Saturday, February the 11th, 2006

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Quote of the Day

“Among the earliest natural marvels that modernity inherited from the Middle Ages were embalmed crocodiles, brought to a wide-eyed Europe as part of the Crusaders' loot and promptly ‘baptized’ as miracles by the Church in an attempt to diffuse the growing popularity of bizarre phenomena. Torn away from their original context and endowed with a symbolism that rendered them a product of divine intervention, the crocodiles were tied with chains and hung from church ceilings… where they acted both as signs of the mysteries of divine power and as guardians that could thwart all other evils.” — Celeste Olalquiaga, The Artificial Kingdom : A Treasury Of The Kitsch Experience, With Remarkable Objects Of Art And Nature, Extraordinary Events, Eccentric Biography And Original Theory, Plus Many Wonderful Illustrations Selected By The Author