bookofjoe

'The Sublime and the Beautiful' — Edmund Burke (1756)

Burke's famous essay, the proper title of which is "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," is here in its entirety.

From the essay:

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.... When danger and pain press too nearly, they are incapable of any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience.

The essay is free, the way we like it.

Consider just the chapter subheadings:

(above and below),

themselves provocative and worth thinking on.

Secret Knowledge: How to unlock an airplane lavatory door from the outside

Flip up the lavatory sign on the door and slide open the lock.

Creative Coffins — 'Putting the fun in funerals'

Long story short from BloombergBusinessweek: "Design your own coffin or choose a scheme from this U.K.-based company's panoply of themes, which includes sports, music, and video games. The structure is 60% recycled paper combined with wood pulp."

From the company website:

CreativeCoffins.com provide a green solution for a distinctive funeral.

Environmentally sympathetic, our cartonboard coffins are suitable for both burial and cremation.

We have a large range of pre-designed coffins that are available through your local funeral director.

We also offer a free personalization service  so that you can add a memorable saying, name or dates to all of our designs.

Alternatively we can create a completely new design to your own specification.

To view our pre-designed range and to find out more about our personal service, please select one of the categories pictured above.

Apply within.