MIRRORS IN ELEVATORS - by JASON FARMAN

A story that’s well-known among architects and urban designers is the tale of how people stopped complaining about waiting for elevators. The story’s origins are in the post-Second World War building boom, with its massive increase of skyscrapers / highrises. One building’s manager brought in mechanical engineers and elevator companies to help him solve a daily problem: people were waiting too long for the elevators, and they were getting angry about it. After looking at the issue, the engineers and company representatives came back and said that this problem was unsolvable. 

But a young psychologist, a recently-hired graduate in personnel psychology who worked in the building, came up with his own solution. According to one version of the story, the psychologist didn’t focus on elevator performance but on the fact that people felt frustrated with waiting what was a relatively short time - only a few minutes. Why, he asked himself, were they complaining about waiting for (what technically was) only a very short time? He concluded that the frustration was likely born out of boredom. Therefore he took the problem to be one of giving those waiting something to occupy their time pleasantly. With the approval of the building’s manager, he put up mirrors around the elevator waiting area so that people could look at themselves and at the others who were waiting. Thus, waiting became interesting. The complaints not only ceased immediately and completely, but some previous complainers actually applauded the building staff (and in particular the psychologist) for improving the speed of the elevator service.

This example suggests that the most problematic element of waiting is boredom.

Today, mirrors in elevator lobbies and even ON elevators are commonplace.

A SHORT, SHARP SHOCK. In Catalan

No vull estar en silenci i amb el cap al banc

d'un cadafal sinistre brut de pols i fang,

tot esperant que em talli el cap el gran tall blanc

de la destral que esquitxa tot el fang de sang!

.......

To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,

In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,

Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!"

W.S. Gilbert

Traductor: Xavier Bru de Sala (també va traduir Els Pirates -- de Penzance --)

THE STORY OF MATT AND ONIONS

 This story I identify with because I am also autistic and an Avoider when it comes to foods, I have the same ìssue as Mark - that cooked onions remind me of worms - I love crispy and crunchy foods, and everything sweet, I also find strong smells like tinned blue fish (tuna, sardines, and mackerel) and bell peppers REVOLTING... so finding a real-life story about a person who shares my Very Important Pet Peeve was life-changing...

People with sensation-avoiding patterns are more likely to have a routine menu for meals. You will like foods prepared in one way, and without additional sauces or spices. If you are an Avoider, you may also have some rituals related to your eating. For example, you may eat one thing at a time on your plate until it is gone, and then go to the next item rather than mixing the foods during the meal (LIKE I DO). You may prefer to have your food separated, i.e. not touching each other because the flavours or textures mixing is unpleasant for you. These rituals reduce stress during the meal. (I have no problem about spices, but sauces are my Waterloo, I like smooth sauces without chunks; Ketchup, mustard --but NOT mayo, the texture of egg in the mayo: EWWW--, tomate frito, pesto... NO CHUNKY SAUCES PLS!)

Identify your favorite foods and preparation strategies, and stick with them; this will enable you to participate in social and other aspects of dining without getting too overwhelmed. In your family, have spices and sauces served at the table so others can add them and you can eat the food without extra spicing. Identify what the important characteristics of food are for you, and explain them to your family so they can meet your needs. 

Matt and his wife Sonia have been involved in a battle of wills for quite a while in the kitchen. Sonia enjoys cooking, and has certain “musts” in the kitchen. Sonia thinks that a dish is not worth cooking if she hasn’t sautéed onions (and garlic) to begin. “It just doesn’t have any flavor without this base,” she says.

At first, Matt was so in love with Sonia, he didn’t say anything, and choked the food down. He even tells the story of their first date. He went over to Sonia’s house for the first time, and she had made appetizers for them: braised onion tarts! Matt says the onions were snarled around each other and piled high on each tart like a nest of worms. And yet when he looked at Sonia’s glowing and proud face, he couldn’t do anything but eat one…and then another. He says that he never worked so hard not to gag.

