nypl:
Today would have been the 77th birthday for music icon and legend Roy Orbison. You want to read about Roy’s life? You want to listen to his solo albums? Or how about checking out the great Traveling Wilbury’s album that Roy was a part of? Well as Roy would say, YOU GOT IT! Or in this case, the NYPL has all of your Roy Orbison materials available at your local branch. Happy birthday Roy!
Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man, and in the South the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological. That is a large statement, and it is dangerous to make it, for almost anything you say about Southern belief can be denied in the next breath with equal propriety. But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn’t convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.
![Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker
Marcus Vergilis Eurysaces was a baker who had compiled a considerable fortune selling bread to the army and with those funds was able to erect a travertine-faced, concrete tomb in Rome to house his wife’s ashes.
[…]
In addition to the portrait relief there was a frieze across the other three sides of the monument. The frieze commemorates Eurysaces’s greatest claim to fame — not a great military victory, not a high public office, but his daily occupation: baking bread.From Wikipedia:
A relief representing various stages of bread production runs along the top of the tomb. The relief depicts, on the south side, the delivery and grinding of grain and sifting of flour; on the north, the mixing and kneading of dough, forming of round loaves, and baking in a domed “pizza-type” oven; and, on the west, the stacking of loaves in baskets and their being taken for weighing.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/8c11b1a66ba2f94ded24359f3c6e6d2f/tumblr_ml6af6chUJ1qasislo1_500.jpg)
Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker
Marcus Vergilis Eurysaces was a baker who had compiled a considerable fortune selling bread to the army and with those funds was able to erect a travertine-faced, concrete tomb in Rome to house his wife’s ashes.
[…]
In addition to the portrait relief there was a frieze across the other three sides of the monument. The frieze commemorates Eurysaces’s greatest claim to fame — not a great military victory, not a high public office, but his daily occupation: baking bread.
From Wikipedia:
A relief representing various stages of bread production runs along the top of the tomb. The relief depicts, on the south side, the delivery and grinding of grain and sifting of flour; on the north, the mixing and kneading of dough, forming of round loaves, and baking in a domed “pizza-type” oven; and, on the west, the stacking of loaves in baskets and their being taken for weighing.
— William T Sherman defends his complete destruction of Atlanta in 1864, which he began 148 years ago today. (via laphamsquarterly)
(via npr)
Famous meals from literature…
More here.Photographs by graphic designer Dinah Fried.
(Source: vintageanchorbooks)
In March read the books you’ve always meant to read (LOC) (by The Library of Congress)
