Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Something/Someone Old
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My Something Old today is bread.

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Up until last year, people thought bread was around 9,000 years old, and that it coincided with the development of established agricultural communities.

Last year, some archaeologists turned that on its ear, uncovering evidence that bread goes back 14,000 years and predates organized agriculture. They found this out by the recovery of charred food remnants in a 14,000-year-old fireplace.

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Despite its importance in modern cuisine, the origins of bread are still largely unknown. Early finds of bread in Neolithic sites in Europe and southwest Asia (1, 2) have inevitably related its invention to fully-fledged agricultural communities that exploited domesticated plant species [at least since circa (c.) 9.1 ka cal BP]. However, in southwest Asia (Near East), where the wild ancestors of domesticated crops such as wheat and barley occur naturally, hunter-gatherers of the Upper Paleolithic period (c. 23 ka cal BP) were already producing flour from wild grasses...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6077754/

This picture shows an archaeologist recovering miniscule bits of plant using a technique known as flotation. They will later examine the remains under an electron microscope, which yields a surprising amount of data.

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In order to determine when bread first occurs, they had to define what "bread" is:

After mixing flour and water, occluded gas cells of 0.01–0.1 mm develop in the dough. The molding of dough modifies the gas cell structures by making the small air bubbles burst, collide, and combine into big ones. If this dough is directly charred, it shows a hollow matrix with large closed voids (0.5–0.8 mm) covering more than 30% of the surface (2). The most dramatic change to the dough microstructure takes place during baking, when gas cells expand into an open network of pores or voids (15).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6077754/

The people who made the bread were Natufians. I had never heard of them, but they were late Paleolithic hunter-gatherers who lived in the Levant. This map shows the location of the site:

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The inhabitants, who were hunter-gatherers, left their home in a hurry, with the contents of their most recent meal still smoldering in two sunken fireplaces (one pictured).

I wonder where they were going in such a hurry, after eating such a labor-intensive, time-consuming food.

It's fascinating that bread can be a "gathered" phenomenon. I wonder if that's going to change the "paleo" diet?

Something New
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This band, The Dead South, formed in 2012 and its breakthrough single, "In Hell I'll Be Good Company," came out in 2014 on the album Good Company, which makes them not exactly new. But most people didn't notice until 2017, when this video was released on YouTube:

Here they are "live and unplugged:"

As someone with the handle "kNine2Five Team" said in the YouTube comments (yes, I still read YouTube comments):

dont listen to these guys drunk...you'll end up with a Banjo from amazon...

Something Borrowed
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My Something Borrowed today is the goddess Hecate or Hekate.

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She is an ancient Greek Goddess of the crossroads, threshholds, light, magic, witchcraft, herbalism, ghosts, and necromancy. She also had an association with childbirth and fertility, which waned over time while her aspects associated with death and the underworld grew stronger. People famously asked for her help in soothing restless ghosts and defending against angry or evil spirits.

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I'm used to the Romans borrowing from the Greeks, but this time the Greeks borrowed from someone in Anatolia, possibly the Carians, who are people I actually know almost nothing about, not having studied the ancient history of Asia Minor. That history does not, at a glance, seem like something one can absorb at a glance, so I won't try. It is interesting that Hecate originally came from Anatolia, however; that may be why the Greeks tended to conflate her with other deities, such as Artemis.

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I ran across a myth that said she fell out with Hera because she was fascinated by childbirth (unlike Hera, who found it rather disgusting) and spied on her to see how it worked. Hera was not amused and disliked Hecate ever since. I think this story might be anachronistic.

As a goddess of roads, crossroads, pathways, and entrances, Hecate often held a pair of torches or a key. The torches might also refer to her helping Demeter search for Persephone:

hecate-protector.jpg

I worked hard to find an image of her that wasn't portraying her as a triple goddess, because apparently she didn't start out that way. But she does get remembered that way, perhaps because, of course, the Romans eventually "borrowed" her from the Greeks, by which time the Greeks had already conceived of her as a triple goddess. The next time you play Trivial Pursuit, or any kind of trivia quiz game, reflect on the fact that the word "Trivia" was originally an honorific for this goddess. Trivia=three ways in Latin. They were honoring her as goddess of the crossroads.

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Offerings of food (including red mullet, which for some reason was prohibited to offer to any of the other gods) were left at crossroads and entranceways to ask for her protection.

