Dear HR, I will be taking the rest of the week off for family bereavement time. Oh who did I lose? Our Aunt Dolly. Oh no…you hadn’t heard, here’s a tissue. Yes, yes that’s right…I’m so sorry for you loss, too. Guess we should just take the rest of month off in her honor.
In honor of Dolly Parton’s memory, if you have a few bucks to spare, I’ll bet they’d do some real good at the Imagination Library.
And if you don’t have a few extra dollars but you know a kid under five who could use some picture books and who lives in one of the five countries the Imagination Library serves, I imagine that she’d be real pleased if you signed that kid up.
And if you don’t have either, then I’ll bet she’d still be pretty proud if you helped spread the word.
people make jokes about how people who weren’t allowed to watch spongebob as a kid are always talking about how they weren’t allowed to watch spongebob but as one of the aforementioned people who wasn’t allowed to watch spongebob my insight on the matter is: you would not BELIEVE the amount of times spongebob comes up in normal adult conversations. i don’t often think about him of my own accord but people reference him and i have to say. what? and they say. it’s from spongebob?? and i say. oh i never watched spongebob. and they say why? and i say. i wasn’t allowed to. and then a few weeks later it happens again
OP: Turns out China already had memes back then. These are basically memes from Chinese people several hundred years ago.
Cnetizens: Our ancestors were much more unhinged than us. They used seals the way we use reaction memes.
(OP stumbled upon a seal catalogue from the late‑Ming and early‑Qing dynasties. It was collected by Zhou Lianggong周亮工(1612‑1672), a poet and a seal enthusiast who also loved carving seals himself. He was deeply passionate about collecting seals and compiled an album of seal impressions called 赖古堂印谱Lai‑Gu‑Tang Seal Album, gathering seals carved by himself and other artists. Most of the seals shown below come from this book. Seals are impressed on both sides of every page, with transcribed texts attached. The seals within the volume are arranged from largest to smallest according to their shape. Many of the carved inscriptions are very down‑to‑earth, filled with witty little rants.)
OP: Let’s see just how delightfully laid‑back everyone’s leisure seals are. (cr衡庐篆刻)
Chinese netizens shared their leisure seals(闲章xianzhang). Leisure seals are carvings made purely for personal interest, not the official stamps used for documents. Many people in China enjoy collecting and carving them. One category is book‑ownership seals(藏书章cangzhuzhang, literally seals hiding in books), which people stamp in books while reading. They function much like reading notes, pre‑reading thoughts, or simply mark that one has finished the book.
These are other seals preserved in Lai‑Gu‑Tang Seal Album from hundreds of years ago, leaning toward a more literary aesthetic.
Many museums nowadays also offer souvenir stamps for visitors to leave mementos, and most of them are free of charge. If the stamp runs out of ink, simply ask a staff member to refill it. They can usually get it done very quickly. When you visit calligraphy‑famous scenic spots such as the Forest of Stone Steles(碑林belin), you can get a small portable jade seal carved with your own name as a keepsake.
ALT
