Category: At The Seams
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The Gold Leaf Bride
Tying the knot for love appears to be common sense today, but it has only been a mainstream concept within the last century. In the history of marriage, the focus is about collaboration – to join forces in order to improve one’s lot in life. In patriarchal societies where men largely inherit power and wealth,…
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The Tail of Spring
When April showers, the air smells warm, damp, and earthy. This particular wet earth scent is called geosmin, or petricor. It is excreted by soil bacteria to advertise food to springtail, an insect-like organism, who spreads the spores by carrying them along. But it’s not only attractive to the springtail, humans are extremely sensitive to…
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Portrait of A Lady
Your thighs are appletrees whose blossoms touch the sky. Which sky? The sky where Watteau hung a lady’s slipper. Your knees are a southern breeze — or a gust of snow. Agh! what sort of man was Fragonard? — As if that answered anything. — Ah, yes. Below the knees, since the tune drops that…
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The Tulip Folly
Of the abundance of financial crises around the world, most boil down to mismanaging money, such as debt and currency. More than enough come in bubbles, such as the 2008 U.S. housing bubble that burst into the Great Recession and then spread into a global financial crisis, the 1973 oil embargo during the Yom Kippur…
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The Ides of March
“Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March. Caesar: He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass.” – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar In ancient Roman times, the ides marked the full moon of each month. Since their calendar began with March, it was the first full moon of the year. As the ides were sacred to…
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The Bloom of Spring
The flower garden bedazzles in springtime. First come snowdrops and daffodils in sparkling white and bright yellow. Then come a profusion of cherry blossoms and tulips in every brilliant hue. Finally Lady Banks’ roses arrive in thousands upon thousands of tiny bouquets, dangling like delicate wind-chimes. All is a gorgeous feast for the eyes, especially…
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The Look of Love
If the 1960’s popularized twig-like Mod girls in mini-skirts and go-go boots and the 1970’s rebelled with the punk rockers, then the 1980’s ushered in the decade of the business woman. While women still earned less than their male counterpart, more and more were entering into high-status, high-paying jobs, and into power dressing. For a…
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Danaë
In 1898, the literary critic Hermann Bahr wrote in the journal Sacred Spring, “Our art is not a combat of modern artists against those of the past, but the promotion of the arts against the peddlers who pose as artists and who have a commercial interest in not letting art bloom. The choice between commerce…
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Cupid & Psyche
“O latest born and loveliest vision far Of all Olympus’ faded hierarchy! Fairer than Phoebe’s sapphire-regioned star Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;” –John Keats, Ode to Psyche First appeared in Lucius Apuleius’ novel The Golden Ass in the 2nd century CE, the story of Cupid and Psyche was the latest born among the…
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Aquarius
Aquarius means “the water-bearer” in Latin. The constellation Aquarius lies in a region of the sky referred to as the Sea, because it contains other constellations associated with water, such as Pisces the Fish, Eridanus the River, and Cetus the Whale. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy’s Almagest depicted Aquarius as a young man pouring water from…
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