Adventures in Molybdomancy
Founding Subscribers' bonus post
I am embarrassed to realize how long it has been since I last expressed my gratitude to the Founding Subscribers, whose support makes The Elif Life so much more comfortable and ergonomic, and whom I salute today with a special bonus multimedia post (with video content), about my experience trying to have my fortune told with Turkish coffee grounds: a longish story that veers surprisingly into questions of marine ecology and loon health.
Everyone else: greetings from Milan, where I just had a thought-provoking interview with
, who was wearing beautiful socks with bassotti on them; this reminded of another exciting conversation I had earlier this year with (who later wrote this amazing piece). I know I was complaining about book PR last time, but sometimes it is truly inspirational. 🙏And overall I feel really lucky to be back in Italy. As soon as I got off the plane, I remembered all these things I had forgotten, e.g. the VIETATO L’INGRESSO guy with the giant forbidding hand and the small appalled face—how delightful to see him again on the train.
He was giving me kind of a Munch vibe, so imagine how excited I was when just then I saw a sign for an exhibit called MUNCH: Il grido interiore, which I take to imply that these girls are screaming on the inside:
That said, now whenever I see the VIETATO guy I think he is also “grido interiore”; and before you tell me that he is very externalized, here’s something to mull over: just because you’re screaming on the outside doesn't mean you aren’t also screaming on the inside.
OK, hopefully more about Milan later, but for now it’s molybdomania. Thanks, everyone!