The Wit of the Staircase

Eyeliner And A $100 Cigarette: Report From Afghanistan

Since we have entered a period of historical madness, we were hoping the least that would happen is that the mayhem might start generating some bizarre youth culture styles, à la the Zazous and the Edelweiss Pirates under the Nazis. So this item naturally caught Wit's interest:

"The Taliban claimed credit for the bombing, as if to say: We can now strike anywhere. When I interviewed eyewitnesses a few days after the blast, shreds of clothing and a shoe still hung from the branches of a nearby tree.

Local shopkeepers described the suicide bomber as “very clean,” “dressed in white” and “wearing eyeliner.”

They said he paid $100 for a cigarette just before parking in the spot from which he launched his attack against two American Humvees."

Link: Covert History.

This is not an endorsement of violence, Wit readers. It merely seemed an appropriately dismal bit of Graham Greene surreality.

Coty To Gild The Lily

Kate Moss will lend her name to a fragrance for the House of Coty.

Coty is a very old, very esteemed fragrance house and I imagine they will hire a world class perfume designer for Kate, as they did for J.Lo, resulting in her surprisingly fine, inexpensive signature scents.

These name perfumes always try to do too much, and add too many ingredients that fly off in too many different directions we find, so Wit advises her to keep it relatively simple.

We futher suggest, if we may be so bold, that the perfume designer just right for a sui generis creature like Moss is Wit favorite Bertrand Duchaufour.

"2007 will see people dressing like Kate Moss, and maybe even smelling like Kate Moss too. Rumour has it that Kate has signed a deal with Coty Inc. to launch her very own fragrance. There's also been word that a beauty line is on the cards for Kate, who is currently the face of Coty-owned cosmetics brand Rimmel."

Link: Kate Moss Fragrance on the Horizon.

A Man Of Wealth And Taste: Giving The Devil His Literary Due

"God has written all the books" claims one writer at the link below, explaining why Satan's character always gets short changed, literary-wise. (Save for Bulgakov and Milton, who we adore.)

While Wit is irreligious and claims no affinity for either side of this Manichaen issue, she does wonder why Satan is credited with writing so few books himself (not to mention so many rock songs of repetitive and tedious imagery, bar Jimmy Page and the wonderful Delta bluesmen from whom he borrowed.)

We must admit that the amount of felicitous prose in the Bible is impressive to us on a literary level, including wonderfully poetic and often flattering descriptions of Lucifer and other, more minor demons. And yet the devil has yet to get his due in book form.

Borrowing from Bulgakov's black-humor Satan and one particular feline member of his diabolical entourage, Wit respectfully inquires as to the dearth of literary matter from Old Scratch: "Cat got your tongue?"

"Boureau’s sharp analysis of the thirteenth-century 'return of the Devil' is a reminder that for long periods Satan has slackened his hold over humanity. Over the past half-century, though, the Devil has rarely been out of fashion, and today he is no longer a figure of fear. Mick Jagger, following Bulgakov, pinpointed this shift when he sang about the Devil as 'a man of wealth and taste'. When Orwell sneered that Greene had reduced hell to 'a sort of high-class nightclub', his analysis was absolutely on the money: nowadays, everyone wants an entrée into the hottest club around."

Link: Chronicles of the Beast - TLS Highlights - Times Online.

Bio Suggests Houdini Murdered By Conan Doyle, Debunked Psychics

"Initially a darling of spiritualists such as Conan Doyle because his stunts were suggestive of magical powers, Houdini -- who credited only sleight-of-hand and physical prowess for his escapes -- campaigned against all self-proclaimed mediums, clairvoyants and their like as psychic sham artists.

Among those Houdini exposed was Doyle's wife, Lady Jean, who once claimed to have channelled Houdini's dead mother during a seance the magician dismissed as laughably contrived."

Link: Bio suggests Houdini killed by Holmes creator, psychics.

Via Professor Hex.

Syd Of Chalk Farm

"This was taken the day after Syd Barrett passed away. I was on a bus through Camden and Chalk Farm when I spotted a guy taking photos of it. It turned out to be French street artist Jef Aerosol who had actually created the tribute..."

