Thursday, 14 November 2024

BEARDS (again)

 Scruffy Stubble


While attempting to avoid reading anything about the two most important people of our time (if not of all time), I ran across two pieces concerning beards. You may have noticed we are surrounded by them. Most men either sport one or are raising a crop of facial hair, which, while looking unkempt, appears to be carefully tended. 

Having coincidentally stumbled upon a subject which would offer readers a distraction from anything relating to those two people, I was prepared to go full monty on hirsuteness when I discovered that beards have been fully covered in MM. Back in the spring of 2023 I conducted a poll involving bearded golfers, who probably learned beard growing from hockey players. Of course, much more about hairiness was provided, including a reference to Pogonologia; or, A Philosophical and Historical Essay on Beards, as well as a picture of William Empson’s “neck beard.” (While it is unlikely you missed that good essay, you may have forgotten it, as I did, so here it is, “Beard Poll.” I also have done one about Empson, but it was not about his “neck beard” - “William Empson’s Memory”.) 

Let’s Play “Beaver

About the two new beard pieces you are probably very curious so I will begin now with the one that is not very new, but shows that beards have always been fashionable – or not. This observation indicates that by the mid-1920s, beards were becoming unpopular and that, before the Internet, people looked at something other than screens when walking.

   “The men usually affected beards, until the sudden craze for ‘Beaver’ made them return to the razor. Two or more people walking down a street would play a twenty-point game of beaver-counting. The first to cry ‘Beaver’ at the sight of a beard won a point, but white beards (known as ‘polar beavers’) and other distinguished sorts had higher values. When the growing scarcity of beards ended the game in 1924 King George, distinguished foreigners, and a few Chelsea pensioners were for some years almost the only bearded men left in Great Britain. Beards came in again, chiefly among the Leftists, in the middle Thirties.” (The Long Week-End: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939, by Robert Graves & Alan Hodge. Norton Library, 1963, p.49) Being unshorn became popular again in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but after the hippies, the yuppies wanted to look clean so they could be successful. Although there are now many beards and “Beaver” could be played, we have the Internet. 


Beards Fad or Fetish?

    The second piece is a current one and it shows that the pressure to be bearded is intense and the fad a global one. The young man featured in this article flew to Turkey to get a beard transplant. Since you may not believe me, here is the information directly from the source:

“French Man Dies by Suicide After Failed Beard Transplant by 'estate agent’,” National Post, Oct. 28, 2024.
“A French student died by suicide after receiving a failed beard transplant in Istanbul from someone allegedly pretending to be a surgeon.

“In March 2024, 24-year-old Mathieu Vigier Latour travelled to Istanbul for a beard transplant. He was studying business in Paris at the time.

According to the Daily Mail, the cost of the transplant was around $1,950, only a fifth of the price it would be if getting the procedure done in France….

The plan was to remove 4,000 hair grafts from the back of his head and move them to his face. Jacques said the surgery caused his son's hair to grow and be shaped unnaturally…

After the procedure, Latour's beard was reportedly oddly shaped and grew at an unnatural angle, like a "hedgehog."....

He said Latour was suffering both mentally and physically.

"He was in pain, suffered from burns, and he couldn't sleep," he said in French.

The family tried to find a qualified expert in France to help correct the failed transplant. After being unsuccessful, they found Dr. Jean Devroye, a hair transplant specialist based in Belgium.

Devroye examined Latour and found that 1,000 out of the 4,000 hair grafts that were removed from his scalp would not grow back. He also concluded that Latour would have permanent scarring….

My advice here is that, unless you are from the very large cohort of males who are required by some higher authority to have a beard, you should avoid getting a beard transplant, at least one done in Turkey.


Photo Credit It is extremely difficult to avoid articles about one of the most important people in the world and that is why I noticed the picture of his underling which is featured above. He may have grown that bit of stubble because of the social pressure or to honour his Appalachian ancestors who couldn’t afford razors. (The photograph by Mark Peterson is found in the New Yorker.) Mr. Vance will be the first VP with facial hair since Charles Curtis who had only a moustache. Benjamin Harrison was the last fully bearded president. The stance which the new president may adopt regarding facial hair appears to have changed and will likely do so again since he is consistent when it comes to stance changing. The other most important person in the world appears to approve of beards because she is dating a guy who has one. Sources: You now know about Charles Curtis because of the following article. The cleverness of the title reveals why it is hidden behind a paywall. One should have to pay for such things: “Hair Apparent: J.D. Vance Could Bring Beards Back to the White House,” Will Pavia, The Times, July 18, 2024. More proof of the ubiquitousness of beards is found not just on faces but also in the many articles about them: “Women in India Protest Against Men Having Beards - To Stop Chafing,” Sophie Thompson, Independent Online, Oct. 21, 2024. For an increasing number of young men arriving on this continent it appears that beards are mandatory. They would not be welcome in Turkmenistan: “The Country Where Beards Are Forbidden For People Under 40 Years of Age and Only White Cars Can Be Driven,CE Noticias Financieras, Sept. 20, 2024. “In addition, men under the age of 40 are not allowed to grow beards, a measure that seeks to homogenize the image of citizens and prevent what the government considers "personal carelessness". These rules reflect the authoritarian control in the country, where individual freedoms are limited by rules that often seem incomprehensible from the outside.”


Wednesday, 6 November 2024

Biking About (No.4)

    


    Back in November 2023, I put away my bike and the odometer displayed the number 6009. Although the weather is nice now, I probably will not be riding it again this year. We leave for Vancouver today for two weeks and it is likely I will be shovelling rather than biking when I return. 
   I took this picture yesterday and it looks like I pedalled just over 1400K during our brief summer period. It appears that I did about the same distance last year. I probably could have gone farther if I had one of those fancy Spandex biking outfits. 
   The main purpose of this post is that it provides me with a record of my summer cycling accomplishments and it gives you something to read which doesn't involve the American election.
   For more fascinating details see: "Biking About (No.3) and this one. To see if biking affects your sex life read, "Biking About." It had no affect on mine. 

The Cundill History Prize Winner

Kathleen DuVal    


   An election was held south of our border and you may need a distraction from it. I have been busy and the weather nice so the only thing I will offer quickly is an update to the Cundill post immediately below this one.
   The winner of the approximately $100,000 (CDN) is the American historian Kathleen DuVal and her book is: Native Nations: A Millenium in North America (the London Public Libraries have copies, but they are all out as I write.) She is also the author of, Independence Lost and The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
   For more about the Cundill see my post below. The winning announcement is available at the Cundill website at McGill. The folks in the History Department at UNC are happy as you will see here. 
  Among the news announcements see: "Kathleen DuVal Wins $75k Cundill History Prize, by Melina Spanoudi, The Bookseller, Oct. 31, 2024. 

"The winning book is the culmination of a 25-year project, in which DuVal shows how, before colonisation, Indigenous peoples adapted to climate change and instability. The author refutes that the arrival of Europeans led to the end of Indigenous civilisations in North America, demonstrating the relationships that developed between nations.
Lisa Shapiro, dean of the faculty of the Arts at McGill, added: “DuVal’s winning book truly embodies the Cundill History Prize’s aims. It is not only an outstanding achievement in historical scholarship, but it also engages the reader and dramatically reorients our perspectives on North America. It demonstrates the real significance of history writing.”

Thursday, 24 October 2024

A $100,000 History Book !

The Cundill History Prize

On October 30 the author of an historical work that exhibits "scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal," will receive $75,000 (US) as a result of winning an award established by F. Peter Cundill. His intention is to encourage "informed public debate through the wider dissemination of history writing to new audiences around the world."

The three finalists are listed along with sample reviews. The Cundill Prize Long List for 2024 is provided at the bottom.

Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth (Liveright Publishing)
"Dylan Penningroth explodes conventional wisdom about African Americans and the law. He approaches his subject with the eye of a law professor, the tools of a social historian, and the sensibility of a skilled storyteller. The result is a remarkable book that stands civil rights history on its head and shows "how ordinary Black people used law in their everyday lives." The Register - Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 122, No.1, 2024.
Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass (Picador/Pan Macmillan)
"A detailed and sharply observed account of the 1946-1948 Tokyo trials – proceedings that were implicitly racist and hypocritical, and with a prosecution team that was led by a ‘blundering alcoholic’....Bass has written a massively long and detailed book, always lively and judgmental. He brings out not only the legal arguments, but the colour of the great tribunal itself: sharp sketches of the protagonists, of the stress on the multinational judges penned up month after month in the Imperial hotel, of Tojo Hideki among the seven shabby old men shuffling to the gallows in Sugamo prison." (Review by Neal Ascherson, The Guardian, Jan. 21, 2024.

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal (Penguin Random House)
" prodigiously researched and enlightening study from University of North Carolina historian DuVal (Independence Lost) recenters the past 1,000 years of Native North American history around the political power exercised by Indigenous governments...Tracing numerous Native governments across the ensuing centuries--including the 19th century's Cherokee republic and alliance of Great Plains nations--DuVal provides a profoundly empowered history of Native America. This keen reframing will appeal to fans of David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything." Publisher's Weekly, Jan. 22, 2024.

Sources: See McGill's website for The Cundill History Prize.
  Back in 2017 on the 10th anniversary of The Cundill I posted this in MM -"Christmas Shopping for Historians." See also, "The Cundill History Prize" in 2019 and "F. Peter Cundill" in Oct. 2021.
The Bonus:
For prize winning historical works covering geographical areas from Asia to North and South America, see: American Historical Association Announces 2024 Prize Winners.
The Cundill History Prize 2024 (Long List)

Author

Title

Publisher / Imprint

Gary J. Bass

Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia

Pan Macmillan / Picador

Lauren Benton

They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence

Princeton University Press

Joya Chatterji

Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century

Penguin Random House / TheBodley Head and Yale University Press

Kathleen DuVal

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

Penguin Random House

Amitav Ghosh

Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories

Hachette / John Murray

Catherine Hall

Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism

Cambridge University Press

Julian Jackson

France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

Belknap Press

Patrick Joyce

Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World

Simon & Schuster / Scribner

Ruby Lal

Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan

Yale University Press

Andrew C. McKevitt

Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America

University of North Carolina Press

Dylan C. Penningroth

Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights

WW Norton / Liveright

Stuart A. Reid

The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

Penguin Random House / Alfred A. Knopf

David Van Reybrouck

Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

Penguin Random House / The Bodley Head and WW Norton

Cobble Beach and Elegance

 Plan Ahead

   Last year we drove up to Kemble for the Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance and even stopped in Owen Sound for the Concours d'LemonsThat trip can be revisited here: "Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance." We enjoyed it so much, we wanted to attend again this year, but could not. We hope to go next year and if you procrastinate as I do, then you might want to pay attention and think about booking now. The clock is ticking.



  That screen shot was grabbed from the Cobble website on October 23 and you have even less time now. Although September 2025 seems a long way off, it is not. If you think the Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance is just another classic car show, it is not. The bit of French should have alerted you to the fact that it is more about stylish objects than excessively chromed cars and engines. Plus, Cobble Beach is a pleasant destination. It is a golf resort and community of fine homes in Kemble on the Georgian Bay. 

  All you need to know is provided by Cobble Beach, with which I have no connection. These links will supply you with 
fine photos, videos and additional articles to read, even if you do not think you will be able to travel up to Kemble.


See the various sections. The one for "Visitors" is the place to start. Then see all the photographs of elegance and the galleries featuring winners from the past. There are also useful links to press reports and articles. The picture above was taken from one of them: "Custom-bodied 1947 Bentley Wins Cobble Beach Best of Show," Alyn Edwards, Driving, Sept. 16, 2024.

As I mentioned, I have no connection with the folks at Cobble. Also, it is worth noting that the event raises money for charities. 

