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312 Year Old Map of Canada found in Scottish Attic
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 1955
A 312 year old map of Canada, discovered sitting next to a water heater in the attic of a Scottish Estate, fetches $380, 000 at auction. Now if there are maps of Canada in Scotland, perhaps there's one a little closer to home?
Links: Calgary Herald & Toronto Sun
Best of Wikipedia
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1525
Having turned my eye to the worst of Wikipedia, now for the best: A blogged list of The Best Articles on Wikipedia.
Unpacking the Office
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2093
It's only taken me about 5 months, but I've finally started unpacking the office.
There's a reason it's taken me so long, 4 moves in the past 3 years, I'm loathe to ornament any of my surroundings with the slightest permanence.
But it has to be done, there are projects that will require me be somewhat organized, have a desk, a place to work, and so I begin.
The Office, without a doubt, is the coolest room in my house.
First there are the boxes of books. Now there is no way I'll be able to unpack even the smallest portion of the books I'll need, so I go through a few of the opened boxes and pick out a few I think I might need. Unread books command their own shelf. Later, when I renovate I'll fill the closet with shelves and unpack more of them.
There's the printing boxes to be hung and filled with curios, this takes a number of efforts, like me they seem to resist any attempts at permanent installation, after a few false starts they're hung and filled with precariously balanced curios and knick-knacks. There are paintings hung all over the wall, more paintings, pictures, more curios to be dusted and displayed, antlers, clocks, microscopes, rosaries, voodoo and ju-ju dolls, artifacts, fossils, the list is endless. It's like Christmas, unpacking these countless things I'd forgotten I even have.
Eventually it begins to come together. There's about a half dozen boxes filled with papers and notebooks - scraps of ideas, poems, drawings for when I learn to draw (better!), art ideas, treatments for plays and movies. These will be sorted through - one at a time, reduced, notes without illustrations will be ripped from their binding and transcribed - in an equally loose and disorganized fashion, onto the computer. It's psychic baggage, almost 25 years of not-writing to be organized and not-typed onto the computer; it's grueling, this, like moving: To move someone else's belongings requires but trivial time and strength; to move ones own stuff demands Herculean effort.
But there's a vague resolve to get this dealt with this year. This will be the year. Meanwhile I go downstairs, loot amongst the many boxes for the possessions I believe I've mislaid, help to find them and help them to find their place in the office.
Vivian Maier, street photographer and nanny
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 2366
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