glory photo from wikipedia

No, I'm not about to get all socio-philosophical on you. I actually saw an optical illusion called a glory about a month ago and didn't even realize it until today!

Earlier this afternoon I was reading up on the science behind rainbows and wound up at the wikipedia article for glory—a tiny circular rainbow, which wikipedia explains is "most commonly observed while airborne, with the glory surrounding the airplane's shadow on clouds."

Sounded like an awesome sight, but I didn't think much of it until a few hours later as I was going to add a soundtrack to some silly airplane-window footage I shot about a month ago on a plane ride back to New York after visiting my folks in Florida. And would you guess what I saw reflected on the clouds for about 8 seconds of my video? A glory!

Check it out: Very faintly expressed, but decidedly visible just to the right of the center of this screenshot. If you can't see it, lean back from the monitor and try to look for the plane shadow first, then the rainbowy aura around it.

Much harder to see in the video, but take a look anyway. It helps to view full screen and lean back from the monitor a bit. The rainbowy awesomeness is most obvious around 0:05 and 0:06.

glory in the clouds from Lauren Sperber on Vimeo.

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So much for my brush with glory. Here are a few spectacular glory photos from Atmosphere Optics, a site devoted to the pretty illusions created from water and light:

by Franz Kerschbaum

by Jonathan Lansey

But even the best pictures of glories shot from planes pale in comparison to the utterly religious spookiness of those taken by lucky hikers, such as these:

by Menno Boermans

by Dave Newton

Atmospheric Optics has even more glory photos and some hilarious glory videos. The people who shot the first video were totally psyched!

Those of you so inclined should also check out this in-depth explanation of how glories are formed.

Today, in my inexplicable ongoing coverage of all things Cookie Monster, I bring you what may be the best Colbert Report clip of all time, featuring you-know-who as a surprise guest.

Embeded video doesn't work in all RSS readers, so you may have to visit the actual post.

It seems that our friend Stephen Colbert has just learned of the tragic song "A Cookie is a Sometime Food" and Cookie's even more tragic relegation to fruit propagandist.

Best quote, from Cookie in response to Colbert's uncontrollable cookie cravings: "Me been there. Yeah, yeah. Me have crazy times in 70s and 80s. Me like the Robert Downey Jr. of cookies."

This reminded me of Cookie's 2006 appearance on The Martha Stewart Show, which is almost too funny to be real. Provided below for your enjoyment, in two parts:

part one

part two

And now I'm wondering two things: 1) What other non-muppets appearances has Cookie Monster made, and 2) How did this become a Cookie Monster blog anyway?

previously: cookie monster roundup, the finest in cookie monster still imagery, cookie monster on NPR

In honor of Bloomsday (which is today, if you haven't been at an all-day reading of Ulysses like some people), one of the two daily definition/etymology e-newsletters I subscribe to, wordsmith.org's A.Word.A.Day, sent out five words from the Irish last week. They were:

shebeen (shuh-BEEN): An unlicensed drinking establishment.

A.Word.A.Day's brief etymology: From Irish sibin, diminutive of seibe (mug/mugful). The word
is popular in the south of Africa and in Scotland and Ireland.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary respectfully disagrees:

Origin Anglo-Irish; of obscure origin. The ending is Irish -in as in caubeen, colleen, etc.; an improbably conjecture is that the word is founded on Irish seapa, adaption of English shop.

dornick (DOR-nik): 1) A piece of rock small enough to throw. 2) Stout linen.

A.Word.A.Day's brief etymologies: 1) From Irish dornog (small stone, literally fistful). 2) After Doornik, the name of a Flemish town where the cloth was first manufactured.

The OED notes the name of the Flemish town for the second definition (which is the first definition in its own listing) and provides no etymology for the first definition (its second).

hubbub (HUB-ub): Excited fuss or tumult of a crowd.

A.Word.A.Day's brief etymology: Perhaps from Irish ubub (an interjection of contempt).

