Blue Bottle Cafe | The Musings of a Public Historian

Hello all!

One of the biggest stories this past week was the Boston Marathon bombings. The story behind the tragedy is still coming to light, but this act of terroism will not go unpunished. Our hearts and thoughts are with those who were injured or lost a loved one in this terrible tragedy.

Comedian Patton Oswalt’s response to the event was especially resonant. We’ve copied his words for you below.

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.”

But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49959/11-titanic-references-tested-against-history

In honor of the anniversary of the Titanic’s historic launch (and subsequent sinking), we linked above an article of 11 things from the movie Titanic that are compared to their real life counterparts.

Continuing along the Titanic theme, the above video features a short biography of Thomas Andrews. Andrews was an Irish businessman and naval architect who was born in County Down and worked for Harland and Wolff in Belfast; the firm responsible for the construction of the Titanic. Considered by many to be one of the most heroic men on board the sinking vessel, he helped to fill the lifeboats and encourage the evacuation of passengers even throwing deck chairs to those in the water to use as floating devices. There is a memorial hall dedicated to honor his memory in his home town of Comber.

http://metropolitanmuseumofbutts.tumblr.com/

For all of you who need a laugh with finals and essay deadlines approaching, here is a hilarious tumblr aptly titled the Metropolitan Museum of Butts. Enjoy!

MODERN ART DESSERTS from Clay McLachlan on Vimeo.

Last, but not least, here’s an amazing video featuring the pastry chefs at the San Fransico Museum of Modern Art. The museums’ cafe, the Blue Bottle Cafe, creates its own works of art inspired by the pieces on display at the museum.

Pictured above is the cookbook that one of the chefs, Caitlin Freeman, has published. It gives step-by-step instructions for twenty-seven desserts for you to create at home.

Until next week!