Loss of signal: the unforgettable gets forgotten

On May 31, 2024, I posted to this blog a note about a then current event. Its title incorporated the event’s date in history and an allusion: the word “hats.”

https://jonathanmorse.blog/2024/05/31/may-30-2024-dream-following-loss/

It may not have been a good poem in 2024. In 2026, with the 2024 senses of “May 30, 1924” and “hats” so vanished that even to wonder about them won’t occur to anyone, it can’t be a poem at all. Inevitably, the time occupied by 2026, when “Is he still alive?” was a verse in American English understandable to be the text of an aubade, is due to go on the market as another vacancy. Sansculottisme must become sanscasquettestupidisme.

Perhaps, in grotesque,  it already is.

https://fonts.google.com/?categoryFilters=Sans+Serif:%2FSans%2FGrotesque

Immortalized bot vs. immortalized elf

Somebody posted online a floral painting by J. R. R. Tolkien. Its comment section promptly snapped open a can of enthusiasm. To the late Professor Tolkien (1892-1973) it fizzed,

Hey! I absolutely love your art, it’s incredible! I was wondering if you’re currently open for commissions? If so, I’d love to chat more about it. Feel free to DM me, or I can message you first if that’s easier!

Before you raise the cool aluminum to your lips, pivot to your computer and search the term commission scam.

But for the length of a mortal second, you couldn’t help hoping anyway, could you?