An Update About Shawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Update, October 19, 2016: Earlier today, Mehmet Abu Zeid, brother of Mahmoud Abou Zeid, the Egyptian photographer known as “Shawkan,” reported that when he visited the jail where his brother is being held, he was informed that his brother is not at the jail.

Mehmet informed my contact that he is at present waiting to be contacted by jail authorities and anticipating information regarding Shawkan’s current whereabouts and condition.

Speculation about this situation is rampant because speculation is easy. Is there any meaning behind this move? Quite probably. Is it good news or bad news? No one yet knows, but individuals close to Shawkan are pursuing the truth today, and I am making efforts to learn what they have learned and report it here.
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‘The Flower’

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

George Herbert (1593–1633) was a priest who composed devotional poems as a hobby. As he approached his early death (age 39), he collected his poems and submitted them for publication.

That collection, The Temple, went through eight editions in the next few decades, which speaks to its popularity in 17th century England. In a tumultuous era, his voice—calm, assured, embracing doubt as a necessary part of devotion—was a beloved one.

“Who would have thought my shriveled heart / Could have recovered greenness?” he asks in “The Flower.” He adds, “It was gone / Quite underground.” The poem, after the jump:
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Deep Underground

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The lightest of rain after the driest of spells leads to the most argillaceous petrichor, which is the kind that humans smell as relief, the thought that things will start growing again.

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A 1964 article in Nature with the euphonious title, “Nature of argillaceous odour,” gave the world the not-as euphonious-sounding word, “petrichor.” In it, two researchers attempted to scientifically describe what it is we smell when we smell the world after a rain shower and to give it a name.

The two authors coined the word, “petrichor,” which I have been mispronouncing in my head since I first encountered it last year, when an article on the Huffington Post started making its social media rounds. It has a long “I,” so say it like this: “petra,” then “eye-core,” which is not how I hear it in my head, with a short “i.”
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