Adalbert Stifter was an Austrian writer, poet, painter, and pedagogue. He was especially notable for the vivid natural landscapes depicted in his writing, and has long been popular in the German-speaking world, while almost entirely unknown to English readers. Seemingly the simplest of stories—a passing anecdote of village life— Rock Crystal opens up into a tale of almost unendurable suspense. This jewel-like novella by the writer that Thomas Mann praised as “one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature” is among the most unusual, moving, and memorable of Christmas stories.

Spon Diogo.

In 1956, John Stephen took a lease on 5 Carnaby Street in the epicenter of London, a city on the cusp of a cultural and social revolution that would last for a decade. Before long, John Stephen was a cult name in fashion, revolutionizing the design of men’s shops and establishing the prototypical boutique aesthetic that was to be copied by an entire generation of fashion retailers. John Stephen set up in clothes at the right time in the right place for a generation waiting to intersect with his liberally colorful designs.

The history of San Marzano tomatoes.

A summer capital is a city used as an administrative capital during heat waves. Sadly, the concept is almost extinct, as air-conditioning systems has reduced the need to periodically relocate to a more temperate city. While artificial cooling of indoor air is a more efficient way of dealing with underarm sweat patches, it comes at the expense of the gorgeous extravagance of moving all political activity across the land you are trying to govern. Nothing inspires like a change of place who needs new ideas more than politicians? Artists already have residencies.

Notable summer capitals include San Sebastián in the northern part of Spain and Palanga, a Lithuanian seaside town.

Shergar was an acclaimed racehorse, and winner of the 1981 Epsom Derby by a record 10 lengths, the longest winning margin in the race’s 226-year history. On 8 February 1983, he was stolen from the Ballymany Stud, near The Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland by masked gunmen with the body never being discovered. The incident has been the inspiration for several books, documentaries, and a film.

The iconic iron pot by Timo Sarpaneva.

Beautiful idea.

In 1980, the landmark series Cosmos premiered on public television. Since then, it is estimated that more than a billion people around the planet have seen it. Cosmos chronicles the evolution of the planet and efforts to find our place in the universe. Each of the 13 episodes focuses on a specific aspect of the nature of life, consciousness, the universe and time.

Isolated Heroes book shot by David Simons.

Szeemann invented the modern-day Großausstellung (“great exhibition”), in which the artworks are tied to a central concept and are assembled into new and often surprising interrelationships.

The spotted handfish is unusual in that it has highly adapted pectoral fins, which appear like hands (hence the name) and allow it to walk on the sea floor.

Walter Sickert was a cosmopolitan and eccentric who favoured ordinary people and urban scenes as his subjects.

Bruno Schulz

Yves Simon. French singer/writer that also happens to be one of Michel Foucault’s favorites.

Taryn Simon. Great photographer.

Julius Shulman

Luigi Serafini. The world’s best illustrator. These are drawings from Etimologiario by Maria Sebregondi. You know him from your favorite FMR book.

Grasshopper chairs by Eero Saarinen.

Françoise Sagan. French novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, whose wrote dispassionate portrayals of bored, amoral middle-class people.

Kuki Sh?z?.  (Amazon)

Senor Wences

Tom Scicluna. Solitaire palm.

Josabeth Sjoberg. Amazing Swedish artist.

Amazing trees grow on these islands. Socotra is considered the “jewel” of biodiversity in the Arabian sea.

More.

Yma Sumac a noted Peruvian soprano. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents of exotica music and became an international success, based on the merits of her extreme vocal range, which was said to be “well over four octaves“^[1] and was sometimes claimed to span even five octaves at her peak.

Listen.

This is the flag of the Sulawesi separatist movement. The shape in the middle is the outline of the island. Can you be more simple than that? On a side note, you can also eat roasted rat on Sulawesi. Here’s a video.

Suriname. An odd mixture of cultures.