 When Matt first discussed the “I don’t like onions” idea (he wanted to say "I detest onions"), Sonia was shocked. She said that onions were in every dish she made (as if Matt didn’t already know). She reluctantly made a few dishes without any onions in them, and they both agreed that the flavoUr wasn’t right. So with further discussion, Matt was able to figure out that it was the texture of cooked onions, not the flavour that bothered him (THE SAME HAPPENS TO ME). They went through some of their typical family dishes, and talked about them; sometimes Sonia would have big chunks of onion and other times the onions were smaller. Matt said that he could see and work around the big chunks; the flavor was still in the food from the onions,but he didn’t have to contend with the texture of the onion in his mouth.

IN MEMORIAM GUSTAVI ADOLPHI - MMXXVI

 

MEMENTO GUSTAVI ADOLPHI

*Nyköping, Svecia, 1598

+Lützen, Saxonia, 1632

"Inspired by thirst

for glory, on the field of battle quaffed

instead Death's bitter draught."

AUGUSTA PER ANGUSTA

You'll always be remembered,

as long as Sweden and freedom exist

THE ODYSSEY - 2026 REVIEW

 THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS AT THE END. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

A face.
A fleet.
A war.
A man.
A thought.
A trick.
A trick to break the walls of Troy.
And burn it screaming to the ground!

Ever since I was a child, the Odyssey has been one of my favourite stories and Odysseus, or Ulysses as we call him in Spain, one of my favourite heroes ("the man of many tricks" protected by the goddess of Wit and Wisdom, always on the go -- first at war and then at sea -- and struggling with the uncertainty of whether he'll see his homeland and loved ones; always with an ace up his sleeve - with Poseidon, like an ancient Inspector Javert or Captain Ahab, as the relentless pursuer).

So when I learned that there was an Odyssey film starring Matt Damon (the Daredevil of my youth) as Odysseus and Anne Hathaway (the White Queen and the Fantine of my youth) as Penelope, I KNEW I had to watch it, and that August evening this year, Mum and I sat hanging on the edge of our seats for 3 hours straight, watching an age-old story told anew:

####

THE ALL-STAR CAST

Seriously, I adore All-Star Casts, whether it's a fantasy epic like Harry Potter or LOTR or Shrek, a Disney live-action remake, or The Film of the Musical by Tom Hooper. 

And applying the All-Star Cast trope to Greek mythology is simply DELICIOUS. I have a dreamcast for a saga on Olympus (Russell Crowe as Zeus, Jason Momoa as Poseidon, Colin Farrell as Hades, Meryl Streep as Hera - and these are only the tip of the iceberg)... we got to see very few gods in this version, but both these gods and the human characters are played by familiar faces that reassured me, like whenever I see an old classic story with an All-Star Cast!

ZENDAYA AS ATHENA (And her priestess)

Seriously, seeing a coloured woman as a Greek goddess... "steel-eyed" Athena... maybe I can say that she chose to INCARNATE (take the body of) this priestess? I loved how she put Odysseus to the test, that whole "defacing her statue" test of character reminded me of the Binding of Isaac in the Bible

DAREDEVIL AS ODYSSEUS 

Two decades away, ten years at war and then ten at sea, far from your loved ones and in an uncertain world where every day could be your last, chip away at Matt Damon's Odysseus... to the point where he chooses to become a Lotus Eater himself rather than face all of that past trauma. But finally he has to face all his fears at the moment of truth and claim his rightful throne... and then, once he has put his son on the throne, adventure calls again, this time with his wife and into uncharted waters (he's Odysseus, after all!)

FANTINE AS PENELOPE 

She may be middle-aged now, but Anne Hathaway is as beautiful now as she was when she was Fantine and the White Queen of Wonderland; here she is a dignified queen of Ithaca who stands her ground against the swarm of suitors and as regent - knowing that her husband is alive no matter what they say... and when she recognises him and establishes the archery contest; that look is PRICELESS. And also the ending, where she decides to set sail for parts unknown by her well-earned husband's side.