The OED's definition is more certain:

In the 16th century hooboube, -boobe, often referred to as an Irish outcry, and probably representing some Irish expression. Cf. Gaelic ub! ub! ubub! an interjection of aversion or contempt; abu! the war-cry of the ancient Irish.

cosher (KOSH-uhr): To pamper.

A.Word.A.Day's brief etymology: From Irish cosair (feast).

OED etymology: Phonetic representation of Irish coisir feast, feasting, entertainment. Also notable is The OED's different definition of cosher:

1) To feast, to live at free quarters upon dependants or kinsmen. 2) To treat with indulgent fondness, pamper; to cocker or coddle.

smithereens (smith-uh-REENZ): Tiny fragments.

A.Word.A.Day's brief etymology: Probably from Irish smidirin, diminutive of smiodar (fragment).

OED sez:

Variation of smithers [which it lists as "of obscure origin"], with Irish diminutive ending, and either adopted from, or the source of modified Irish smidirín.

The disagreement between Wordsmith and The OED on a few of these reminded me of the controversy over Daniel Cassidy's How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads. I heard Cassidy present the book at the Irish Arts Center (the actual website for which seems to be down) and will begrudgingly admit to being pretty impressed (hey, I don't know Gaelic for shit!) until Grant Barrett's excellent blog post schooled me on the matter.

Anyway, happy Bloomsday everyone. Time to read a chapter of Ulysses—I dare you!

A few months ago I came across a copy of Sins of New York on the outdoor bargain table of Argosy Books. Sins of New York is an amazing compilation of stories and illustrations from The National Police Gazette, a 19th-century tabloid which, according to wikipedia, "was well known for its engravings and photographs of scantily clad strippers, burlesque dancers, and prostitutes, often skirting on the edge of what was legally considered obscenity."

Edward Van Every compiled stories from the Police Gazette for Sins of New York in 1930, by which time its popularity had substantially waned, intending to select, according to his foreword, "the Gazette's worst features" and to "confin[e himself] to the sins that went on in New York." Van Every did follow up with a collection of non-New York Gazette stories called, appropriately, Sins of America, images from which have been dutifully scanned by The Nonist.

So, here are a few of the choice engraving reproductions from Sins of New York. Pretty hard to believe this passed for salacious in New York City not so long ago, eh?

How She Cured Him
A young wife astonishes her erratic husband by emulating his example, and causes him to promptly abandon the vagabond habits of his bachelor days.

Check out the expression on the husband's face! Also worth noting is that the wife is reading the Police Gazette!

The Female Rights' Musketeers
What may be expected if the schemes of certain strong-minded women in America are realized.

This dystopian image pretty much speaks for itself.

Beauty and the Beer
An incident of the beer-maker's strike in New York—How the dashing daughter of a brewer supplied the place of one of her father's striking employees—A pretty girl's practical protest against teetotalism.

I'm not sure this was so much a protest against teetotalism as a rich chick ensuring her wealthy family would have enough dough to keep up their lifestyle despite labor movements, but at any rate "Pretty Girl's Practical Protest" is definitely a phrase I'm going to be keeping on hand for later use.

Would-Be Voters
A bevy of strong-minded Amazons make a sensation at a New York uptown polling place.

Fantastic!

Cupid in Tompkins Square Park
A place which cupid has made his favorite stamping ground, and where the stern paterfamilias is wont to appear.

Gotta love the detail of the upper right corner:

Sign: "Keep Off the Grass" Editorial: But they don't!

She Grabbed the Reins
The sensation produced on a Broadway car by an impatient young lady passenger.

And who hasn't wanted to do that during their morning commute??

If you can't get enough, policegazette.us attempts to recreate the effect of the original Gazette with today's news—although, to tell you the truth, I think we all know Drudge comes a lot closer to the intended effect.

[where: 116 E 59th St, New York, NY 10022]