The Picture thread Mk. IV

[Saturn]

The seal looks like a bit like a fleur de lis.

Ah that would be wonderful to have maybe a Keats or a Shakespeare seal or something like that.

[Credo Buffa]

Not meaning to draw all due attention away from Saturn's glorious literary gifts, here's a solar halo and a couple of sun dogs that I fortunately managed to capture on camera this morning:

[Saturn]

Wow, that's spectacular Credo, good job!

[Malia]

So Credo, what's the temp in your neck of the woods? We're in an arctic freeze at the moment. Current temp is 4F (-15C) with a high of 8F (-13C) expected. Those are probably balmy temperatures where you come from, eh?

[Credo Buffa]

I think it was -9 F when I woke up this morning, and was -6 when I got out to my car to drive to work. It's all the way up to 0 now, but the wind chill is roundabout -17. Tomorrow we're supposed to get up into the teens, which will be very nice.

That is pretty chilly for this time of year, though. Usually we're in safely in the 20s for highs in December.

[Malia]

Oh man, and I thought I *might* have some bragging rights on low temperatures this time. How do you guys live with that kind of cold?! Our wind chill is supposed to be a wimpy -1F. No bragging rights here. . .LOL

[wallflower]

I haven't taken this picture, but i came across a wood engraving for Endymion and i thought i'd share: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajourneyroundmyskull/4298367361/

[LadyBrawne]

Saturn....Oh, I am soooo jealous....where can one get this? I would love to have one for Valentines day, the old form of letter writing is lost.....I love the wax seals, the parchment paper, I purchased a small kit like this from an American bookstore, but nothing as orginal as what you have.

[Raphael]

Those are gorgeous, Saturn! I'm wild with envy.

Cor so am I! I didn't know one could get all those writing implements these days- I want some! I will have to look in an art shop we have in Liverpool- it's the only place I can think of.

Re the statue of JK in Guy's hospital- when I can get there I can let you know if he's to scale or not as I'm little like him (5"3)! I've had times in my life when I've hated being little as I felt I was getting the respect that I'd have got if I was taller- so I can really sympathise with JK. And I'm female so it must be harder for a bloke. But I think height is nothing really- character and the heart matter the most.

[Saturn]

The stature is perfectly to scale, I'm only 5"9-10 and I towered over the tiny Keats:

[Malia]

Wow, I knew Keats was small (several inches shorter than even *I* am), but to see the two of you together, Saturn, really highlights how slight he was! I can see why he would be a little touchy about his height. . .even in his day, when the average male was 5 foot 8 inches, he would be considerably smaller.

[Credo Buffa]

Slight indeed! Though I've always known in my mind that I would tower over him as well (I'm 5'8"), I guess I also imagined him to be a big more. . . solid than this statue suggests, one of those people who is small but doesn't necessarily look it. Cold metal probably doesn't do much to exude that quality, though, does it?

[Saturn]

^^Not really lol.

It's hard to imagine though just how much smaller people were then, only two hundred years ago, and not just in height, in girth so to speak. Obesity of any kind would have been extremely rare, reserved strictly for the very wealthy. Most people had enough trouble being able to find enough to eat, never mind eating too much. I've often wondered why it is that the human race as a whole has become taller, is it simply better medicine, better food and artificial additives, is it a natural evolution to cope with the change in our environment since the beginning of the industrial age? In evolutionary terms two hundred years is a micro-second of time, but it seems extraordinary that the average height has risen so much in such a short period of time.

Sorry I'm rambling off topic

[Credo Buffa]

I think it's an acknowledged combination of all those factors, Saturn, that have made people in the industrialized world become physically larger over the years. We have greater access to care and a wide variety of foods (many of which are enriched, as you say) during those critical years of development than people did before the 20th century, and that has no doubt contributed to our growing more "robust" than our earlier ancestors. My mother's cousin has an interesting point about that, noticing that her own children--who were raised in Hungary--look physically smaller and younger than children their own age in the States, despite how tall their parents are, suspecting that the nutrition available to them over their youth has been less saturated with all of the things that affect our growth and development here.

Another aspect to consider is that people in Keats' day simply did a lot more physical labor as a part of everyday life. People didn't have cars to get around or computers on which to get all the information they needed or jobs that entailed a lot of sitting down. A simple task such as doing the laundry, which today involves little more than pressing a few buttons and letting a machine do the work, was a very physically-demanding job back in the day, as were most things that we take for granted today. So not only did people not have access to huge supermarkets full of ready-made food, but they were working a heck of a lot harder than most of us do now.

[Malia]

That's true, Credo. I think of how Keats--while he didn't do the laundry--*did* tend to walk wherever he needed to go, whenever possible. Visiting his sister in Walthamstow meant walking between 7 and 8 miles (and I think that is only one way!).