impressions
A hazy morning at a harbor. Chalky, gray mist shrouds the boats, but a peach-colored sunrise warms the scene. Claude Monet captured this scene in his masterpiece “Impression, Sunrise.” Created in 1872, this painting was not well-received. French critic Louis Leroy slammed the painting as little more than a sketch that could barely be considered a finished work. Over time, however, opinions within the art world changed. Today, historians credit Monet’s harbor scene with having sparked the Impressionist movement.
crooked house
Wobbly, woozy, unsteady. These words all describe the appearance of the Crooked House—the most photographed house in all of Poland. One observer commented that the structure looks as if it is “melting or sagging from exhaustion.” Designer Szotynscy Zaleski purposely created the exterior to feature few straight lines, and the result is an architectural ode to a funhouse mirror.
trust in a suspicious world
My bottle of water tastes good, but how can I trust the claim that it was sourced from a mountain spring? It’s reported that nearly 40 percent of bottled water is ordinary tap water. Also, many in the UK and Europe are waking up to the growing probability that their breakfast beef sausage is likely breakfast horsemeat sausage. Tests on meat labeled “beef” have exposed widespread fraud in the food industry as horse DNA has been identified. Stories like these breed cynicism, fear, and mistrust.
