279. The Usual Suspects

278. Broken Obelisk

Welcome back to school. There are two permanently installed copies of the Broken Obelisk. The other one, in Houston, memorializes Martin Luther King, Jr.

277. Canaletto's painting of the arch from #276

Did you know that the ruins at the Roman forum weren't excavated until the middle of the 18th century? Until that point they were mostly halfway buried in a field, as illustrated in this lovely painting.

276. The Arch of Septimius Severus

With apologies to any Parthians out there who are still sore about the conquest.

275. A Tale of Two Cities

274. Lyrical

273. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

Good old Emily Dickinson. Now there's a woman who knew you can't spell "funeral" without "fun"!

I felt a Funeral in my Brain,

And Mourners, to and fro,

Kept treading — treading — till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through —

And when they all were seated,

A Service like a Drum —

Kept beating — beating — till I thought

My Mind was going numb —

And then I heard them lift a Box,

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again.

Then Space — began to toll

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being but an Ear,

And I and Silence some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here —

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down—

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing — then —

272. Gangsta's Paradise

And you know who else walks through the valley of the shadow of death? That's right, it's Coolio.

271. The 23rd Psalm

23:1 A Psalm of David. the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters.

23:3 He restoreth my soul; He guideth me in straight paths for His name's sake.

23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Special thanks go to the Wikipedia article on the 23rd psalm for this excellent accompanying picture.

270. The Snakebox Odyssey

Thanks to Aaron for sharing this with me: The Snakebox Odyssey is a series of portraits taken during a trans-African motorcycle trip.

269. Labyrinth

And while we're on the subject of David Bowie...

268. Changes

It still counts if I only know it because of Shrek, right?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

267. The Great Wall of China

A gimme because I'm tired.

266. On the Nature of Things

This is one beast of a poem. Lucretius attempts to explain the nature of the human senses, the debate between determinism and free will, and also promotes the theory that the physical universe is made up of atoms. Oh, and all this from a poem written in the first century BC.

265. Sixteen Tons

You load sixteen tons, what do you get? ...

264. American Gothic

263. All the Pretty Horses

Finally, a Cormac McCarthy book whose central theme isn't "Humans are real jerks to one another."

262. The General (the song)

Just a nice song.

261. Le Jet d'Eau

Helvetica was Switzerland's first entry onto the list, and that's just a little embarrassing for them. So here's another Swiss beauty. This is Geneva's Jet d'Eau, one of the world's largest fountains. And a 2-D picture can't quite do it justice, because this thing shoots water over 400 feet into the air.

260. Helvetica (yes, the font)

I don't want to hear any complaints, Aaron. That is a beautiful font.

259. The Brisk Young Sailor (from Lincolnshire Posy)

One of the songs I tend to default to when whistling. (The picture up there is not particularly artistic; it's just some farmland in Lincolnshire.)

258. Nightfall

A short story based on the Emerson quote:

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!

257. The World According to Garp

And another crossword clue containing "Arp".

256. Mustache Hat

I believe this one speaks for itself.

255. My Philosophy (The Scrubs episode)

If you're following along on Netflix, that's episode #37. Colin Hay gets a credit in my tags for the song in the musical number.

254. Finlandia

This piece is best listened to while staring intently at this portrait of its composer.

Listen here.

253. The Book of Job

In case anyone wants to be a stickler about it: No, this text is not actually the book of Job.

252. The Shwedagon Pagoda

251. The Problem We All Live With

250. Oye Como Va

I think I'd only ever heard the Santana version. The original's got some rockin' flute lines.