Eugene Terre'Blanche "hacked to death" in South Africa.

via jillianedelstein.co.uk

1998 portrait by Jillian Edelstein, from her book Truth & Lies.

The Guardian on the murder:

A notorious white supremacist who once threatened to wage war rather than allow black rule in South Africa was hacked to death at his farm yesterday following an argument with two employees. Eugene Terre'Blanche's mutilated body was found on his bed along with a broad-blade knife and a wooden club, police said.

"He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap," one family friend, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.

Local media quoted a member of Terre'Blanche's Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, or AWB) as saying that the 69-year-old had been beaten with pipes and machetes. Police said two males, thought to be workers on the farm, have been arrested and will appear in court on Tuesday.

Read the rest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/04/eugene-terreblanche-south-african...

What it looks like to build a Cocoon in the Plaza of the Three Cultures in Mexico City

Kate Browne is building one her Cocoons in Mexico City this week, at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a site dense with history.

The Plaza occupies roughly the same site as the main square of the pre-Columbian town of Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlán's great rival until 1473, when the Aztecs captured the town and killed its ruler by hurling him from the principal pyramid. However, Tlatelolco still remained the most important trading town in the region with a market which, according to the accounts of the conquistadors, was visited by 60,000 people every day. During the siege of Tenochtitlán by the Spaniards in 1521 Tlatelolco was the scene of the last desperate stand by the Aztecs. This event is remembered by means of a memorial tablet bearing the words "On 13 August 1521 Tlatelolco, so heroically defended by Cuauhtémoc, finally fell into the hands of Hernán Cortés. It was neither a triumph nor a defeat; it was the painful moment of birth of the Mexico of today, of a race of mestizos".

The square was designed by Mario Pani and completed in 1964. It takes its name from the fascinating juxtaposition of buildings from three different periods - Aztec pyramids and temples, a Spanish conventual church and modern tower blocks. In 1968 the police fired on a crowd which was demonstrating in the square and, according to unofficial estimates, killed some 250 people. In 1985 and 1986 it was covered with tents to provide shelter for the many who had been rendered homeless by the earthquake.</blockquote>  

More about Kate's project on her blog, http://brownebarnes.com/cocoon

Colonel Reb sent to the big house for bad brands, "where [it] can only be licensed out for special occasions for historical use."

Via NMissCommentor: http://nmisscommentor.com/2010/03/13/colonel-reb-to-be-withdrawn-from-licensing/

Hoopedia has a brief history of the colonel, born in 1938. http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Mississippi_Rebels

The name Rebels as Ole Miss' official athletic nickname emerged in 1936. Suggested by Judge Ben Guider of Vicksburg, it was one of five entries submitted to Southern sports writers for final selection from a list totaling more than 200 proposed nicknames. The promotion was a contest sponsored by The Mississippian, student newspaper. Of the 42 newsmen contacted, 21 responded. "Rebels" was the choice of 18. The University Athletic Committee made the name official with the Committee chairman, the late Judge William Hemingway, stating: "If 18 sports writers wish to use ‘Rebels', I shall not rebel, so let it go ‘Ole Miss Rebels.'" Two years later, the yearbook appeared as "The Rebel Number" with "Colonel Reb" making a new entrance as the publication's leading illustration. "Colonel Rebel" has since become a near-official University insignia.

How Rick Hertzberg is wrong about Square Books.

via newyorker.com

Rick Hertzberg went to the Conference for the Book in Oxford, MS, last week and yesterday he posted about his trip. It's all beautifully observed and deftly spun together, as usual, but Hertzberg missteps on one key point.

"Square Books," he writes, "is the best independent bookstore in Mississippi and probably the whole of the South."

OK, I know this is standard invocation one hears whenever Square Books is mentioned, especially in the accounts of how-do-you-say outside observers who have just dipped in and out of Oxford to sample its resurgent glamour.

But trust me on this: Lemuria Books in Jackson is the equal of Square Books in every way, and people should know that. Plus it's four years older than Square, so there.

I will admit to bias, of course, being a Jackson boy and all. I've been hanging out at Lemuria ever since John Evans opened it in 1975. I was a senior in high school and happily spent hours rifling its shelves. It may or may not be true that Geronimo Rex was the first book I bought there, but that's that story I tell.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Square Books. It is indeed a great independent book store. Same as Lemuria.

Which, if you're scoring at home, is two more than Manhattan has.

Really, it's two-and-a-half more than Manhattan, since I should include TurnRow Books in Greenwood, a sort of Lemuria-Square love child that opened a few years back.

Hetrzberg says Square Books is "what puts Oxford over the line." That may well be the case, but it does suggest one way Lemuria may be the better store, or at least more important. Lemuria is what keeps Jackson from sinking beneath the waves.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2010/03/missive-from-o...

http://www.lemuriabooks.com/

http://www.turnrowbooks.com/

http://www.squarebooks.com/