Piece Of Art

THE NEMESIS OF NEGLECT. There floats a phantom on the slum's foul air, Shaping, to eyes which have the gift of seeing, Into the Spectre of that loathly lair. Face it--for vain is fleeing! Red-handed, ruthless, furtive, unerect, 'Tis murderous Crime--the Nemesis of Neglect! Jack the Ripper cartoon was published September 29, 1888 in Punch , or The London Charivai , John Tenniel. The attempted self-immolation by David Parker, 24, at Longfellow Square, Portland, Maine, a block from the Lafayette Hotel, occurred on September 29, 2010. As I have pointed out in recent postings here, the statue dedicated to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was unveiled on September 29, 1888. This date is also linked to the infamous Jack the Ripper murders. The same day that Punch published a caricature of Jack the Ripper, the Ripper decided to strike again. The illustrator of that cartoon would be none other than Sir John Tenniel (28 February 1820 – 25 February 1914), who is remembered today for his i...

I found the new Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie intriguingly multi-layered, with an incredible number of synchromystical symbols throughout, often tied to the Masons ("Temple of the Four Orders") and the Ripper case (see below). These are woven nicely within the plot and characters. Lord Blackwood (who wears a black trenchcoat most of the time ~ as have the spate of recent mass killers ), the secret society members, the plotting police, the usual bald giants, the ginger little people, the overly attractive prostitutes, and even the ever present ravens have a good deal to "say" to those watching this cinema closely. Needless to say, the Masonic elements have been mentioned by many reviewers and critics in the blogosphere, so no need to dwell on the straight and narrow there. Another "character" in the movie is the Tower Bridge , which is shown under construction. Actually, since it is known that the building of the Tower Bridge started in 1886 and took e...

This week people reading the Time Magazine article, "Is Copycat Behavior Driving Murder-Suicides?" are emailing me. Readers are sending messages such as this one: "I was surprised that the article did not mention your book." The column, upon which I am being asked to comment, is: Time Magazine , Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009. "Is Copycat Behavior Driving Murder-Suicides?" by Maia Szalavitz. On March 30, a Santa Clara, Calif., man shot five people to death, including three children, before killing himself. On April 3, a gunman went on a shooting rampage in an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y., killing 13 people before taking his own life. And on April 20, employees of a Sheraton Hotel in Maryland found the bodies of a husband and wife and two daughters, victims of another apparent murder-suicide. These are only the most publicized of the recent murder-suicide crimes in the U.S. Since March 10, 2009, at least 43 people have been killed in murder-suicides, a...