Mandorla: Intersecting Worlds
With a tragedy in Russia, mourners and their florists turn to an old figure of Eastern Orthodox iconography, shaped like a seed. Overnight floods in Krymsk, a southern Russia city east of the Black Sea, killed at least 172 people early Sunday morning. There had…
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With Flowers For The Columbia
A national tragedy revealed the human flower instinct. Six years ago today, we were driving to Houston on the Lunar New Year, fired up about interviewing some of the city’s Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese residents about floral traditions of the “spring festival.” Breezing down Highway…
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Zhao Ziyang — Flowers Tell The Story
A funeral for China’s controversial former-leader took place today, with loaner-flowers only and plenty of police. There’s been speculation ever since Zhao Ziyang’s death on January 17 about how obsequies for China’s former party chief would be carried out. Zhao was driven from command after…
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Memorials: Running on Psychic Time
An Ontario town debates maintaining a floral tribute, memorial to a local teenager. Memory can be so unpleasant, so inconvenient, downright unattractive. Just this week newspapers reported on a new pharmaceutical that may numb and shrivel the memory of traumatic events. This particular drug may…
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