A. area and free on Thursday night, I highly recommend Pop’s show!
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