Something Blue
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"Blue" is a song from R.E.M.'s last album, Collapse Into Now. They never released the lyrics to this song, which kind of hearkens back to their early days when I listened to Fables of the Reconstruction on my record player in college and tried to make out what Michael Stipe was saying.

I found parts of this video a bit creepy and sad, as it explores what happens when you make take pictures of people and mass distribute them, especially, it seems, when those images are sexual. But at the end, the music brightens and sharpens and it suddenly seems you are on the verge of something wondrous. Perhaps it's the repetition of the word "discover," over and over again.

R.E.M. Intriguing to the last.

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Wally's picture

I don't know if you'll notice it, so just a heads up that I responded to your Thu, 03/14/2019 comment which I missed until earlier this morning.

The Dead South are excellent (as, of course, was REM).

Cheers!

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Wally

always nice to see a fellow fan of REM.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Wally

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I worked for a band from Glasgow Scotland named Hipsway. They were an up and coming band in the 80's. I and another "septic" (US citizen) went to Scotland to work for these guys as they prepped for their fist tour in the US. We toured all over Scotland and rehearsed in an old community hall back in "Glasgee" between shows. They were very popular and sold out every show with girls throwing their underwear on the stage each night. I got to see all of Scotland and sample the local single malts everywhere. When we got to the US they played the club circuit and the audience on most nights was a few guys dressed in black without dates. REM's tour accountant Geoff was the "Road Manager" for this disaster. He was from the UK and truly an effing asshole. He treated the crew like shit and after we overheard him telling a club owner he did not care what kind of swill he fed us at a gig, we (the crew) declared war on him for the rest of the tour. This tour was highlighted for me by the most "Spinal Tap" moments I ever witnessed. We were in Texas and the drummer lost his mind. One night he locked himself in the back lounge of the tour bus, stripped naked, defecated on the floor, rubbed it all over the lounge and himself, broke the television screen and ripped the lamps off the walls then refused to come out. Well after Dr. Feelgood made a "bus call" the show that day was cancelled. We went to our hotel in town and the lead singer who was friends with the drummer was hanging with him in his room to keep an eye on things. The drummer talked him into going down to the bar and getting a couple of beers to go. He should have called room service cause when he got back the drummer had slit his wrists and was laying in a bathtub of hot water! Then the police got involved. The next day the drummer was sent back home, the drum roadie was promoted to drummer and two more shows were cancelled. We went to REM's studio in GA and rehearsed the show with the new drummer for one day then resumed the tour. Here is a video of them from back in the day. This is the band line up that went on that ill fated tour. The drummer in this video is the one who suffered a mental breakdown.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@jbob

Makes it clear to me that my childhood dream of being a roadie was a bad idea.

Though traveling Scotland and tasting single malts and listening to good music all sounds great.

I thought maybe your drummer had simply gotten hold of some bad drugs, but it sounds like he was in mental anguish without them.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@jbob

at the shows. I'm not shocked that they were young men in black shirts, but you know that Goth fans in the U.S. were perfectly capable of sustaining a band (as Robert Smith, Peter Murphy, and Morissey found out).

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Celebrating today by baking an Irish Soda Bread. One recipe cautioned to carefully measure the baking soda, as too much will turn the bread green. Can't have that. Doing orange instead with sweet potatoes. (green = catholic, orange = protestant) but you knew that, right?

Thanks for the threads.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@QMS

Happy St. Paddy's Day, from one of the snakes. Smile

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
The mick is in my surname, no traces of catholicism to be found. Although one never knows what might be hidden in the closet. Hopefully a lucky charm!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS @QMS
forever, Connaught v Ulster. Initially, Ireland was clannish and tribal, with "government", if any, centered in the counties. Clans and counties somewhat coalesced into provinces, including Ulster (N), and Connaught (one of the southern ones). raids wars and squabbles were frequent, with major players including the "O'Neals" and the "the O' Connors". The place was eventually christianized, largely by the guy that the later Catholics declared to be a saint, Saint Patrick. Ireland was green, and shamrocks were green, not particularly Christianity, let alone Catholicism. When the Brits conquered and took over they set up puppets and sycophants in positions of authority and settled a lot of saxon? types in Ulster province.

