#dick herman photographs

[wandering-cemeteries]

Tombstone of Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick.

Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, New York.

Nov. 2014

[kvetchlandia]

Uncredited Photographer Herman Melville 1861

“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.” ― Herman Melville, "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" 1851

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.20 (before 1970)

284 – Diocletian is chosen as Roman emperor. 762 – During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptures Luoyang from the rebels. 1194 – Palermo is conquered by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. 1407 – John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, agree to a truce, but Burgundy would kill Orléans three days later. 1441 – The Peace of Cremona ends the war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, after the victorious Venetian enterprise of military engineering of the Galeas per montes. 1695 – Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho. 1739 – Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey. 1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights. 1805 – Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna. 1815 – The Second Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by troops of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia for several more years. 1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this incident.) 1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado. 1861 – American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government. 1873 – Garnier Expedition: French forces under Lieutenant Francis Garnier captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese. 1900 – The French actress Sarah Bernhardt receives the press at the Savoy Hotel in New York at the outset of her first visit since 1896. She talked about her impending tour with a troupe of more than 50 performers and her plans to play the title role in Hamlet. 1910 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution. 1917 – World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back. 1936 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad. 1940 – World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. 1943 – World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins: United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns. 1945 – Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg. 1947 – The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London. 1959 – The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations. 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation. 1968 – A total of 78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in the Farmington Mine disaster. 1969 – Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. 1969 – Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.

[mcgiggers]

New York - September 2024

Just back from the Armory and related art festivities in the Big Apple which also hosted the US Open and New York Fashion Week. The eclectic mix of aficionados made for a raucous and visually entertaining backdrop for the supercharged events. On the art front, the Armory Show was center stage as it celebrated its 30th edition and its second at the revamped Javits Center. Other fairs visited were Independent 20th Century and Art on Paper. While the sheer proliferation of fairs in the last decade can inevitably result in hit or miss experiences, the gatherings nevertheless offer the opportunity to see thousands of works by a broad range of local and international artists all under one roof which, with some patience and visual filtering, always yields marvelous art finds.

This year the Armory featured over 235 leading galleries representing more than 35 countries. The notable absence of the mega-galleries and smaller overall international representation gave the fair a more local feel with an energized NYC vibe. The smorgasbord of primarily post-war contemporary offerings ranged from figurative to abstract with a hint of conceptual. The Javits Center easily accommodated the bulked-up size of the fair, and the comfortable spacing and layout enhanced the viewing experience.  Some highlights included: Deni Lantz’s dreamy John Zurier-inspired “Untitled”, 2024, oil and beeswax on canvas (72.0 x 59.84 in.); Anouk Lamm Anouk’s ethereal “post/pre Nº 64”, 2023, acrylic on linen (19.75 x 21.63 in.); Paul Feeley’s iconically shaped “Untitled (January 29)”, 1962, oil-based enamel on canvas (57 x 81 in.); and, Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos)’s playful “foxes on the moon”, 2024, acrylic, graphite, Xerox transfer on panel board (49 x 72 in.).

Independent 20th Century fair was more highbrow. From a gallery perspective, that might be fine if the right people are showing up; from a fair goer perspective, the offering was more nuanced. Set in the historic Battery Maritime Building for the second year in a row, the smallish 32-exhibitor show primarily championed artists that applied their trade between 1900 and 2000. The highlights included: Squeak Carnwath’s painted patterns and thoughts in “Dick & Jane”, 1996, oil and alkyd on canvas (76 x 102 in.); Tom Fairs’ nightscape “Untitled”, c. 1998-99, mixed media on heavy paper (30 x 22 in.); and Rebecca Ward’s translucent “king ranch lll”, 2013, bleach on canvas (40 x 30 in.).

Art on Paper continued its run on the courts of Basketball City on Pier 36 and celebrated its tenth edition with a 100-gallery roster featuring top modern and contemporary paper-based art. On a relative basis, the offering was probably the most accessible from a price point perspective compared to that of other fairs which likely contributed to its enthusiastic appreciation by art fans.  Highlights included: David Richardson’s “White Roses #3”, 2024, chalk on paper (14 x 11 in.); Simone Christen’s “Moment of Bliss l”, 2023, ink on raw linen (30 x 24 x 1.5 in.); and Herman Cherry’s “Untitled #35”, 1968, oil on rag paper (18.25 x 23 in.).

One of the most impressive sights viewed during the New York visit was a billboard by Glenn Ligon spotted from the High Line at 18th Street and 10th Avenue. This new version of “Untitled (America/Me)” spans 25 x 75 ft and features an altered image of Ligon’s iconic 14 ft 2008 “Untitled” which stretches 14 ft across spelling out the word “AMERICA” in neon lights that flicker on and off.  In 2022, Ligon revisited “Untitled” by creating a print, the original “Untitled (America/Me)”, that manipulated a photograph of the neon by drawing X’s through letters leaving only M and E untouched. The billboard is a reprisal of that modest sized print (14 x 11 in., edition of 50) on a gargantuan level, magnifying perhaps the polarized state of affairs in America today.  

Meanwhile back in Hogtown, it’s time to heat up the grill with BBQ season nearly upon us. The burning question is who is going to run with the Barnes, Barrett and Quickley trio. The Big Austrian is a prime candidate in the middle, but who will suit up at the number 4 spot? The ask is for a 6’8” 240 lbs. defensive stalworth that can guard in space, run the floor and knock down 3’s at a 38% plus clip. The current roster’s cast of characters are not obvious candidates. Tricky Dicky, Kelly Canuk and B-Squared each fall short in a few categories. As the auditioning plays out in training camp and the pre-season, there may be some surprises among the lesser known and yet unproven entities on the payroll, but hope is not a strategy. The whole spells for some uncertainty regarding the upcoming season. Barring injuries, the Dinos may be good enough to better last season’s record of 25-67, but probably not good enough to make a splash beyond a play-in round. With that prospect, Sensei Masai’s hand will not be far from the tank button. In the interim, Coach Darko will have to manage as best as he can and be ready to pivot at any time.

For more information on any of the artists or works mentioned, and the starting lineup for the Dinos, “Just Google It”.

