What the flowers were trying to tell you.
Plus other cool things people wrote, created, and photographed.
Message in a Bouquet
— HISTORY
We’re familiar with language dictionaries, but did you know about the dictionaries of the floral world? From the 1700s to early 1900s, artists, writers, and occasionally even the wealthy used flowers to convey messages—literal and symbolic—and flower dictionaries and magazine articles were written to help people decode what these flowers meant. It’s a good thing we don’t do this anymore. You don’t have to worry whether the person who sent you those hydrangeas was passive-aggressively trying to say you’re heartless.
Solicited Advice
— PEOPLE
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? David Pogue asked this question to his readers in The New York Times, and he received some poignant and surprising answers on everything from parenting to job interviews and death to your wedding day. My favourite—
“Things don’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.”
I wish he’d published more of the responses.
Spice Up Your Life
— MUSIC / PHOTOGRAPHY
Twenty-five years after we were introduced to the Spice Girls, the group (sans Posh) just performed at a series of concerts across the UK and Ireland—all of which were sold out. Photographer Andrew Timms and writer Douglas Greenwood bring the shows to us as they find out what it takes to create a tour of this magnitude.
What’s in a Name?
— IDENTITY
Your name is the first thing tied to your identity. It’s how the world knows you, even if they don’t know the person behind the name. So what does changing your name mean? And why do some people want to change theirs?
One woman in her 50s told the clerk that her unusual name had always caused confusion and mispronunciations. It had even been misspelled on her high school diploma. She knew it seemed odd that she had waited so long to change it, she said, but her mother, who had given it to her, had finally passed away. She felt like it was time to let it go.
When writer J. Dylan Sandifer legally changed his name, he met a room full of people, each with their unique reason for being there.
Linguistic Forensics
— CRIME / LANGUAGE
Is a person’s style of writing so distinctive that it can be used to help solve crimes? Former FBI special agent and linguist James R. Fitzgerald thinks it is, and he’s used linguistic analysis to help authorities in several high-profile cases. This branch of forensic investigation is still developing, but its evidentiary value shows that language is more powerful than we think.
The glory of it all.
— MUSIC
Matt Berninger’s baritone is mesmerising, and the piano-driven ballad Light Years is easily the best song from The National’s latest album I Am Easy To Find.
What’s the craic?
— TELEVISION
I’m very, very late to the Derry Girls party, but oh am I so glad I decided to give this show a chance. And by “a chance” I mean watch both seasons three times (each) in less than a week. Set in the city of Derry in Northern Ireland in the mid-1990s (during The Troubles), the comedy follows a group of teenage friends who deal with bomb scares and escaped polar bears with equal measure of hilarity. The ’90s soundtrack (think Cranberries and Take That) is the perfect infusion of nostalgia in a flawless show.
Both seasons of Derry Girls are available on Netflix now (in most countries, but apparently not in the UK and Ireland). The only thing I don’t like is that each season has just 6 episodes of 20-something minutes each. The world needs MOAR Derry Girls now!
Photo by Natasha Babenko from Pexels
Thanks for reading! I’m Shivani, a writer & editor, caffeine addict, and runner who loves tacos and has no hand-eye co-ordination. You can find me on Twitter at @wordsbyshivani.
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