Thane Plambeck

Courtyard Heron

Livery for a Lackey

Livery for a Lackey of the Counts of Attems
Austria, c. 1820
Mont. Dep. Inv. No. N 63 1

As was done at court, the nobility dressed its servants in livery, usually in the colours of the coat of arms of the family concerned. Thus a keen observer could immediately recognise from the livery whose servant it was.

The livery depicted here, that of a lackey of the counts of Attems, is one of the few examples preserved from the early 19th century. It consists of a coat of yellow cloth, decorated with wide blue and white silk edging with a floral pattern, as well as a waistcoat of light-yellow cloth with silver edging and silver-plated buttons.

Roman Denarii

Cole and I bought two Roman denarii today in a coin shop:

If eBay is to be trusted, the one on the right is from the Roman Empire and depicts Julia Domna:

Wife of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna was one of the most powerful people in the Roman Empire during the period from A.D. 193 to 217. While her emperor husband, Septimius Severus, was fighting rivals, pursuing rebels, and subduing revolts in the far corners of the empire, Julia Domna was left to administer the vast Roman Empire. She proved to be an able administrator, playing one powerful general or senator against another, while keeping herself from falling into the many traps set by political enemies at court...read more

The reverse (which I haven't put up yet) depicts "Felicitas, keeper of friendship and understanding."

On the left, the husband of Juliet Domna, the Emperor Septimius Severus:

An African by birth, Septimius Severus joined the Roman army as a young man and worked his way up through the ranks. He was a superstitious man and often consulted astrologers concerning his future. According to the accounts given in the Historia Augusta, or the Lives of the Later Caesars, there were many favorable omens that predicted that Septimius would one day become emperor. He married the brilliant and beautiful Julia Domna, whose horoscope also predicted that she would marry an emperor, even though Septimius was a young army officer at the time. She was the daughter of a high priest of Elagabal, a god that was popular in Syria during the Third Century A.D. Domna, like other women of the Severan Dynasty, held a position of great power during the reign of Septimius Severus and his sons.

Severus was in command of the Eastern legions when news reached him of the murder of Pertinax. Pertinax had been popular with the army, and avenging his murder was an ideal excuse for Septimius Severus to rebel against the weak and despised Didius Julianus and try to seize the throne for himself. Severus first had to deal with two strong rivals who also were in rebellion at the head of Roman legions. Clodius Albinus was the governor of Britain and Pescennius Niger was in charge of the legions on the river Danube.

Septimius Severus spent much of his time away from Rome putting down rebellions and dealing with rivals. He even campaigned in Britain against the wild and unruly Scots who were harassing the civilized towns of Roman Britain. The legendary Scottish hero Fingal was supposed to have fought successfully against the Roman legions of Septimius Severus in defense of the cherished liberty of the Scots. Septimius Severus took his two sons, Geta and Caracalla to Britain with him in order to get them away from a life of luxury in Rome and expose them to the virtues of life in a rough Roman army camp. Severus died at York He told his sons to cooperate with each other in ruling the Empire together. The last words of advice to his sons he spoke as he lay dying in this Roman outpost so far from the civilized center of the empire expressed more a hope than a command. "Rule together as brothers, enrich the soldiers, and forget about everybody else."

I didn't know they were man and wife when we bought the coins (!). We just picked them out at random from a large tray of Roman coins.

Gardenia

It's windy and rainy today in Palo Alto.

At the flower mart

Mars Rover

I wanted to buy the Lego "Mission to Mars" set. But no one seemed to have them in stock online. Amazon at least let me sign up to be notified, should a lander bounce down safely into their warehouse.

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We're happy to inform you that the item you requested, Lego Mission To Mars (7469), is now available!

If you would like to purchase this item, please follow the link below to place an order:

-link-

Since supply is often limited and some products sell out quickly, we recommend that you place an order as soon as possible if you are still interested in obtaining this item.

They weren't kidding—I clicked on that URL immediately after receiving the email, and there were no rovers available. Someone had beaten me to it.

So I signed up for the email notification again, got the email again, and missed again. On the third iteration I clicked in time. Today Owen, Cole and I put it together and dispatched it immediately to the Martian surface.

We're excited to be able to bring you the most detailed photograph ever seen of a toy on the surface of another planet:

All systems are functioning perfectly!

Hypnotherapy

Opposite the School of Hypnotherapy, a truck had this logo on it: Is that a tooth in the middle of the horseshoe?

Even telephone poles carry all sorts of inscrutable symbolic information. These numbers must be important to someone—they're stamped out of metal and hammered into the wood with big nails. What could they possibly mean?

IQ Zoo

A mysterious token from a garage sale.

reverse

A crocheted skull