Along the way, William of Orange conquered all of England and, being a protest imposed protestantism on all of England. (By then the early Christian church had become "Catholic" and then spawned assorted protestant sects in reaction to its multitudinous malignancies). Orange (the color) commemorates William of Orange and celebrates the special privileges that he granted to protestants. This is an overall thing, as it were.

Next, in county Armagh there were roughly equal numbers of protestant and Catholic persons and families. They began squabbling with each other for control over plots or land near the marketplace, leading to clashes leading to battles. This led to the formation by the local protestants of the Orange Order. It was an amalgam. 1) A protestant group dedicated to protestant ascendancy and particularly to driving the Catholics out of Armagh. 2) A loyalist organization, loyal to England and the Crown, opposing not merely the Irish rebellion against England, but even Scottish separatism.

So, Orange, is very much protestant, but also, English loyalist and royalist, but Green is simply Irish and only coincidentally Catholic. The color, like the shamrock was outlawed in England for a while, fwiw. (Keep in mind that British troops were have pretty much always been "redcoats") The conflict with Ulster, though it has religious history, has always also been part of the Irish rebellion against England, which includes loyalist Ulster province. That's why there will be a hard border up there after Brexit, because it is British, while Ireland is an independant republic. Green is 1) Irish and 2) rebel, and not any particular form of Christianity, nor even Christianity itself - it stands for pikes and not crucifixes ;-):

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris
Only recently discovered Northern Ireland (GB) and the Republic of Ireland were two separate entities.
Always knew there was conflict, but wasn't aware of the border until my cousin visited last year.

Thanks for the background.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Still not adjusted to Daylight Savings Time. Pfui.

How are you all?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
adjusting to the change to stupid time. Interesting, but not surprising about the bread. Grind any grain and you get a flour that contains, among other things, carbobydrates, including sugars. Nature abounds in yeasts and fermentation bacteria, which are truly ancient lineages. Make a paste and leave it sit while you start the fire and you will get "bread" of a type. Making a paste out of it is an obvious response to hard, chewy and probably seriously husked grains.

Thanks for the backstory on Hecate. Crossroads, magic and witchcraft. Hmmmmm.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

I meant to include that song and forgot. Smile

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
adjusting to the change to stupid time. Interesting, but not surprising about the bread. Grind any grain and you get a flour that contains, among other things, carbobydrates, including sugars. Nature abounds in yeasts and fermentation bacteria, which are truly ancient lineages. Make a paste and leave it sit while you start the fire and you will get "bread" of a type. Making a paste out of it is an obvious response to hard, chewy and probably seriously husked grains.

Thanks for the backstory on Hecate. I knew the Basic Hecate, but not so much of the origins. Crossroads, magic and witchcraft. Hmmmmm.

Looks like I forgot to post this, too many balls in the air at the moment.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Anja Geitz's picture

It's been gorgeous here in SoCal for the last few days after weeks of rain. Have been enjoying the migrating butterflies that stop by my garden. I have a lot of wild flowers and blossoms in the orange tree that they seem to go for. It's magical watching them.

The last time I listened to live music accompanied with banjos was a blue grass festival I attended on the last leg of a bicycle tour in Maine years ago. Even with the rain, it didn't dampen the mood. A lot of fun. And so are these guys.

dont listen to these guys drunk...you'll end up with a Banjo from amazon...

Lol. The rewards of reading YouTube comments.

Thanks again for a wonderful assortment of interesting things. Hecate, who knew? I didn't.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

detroitmechworks's picture

Been rewriting my "Romance Novel For Men" which has been a LOT of fun. Took out a lot of the late twenty something's angst and put in REAL conflict and honest communication. Makes it harder to write when you're not being cliche, but I'm much happier with it. Haven't even bothered rewriting the original ending, because while it was good and tied in with the title, the original ending frankly sucks.

I used to SUCK at writing endings, because I always wanted the cliche happy moment. So instead I chose this time to write five LONG endings. First one is finished, and goes completely batshit in logic, and ends with a Tales from the Crypt style ending, complete with a Lady and the Tiger, which makes it AWESOMELY fun to read over and over. (I know what my ending is, but I hope every reader comes away with a different answer, depending on what they personally think.)

Working on the second one, in which I included elements that my readers asked for. I can make it work, but it requires a LOT of ambiguous motivations I defined one way in the first ending to be defined another way in the second. (Yes, all five are planned out, complete with a couple Fourth Wall Breaks by ONE character... because it's my story, dammit and I can write what I want.)

