notes
Sunday, 29 December 2002Sam Ruby points to Mena Trott's Weblogs and Discovery. Mena Trott: weblogs are changing the way we're finding (and asking for) information on the web. I especially like the reference to mini-universes coming into existence within the comments of a post. [Sam Ruby]
"...weblogs aren't as temporal as we may think. / And while the resource of information can be found in other Internet outlets (news groups, mailing lists, message boards), it is the enthusiasm and personality behind weblogs that makes the source sweeter."
Followed by eloquent exchange re spaceless- and timelessness of blogs and ephemerality of current digital content.
Harpo Marx was an undercover agent for J. Edgar Hoover, running secret documents out of the Soviet Union.
One letter from the FBI archives, signed by Hoover in 1949, congratulates Harpo on his "loyal past services" to his country. Hoover hoped they might meet in the near future, saying: "There may be ways that you can help your country again."
Let's hope they weren't letters to Warner Bros.. Harpo Marx ran secret documents past Stalin. Really. [MetaFilter]
Found this pic at http://www.cybermusician.com/column.asp where I learnt that "He was the first American to perform in the USSR after the country was recognized by the Roosevelt administration..." The Melbourne Herald Sun story adds the detail:
"Joseph Stalin, who was a fan, authorised a six-week tour of the Soviet Union for Harpo, a skilled harpist and mime who played with comedians across the country.
At the end of the tour, Harpo told his family, he was asked by the US ambassador in Moscow to take home some "diplomatic mail", which he was instructed to conceal in his socks. The nature of the documents remains classified."