The IAO’s Saskia Wilson-Brown recently visited Iceland, and took a moment to check out the iconic perfume brand, Fischersund. Here is a report, from the (cold and drizzly) field!
Field Notes from Iceland: Fischersund
Learnings Report: Musk
Drawn from the diminutive and fanged musk deer in Tibet, generations of Chinese and Tibetan housewives used musk to rid themselves of moths, to heal family illnesses, to strengthen the brain, the heart and the senses. Musk was used to perfume the skirts of women in the Hindu Kush (in Afghanistan and Pakistan), and was witnessed consumed as a flavoring for meat by the world’s greatest fabulist, Marco Polo. Polo believed in the stuff’s market potential, and brought a quantity of it to Venice in the late 13th century, suing a customs agent in his efforts to get it into the city.
William Carlos Williams’ nose
William Carlos Williams (1883 – 1963) was an important figurehead in the Imagist and Modernism movements in American poetry and served as a primary inspiration for the Beat writers. Williams’ poetry is often characterized by his use of humor and his interest in conventional, everyday topics. In addition to writing, Williams had a thriving medial practice in New Jersey, serving as a physician (and pediatrician) for his entire career. Here is a poem that Williams’ wrote about smell.