Arm's out of the sling. Still in rehab for it but at least I can use the thing again.

And started seeing one of my ex's again. Things are much better than they were, and she's not trying to move in, so I'm comfortable with that level of relationship. Finally learning I don't have to RUSH things.

And one last thing. I never knew the lyrics to this song growing up. I remembered them wrong, and it totally inverted the meaning and feel of the song. I won't relay my misheard lyrics here, because they're depressing and defeatist. Instead I'll link to the real song, which was from a goofy movie I loved, because that's the spirit I want today.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-XB1DDiu5c]

Edit: And Hecate is awesome. I never expected her to show up in the Logos series, but when she did, she spoke extremely clearly and precisely.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

snoopydawg's picture

Congress discusses giving itself a pay raise

Living in Washington DC is expensive. For US lawmakers, that means it’s time to give themselves a pay raise. But with confidence in politics at a miserable low, selling a raise to the public could be an uphill battle.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) called for the raise on Wednesday, in remarks to the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. A pay raise, he said would ensure that elected representatives who don’t come from wealthy backgrounds can live comfortably in Washington DC.

"Americans ought to have our nation’s diversity of economic backgrounds better reflected in this House,” he said. “I know this isn’t the most popular issue,” Hoyer said to the committee, “but it is an important one.

On top of their base pay they get all kinds of extra perks such as money for their meals, a gym inside the capital and many, many other things. And what makes this absolutely obscene is that they not only get premium health care, but many of them are millionaires who have been caught hiding their money in tax havens. Then there's all the free perks and meals and trips they get from lobbyists.

Our government is so out of touch with who they are supposed to represent. When is the last time DiFi or Nancy had to compare prices of things they bought at the store? Or worried about how to pay for medicine or car repairs or home repairs or any other unexpected emergency that most Americans do not have money for?

So hell no!!!! No raises for congress and especially not until they unfreeze wages for federal workers and bring their salaries up to date. And definitely not until they pay back wages for the millions of contractors who lost over a month of wages during the shutdown!!!!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

detroitmechworks's picture

@snoopydawg As the senator weaves towards his car...

Sadly, this has also resulted in them completely missing the oncoming truck.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO87bXEWGys]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Daenerys's picture

I have no Irish blood, but I still enjoy it, especially the music. My favorite Irish bands are Blaggards, Gaelic Storm and Flogging Molly:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUnLMLWT1v8]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7JIEAMUWq0]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iedNUtHvGq4]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXrBPSAyDM]

And one for the metalheads:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIh3nO6-V_A]

Enjoy!

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This shit is bananas.

Daenerys's picture

on the subject of bread:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd2cGg77468]

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This shit is bananas.

Shahryar's picture

the first was "Led Zeppelin Member Brutally Rejected Beatles Icon".

The actual story was a short interview with Jim McCarty of the Yardbirds. Not Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page, who played in the Yardbirds, was in Led Zeppelin. He's not in the article. Just Jim McCarty....of the Yardbirds. The "rejection" was of a suggestion that John Lennon made, that the Yardbirds do a remake of a Chuck Jackson song. The Yardbirds considered it, then decided it didn't fit their style. So no "brutal" about it. Just pathetic clickbait.

The second was this thing from CNN.

oh wait...it's gone now. This morning it said something like "Rep. Omar's Anti-Semitic Remarks Causing Division". I guess there's no need to explain why that made me hit my head on the ceiling!

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orlbucfan's picture

on my father's side. Actually read clippings about the paternal great-grandparents escaping the Irish Famine in the mid 19th century. That was a very nasty piece of history. The Brits nearly starved the Irish out of existence cos of a nasty drought in the UK. They needed the Irish potato crop. They had the military clout to take the harvest and did. Many Irish starved to death. The lucky ones migrated/fled. Nothing fancy about my forbears--just tough and smart enough to flee in time. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

TheOtherMaven's picture

@orlbucfan

It was also an early warning about relying on monoculture. All the Irish poors had to eat was potatoes (and one particular variety at that), and then the Potato Blight hit. Suddenly there was nothing to eat and no money to buy any food with. And the Brits responded with the same hard-hearted "Cold Equations" rhetoric that we still hear today: if you feed them, there will just be more of them and it will undermine their will to work yada yada yada....
And all the while, the food and crops raised by the landlords went out of Ireland to England. (And much more, and much worse.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.