TYBALT CAPULET AS THE SWINEHERD

To us Millennials and Bardolaters, John Leguizamo will always be Tybalt as a young gun in the nineties; here he plays a wise old farmer, with cataracted eyes, who acts as the clever mentor to Prince Telemachus, seeing him as a second chance after losing his real son to a coward's whims and the Trojan War. He is also the first one to recognise Odysseus when the latter returns to Ithaca in rags...

CEDRIC DIGGORY AS THE BAD GUY (Love to hate him!)

The polar opposite of what I said about Leguizamo can be said about Robert Pattinson, the Cedric Diggory of our youth; here as Antinous, the cowardly villain and leader of the suitors who are vying for Penelope's hand - also a coward since he got drafted into the Trojan War by sorting and chose to dodge the draft by cheating so that "Leguizamo's" son Sinon was sorted in his stead; he had it coming that Odysseus chose to execute him the last, choking him by shoving Sinon's draft stick down his throat while telling him: "When you get to the Underworld, send Sinon my regards!" Very Game of Thrones-like, that move, but nevertheless poetic justice!

THE NEW SPIDEY AS TELEMACHUS

Superheroes have never been my cup of tea, and I have never seen him as Spidey outside trailers, but nevertheless this young actor Tom Holland was brilliant as Telemachus; his feelings about his dad reminded me a lot of Hamlet - and when they met at the temple of Athena I cried; in the end he will prove a worthy king of Ithaca when his parents are away; he was well-mentored by swineherd and goddess alike, and never let the suitors grind him down...

OTHER CHARACTERS 

The nymph Calypso was also played by a great Hollywood star, Charlize Theron (the Wicked Queen / Ravena in the Snow White duology); she is also here as beautiful as when I saw her in the Snow White films; here Calypso is a Lotus Eater who keeps Odysseus hooked on the lotus flower on her Edenic island... but nevertheless it is heartrending that she has to let him go and let him face his fears without drugs.

Elliot Page (Viktor in The Umbrella Academy), a trans actor, plays Sinon, the son of Eumaeus (John Leguizamo), a farm boy drafted in Antinous' stead in spite of having a disabled parent to care for... Sinon was the boy who convinced the Trojans to put the Horse inside their walls; and was KILLED by the Trojans; Odysseus meets him in the Underworld (hence why he's covered in soil). It is Sinon in the underworld who gives Odysseus the draft stick (that he shoves down Antinous' throat) and tells him to tell Antinous to send him his regards...

Samantha Morton is here a far cry from the Puritanical fanatic Mary-Lou Barebone in Fantastic Beasts; her Circe is a misanthropic Titaness who has had enough of humans waging war and committing crime and prefers to trap the people who visit her island in beastly guises - more on that below!

Last of all, Black rapper Travis Scott plays the bard at the court of Ithaca, serving as both narrator and Greek chorus (like the Muses in 1990s Hercules by Disney). The culture of Ithaca was oral, epics and history being handed down by word of mouth; he may even be the author, Homer, or the bard that Homer got the Odyssey story from...

#####

THE CREATURES

Of course another reason why I wanted to see the film was seeing how they portrayed the mythical creatures - Cyclopses and Lestrygonians and Sirens, oh my! Not to mention Scylla and Charybdis...

Some of these have been done with CGI, while others like Polyphemus have been done as puppets (like in Harryhausen films or the original Star Wars trilogy).

The way they portrayed all of these creatures (some of which still give me nightmares) was pretty original:

POLYPHEMUS (with an aside on El Ojo de Polisemo)

Here Polyphemus looks nothing like the burly, hairy ogre we are used to; rather he's a gigantic hairless baby with a vertical eye (that reminds me of female genitals) and that lolls like a baby instead of speaking like an adult... it makes him look more innocent, but also creepier with that vertical eye...

The translation lectures El Ojo de Polisemo at the UJI, which I attended, have a clever pun for a title; Polyphemus (much fame) is the stronger cyclops; while Polysemous (many meanings) is the clever trickster Odysseus...

