Wow! Look at this!
This is too cool! Mike Funt tinkered with yesterday’s successive approximation and came up with this. I wonder if my online store has car magnets.
Category: Lichtenbergianism
Fulfilling Lichtenbergianism’s core principles
The Lichtenbergian Society has been a godsend! Just when I thought I might force myself to work extremely hard on the songs for Day in the Moonlight so I could in all honesty begin work on the symphony in January, along comes the Society, and above all, its Charter!
Since it’s been well-documented that I’m a font freak, no one will be surprised that I took it as an excuse to buy the Declaration font from P22. This is a replica of the writing in the Declaration of Independence, and it’s the first time I’ve ever bought a really professional set of fonts. It has not one but four complete fonts, plus a fifth one that consists, and how marvelously useless is this?, of nothing but the actual signers’ signatures. Need my John Hancock? That’s a capital A.
What are the other four fonts? One’s the basic Declaration font, then a separate set of alternate letter configurations, then a complete set of the blackletter used in the title and other places (think Old English), and then finally a set of the most common variations of letters and ligatures seen in the document.
What this means is that it’s not enough to type out the Charter in Helvetica and then convert it to Declaration Script, you also have to step back and look hard at the aesthetics of the thing. My first pass revealed a lot of horizontal lines running across the lines: the lower case t’s crossbar is a long and mighty thing, but too many of them and it looks like your printer has issues. The very word procrastination has a line running across half the word.
Not to worry; there are this many t’s in the complete font:
Yes, there’s even an alternate The for the beginning of a sentence, typed with the capital T in the Sorts font. So you make aesthetic choices about which t to use where in order to break up all those distracting lines. Part of it is remembering that the Declaration was not typeset but engrossed by a scribe on parchment; it’s handwriting, after all.
See what I mean about this being a Lichtenbergianismist’s wet dream? Seeking out all the medial s’s and replacing them with the long s; seeking out all the initial th’s and replacing them with the ligature, as well as the tt’s, the st’s, the ll’s, the rr’s , ff’s, wh’s, etc., etc., etc. And terminal consonants at the end of a sentence: is there a swash alternate? Capitals, same thing. Where will Blackletter make a statement?
Whee!
Later: Mike Funt emails me not one but two successive approximations of the seal. I’m posting the second one for your marvelment:
Lichtenbergian Charter: Article II – Membership
Article II
Section 1, Charter membership shall consist of those members who have written the Charter and/or those who attend the first Annual Meeting, also to be known as the Charter Meeting, on December 22, 2007.
Section 1 Section 2—New members may only join when asked by current members, as actively seeking membership forfeits the SOCIETY’s principle belief in procrastination. Current members may invite new members to join whenever they get around to it.
Section 2 Section 3—Membership dues are to be $20 per year, payable by the first week of every year. However, “I’ll get you next month” is perfectly acceptable in lieu of payment.
Section 4, Members are expected, at some point prior to or following their addition to the rolls, to submit a creative work. In the spirit of the namesake of the SOCIETY, it is not required (or even, in fact, encouraged) that said work be either complete or successful.
Section 5, The duty and the right to define, for the betterment of all Mankind, the meaning of Lichtenbergianism is restricted to the Members of the SOCIETY.
- Proposed 12/12/07, CM Mike Funt
- Section 1 inserted 12/12/07, CM Dale Lyles
- Section 4 added 12/13/07, CM Kevin McInturff
- Section 5 added 12/14/07, CM Dale Lyles
Lichtenbergian business
Besides writing our Charter, we have one other order of business.
Charter Member Jeff Bishop has suggested in other comments that we band together to donate to the ACE children’s toy drive, which is not doing so well this year. Jeff has nominated me ad hoc de facto treasurer for this opportunity, going so far as to not procrastinate and hand over money to me yesterday.
I’d like to make the donation no later than Monday, so if you’re in, bring me some money by this weekend. If you write a check, make it out to me. If you’re mailing a check, email me and let me know the amount and I’ll go ahead and include it.
Our total contribution so far is $60 $85 $105 $130 $155.
Today’s Writer’s Almanac had a reference to a bit of Lichtenbergian poetry, James Wright’s “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.” You should read it.
The Lichtenbergian Society (Article I)
I propose for the betterment of our SELVES, if not of ALL MANKIND, that we should form THE LICHTENBERGIAN SOCIETY.
We already have the stationery, the seal, and a motto, so now all we have to do is write our bylaws.
The motto, by the way, was developed in consultation with Drew Lasater, the GHP Latin Teacher Extraordinaire.
It is:
Cras melior est.
This means: Tomorrow is better.
Here it is in our seal:
Now, as for our BYLAWS, I have secured a sample nonprofit bylaws which we can use as a model. You may download the PDF file yourself to peruse it.
I’ll begin with ARTICLE I.
ARTICLE I
Section 1 , The Name of the SOCIETY shall be THE LICHTENBERGIAN SOCIETY.
Section 2 , The Purpose of this SOCIETY shall be the promulgation and promotion of Lichtenbergianism, to wit:
- WHEREAS the German philosopher and scientist, GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, was renowned in his day for incorrigible procrastination, such that his further renown was hampered, and
- WHEREAS the CHARTER MEMBERS of this SOCIETY are desirous of supporting each other’s efforts at procastinating in their own endeavors which might in fact result in further renown, insofar as is possible,
- THEREFORE, we the undersigned do pledge and swear to further the renown of GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG by putting off whatever we can in such a way as to be in solidarity with our fellow Lichtebergians.
Section 3 , The Motto of this SOCIETY shall be Cras melior est, which is to say, Tomorrow is better.
Section 4 , From time to time, as it shall seem necessary and appropriate to the Membership, and particularly in the period preceding the Annual Meeting, the Society shall make charitable donations such that, if not for themselves then perhaps for some few others of Mankind, Tomorrow should be Better.
Discuss. Add. Edit. Make it more mellifluous.
- ARTICLE I proposed 12/12/07, CM Dale Lyles
- Section 4 added 12/13/ 07, CM Dale Lyles