not cognate

Kind of doomscrolling in Tumblr and came across this building with the caption: Konvikt Kantonschule, by Otto Glaus, Hans-Rudolf Lienhard and Sep Marti (1969), Chur, Switzerland, ©Roberto Conte (2025)

https://www.tumblr.com/architectureofdoom/829743111400046592?source=share

A provincial school for convicts?

Off to Google Translate where I find that "Konvikt" in German means "boarding school / residential college / seminary." What a surprise. It's the second time that someone talked about "seminary" in the last few days. The other night, Chris Romanchock was talking about "A history of justice in Alfred" at the inaugural WEAVE evening at the Union University Church. He noted that Alfred University wasn't a university until later than its normal claim of being established in 1836 and one of the first coed colleges in the United States, that it was a Seventh-day Baptist seminary for the first couple decades. (I'm paraphrasing.) As far as I know, it wasn't a seminary in the sense of what we think of now since the university was never sectarian. It did eventually have a theological school, from which my father graduated.

We stayed in Chur on our Swiss circuit in 2007. Our room was on the top floor of the Hotel Freieck (literally free corner) in the middle of town. It was plenty warm overnight and the window of our room was open. You could hear the cow bells clanging (gently) from the nearby hillsides the next morning.

sentence of the day: banish hatred

"There was something wondrous in the human journey of a young fighter who carried a rifle and grew into a gentle prophet of nonviolence. When he was asked some years ago what he wished to bequeath to the generations that would follow, he answered: Banish hatred." -- tribute to Lucien Lazare, a Nazi resister in France, who died on 22 September 2026, at his home in Jerusalem, quoted from the Substack of his son-in-law Avraham Burg in the obituary in the New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/world/lucien-lazare-dead.html

separated at birth: Mrs Bates of Aragon

I haven't had one of those "who IS that actress?" moments recently. Somehow, I have not watched the original 1999-2000 UK version of Queer As Folk, to say nothing of the US version or the later remakes. But Jacob Tierney mentioned it as a precedent at the GLAAD Media Awards where Heated Rivalry won the new series award. Anyhow, as I watched Queer As Folk, the face of the actress -- it was her eyes -- that played Marie Threepwood/Marie Jones (the mother of one of the protagonists) was so familiar. The name popped out from the credits because I remember that name -- Maria Doyle Kennedy -- from Downton Abbey and somewhere else. She also played Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors. She rather looks like the actress that played Miss Baxter in Downton Abbey. Her filmography in IMDb is extensive but Maria Doyle Kennedy has always got that penetrating look.

sentence of the day: benevolent autocrat, with taste

"In a world of autocracies, may we have one benevolent autocrat with taste?" -- Reinier de Graaf, architect with OMA, in an open letter to Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania, quoted in an article in the Guardian entitled "'Starchitects go home': what's the truth behind Albania's astonishing building boom?" by Oliver Wainwright. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/oct/02/starchitects-go-home-albania-building-boom-edi-rama 

By the way, I've read a few books by Reinier de Graaf, and recommend them.

sentence of the day: racist tropes

"For instance, Trump’s lie about millions of undocumented immigrants voting illegally is a moth-eaten cloak he pulled from America’s closet of racist tropes." -- Ron Charles, in a review of Stealing elections, American style, by David F. Walbert (Bloomsbury), on his podcast for September 18, 2026

what's in a name?

Renaming has been much in the news of late. Think Lake Ontario or the Kennedy Center. It sometimes feels like it is a new phenomenon but of course it's not so much new as overused (abused) at the moment. People have renamed things for all sorts of reasons. Still, I was amused by this description (warning: spoiler alert if you haven't done today's Artle but plan to) of one of the paintings in today's Artle from the National Gallery of Art (formerly Corcoran collection).

Bierstadt first exhibited the painting as Mountain Lake but changed the title to entice Washington, DC, collector William Wilson Corcoran. The artist even supplied a map showing the supposed location of Mount Corcoran. The flattery worked. Corcoran purchased the painting, his first by Bierstadt, in 1878.

sentence of the day: momfluencers

"She has a doctorate in sociology for which she researched momfluencers, the 21st century's retort to Tupperware party hostesses." (review by Alexandra Jacobs of The story or your life: how social media shapes the way we experience everything, by Kathryn Jezer-Morton (Viking), in the New York times book review, August 23, 2026)

https://clickamericana.com/topics/home-garden/the-history-of-tupperware-parties-tupperware-ladies

sentence of the day: The drowned world and Tilt

Noah's Ark

from the Nuremberg Chronicle

"The Drowned World," though, remains an odd, woozy bird in his catalog -- a book unusually attuned, as Martin Amis wrote for the 50th anniversary reissue, to the 'world hum' of the 'near-after.'" (in a review of The drowned world by J.G. Ballard, 1962)

She's like Odysseus in an ill-fitting lavender maternity romper, crossing great landscapes of hardship and memory with one holy, imperfect goal: getting home. (in a review of Tilt by Emma Pattee, 2025)

Both sentences come from "Read like the wind. Beautiful disasters / by Leah Greenblatt," New York times book review, Sept. 6, 2026, p. 19

separated at birth: accidental Godfrey

https://www.tumblr.com/beatsmybongo/827002648669601792?source=share

DeWitt Godfrey at deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, 2014

https://www.dewittgodfrey.com/

there is a god: slow down

"Plus, an artist introduces a device that slows a bike’s brakes in less-affordable neighborhoods, turning wealth inequality into physical sensation. That’s what art can do: Make ideas visceral." (from today's Hyperallergic email newsletter)

https://hyperallergic.com/artists-device-slows-down-citi-bikes-in-less-affordable-neighborhoods/ (copublished with Next City)