THE LESTRYGONIANS

Cannibals in the original; here they are animate suits of armour and it isn't made clear if there are humans inside them or if they eat human flesh...

CIRCE'S ANIMALS (The ultimate crazy cat lady!)

This version of Circe is a crazy cat lady writ large, but with big cats - she has lions, tigers, and even a black panther on her island, all of them people she transformed; but she turns other of her victims into other species; like Odysseus' men into pigs (as usual) and her sister (Pasiphae?) into her pet raven. Also, she transforms her victims by kneading their flesh, like a cat kneading a pillow... and while she turns the pigs back into Odysseus' men, she says "return to your guises" as if the pigs were their true form (the beast within) and the human form was the guise they took...

THE SIRENS

Homer's sirens were young harpies with seabird bodies and human heads; these look more like merfolk with finny tails, the modern idea of what we imagine sirens as... They appear to be selkies, given that they are resting like seals on the rocky coast - but still their song is as mesmerising as in the originals.

SCYLLA (AND CHARYBDIS)

Usually we picture a six-headed serpent or dragon for this one, but Scylla here is a huge terrestrial cephalopod with heads at the ends of its tentacles, living in a hole in the rock as octopuses often do...

Charybdis, on the other hand, is a maelström full of teeth, the iconography of this one has changed very little.

##########

OTHER ELEMENTS 

There were other elements of this Odyssey that are unforgettable as well, like the use of the Bard as narrator/Greek chorus, the Trojan War flashbacks, and especially THE ENDING...

THE BARD (Is he Homer, the author?)

A face.
A fleet.
A war.
A man.
A thought.
A trick.
A trick to break the walls of Troy.
And burn it screaming to the ground!

Black rapper Travis Scott plays the bard at the court of Ithaca, serving as both narrator and Greek chorus (like the Muses in 1990s Hercules by Disney). The culture of Ithaca was oral, epics and history being handed down by word of mouth; he may even be the author, Homer, or the bard that Homer got the Odyssey story from... feel free to add your own headcanons. The way he taps the ground to a beat while telling the Trojan Horse at the beginning at Penelope's feast is PRICELESS (and says a lot about his skills as a rapper), ditto the tapping in the narration at the end with the ending that we get and a new adventure beginning...

THE TROJAN HORSE (And PTSD)

I love the visual of the Trojan Horse here, rearing itself on its hindquarters... and I was nauseated at how they described the sordid conditions with the cramped space and the foul air (from everyone's body odour and from the people inside relieving themselves where they could). Ewww, pure nausea fuel!

Likewise, the flashbacks to the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the murder of Agamemnon, and the storming of Troy shocked me to the core... long story short, war is portrayed as gruesomely as it is in real life. No wonder that Odysseus had PTSD and that he became a Lotus Eater for a while!

THE ENDING

The ending came to me as a most pleasant surprise: Odysseus chooses to abdicate and sets sail with Penelope, westward, towards uncharted waters, leaving Telemachus as a worthy king of Ithaca (he's proved himself as a ruler and a leader, he rightfully deserves it!). Already Dante and Tennyson had described Odysseus as setting sail for new adventures after claiming his rightful throne (he's a restless free spirit, of course he would get bored of home life after a while!). I adored the ending and felt that it gave closure while leaving free space/leeway to fanfic authors (and other creatives) to imagine Odysseus' and Penelope's new adventures, and the challenges Telemachus may face as the new ruler of Ithaca!

***********+

Overall Thoughts

The all-star cast, the way key scenes and creatures were imagined, the final confrontation between Odysseus and Antinous, the exciting pace; of course Mum and I were hanging on the edge of our cinema seats for those three hours without getting bored or sleepy at all! And the surprising ending was the icing on the cake that is a classical yet modern-feeling retelling of my favourite ancient epic!

SAMHAIN MMXXVI - Nearly decapitated!

This year... I'm sorry for not posting Samhain content earlier, but I caught a cold at the local mall where I went for the All Hallows event!

I went obviously as a Ravenclaw student with a steampunk streak...

