August 12, 2026
In the United Kingdom, silly season is a period in the summer months known for frivolous news stories in the mass media. The term was first attested in 1861, and listed in the second (1894) edition of ‘Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.’ The 15th edition defined the silly season as ‘the part of the year when Parliament and the Law Courts are not sitting (about August and September).’ In North America, the period is often referred to as the slow news season.
In Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, the silly season has come to refer to the Christmas/New Year festive period (which occurs during the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere).
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August 7, 2026
The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in Tribeca, NYC. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for post punk underground music and no wave counterculture events.
The club was founded by filmmaker Steve Mass, art curator and filmmaker Diego Cortez, and downtown punk scene persona Anya Phillips. Mass named the club after Samuel Alexander Mudd, the physician who treated John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. To secure the space for the venue, which was a loft owned by artist Ross Bleckner, Mass described the future venue as essentially an art bar cabaret, like Mickey Ruskin’s One University Place, itself based on Ruskin’s Max’s Kansas City.
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Posted in Art, Money |
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August 1, 2026
Olfactory receptor 6A2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the OR6A2 gene. Variation in the OR6A2 gene has been identified as a likely cause of why some people enjoy the smell and taste of coriander (also known as cilantro) while others are extremely repulsed by it. Some associate it with an intensely unpleasant taste, including a combination of soap and vomit, or say that it is similar to the foul smelling odor emitted by stinkbugs. This is suggested to be due to the presence of aldehyde chemicals, which may be present in soap, various detergents, coriander, and several species of stinkbugs.
Depending on ancestry, between 3% and 21% of the American population report disliking coriander: 21% for East Asians, 17% for Europeans, 14% for those of African descent, 7% for South Asians, 4% for Hispanics, and 3% for Middle Eastern subjects. However, these figures do not represent the prevalence of the OR6A2 gene.
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