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Falcons Flying

 On Planes 
   All sorts of birds have recently flown south and I just wrote about some that are flying in a wind tunnel up at Western. There are others, however, that arrive at their destinations by airplanes. 
   Recently I ran across an article in which passengers travelling from Miami to Doha complained about the squawking of a large flock of birds which were flying as cargo. In the Middle East where falconry is popular and oil money readily available, the birds can also be found flying as passengers in the cabin. A Saudi prince booked a flight and bought tickets for 80 of them. According to Qatar Airways, "
You can carry one falcon in the Economy Class cabin of an aircraft, and a maximum of six falcons are permitted within the Economy Class cabin of any one aircraft." 



Sources: 
   "14 Hours Of Screaming Birds In Business Class—Unbelievable Qatar Airways Nightmare," Gary Leff, View From the Wing, Sept.8, 2024.
   You are skeptical, I'm sure and others are as well, so Snopes investigated the photo above and you can learn more here: 'Pic Shows Saudi Prince's 80 Falcons Riding a Plane?" Anna Rascouet-Paz, Snopes, Mar. 29, 2024.

The Bonus:


   
There is a new book about the old art of falconry, published by the University of Chicago Press. For a review of, The Art of Medieval Falconry see: "Books: A Sovereign in the Sky," by Laura Jacobs, Wall Street Journal, Oct.12, 2024.
"Mr. Hadjinicolaou is an assistant professor of art history at the University of Bonn, and "The Art of Medieval Falconry" is his second book. Its title can be understood two ways. The first concerns falconry as it's been depicted in art of the Middle Ages -- in illustrated manuscripts, frescoes, paintings, sculptures, objects and tapestries, many of which have been handsomely reproduced here -- and what these representations, often iconographic, express. The second looks at the practice of falconry itself, an ingenious way to hunt food that eventually transcended, by way of passionate practitioners who tended to be kings, into an Arthurian art form -- one with the gravity of religion and the privilege of wings."
  

Sunday, 20 October 2024

AFAR

 Advanced Facility For Avian Research
   I have been a bit under the weather, but overhead the skies have been clear and the fall weather fine. That combination resulted in a loss in the  production of posts for MM, but I can’t say there has been an increase in the number of complaints from readers. The few who appear to stumble upon something in MM, do so whether I am writing or not and the royalties continue to roll into my offshore accounts.

 

  While high in the clear sky the birds have continued their migration south, there are some birds in London flying continuously, but going nowhere. Their wings are flapping at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research up at Western University. I told you about that place four years ago in “For The Birds” and the information there is still useful. 
    More is provided, and AFAR noticed, in a recent article in the New York Times. It is good that we can read some local news, even if it comes from afar. Online you will find it under, “What Flying in a Wind Tunnel Reveals About Birds,” on Oct 11. It appears in print in the NYT on Oct. 15, with the title, “Some Birds Migrate Thousands of Miles Every Autumn: How Exactly Do They To They Manage It? Scientists Built a Flight Chamber to Find Out.” Emily Anthes is the author. Here is a portion that provides some of the questions for which answers are sought by those up at Western. 

  "It is understandably difficult to monitor the internal workings of a wild bird while it is soaring thousands of feet in the air. So Dr. Guglielmo sends his avian test subjects on simulated journeys. At the Advanced Facility for Avian Research, he and his colleagues use a hypobaric wind tunnel, which functions, in essence, as a treadmill for airborne birds....
   Scientists can send air through the main test chamber at varying speeds, up to about 40 miles per hour. Not all birds take to the tunnel — “about half of them will be good fliers,” Dr. Guglielmo said — but those that do can flap their wings for hours at a time while remaining, conveniently, in one place.
Researchers can adjust not only the wind speed inside the tunnel but also the temperature, humidity and air pressure to simulate different flying conditions and altitudes. They can study the physics of flight, mapping how air flows around the bodies of different birds, or focus on avian physiology: How does a bird’s breathing change at higher altitudes? How does diet affect flight performance?"
For additional information see: AFAR. 

Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
   The hypobaric wind tunnel at Western is not the only wind tunnel at Western. Back in the mid-1960s, UWO was "considered the birthplace of the modern practice of wind engineering."  For more details see this digital heritage plaque.      

Post Script
   It used to be the case that no one knew where the birds went when the weather turned cold. A clue was finally provided by a stork.
See: "The University of the Unusual (2) -
The Mystery of Avian Migration."