And I got nearly decapitated! The executioner was quite the Potterhead and teased me that, if the execution went right, I would join the club of headless ghosts on Hogwarts... what's it called?

Aha, the Headless Hunt! https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Headless_Hunt

Though, to be frank, playing polo with a severed head is not my cup of tea...

Fortunately I only got NEARLY decapitated, more John Cleese than Marie Antoinette! And Mum and I got a gift from the executioner:

Tickets to the new Les Mis film coming up next week!

Now with an all-French cast, made in France, three hours long, without songs, and surely more faithful to Víctor Hugo!

Out of the Amis, we only know who will be playing Enjolras and COURFEYRAC, and it's a pair of up-and-coming French thespians (I presume all of the new Amis will be played by  French thespians in their twenties);

Joaquim Fossi will play our fair leader Enj, 

and Jean Chevalier will be my favourite, Courf (I hope they live up to their characters, and that I can meet the rest of their little group - who will be Combeferre and Grantaire, for instance?)

Definitely this new adaptation will do to Les Mis what this summer's Odyssey did to Homer's epics (and yes indeed, I will soon post my review of the 2026 Odyssey starring Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway)

THE MIDNIGHT ARCHIVES: SPANISH WOMAN (IN "La Llorona")

Draco in Leather Pants is a trope that is all the rage today with the genesis of Draconia Malfoid - the genderflipped Draco everyone is shipping with Harry - but I have found a Privileged Rival character that deserves the same treatment just by virtue of being foreign, wealthy, and cultured - and uncannily attractive (MOVE OVER, DRACONIA MALFOID).

A noblewoman from across the ocean, skin white as paper, a white feather in her hat, dressed in silk the colour of cream...

The Spanish fiancée of the Hidalgo in the legend of La Llorona, as seen in The Midnight Archives:

This is the story as it is told. It has no date and no town because every town that tells it gives it its own river. It goes like this. 

In the years after the conquest, in a village in New Spain, ... a man rode into the village on a black horse. He was a Spaniard, not a soldier, the son of a family that had land, a great deal of land, somewhere to the south. and the horse alone was worth more than every house in the village together. He wore black with silver at the collar and the cuffs and a sword he did not look as though he had ever drawn. He was handsome. He was young. He had the easy unbothered face of a man who has never once in his life been told no. And he rode through the square at a walk looking at everything as if he were deciding whether to buy it. 

 He had been seen at a ball given by the viceroy's people in black and silver with a woman on his arm, a Spanish woman, the daughter of a family as old as his own, pale as paper, who had come across the sea that year, and would not have known one end of a water jar from the other. He had been seen walking with her in a courtyard with a fountain. He had been seen laughing. 

It was a fine carriage, black, with a crest on the door. Two gray horses, and as it came level with the place ... He was sitting with his back to the horses. Across from him, in silk the colour of cream, with her hands folded in her lap and a hat with a feather in it, sat the Spanish woman. The carriage did not stop. He turned his head as it passed. 

That evening he told her in the house with the tiled floor that he was going to be married, at the cathedral, in the spring, to a woman of his own class, as his family required. 

And, the icing on the cake: she gets the guy, as the "other woman" so frequently does in this kind of murder ballad stories. If this legend were a modern-day rom-com, she would not be so lucky... And there's more icing on that cake: we got AI-generated images of the Spanish woman in seventeenth-century clothes: the aristocractic bearing, the white feather in her hat, the silk the colour of cream, the skin white as paper... AI-generated but irradiating privilege and otherworldliness indeed! So I illustrated my excerpts with these Midnight Archives illustrations!

So I wound up in a chat with the podcaster about why he made her foreign - turns out that in colonial New Spain, being from Old Spain was an upper-class marker... I wound up recommending a whole slew of tropes to him in the "Draco in Leather Pants" constellation:

SANDRA DERMARK: I have a question, why is the Spaniard's wife chosen by their parents an upper-class woman like him ("skin like paper", "feather in her hat") and most importantly FOREIGN ("from across the ocean") while it is left ambiguous whether the Spaniard himself was born in Old Spain like her or in the colonies? I would like so much to know your interpretation of this character and of the "other man/woman" the love interest is engaged to (marries them in tragic/old-world stories like this, ALMOST marries them in stories with happy endings). I have always been fascinated by this character archetype, especially if they're upper-class and foreign, but why do you make the "other woman" here foreign?