There you have it sportsfans,

MC Giggers

(https://mcgiggers.tumblr.com) Reporter’s Certification

I, MC Giggers, hereby certify that the views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views and that no part of my compensation was or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific views expressed herein.

I also certify that I may or may not own, directly or indirectly, works of artists mentioned in this report and that I may or may not have a strong bias for such artists and, more generally, for “Pictures of Nothing”.

[docrotten]

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) – Episode 155 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era

“Where are you? What do you look like? What am I supposed to be looking for? I know you are out there hiding in the desert. Maybe I’m looking right at you and don’t even see you. Come on out!” Doesn’t the song go, “Who are you? Who, who, who, who?” Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Chad Hunt, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Doc Rotten, and Jeff Mohr – as they set their eyeballs with relish on Jack Arnold’s It Came From Outer Space (1953).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 155 – It Came From Outer Space (1953)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

A spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert and only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strangely.

  Director: Jack Arnold

Writers: Harry Essex; Ray Bradbury (film treatment)

Produced by: William Alland

Music by: Irving Gertz, Henry Mancini, Herman Stein (all uncredited)

Cinematography by: Clifford Stine

Editing by: Paul Weatherwax

Costume Design by: Rosemary Odell (gowns)

Makeup Department:

Joan St. Oegger (hair stylist)

Bud Westmore (makeup artist)

Jack Kevan (makeup execution) (uncredited)

Art Department: Joseph Hurley (conceptual artist) (uncredited)

Visual Effects by:

David S. Horsley (special photography)

Roswell A. Hoffmann (special photographic effects / visual effects optical printing) (uncredited)

Selected Cast:

Richard Carlson as John Putnam

Barbara Rush as Ellen Fields

Charles Drake as Sheriff Matt Warren

Joe Sawyer as Frank Daylon

Russell Johnson as George

Kathleen Hughes as Jane

Virginia Mullen as Mrs. Daylon (uncredited)

Dave Willock as Pete Davis (uncredited)

George Eldredge as Dr. Snell (uncredited)

Bradford Jackson as Bob – Dr. Snell’s Assistant (uncredited)

William Pullen as Deputy Reed (uncredited)

Robert Carson as Dugan (uncredited)

Edgar Dearing as Sam (uncredited)

Alan Dexter as Dave Loring (uncredited)

Whitey Haupt as Perry (uncredited)

Casey MacGregor as Toby (uncredited)

Dick Pinner as Lober (uncredited)

George Selk as Tom (uncredited)

Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry as Posseman (uncredited)

Kermit Maynard as Posseman (uncredited)

Ralph Brooks as Posseman (uncredited)

Ned Davenport as Man (uncredited)

Calling all “Monster Kids!” The Grue Crew tackles the sci-fi, 3-D, Jack Arnold classic, It Came From Outer Space. This one’s got it all: groovy alien eyeball monster, body-snatching shenanigans, coming-at-ya 3-D fun, and… The Professor from Gilligan’s Island. What else do you need? The Grue Crew discusses all this and much more.

At the time of this writing, It Came From Outer Space is available for streaming from the Classic Sci-Fi Movie Channel, the Classic Horror Movie Channel, and multiple PPV sources. The film is also available as a Blu-ray disc from Universal.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule, as chosen by Daphne, is The City of the Dead (1960), released in the US as Horror Hotel and featuring Christopher Lee.

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[druid-for-hire]

Image IDs under the cut.

My drawing class finals from last semester. The pieces each have a 3′x2′ size ratio. The goal was a focus on displaying our mastery over the human figure. They’re not perfectly photographed because I refuse to scan anything over taking a good photo and then color adjusting in Photoshop (Also I don’t know how to scan a paper that’s tall as three feet), but good enough! Sorry for being annoying about the watermarks.

They’re each from classic literature. Ink and charcoal. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the end of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher. They also each have stylistic influence from a different artist. The first piece borrows from N.C. Wyeth; the second from Leyendecker, the third from Käthe Kollwitz.

There’s a lot of places where I wish I could rework some things (especially the steps in the last one... whoof), but it’s not like digital art where you can work into something forever. You lay down a line in ink, you’re stuck with it. Plus, I had about 8-10 hours to work on each of them, so I could only work them for so long, and I was very much learning about ink as I went.

[image id: a set of three traditional pieces, each showing a scene from classic literature. each one is signed, “druid for hire, 2022.” the first piece is the ending of moby dick. the second piece is the picture of dorian gray. the third piece is the end of the fall of the house of usher.

the first piece is Moby Dick after the Pequod ship is destroyed. It shows Ishmael exhausted and defeated as he clings to Queequeg’s coffin in the ocean. Far in the distance is a faint impression of The Rachel, his rescuer ship.

The second piece is a portrait of Dorian Gray, handsomely dressed as he smiles into the distance. Stylized smoke reveals a blackened, dripping skeleton beneath his suit and skin. Above his head, the hand of the murdered character Basil Hallward reaches for him.

the third piece is House of Usher. It shows the formerly buried sister, Madeline Usher, ascending the stairs of the manor as she hunts for her brother. end id]

[teratomarty]

So, in Moby-Dick, written in 1851, Herman Melville claimed that nobody had ever drawn an accurate picture of a whale, and that it was impossible to do so; “Leviathan is that one creature in the world that must remain unpainted to the last.”

The Japanese of 1680 would like to call bullshit.  This is not only an accurate image of a North Pacific Right Whale, easily identifiable against modern photographs, it is a work of art.  Look how the artist has captured the sinuous power of the tail, the grace of the flukes, the tenderness with which the infant snuggles against its mother.  And again, a work of scientific merit, showing the turbulence generated by the whale, the way the infant travels in the calm slipstream behind the flipper, and what I believe to be anatomical labels on both. 

I stood staring at this scroll for some minutes, trying not to press my nose against the glass in a way that would make the docents kick me out.  @otherhazards had the presence of mind to take a photograph.

