Ideal Cities

Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Architectural View, ca. 1477

Ideal City, ca. 1470

Fra Carnevale, Ideal City, ca. 1480-84

Self Help

Ordnung halten heißt: Den Arbeitsplatz immer sauber und das Werkzeug stets griffbereit haben! So arbeitet sichs auch viel besser!

Being orderly means: keeping the workplace clean and always having the tool handy! It's also easier to work that way!

German Poster from the interwar period.

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)

L'Eseigne de Gersaint, 1721

Head of a Man, c. 1718, red and black chalk

Pierrot, or Gilles, c. 1718-19

The French Comedians, 1720-21

Mezzetin, c. 1718-20

Pilgrimage to Cythera (Berlin), 1718

The Shepherds, 1717, oil on wood

Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1718

Diana Bathing, c. 1715-16

Terrorists to the Bone

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali

Guiltless Pleasure

Phyllis et Aristotles

Aquamanile, ca. 1400, bronze.

Hans Baldung Grien, 1513.


ONCE upon a time, Aristotle taught Alexander that he should restrain himself from frequently approaching his wife, who was very beautiful, lest he should impede his spirit from seeking the general good. Alexander acquiesed to him. The queen, when she perceived this and was upset, began to draw Aristotle to love her. Many times she crossed paths with him alone, with bare feet and disheveled hair, so that she might entice him.
At last, being enticed, he began to solicit her carnally. She says,

"This I will certainly not do, unless I see a sign of love, lest you be testing me. Therefore, come to my chamber crawling on hand and foot, in order to carry me like a horse. Then I'll know that you aren't deluding me."
When he had consented to that condition, she secretly told the matter to Alexander, who lying in wait apprehended him carrying the queen. When Alexander wished to kill Aristotle, in order to excuse himself, Aristotle says,
If thus it happened to me, an old man most wise, that I was deceived by a woman, you can see that I taught you well, that it could happen to you, a young man."
Hearing that, the king spared him, and made progress in Aristotle's teachings.
AND they lived happily ever after.
This exemplum was taken from here.

Fiddlesticks

A Flip the Frog cartoon by Ub Iwerks from 1930.