In that hemisphere I saw things incompatible with the opinions of philosophers: a white rainbow was twice seen around midnight, not only by me, but also by all the sailors. Likewise we have frequently seen the new moon on that day when it was in conjunction with the sun. Every night in that part of the sky innumerable vapors and glowing meteors fly about. A little while ago I spoke of the hemisphere, although it is not properly to be spoken of as a complete hemisphere, comparing it to ours; yet since it approaches such a form, such may we be permitted to call it.
-Amerigo Vespucci
from Mundus Novus
1503
OK, so I’ve been absent from the blog here for the last month or so. rather than offer excuses, I’ll just let you now that I don’t see this changing much for the next little while. but wait! don’t write us off just yet; I’m shifting gears here for a spell so we can keep the content coming, although mostly it will be from stuff that I’m reading these days. like cruise control. or a sort of clearchannel radio station where, when the DJ steps out for a pizza he sets it to shuffle and wonders whether anyone will notice.
ReplyDeleteexcept I can’t say how long the pizza will take. a couple months? couple years?
and instead of coming from nowhere(like clearchannel), stuff will mostly be from the last five centuries or so.
so, anyway, let’s get derivative!
If he'd known they were naming most of the land masses in this hemisphere after him, I think he would have treated it more fairly. Maybe even saying this one was better than the old one.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had my short-live K-UTE radio show, we once put on Herbie Hancock's Chameleon and sat out in the hall for 15+ minutes to eat pizza. No kidding.