Unhappy campers — a contest

At the Met:

They are so cute, these 16-inch-tall fellows in their floppy robes. Shuffling two by two, 36 strong, behind a choirboy on a black runway in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s cavernous Medieval Hall, they’re like a troop of fairy-tale dwarfs turned to stone by an evil sorcerer. Unhappy campers, they weep, sigh, gesture sadly and pray, mourning the demise of their liege, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (1371-1419)....

“The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures From the Court of Burgundy” was organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon under the aegis of Frame (French Regional and American Museum Exchange). (Besides the 37 mourners centrally presented, three more that were separated from the group long ago and are now owned by different museums are also on view in a separate vitrine. One last stray has yet to be found.)

—NYT, May 13, 2010

The basis...for Richard Stark's The Mourner!

The Mourner is a story of convergence—of cultures and of guys with guns. Hot on the trail of a statue stolen from a fifteenth-century French tomb, Parker enters a world of eccentric art collectors, greedy foreign officials, and shady KGB agents....

* * *

Speaking of Parker/Stark, 57th Street Books in Chicago is holding a flash-fiction contest—judged by that Invisible Librarian Levi Stahl. Write the best story (350 words or less) about a Parker book heist...and get the first 12 Parker books in the University of Chicago reprint series!

Dizzies Newsfeeds™ for Sunday

In the Times, we read about the mapinguary, a mythical creature of Brazil:

In some areas, the creature is said to have two eyes, while in other accounts it has only one, like the Cyclops of Greek mythology. Some tell of a gaping, stinking mouth in the monster’s belly through which it consumes humans unfortunate enough to cross its path.

But all accounts agree that the creature is tall, seven feet or more when it stands on two legs, that it emits a strong, extremely disagreeable odor, and that it has thick, matted fur, which covers a carapace that makes it all but impervious to bullets and arrows.

“The only way you can kill a mapinguary is by shooting at its head,” said Domingos Parintintin, a tribal leader in Amazonas State. “But that is hard to do because it has the power to make you dizzy and turn day into night. So the best thing to do if you see one is climb a tree and hide.”

Possible new Dizzies mascot? Artists, please send your renderings of the mapinguary to thedizziesATgmailDOTcom!

Other news....At The Fanzine, Ben Strong writes about non-doped cyclist Greg LeMond: "He knows that his “clean” achievements, which once appeared superhuman, now look mortal."....The Guardian has some nice words about Nick Hornby's jumbo Polysyllabic Spree book....Levi at I've Been Reading Lately has the best possible Lloyd Alexander obit (see also the comments in our previous post—and vote for your favorite children's fantasy series!)....Five-string serenade: Wonderful Paul Collins post on John Philip Sousa's literary output....Dennis on Danny Boyle and Sunshine.....Now I need to sit down and read stuff—maybe here?


(Image via Boing Boing.)