Lots of people know about Jonestown, the settlement in Guyana led by “Rev.” Jim Jones, and its tragic mass murder/suicide* on 18 November 1978. Many of those people know about the so-called “death tape” (transcription here), which is a cassette tape recording of Jim Jones and a few other people talking as the murder/suicides begin: Jones explains … Read more
On the right of this picture is a bottle of Laird’s applejack (apple brandy, not the Pony) showing what it looks like when you buy it. (Source: Wikipedia.) And this is what ours looked like after we did chemistry on it: And here’s what pinot noir wine looked like: What did we do to this poor alcohol? We … Read more
For my clear ice project, I wanted to use silicone trays which produce ice cubes that are reasonably, well, cubic, instead of one of the various elliptical/ovoid shapes you can get. The problem is that silicone is sorta “self-healing” when you poke a hole in it with a nail or needle; yes, you have a … Read more
If you’re trying to perfect your presentation of cocktails, you might want to make perfectly clear ice. While a lot of people will tell you to boil the water first — and it does help a certain amount — it may not give you quite the perfection you’re looking for, depending on the quality of … Read more
It turns out that in 1917, Aleister Crowley came up with an idea to improve the game of Auction Bridge: “There are […] drawbacks to Auction Bridge. Here they are: 1. Mismated partners. You get a fiend for a partner and can’t shake him off. 2. Mismated hands, The two good heart hands never seem … Read more
The verse in The Book of the Law where it’s mentioned that the Hebrew letter Tzaddi “is not the Star” led to Crowley doing some weird gymnastics with the Tarot trumps and their attributions. This was recently discussed on Reddit (in /r/thelema). Reddit user “Do_What_Thou_Wilt” has an excellent page with excruciating detail about Crowley’s solution … Read more
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Most Thelemites are very familiar with Cakes of Light, the eucharistic cakes prescribed in The Book of the Law for the (Thelemic) Gnostic Mass: For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine: then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward … Read more
Alyavë tulilyë palanello / Fortunately you come from afar Etta uminquë rucë i randar / Thus we do not fear the long ages Alyavë melin ettelëanorë / Fortunately I love foreign lands Ar nan amanya pan melilyen / And I am blessed that you love me Lelyuvan Tolenna Eressëa / I will travel to Tol … Read more
Strictly speaking, this entry in our series isn’t about estates. It’s about things that are harder to quantify and to legislate. But it fits the general theme of “things you should know when, or preferably before, someone close to you dies.” This article is going to be the heaviest of the series, both in length … Read more
Okay. This is the section of the series that I probably need to say the least about, because every other thing you hear about preparing for death nowadays tells you to have a living will. But there’s a lot more you can do to prepare your loved ones to make some decisions which are not … Read more