[dinamicus]

The c-bago

Everything the credits to  the autor who this blog, who keeps for  years a impressive archive about LOTR and the adventures from members of cast, en espacial From Viggo and Orlando

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Campus Circle (LA, US)

The Fellowship Lives On with The Return of the King BY JOSH HERMAN If society can coin the phrase "chick flick" for female-themed movies, then can The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King be described as a "dick flick?" After all, it does promote brotherhood and the strength of the male bond through adversity. “There are a fair bit of fans who see the relationship as a homosexual relationship,” Elijah Wood says about the close proximity of his character, Frodo, and fellow hobbit Sam, played by Sean Astin. “It wasn’t really how I or Sean saw it. I think it is a very loving, caring close relationship, which happens to be between two men. I think it still is up for interpretation.” What can’t be debated is that this film, the last of Peter Jackson’s LOTR uber-epic, is the rare finale of a trilogy that not only trumps the previous films, but makes them more delicious in its completion. The anxious thrust of The Return Of The King is that Frodo and Sam (Wood and Astin) are near, as Gandalf says, “The great battle of our time,” while Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) must deal with inner-demons for a change and do what Simba was required to do in another far away kingdom – “remember who you are” and take his regal place in the circle of death. The onscreen fellowship echoes the one behind the Kookaburra tree. Mortensen and Orlando Bloom spent much of their off-time on a green bus they named the “C-Bago.” According to Mortensen, “It was a crazy small bus” that he decorated wall-to-wall with his behind-the-scenes photos of the set. For Christmas, they had a tree made out of tampons. The C-Bago became a frat house, where much drinking and partying ensued – the bus even had its own wine cellar. The motto? “Everyone is welcome, but when it’s time to go, GET OUT.” “The actors had a spiritual connection to it,” director Jackson says of the bus. “I liked the way they had photographs that [Mortensen and Bloom] had taken behind the scenes, plastered all over the walls.” “Ahh yes, the bus. It was mine, all mine. It was my precious,” Bloom says, sifting LOTR character Gollum through an Australian drawl. Bloom, a “sex symbol” according to Mortensen, ( ok, Viggo,  ... ehem.) christened the bus the "C-word" when the makeup artist was fuming about someone and asked Bloom’s advice. “You should kick him the c--t and tell him to f--k off!” Bloom said. “Viggo just lost it for half an hour. He kept saying, ‘What did you say?’ [The bus] became all about “the word.” We took that word and took all of its power away. We made it the most loving word in the world. If you were a true c--t, you were the most amazing person in the world.” As LOTR can be read as a possible metaphor of acceptance, the C-Bago accepted everyone – no matter what sex or sexual persuasion. “Did they call it the party bus? More like the ‘farty bus!’” Sir Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf in the film, quips. “I can’t believe he [Mortensen] talked about that. That was our private world,” muses co-star Liv Tyler, who continued,“There was a lot of liquor on that bus. But the funniest thing about this bus is that this thing was a beast. It was so tiny; nothing worked. If they ever washed our hair it would go from scalding hot to freezing cold. There was no heat.” While talking about the Bago, the “end-of-an-era” nostalgia that creeps into the last day of high school grips the cast. The Return Of The King is senior year for these performers, who will now graduate and go in their separate directions. Some will become sex objects (Bloom), some will become poets and have exhibitions (Mortensen) and some will reunite with their families (Astin). But when they have their 20-year reunion (20th Anniversary re-release) you know stories of “The Bus” will be fondly swapped. “It was a very free-spirited bus,” Bloom reflects. “It came about because me and Viggo kept being moved around, and we ended up on this bus one day. And the actors were fed up and we said, ‘This is it. This our home and we are not moving. If they come, tell them to go away.’” The fellowship is complete.

 I don’t know  how fit Sean in the version from Orlando about the c-vago , so  I think there is more of the stories.but this is, I like this note 

[kvetchlandia]

Uncredited Photographer     Herman Melville     c.1860

“Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.” Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale” 1851

[dannyreviews]

In Memoriam 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we remember those in entertainment that left us during the year.

Pegi Young - singer (1952 - 1/1/2019)

Daryl Dragon - singer (The Captain And Tennille) (1942 - 1/2/2019)

Bob Einstein - actor, comedian (1942 - 1/2/2019)

Mean Gene Okerlund - wrestling announcer (1942 - 1/2/2019)

Verna Bloom - actress (1938 - 1/9/2019)

Carol Channing - actress, singer (1921 - 1/15/2019)

Kaye Ballard - actress (1925 - 1/21/2019)

Jonas Mekas - documentary director (1922 - 1/23/2019)

Dusan Makavekev - director (1932 - 1/25/2019)

Michel Legrand - film composer (1932 - 1/26/2019)

James Ingram - singer (1952 - 1/29/2019)

Dick Miller - actor (1928 - 1/30/2019)

Julie Adams - actress (1926 - 2/3/2019)

Albert Finney - actor (1936 - 2/7/2019)

Jan-Michael Vincent - actor (1945 - 2/10/2019)

Bruno Ganz - actor (1941 - 2/16/2019)

Karl Lagerfeld - fashion designer (1933 - 2/19/2019)

Stanley Donen - director (1924 - 2/21/2019)

Peter Tork - musician (The Monkees) (1942 - 2/21/2019)

Brody Stevens - actor, comedian (1970 - 2/22/2019)

Katherine Helmond - actress (1929 - 2/23/2019)

Andre Previn - film composer, pianist, conductor (1929 - 2/28/2019)

Luke Perry - actor (1966 - 3/4/2019)

Hal Blaine - drummer (1929 - 3/11/2019)

Dick Dale - guitarist (1937 - 3/16/2019)

Scott Walker - singer (The Walker Brothers) (1943 - 3/22/2019)

Agnes Varda - director (1928 - 3/29/2019)

Nipsey Hussle - rapper (1985 - 3/31/2019)

Seymour Cassel - actor (1935 - 4/7/2019)

Georgia Engel - actress (1948 - 4/12/2019)

John McEnery - actor (1943 - 4/12/2019)

Bibi Andersson - actress (1935 - 4/14/2019)

Fay McKenzie - actress, singer (1918 - 4/16/2019)

Ken Kercheval - actor (1935 - 4/21/2019)

Jean-Pierre Marielle - actor (1932 - 4/24/2019)

John Singleton - director, screenwriter, producer (1968 - 4/28/2019)

Peter Mayhew - actor (1944 - 4/30/2019)

Norma Miller - dancer, actress (1919 - 5/5/2019)

Alvin Sargent - screenwriter (1927 - 5/9/2019)

Peggy Lipton - actress (1946 - 5/11/2019)

Machiko Kyo - actress (1924 - 5/12/2019)

Doris Day - actress, singer (1922 - 5/13/2019)

Tim Conway - actor, comedian (1933 - 5/14/2019)

Grumpy Cat - internet celebrity (2012 - 5/14/2019)

Herman Wouk - author (1915 - 5/17/2019)

Leon Redbone - singer (1944 - 5/30/2019)

Dr. John - singer (1941 - 6/6/2019)

Sylvia Miles - actress (1924 - 6/12/2019)

Franco Zefferelli - director (1923 - 6/15/2019)

Dave Bartholomew - singer, songwriter, record producer (1918 - 6/23/2019)

Edith Scob - actress (1937 - 6/26/2019)

Max Wright - actor (1943 - 6/26/2019)

Arte Johnson - actor, comedian (1929 - 7/3/2019)

Pierre Lhomme - cinematographer (1930 - 7/4/2019)

Joao Gilberto - singer (1931 - 7/6/2019)

Artur Brauner - producer (1918 - 7/7/2019)

Rip Torn - actor (1931 - 7/9/2019)

Freddie Jones - actor (1927 - 7/9/2019)

Valentina Cortese - actress (1923 - 7/10/2019)

Johnny Clegg - singer (1953 - 7/16/2019)

David Hedison - actor (1927 - 7/18/2019)

Rutger Hauer - actor (1944 - 7/19/2019)

Jeremy Kemp - actor (1935 - 7/19/2019)

Russi Taylor - voice actress (1944 - 7/26/2019)

Harold Prince - theater producer and director (1928 - 7/31/2019)

D.A. Pennebaker - documentary director (1925 - 8/1/2019)

Toni Morrison - author (1931 - 8/5/2019)

Jean-Pierre Mocky - director, screenwriter, producer (1929 - 8/8/2019)

Peter Fonda - actor (1940 - 8/16/2019)

Richard Williams - animator, director (1933 - 8/16/2019)

Larry Taylor - bassist (Canned Heat, Tom Waits) (1942 - 8/19/2019)

Michel Aumont - actor (1936 - 8/28/2019)

Valerie Harper - actress (1939 - 8/30/2019)

Carol Lynley - actress (1942 - 9/3/2019)

Robert Frank - director, photographer (1924 - 9/9/2019)

Eddie Money - singer (1949 - 9/13/2019)

Ric Ocasek - singer (The Cars), record producer (1944 - 9/15/2019)

Sid Haig - actor (1939 - 9/21/2019)

Robert Hunter - lyricist (The Grateful Dead) (1941 - 9/23/2019)

Jessye Norman - opera singer (1945 - 9/30/2019)

Julie Gibson - actress (1913 - 10/2/2019)

Diahann Carroll - actress, singer (1935 - 10/4/2019)

Ginger Baker - drummer (Cream, Blind Faith) (1939 - 10/6/2019)

Rip Taylor - actor, comedian (1934 - 10/6/2019)

Marie-Jose Nat - actress (1940 - 10/10/2019)

Robert Forster - actor (1941 - 10/11/2019)

Robert Evans - producer (1930 - 10/26/2019)

John Witherspoon - actor, comedian (1942 - 10/29/2019)

Marie Laforêt - singer, actress (1939 - 11/2/2019)

Branko Lustig - producer (1932 - 11/14/2019)

Terry O’Neill - photographer (1938 - 11/16/2019)

Michael J. Pollard - actor (1939 - 11/21/2019)

Jonathan Miller - actor, director, author, comedian (1934 - 11/27/2019)

Shelley Morrison - actress (1936 - 12/1/2019)

Richard Easton - actor (1933 - 12/2/2019)

Robert Walker Jr. - actor (1940 - 12/5/2019)

Ron Leibman - actor (1937 - 12/6/2019)

Zaza Urushadze - director (1965 - 12/7/2019)

Caroll Spinney - puppeteer (1933 - 12/8/2019)

Marie Fredriksson - singer (Roxette) (1958 - 12/9/2019)

Gershon Kingsley - composer (1922 - 12/10/2019)

Danny Aiello - actor (1933 - 12/12/2019)

Anna Karina - actress (1940 - 12/14/2019)

Nicky Henson - actor (1945 - 12/15/2019)

Claudine Auger - actress (1940 - 12/18/2019)

Tony Britton - actor (1924 - 12/22/2019)

Jerry Herman - theater composer (1931 - 12/26/2019)

Sue Lyon - actress (1946 - 12/26/2019)

Neil Innes - actor, comedian, musician (The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Rutles) (1944 - 12/28/2019)

Syd Mead - art director (1933 - 12/30/2019)

[nitrosplicer]

(Left) Ambroise Louise Garneray (1783-1857), Attacking the Right Whale, 1835, oil on canvas.

(Right) Scrimshaw cribbage board, carved in the shape of a whale

The image on the left depicts an oil painting of a whaling ship, at full mast. Black smoke billows from the decks, and behind it, another ship sails. In the foreground, a right whale founders in the waves, a geyser of blood spraying into the air, where the whalers have harpooned it. In their small boat, the whalers are dragged behind the whale, chasing it in order to spear it and drag it to shore. This image is a signature image of the 19th century whaling industry. Garneray’s painting inspired a series of Currier & Ives prints, one of which, Whale Fishery. Attacking a Right Whale, became the 19th century’s most popular whaling print. It was described by Herman Melville in Moby Dick as “by far the finest, though in some details not the most correct, presentation of whales and whaling scenes to be anywhere found...”

The right image is of a whale-shaped scrimshaw cribbage board. Whalers often carved items, such as this cribbage board, from the remaining bones and teeth of whales. Such activities served to pass time at sea, built community among seafaring men, and served as gifts for friends and family at home.

Both images were photographed in the Maritime exhibit, at the Peabody Essex Museum, 9.12.2020

[randomlyrandoms]

CELEBRITY DEATHS 2019

JANUARY Pegi Young - Jan. 1 (Folk Singer) Bob Einstein - Jan. 2 (TV Actor) Gene Okerlund - Jan. 2 (Sportscaster) Daryl Dragon - Jan. 2 (Pop Singer) Herb Kelleher - Jan. 3 (Entrepreneur) Jo Andres - Jan. 6 (Director) Annalise Braakensiek - Jan. 6 (TV Actress) Kevin Fret - Jan. 10 (Rapper) Mel Stottlemyre - Jan. 13 (Baseball Player) Carol Channing - Jan. 15 (Stage Actress) Hailie Masson - Jan. 17 (TikTok Star) Windsor Davies - Jan. 17 (TV Actor) Mary Oliver - Jan. 17 (Poet) Boo the Pomeranian - Jan. 18 (Dog) John Coughlin - Jan. 18 (Figure Skater) Sean Dolan - Jan. 19 (Family Member) *Ethan & Grayson's Father* Masazo Nonaka - Jan. 20 (Supercantenarian)   Emiliano Sala - Jan. 21 (Soccer Player) Ashley Lovelace - Jan. 21 (Imstagram Star) Kaye Ballard - Jan. 21 (Stage Actress) Russell Baker - Jan. 21 (Memoirist) Kevin Barnett - Jan. 22 (Comedian) James Frawley - Jan. 22 (Director) Oliver Mtukudzi - Jan. 23 (Reggae Singer) Aloysius Pang - Jan. 24 (TV Actor) Fatima Ali - Jan. 25 (Chef) Michel Legrand - Jan. 26 (Composer) Jayo Sama - Jan. 27 (Rapper) Pepe Smith - Jan 28 (Rock Singer) James Ingram - Jan. 29 (R&B Singer) Dick Miller - Jan. 30 (Movie Actor)

FEBRUARY Clive Swift - Feb. 1 (TV Actor) Neal James - Feb. 1 (Reality Star) *Kristoff St. John - Feb. 3 (Soap Opera Actor) Julie Adams - Feb. 3 (TV Actress) Matti Nykanen - Feb. 4 (Skier) Albert Finney - Feb. 7 (Movie Actor) John Dingell - Feb. 7 (Politician) Frank Robinson - Feb. 7 (Baseball Player) Fabio Legarda - Feb. 7 (Reggaeton Singer) Cadet - Feb. 9 (Rapper) Ron W. Miller - Feb. 9 (Entrepreneur) Jan Michael Vincent - Feb. 10 (Movie Actor) Pedro Morales - Feb. 12 (Wrestler) Gordon Banks - Feb. 12 (Soccer Player) Bruno Ganz - Feb. 15 (Movie Actor) Saban Saulic - Feb. 17 (Folk Singer) Sean Milliken - Feb. 17 (Reality Star) *Karl Lagerfeld - Feb. 19 (Fashion Designer) Stanley Donen - Feb. 21 (Director) Beverley Owen - Feb. 21 (TV Actress) Peter Tork - Feb. 21 (Pop Singer) Brody Stevens - Feb. 22 (Comedian) Morgan Woodward - Feb. 22 (TV Actor) Clark James Gable - Feb. 22 (TV Actor) Lisa Sheridan - Feb. 25 (TV Actress) Mark Hollis - Feb. 25 (Rock Singer) Christian Bach - Feb. 26 (Soap Opera Actress) Nathaniel Taylor - Feb. 27 (TV Actor) Andre Previn - Feb. 28 (Composer) Anna Cunningham - Feb. 28 (TikTok Star)

MARCH Katherine Helmond - March 1 (TV Actress) Elly Mayday - March 1 (Model) Janice Freeman - March 2 (Pop Singer) **Luke Perry - March 4 (TV Actress) Keith Flint - March 4 (Pop Singer) Ted Lindsay - March 4 (Hockey Player) King Kong Bundy - March 4 (Wrestler) Chokoleit - March 9 (Comedian) Jed Allan - March 9 (Soap Opera Actor) Hal Blaine - March 11 (Drummer) Felicite Tomlinson - March 13 (Instagram Star) Mike Thalassitis - March 15 (Reality Star) Lil Mister - March 15 (Rapper) Dick Dale - March 16 (Guitarist) Richard Erdman - March 16 (TV Actor) Scott Walker - March 22 (Pop Singer) Agnes Varda - March 29 (Director) Nipsey Hussle - March 31 (Rapper)

APRIL Wowaka - April 5 (Pop Singer) Seymour Cassel - April 7 (Movie Actor) Mya-Lecia Naylor - April 7 (TV Actress) Earl Thomas Conley - April 10 (Country Singer) Bibi Andersson - April 14 (Movie Actress) Georgia Engel - April 15 (TV Actress) Black Jezuss - April 15 (Rapper) Alan García - April 17 (Politician) Lorraine Warren - April 18 (Supernatural Investigator) Julio Melgar - April 19 (World Music Singer) Stefanie Sherk - April 20 (TV Actress) Ken Kercheval - April 21 (TV Actor) Mark Medoff - April 23 (Playwright) John Singleton - April 29 (Director) **Peter Mayhew - April 30 (Movie Actor)

MAY   Rachel Jones - May 4 (Blogger) Rachel Held Evans - May 4 (Religious Author) Max Azria - May 6 (Fashion Designer) Jim Fowler - May 8 (TV Show Host) Peggy Lipton - May 11 (TV Actress) Pua Magasiva - May 11 (TV Actor) Alvin Sargent - May 11 (ScreenWriter) Elsa Patton - May 12 (Reality Star) Doris Day - May 13 (Movie Actress) *Grumpy Cat - May 14 (Cat) Tim Conway - May 14 (TV Actor) Isaac Kappy - May 14 (Movie Actor) I.M. Pei - May 16 (Architect) Ashley Massaro - May 16 (Wrestler) Bob Hawke - May 16 (World Leader) Herman Wouk - May 18 (Noveist) Niki Lauda - May 20 (Race Car Driver) Bart Starr - May 26 (Football Player) Gabriel Diniz - May 27 (World Music Singer) Bill Buckner - May 27 (Baseball Player) Susan Anne Christman - May 29 (Family Member) Leon Redbone - May 30 (Jazz Singer) Patricia Bath - May 30 (Inventor) Roky Erickson - May 31 (Rock Singer)

JUNE José Antonio Reyes - June 1 (Soccer Player) Ani Yudhoyono - June 1 (Political Wife) Dr. John - June 6 (Jazz Singer) Noemi Ban - June 7 (Non-Fiction Author) Curlyhead.kidd - June 8 (Instagram Star) Mary Duggar - June 9 (Reality Star) Bushwick Bill - June 9 (Rapper) Gabriele Grunewald - June 11 (Runner) Sylvia Miles - June 12 (Movie Actress) Sean McCann - June 13 (TV Actor) Edith González - June 13 (Soap Opera Actress) Franco Zeffirelli - June 15 (Director) Bishop Bullwinkle - June 16 (Soul Singer) Mohamed Morsi - June 17 (Politician) Gloria Vanderbilt - June 17 (Entrepreneur) Philippe Zdar - June 19 (DJ) Judith Krantz - June 22 (Novelist) Dave Bartholomew - June 23 (Songwriter) Stephanie Niznik - June 23 (TV Actress) Fame Reek - June 24 (Rapper) Billy Drago - June 24 (Moive Actor) Etika - June 25 (Youtube Star) **Beth Chapman - June 26 (Reality Star) Max Wright - June 26 (TV Actor) Hella Sketchy - June 27 (Rapper)

JULY Tyler Skaggs - July 1 (Baseball Player) Lee Iacocca - July 2 (Entrepreneur) Arte Johnson - July 3 (TV Actor) Chris Cline - July 4 (Entrepreneur) **Cameron Boyce - July 6 (TV Actor) Martin Charnin - July 6 (Director) Joao Gilberto - July 6 (Guitarist) *Rip Torn - July 9 (Movie Actor) Freddie Jones - July 9 (Movie Actor) **Denise Nickerson - July 10 (Movie Actress) Emily Hartridge - July 12 (Youtube Star) Bianca Devins - July 14 (Instagram Star) Rutger Hauer - July 19 (Movie Actor) Gabe Khouth - July 23 (Voice Actor) David Hedison - July 23 (TV Actor) Beji Essebsi - July 25 (Politician) Russi Taylor - July 26 (Voice Actress) Carlos Cruz-Diez - July 27 (Pop Artist) Dillon Henderson - July 28 (Youtube Star) The King of Random - July 29 (Youtube Star) Nick Buoniconti - July 30 (Football Player) Harold Prince - July 31 (TV Producer)

AUGUST Toni Morrison - Aug. 5 (Novelist) David Berman - Aug. 7 (Rock Singer) Ben Unwin - Aug. 14 (TV Actor) Peter Fonda - Aug. 16 (Movie Actor) Cedric Benson - Aug. 17 (Football Player) Gina Lopez - Aug. 19 (Environmentalist) Jessi Combs - Aug. 27 (TV Show Host) Valerie Harper - Aug. 30 (TV Actress)

SEPTEMBER Peter Lindbergh - Sept. 3 (Photographer) Carol Lynley - Sept. 3 (Movie Actress) Lashawn Daniels - Sept. 3 (Songwriter) Chris March - Sept. 5 (Fashion Designer) Jimmy Johnson - Sept. 5 (Guitarist) Robert Mugabe - Sept. 6 (World Leader) Robert Axelrod - Sept. 7 (Voice Actor) Camilo Sesto - Sept. 8 (World Music Singer) Robert Frank - Sept. 9 (Photographer) Daniel Johnston - Sept. 11 (Folk Singer) Eddie Money - Sept. 13 (Rock Singer) Ric Ocasek - Sept. 15 (Rock Singer) Phyllis Newman - Sept. 15 (Stage Actress) Suzanne Whang - Sept. 17 (TV Actress) Cokie Roberts - Sept. 17 (Journalist) Aron Eisenberg - Sept. 21 (TV Actor) Sid Haig - Sept. 21 (Movie Actor) Carl Ruiz - Sept. 21 (Chef) Robert Hunter - Sept. 23 (Songwriter) Linda Porter - Sept. 25 (TV Actor) Jacques Chirac - Sept. 26 (Politician) Jose Jose - Sept. 28 (World Music Singer) Jessye Norman - Sept. 30 (Opera Singer) Louie Rankin - Sept. 30 (Reggae Singer)

OCTOBER Karel Gott - Oct. 1 (Pop Singer) Kim Shattuck - Oct. (Rock Singer) Diahann Carroll - Oct. 4 (TV Actress) Ginger Baker - Oct. 6 (Drummer) Rip Taylor - Oct. 6 (Movie Actor) Larry Junstrom - Oct. 6 (Guitarist) David Weisman - Oct. 9 (Film Producer) *Robert Forster - Oct. 11 (Movie Actor) Kadri Gopalnath - Oct. 11 (Saxophonist) Sulli - Oct. 14 (TV Actress) Elijah Cummings - Oct. 17 (Politician) Alicia Alonso - Oct. 17 (Dancer) Bill Macy - Oct. 17 (TV Actor) Willie Brown - Oct. 22 (Football Player) Robert Evans - Oct. 26 (Film Producer) John Witherspoon - Oct. 29 (TV Actor)

NOVEMBER Rudy Boesch - Nov. 1 (Reality Star) Brian Tarantina - Nov. 2 (TV Actor) Walter Mercado - Nov. 2 (TV Show Host) Laurel Griggs - Nov. 5 (Stage Actress) Fred Cox - Nov. 20 (Football Player) Goo Hara - Nov. 24 (Pop Singer) Gary Rhodes - Nov. 26 (Chef) Godfrey Gao - Nov. 27 (Model)

DECEMBER Shelley Morrison - Dec. 1 (TV Actress) Ron Leibman - Dec. 6 (TV Actor) Juice WRLD - Dec. 8 (Rapper) Caroll Spinney - Dec. 8 (Puppeteer) Rene Auberjonois - Dec. 8 (TV Actor) Marie Fredriksson - Dec. 9 (Pop Singer) Philip McKeon - Dec. 10 (TV Actor) Danny Aiello - Dec. 12 (Movie Actor) Chuy Bravo - Dec. 14 (Reality Star) Mama Cax - Dec. 16 (Blogger) Claudine Auger - Dec. 18 (Movie Actress) Sue Lyon - Dec. 26 (Movie Actress) Don Imus - Dec. 27 (Radio Host)

[papapiusxiii]

Images from Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals, Dinah Fried’s book of fifty photographs of meals from celebrated literature.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865: “‘Have some wine,’ the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.”

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, 1871: “She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim’s shell." 

On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 1957: “I ate another apple pie and ice cream; that’s practically all I ate all the way across the country, I knew it was nutritious.”

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 1837: “Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: ‘Please, sir, I want some more.’”

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960: “‘Gracious alive, Cal, what’s all this?’ He was staring at his breakfast plate. Calpurnia said, ‘Tom Robinson’s daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it.’ ‘You tell him I’m proud to get it–bet they don’t have chicken for breakfast at the White House.'”

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 1851: “It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazelnuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.”

Heidi by Johanna Spyri, 1881: “The kettle soon began to boil, and meanwhile the old man held a large piece of cheese on a long iron fork over the fire, turning it round and round till it was toasted a nice golden color on each side. Heidi watched all that was going on with eager curiosity.“

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, 2005: “She improvised bandages and covered the wound with a makeshift compress. Then she poured the coffee and handed him a sandwich. ‘I’m really not hungry,’ he said. ‘I don’t give a damn if you’re hungry. Just eat,’ Salander commanded, taking a big bite of her own cheese sandwich.”

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951: “When I’m out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. It isn’t much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk. H. V. Caulfield. Holden Vitamin Caulfield.”

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 1963: “Then I tackled the avocado and crabmeat salad…Every Sunday my grandfather used to bring me an avocado pear hidden at the bottom of his briefcase under six soiled shirts and the Sunday comic.”

[csnews]

This baby sperm whale was tangled in ocean trash for 3 years

Craig Welch - January 2, 2019

A thick strand of rope, a wayward piece of quarter-inch cord from a fishing net, dangled off the tail of a young sperm whale. To the untrained eye, the line looked harmless—a lasso cinched near the base of the animal's fluke. But Gero knew the rope was a killer.

The photographs emailed from a colleague showed the heavy rope weighing down the animal's tail. That could prevent her from diving, which is how sperm whales hunt food. As she grew, the constriction would also slice through her flesh, strangling tissue like a garrote. The line might even amputate her fluke, though infection or starvation would probably do her in first.

At home in Ottawa, Gero pushed back from the computer. He called his wife and tried not to cry.

Digit the sperm whale was not quite four, but Gero had known her family for years. Each spring for a decade the Canadian behavioral ecologist had abandoned his own brood to spend months with these whales in the Caribbean Sea near the tiny West Indies island nation of Dominica. Though not yet 40, the assistant professor at Aarhus University in Denmark was rapidly becoming the world's foremost expert on baby sperm whales. Digit and her relatives were his star subjects.

Digit's very existence was significant. Thousands of sperm whales traverse the world's oceans. But 12 of the 16 whale families that returned each year to this stretch of the Caribbean were dying off. Each family could be down to a single whale in just 15 years.

Also, sperm whale families are matrilineal. Adult males eventually get cast out, and females bear the exclusive burden of rearing the young. For years, the family had produced a string of males. Three of them—Thumb, Tweak, and Enigma—had died already. Scar would soon disappear.

The family needed a female calf.

So Digit's arrival in 2011 left Gero's research team ecstatic. The crew watched Digit wean herself from her mother, Fingers. They cheered when she flipped her fluke up for her first deep dive. With Digit's arrival, the most-studied sperm whale family in the world seemed poised to carry on.

Then, in 2015, Gero received the images.

Sociable leviathans

In literature, sperm whales are ship-splintering beasts—monsters of "inscrutable malice," as Ahab seethed in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. In reality, that is far from true.

The world's largest toothed whales have the animal kingdom's biggest brains. The deep-diving nomads share membership in clans that can number in the thousands. Each clan chatters in its own dialect using a unique set of click patterns. These whales are social and playful. They roll and rub against each other near the surface. Some engage in hide-and-seek games, swimming circles around scientists' research boats and rolling sideways to eye the inhabitants. Sperm whales also are quite curious, especially when spying unfamiliar debris.

Gero, a National Geographic Explorer, could guess what had happened to Digit. Caribbean fishermen anchor nets to the sea floor to lure marlin, tuna, and mahi mahi. Whales rarely disturb that fixed gear, but container and cruise ships often accidentally shred it. Flapping ghost nets draw inquisitive creatures, and those loose lines are to whales what spider webs are to flies. While there are no reliable global statistics, at least 76 large whales, including humpbacks, blues, and minkes, got trapped in nets, lines, or debris in 2017—just in United States waters. And the vast majority of entanglements go unseen.

Gero suspects Digit simply snagged a loop of loose line. Three other whales in the region had recently been snared by fishing gear. One, a mother with a broken jaw, was forced to drag her dead calf for days after both got trapped in the same nest of lines. (The mother's injured mouth suggested she'd tried gnawing the calf free.)

Gero and colleagues reached out to Michael Moore, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. He had helped untangle endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Moore's assessment was bleak. The pictures showed Digit's noose was tight. Only a dozen feet of line trailed her—too little to attach buoys to keep a deep-diving sperm whale near the surface. That was essential for rescuers to work. Without more line, a team would struggle to get close.

"There was so little gear on her," Moore says. "It was not going to be a slam dunk."

There were other complications. Dominica isn't New England. There wasn't a trained disentanglement crew for hundreds of miles. Getting one would take money and time. No one knew how much time they had.

"We were confronted with the long-term, chronic, slow death of an animal we see every day—one we thought we'd know forever," Gero says.

It felt personal.

Getting to know them

Gero had studied under sperm whale guru Hal Whitehead, at Halifax's Dalhousie University. Whitehead believed these sophisticated leviathans deserved the same respect as primates. Whitehead mostly studied adults. As a student, Gero wanted to learn about the young: Which family members raised them? When did they first dive deep? How did they learn their dialect—and from whom?

So in 2005, the young scientist arrived in Dominica aboard Whitehead's 40-foot research sailboat, Balaena. There he found a gathering of whales he would dub the Group of Seven, named for a collective of famed Canadian painters.

The Group of Seven tended to spend weeks near this coast. They were spotted more often than other whales. That first year, Gero's team spent an astonishing 40 days cataloging this one family's behavior.

"We'd go into shore and get groceries and come back and we'd still see the same animals just offshore," Gero says. "That's unheard of."

It's why their names seem flip—Gero needed to tell them apart, but had never expected he'd see them again.

As with Jane Goodall's chimpanzees and Dian Fossey's mountain gorillas, intimate access revealed each animal's distinct habits and personality. Over time, Gero began to see these whales as individuals.

Fingers appeared to be in charge. She usually broadcast the "coda," four clicks that identified the family to other whales, like a surname. When her offspring, Thumb, died, Fingers helped watch over others' young. She steered clear of people and was known for spectacular dives, muscling her fluke high before plunging straight down.

"It's hard to describe how beautifully she flukes to someone who doesn’t watch hundreds of whales do it," says Gero, whose research is conducted through Aarhus University's Marine Bioacoustics Laboratory. "It feels like she is demonstrating to others the way."

Fingers' niece, Pinchy, was mother to Scar, who was so comfortable with humans he'd become a star in Dominica's swim-with-whales tourism industry. There was sickly Quasimodo, and Mysterio, so named because she appeared rarely.

Gero felt a growing kinship with the cetaceans. "The whales were becoming a part of my life," he says. "My kids knew these animals by name even though they'd never met them."

The whales prompted him to rethink his views on conservation. In many sperm whale families, calves get milk from other calves' mothers. The Group of Seven's young only got milk from their actual mothers. If behaviors and communication were unique to clans or families, didn't that suggest conservation should be about more than total population numbers? Wasn't each clan special in its own right?

In 2011 a documentary crew arrived, led by a filmmaker who'd co-produced the Fossey biopic, Gorillas in the Mist. When Fingers gave birth to a new calf that week, Gero knew what to call her.

He named the new calf Digit, after Fossey's favorite silverback. Only later would he recall what humans did to Fossey's gorilla.

Wasting away

Before arriving in Dominica for the 2015 research season, Gero had only seen Digit's injuries in emailed pictures. In person things looked even worse. Before she got tangled, the young whale had just started swimming and diving alone. Now she only appeared with adults. She was reserved instead of curious. She kept her distance from boats and people.

"It was like she was trying to say, 'This is all your fault, you humans,'" says Pernell Francis, who has worked with Gero.

Gero could see the rope gouging her flesh. More troubling still: Digit couldn't raise her fluke. The rope was creating too much drag. As he'd feared, she could not dive deep, which was hampering her hunt for squid.

Word of Digit's condition spread. Ted Cheeseman, who took clients swimming with whales, raised money to hire a professional disentanglement team. Whale advocates whispered about cutting the rope themselves. Gero knew that was too dangerous.

"There are Internet videos where people have done it, but they're bloody lucky they didn't kill themselves," Moore says. A trained rescuer would die in 2017, after being struck by a whale he'd just freed.

Eventually someone took the plunge anyway. The diver shortened Digit's rope, but could not cut the noose. The shorter line reduced the drag on Digit's tail, but now even less cord remained for pros to work with.

Ultimately, no rescue crew would be coming. Cheeseman ended up using the money he'd raised to buy and stash equipment for future rescues. He paid to assemble and train a future Dominica disentanglement crew.

Digit, meanwhile, grew ever thinner. No longer able to catch her own food, she returned to being nursed by Fingers.

"It was like watching your child go back to crawling," Gero says.

People care

One afternoon in Dominica a boat zipped by and a woman shouted: "Hey Shane, how can I help Digit?" Gero was taken aback. Even strangers were worried.

That night Gero ate on the deck of his research boat, beneath a dangling headlamp. The Group of Seven was in trouble. That family was now on the brink, down to just three whales: Fingers, Pinchy, and Digit. But the stranger's query was a reminder that Digit's story held real power.

While humans are attached to dolphins and orcas, many can't even identify a sperm whale. Fewer still understand the gantlet of threats these nomads face: pollution, climate change, ship strikes, fishing gear.

"But people can understand a mom caring for a kid who is suddenly facing a chronic injury," Gero says.

Gero vowed something useful would come of Digit's wounds.

Over the next several years, Gero expanded his research's focus on conservation. He wrote and lectured more. He spoke at museums and even mentioned Digit's quandary during a TEDx Talk. He and a team mapped whale and vessel movements and urged the government to restrict ship traffic to areas that whales avoided. Gero hoped that might help fishing-boat operators find ship-free places to set nets.

"Digit changed the whole perspective of our project," Gero says. No longer was whale behavior his sole interest. Now he asked: "What can we do to ensure we all co-exist?"

Still he couldn't help Digit. She had not resumed fluking. Her flesh began to grow around the rope, closing over it. Gero suspected he was watching Digit die.

Miracle

Then last spring he saw her again from the bow of Balaena. Days into the 2018 field season, Digit popped to the surface. Gero knew immediately that everything had changed.

The outline of Digit's spine was no longer so visible. She had gotten plump. Looking closely, Gero could see abrasions and marks where the rope had rubbed. The line itself was simply gone.

A few months earlier, a colleague in Dominica had emailed to say he'd heard Digit had lost her rope. Gero had been hopeful, but skeptical. Now as Digit moved to slip below the surface, Gero's entire team fell silent. Digit flipped her fluke and dove. A cheer erupted from the boat. After three years, Digit was free.

Later, the scientist and his team would attach a tracking device to Digit's back. When they eventually reviewed the tag's data, Gero was overwhelmed. Digit was diving more than 3,000 feet. She was slurping up squid. Digit was behaving like a healthy seven-year-old whale.

No one knows how she got free. Cheeseman suspects that sunlight, time, and pressure weakened Digit's line until it finally broke. Moore says if Digit swam near a sharp rock or crevice, she might have scraped the deteriorating rope off. Other whales might even have helped.

"If someone told me two sperm whales had a tug of war over the line and it broke, I'd believe it," Moore says.

Gero has another idea. He saw fresh scars on Digit's fluke. He suspects predators may have attacked her and unwittingly ripped off the gear.

But Gero knows he'll never be certain. He almost prefers it that way.

"It's easy to forget that that there are thousands of species right next to us with rich and complicated worlds, living their lives in parallel with our own," Gero says.

A new generation of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale was swimming free. Knowing that would be enough.