PODCASTER: Great question, and you’ve spotted something real. In the versions I was working from she’s from Spain on purpose: in New Spain being born in Spain outranked being born in the colonies, so a bride “from across the sea” was the ultimate status match, the one his family would push for. The story leaves his own birthplace vague because it doesn’t matter to the tale, what matters is that he has a world he can go back to and María (La Llorona) doesn’t. The other woman is always the door closing. I kept it that way because that’s the whole engine of the legend...

SANDRA: so she's from Old Spain because it's a status symbol? Just like the feather in her hat and her skin white as paper? And her cream-coloured silks? I find her far more interesting than María (for me it's always the other man, or other woman, whom the love interest marries/is betrothed to who is more interesting - for being foreign / wealthy / cultured / classy, as an escapist character. You should read the TV Tropes pages "Draco in Leather Pants" and "Rooting for the Empire" and "Privileged Rival" and "Wicked Cultured" to see why I like these characters)

PODCASTER: Pretty much, yes. The paper-white skin and the feather and the cream-coloured silks are doing the same job as “from across the sea”: she’s everything María can’t be, and the story needs you to feel the gap in one look. I get why you’d find her the more interesting one, she’s the character with a whole world behind her that we never get to see. Will have a read of those pages, I’ve fallen down TV Tropes holes before

Draco in Leather Pants: Common reasons for this include the character being wicked in a classy or cool way. A physically attractive villain is much more likely to be subject to this trope than a physically ugly one. Beauty Equals Goodness often subconsciously applies even when the character's beauty only extends to their physical appearance. 

Rooting for the Empire: 

• The villains just happen to be cooler, sexier, or better funded/paid than the heroes.
• The evil organization doesn't discriminate based on race, gender, or creed, whereas the heroic organization consists of Noble Bigots and/or Politically Incorrect Heroes at best, or open racists at worst. (THIS HAPPENS IN 300)
• The Caper. Like the Feng Shui quote on the quotes page said, who roots for the cops? The writers often try to avoid this through a Caper Rationalization.
• Some sociologists have pointed out that, as irrational as it sounds, many people, both when it comes to fiction and real life, will root for whichever side reminds them the most of themselves, even when that side is thoroughly immoral, totally unlikable or both. As simple as it is to always want to see people of your own ethnic group, religion, or social or political class — or who simply have the same goals or aspirations as yourself — triumph, it is understandable, because it's easy to convince yourself that if they lose, you will lose too.

Wicked Cultured: those who like "high" culture are a bit weird, "other", and more likely to be antagonists; it's not that Evil Is Cool. Rather, it's more like "Evil Is Intellectual". Evil is smart, wicked, sarcastic with a biting sense of humor. Evil is smooth and eloquent, if not outright suave. Evil dresses well, has a polysyllabic lexicon, quotes William Shakespeare, sips fine wine, listens to their favourite opera on their downtime (almost always Don Giovanni), and in general is shown to be cultured if not necessarily civilized. This can apply to any villain, Anti-Villain, or associated character types.

Privileged Rival: Depending on genre, they can be anywhere from royalty, to having a famous family member, or just plain being loaded—with all the advantages that implies. Of course, this also makes said rival more of a challenge for the hero/ine, which in turn makes the victory that much sweeter, and the defeat that more painful (UNLESS YOU'RE ROOTING FOR THE PRIVILEGED RIVAL ALL ALONG)

Reminds me of this Jaguar ad with Tom Bloody Hiddleston (our dear Loki, and Cassio opposite Ewan McGregor's Iago) and Ben Bloody Kingsley (the voice of Bagheera) in it: Could as well be the prologue to a series about British supervillains in their Jaguars with their RP accents!