Fish for Friday

London-based Peter Bellerby
taught himself how to make globes

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

I love the human touch! And the skill! "Meet One of the Last Studios on Earth Making Exquisite Globes by Hand." [Kristin Hohenadel, Slate] Excerpt:

Now the London-based Bellerby & Co. manufactures painstakingly hand-colored artisanal globes with an Old World allure that utilize up-to-date cartography. Their collection of high-end globes includes a mini desk version, and they create bespoke globes for individuals. (Before you get too excited, note that prices start at 999 British pounds, currently about $1,536.) Director Martin Scorsese commissioned two globes for the 2011 film Hugo, and the company’s work was showcased at a 2014 exhibition at London’s Royal Geographic Society.

Natural pool with white sand – Fervedouro, Brazil

Why is Eastern Europe so anti-refugee? "Eastern Europe’s Compassion Deficit." [Ivan Krastev, NY Times] Excerpt:

Sofia, Bulgaria — Commenting on the flow of migrants making their way through Hungary to Austria and Germany, a Hungarian journalist told me recently: “We don’t have cities anymore. Only an extended railway station.”
    Twenty years ago, Hungary and its Eastern European neighbors were transitional, post-Communist societies, and several — Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia — still are. Now, overnight, these transitional countries have become transit countries. As a result, along with the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants, Europe must also worry about the wedge that the crisis is driving between its eastern and western halves.
    The “truck of shame” in Austria and the scenes of drowned migrants have forced a wave of compassion in many Western European countries. In Germany, 60 percent of the public supports its government’s giving shelter to as many as 800,000 refugees, equal to almost 1 percent of the country’s population.
    Yet in Eastern Europe the public remains unmoved, and leaders there have lambasted Brussels’s decision to redistribute refugees among European Union member states. Majorities in the transit countries support building walls on their borders; a recent poll in the Czech Republic shows that 44 percent insist that the government not spend even one additional koruna to help the migrants.
    Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia went further, asserting that 95 percent of the asylum seekers are not refugees at all but economic migrants, and that his country would be ready to accept only Christians. Perhaps most appalling, a leaked email from the Hungarian national television network asked journalists to avoid showing images of the children of migrants. Images of suffering children, the Hungarian government seems to fear, will soften their people’s hearts and bring about, heaven forbid, compassion.
    What’s the matter with Eastern Europe? Just three decades ago, “Solidarity” was its symbol. Today, a more appropriate symbol would be a bumper sticker reading “Eastern Europe: Where Donald Trump comes off looking good.” [emphasis ours]

Did you see what the Mets’ 42-year-old Bartolo Colon did (in addition too a complete game shutout)? You do not have to be deep into baseball to appreciate this. [Editor's Note: Unfortunately, since we watched the video of Mr. Colon's flipping the baseball behind his back to the first baseman to retire a batter, the video has been removed from the web.]

Limerick of the week:

Mister Zig Ziglar – the master of do –
he made things happen and so, too, can you;
    negative thinking,
    he labeled ‘stinking’;
but “What you can dream, you can do” – ’zit true?

Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean