monday start the week (the correspondence found in the tuileries)

monday start the week.

last night horsemouth got anxious that he hadn't closed the hen coop door. cue horsemouth wandering out through the darkened house after everyone had gone to bed, unlocking the back door and wandering over to the hen coop to check. it had been locked up 

in paris in 1871 edmond de goncourt goes over to visit the art critic (and noted orientalist) burty and then becomes stuck there for two days while the government forces storm paris. there are dead bodies in the streets and if you are caught by commune patrols you can end up being made to build barricades. (neither of these possible fates appeals to edmond).

after the flight of france's empress eugenie to england, folowing the battle of sedan in 1870, napoleon's private papers and correspondence found in the tuileries and fell into the hands of the new government of the national defense. wait - here's an engraving.  the documents were found  in the apartments of louis XVI  at the tuileries palace in an  iron cabinet, hidden behind wooden paneling. there is a version of the story (by louis XVI's defenders, based on the work of girault de coursac) that claims that the 'iron chest' (armoire de fer) didn't even exist.  

today a phonecall and more beautiful weather.  

last night horsemouth watched a documentary on colin wallace (and lobster magazine) and then another on the wire. colin wallace was a psy-ops operative in northern ireland in the 70ies engaged in manipulating the media - eventually he realises the goal has changed from counter insurgency against the IRA to bringing down the democratically elected government of harold wilson. when he complains about this he is summarily dismissed (and later charged with murder). 

the wire (as we know) is fiction but is it even a cop show anymore? the realisation is that it's all in the game -  the structures (of policing and crime and politics and education and the media) are incredibly resilient and difficult to change, it doesn't really matter if people are arrested charged, convicted and jailed (the satisfactions of the cop show), this solves nothing. 

horsemouth also watched the last episode of current drama series  malpactice - there's over-prescribing of opioids going on as a cover for illegal drug use, the villain is caught in the end, problem solved. 

and the colin wallace case?  there's no satisfaction there.