Link: Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books.

The Los Angeles Lunar Society And Archaic Female Symbols

"I've found another book, The Vanishing American Outhouse by Ronald S. Barlow
(1989), that expands a bit on why you see (or saw) half moons on outhouse doors:

"Luna, the ancient crescent shaped figure, was a universal symbol for womankind. A moon, sawed into a privy door, served as the 'Ladies Room' sign of early innkeeping days. Sol, a sunburst pattern, was cut into the men's room side of the outhouse. These symbols were necessary because in Colonial times only a fraction of our population could read or write.

"As time passed by and frontiers were pushed further westward, the gentlemen's restrooms fell into disrepair and eventually were abandoned altogether. Accommodations for ladies were better maintained and this is why the moon symbol remains on many outhouse doors today. Its original meaning, however, was lost to the general population sometime in the mid 1800's."

Link: The Straight Dope: Why do outhouse doors have half-moons on them? .

Flash, Crash, Stash, Trash, Splash: The Thrills And Spills Of The 157th Annual Los Angeles Lunar Society Christmas Party Revealed

“Lunar Voyage: Flash, Crash, Stash, Trash, Splash” --Anonymous

If you've ever wondered why the crescent moon is typically pictured on an outhouse door, we can't help you here. Even though I am the vaunted California artists' society's Head Librarian and Archivist, there are some limits to even my knowledge. Especially when I'm nursing a K-Hole of a hangover, one that has lasted nearly two weeks.

But we do know that the Los Angeles Lunar Society Christmas party was full of happenings and sights and sounds (and of course, smells) that we have yet to find words to describe, things that also took place under the celestial imprimatur of another such sanctum sanctorum--our new 13 story cliffside Malibu clubhouse.

But bear with us for the full report, please. The doctor looked at Wit's MRI and said the part of our brain storing the events of December's first full moon Yule evening will be lighting up in the rainbow-sherbet hues of full recollection any day now.

I promise to reveal all by--or perhaps on--Christmas Eve, so don't touch that bloggy dial. Especially if it was used for anything like the many dials around our clubhouse were in early December: to launch all current members of Los Angeles' biggest little secret society into outer space!

[Cue Theremin. Dissolve to "To Be Continued" Title Card. Fade To Black. ]

The Weatherwomen's Terror

"Factory School’s Southpaw Culture series has reissued a book far more obscure than Prairie Fire—a collection of anonymously authored inspirational/agitprop, and sometimes feminist, poems from the same period and presumably the same (and related) folks who, though dangerously misguided, and destructive for U.S. progressive politics, still smell sweeter than those in and around the U.S. government who worked to actively, and often violently, undermine democratic governments abroad and domestic protest at home."

Link: The Brooklyn Rail - Poetry: The Weatherwomen’s Terror.

January Esquire On Stands

Iraq vet Bryan Anderson holds his Purple Heart with prosthetic left arm modelled from his twin brother's.

"I was hit on October 23. They call it your alive day. You celebrate it like your birthday. Well, except without the presents. I felt like it was celebrating the worst day of my life. That's just my mindset right now. Why would I want to celebrate the worst day of my life? And they're like, 'Cause you're alive. Okay, I kind of get it. But that still doesn't change the fact that that was the worst day of my life. But it's another excuse to have a party."

Link: Esquire:Feature Story:WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Bryan Anderson.

Ridiculously Easy "Belle Du Jour" Film Trivia Prize Up For Grabs

Plus bonus Bunuel foot fetish link below that. He has really good taste in shoes.

"To celebrate the 40th anniversay of Spanish surrealist Luis Bunuel's seductive masterpiece, the Telegraph has two copies of the newly-released DVD to give away as well as a set of sexy Agent Provocateur lingerie worth 300 pounds.

To enter, simply answer the following question: what is the name of the French actress who plays Severine in the film?

Email your answers to competitions@telegraph.co.uk before Friday December 20."

Link: Telegraph | Entertainment | Belle de Jour competition.

Link: CVC. Luis Bunuel. Obsesiones. Objetos cotidianos. Calzado..