Archive of April 2009
A visit to Dino’s
The small pleasures of adulthood come piecemeal. There is, as we have all heard, no user’s manual for becoming a man; one mostly stumbles onto these things oneself.
Thus it was that I found myself putting another notch in my belt on Friday and stepping for the first time into a SHOE REPAIR SHOP.
The notion of shoe repair itself was not foreign, of course, but I had never dropped off a pair of my shoes to get repaired before. The shoes themselves were a previous Man Milestone, having been bought several years ago, the first pair of dress shoes I ever bought for myself, and certainly the most expensive shoes I had ever bought for myself at the time.
But they were quite soft on the outside and I am generally not the most demure shoe-wearer so by last week their black had become thoroughly grey on both the toes, and there was a sort of embarrassing number of proper gouges or scrapes there as well. I was embarrassed to wear them. I didn’t think there was anything that could be done with them. Now, you know that this was my first time dropping off shoes to be repaired but I still can only imagine that this was a real feat of repairery.
They are totally black, totally smooth, and very shiny. There is not one gouge or scratch! It’s quite delightful to see a thing transformed like that. And new laces to boot.
I had taken them to Dino’s Shoe Repair in Columbus Circle. My knowledge of the field is incomplete at best but I understand they are something of a Name. In any case, it is easy to find on the internet many different rave reviews, most of them highlighting the quirky Italian mother who says ‘Like new! Like new!’ with only the barest glance at them. And it’s true that they’re enjoyable people to deal with. My only regret, really, is that I haven’t ever been to your standard, incredibly common run-of-the-mill shoe-repair-cum-key-duplication-cum-knick-knackery for comparison.
Peste Noire is a black metal band from Avignon, France. It was founded by La Sale Famine de Valfunde in 2000 to express his hatred and despair and his passion for France in the Middle Ages.
—
History distilled
I have always felt that if you are drinking an artisan distillation, you are drinking the history of a people, of a region, and of what they grow.
Steve McCarthy, The Pursuit and Pleasures of the Pure Spirit
I have, on many occasions, loudly expressed precisely this viewpoint—often at length, and with good vigor, walking back from some classy and spirits-heavy restaurant at which I’ve just dined with my girlfriend. I could expand on the thought—at, as I say, length—but I think Mr. McCarthy probably puts it succinctly enough for a sober readership.
Today’s most creative interpretation of the Hebrew alphabet
Sieghetnar (that’s German for “Victoryhetnar”) are a Depressive Black Metal band from Germany.
“Despite writing their band name in hebrew alphabet, the band claim they do not wish to spread any political message or agenda.”
In some way, if these guys were some weird Nazi or bizarro Nazi band I could understand better. As it is I can’t even begin to understand the motivations here. But let us refer to the band’s logo, printed above. We see here at work a couple key apparent misconceptions:
- The Hebrew alphabet is employed, as the Roman alphabet, from left to right.
- The Hebrew alphabet can be used to transliterate German writing. When doing so, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the letters of the two alphabets.
- These correspondences include I = Ayin and E = Tes (!).
You can view their Enc. Met. page for more strange examples.
