Eliza was not, of course, a professional harpooneer, but she had the womanly knack of aiming for the heart, and so the weapon came at Jack straight as Truth....But she’d already turned her back on him and was walking away, not even caring whether she had hit him or not.
#BaroqueCycle
#NealStephenson
#Quicksilver

Like Frenchmen, crocodiles were what they were, and did what they did, and saw no point in making pretenses or apologies, and therefore possessed a sort of aplomb that Jack found admirable in a way.

The guns of Queen Kottakkal’s castle fired a [mistaken] salute & the Queen rose to accept the honor. She had been overtaken by events, which happened to all monarchs; but like a good monarch, she knew when to accept the strange verdicts handed down by Fortune & by crocodiles.
#BaroqueCycle

DANIEL: But having come, I mean to give a good account of myself. That’s how I was taught by my father & the men of his age who slew Kings & swept away not merely Governments but whole Systems of Thought, like Khans of the Mind. I would have my son in Boston know of my doings & be proud of them & carry my ways forward to another generation on another continent. Any opponent who does not know this about me, stands at a grave disadvantage; one I am not above profiting from.
#BaroqueCycle

WILLIAM PENN: Owning Pennsylvania does not make me any better than a Vagabond in the eyes of God, but it serves as a reminder that I'm not to be trifled with!
DANIEL WATERHOUSE: That, Brother William, is why I nearly killed myself crossing the North Sea to intercept you—before you met w/your next King.
#BaroqueCycle

ELIZA: What I first mistook for heavy rain-clouds, is actually a ship under sail…taking advantage of the moon-light to raise her sails, and make a run up the coast.
DANIEL: Cloth smugglers. Coming in from round Ipswich. [looks into telescope again] No…wrong sail-plan for a smuggler.
#BaroqueCycle

Gazing down into the Plein something caught Eliza's eye: a long figure darkly cloaked, silver hair spilling out onto his shoulders. A gust of steam flourished from his mouth as he shouted, "How is the seeing tonight?"
ELIZA: Much better than I should like!
HUYGENS: Bad, very bad, Mr. Root, because of our troublesome neighbor! [👑party]
ROOT: Do not be disheartened, I believe that Pegasus, to-night, shall be adorned by a #meteor; turn your telescope thither.
#BaroqueCycle

Another Protestant clergyman John Wilkins honored in London.
The Rt Rev Bishop of Chester is said to have used Open G tuning* w/his solid-body Grimshaw SS Deluxe, whilst the American Rev. tuned that Gibson ES-335 in Dropped D.
__
*He employed Standard tuning around his brother-in-law, Oliver Cromwell.

#BaroqueCycle #Cryptonomicon

Continuing my removal of vaguely Election 2020-era Tweets and archiving them here:

HANDEL: *TapTapTap* 5th page! 2nd bar!
[Eliza found a burst of paint where Jack had been & a trail of white footprints…She turned around to face the house. Musicians & Actors had withdrawn to the farthest corners…]
ELIZA: It is safe now… Jack Shaftoe has left the building.
#BaroqueCycle

It was ugly, it was irrational, but it was preferable to war.
Roger Comstock was being cheered because he'd #won. Not because they agreed w/his positions, or even knew who he was, but because he was plainly enough The Man of the Hour.
#BaroqueCycle
#Whigs1714

Bolingbroke [SecState 🇬🇧] didnt know #IsaacNewton…& now Newton was staring him directly in the eye. Only a few men in all of Christendom had the kidney for a staredown w/Bolingbroke, & Bolingbroke had thought he knew all of them.
This was Bolingbroke's 1st significant encounter w/Newton & his 1st hint Newton was at the Royal Mint for Reasons That Were Not Obvious.
Fiddling w/his snuff-box gave B. a pretext to break contact w/Newton’s blood-freezing glare.
#BaroqueCycle
#SystemOfTheWorld

I have been collaborating, via email, with staff members of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge on a press release about a natural philosopher at my institute becoming an FRS.
Don't worry.
I am restraining myself.
#BaroqueCycle

ELIZA: In any short-selling transaction there is a loser & a winner. Mr Sluys is to be the loser. We need only manipulate his mental state.
MONMOUTH: And—as I'm now beginning to understand—you are something of a virtuoso when it comes to manipulating men's mental states.
ELIZA: You make it sound ever so much more difficult than it really is. Mostly I just sit quietly & let the men manipulate themselves.
#BaroqueCycle

MONMOUTH: But how do they make money from this?
ELIZA: It is called short selling. Our investor—once we tell him about your invasion plans—will begin betting that VOC will drop soon. When it becomes generally understood that your rebellion will succeed, VOC will soar.
E: At 1st the market will be led by ignorant 9-hammers who assume James will prevail.
M: But that investor isn't Mr Sluys?
#BaroqueCycle #BeneGesseritt

[3 years later]
JACK SHAFTOE (SWORD OF DIVINE FIRE): Who the hell is that man in the robe, and why is he eating my saltpeter?” demanded Sword of Divine
[As he drew closer to the robed man, Jack was surprised—but then again, not really—to observe a red beard.] #BaroqueCycle

JERONIMO: Tied up alongside one of the great ships is a barque flying the glorious colors of His Majesty the Deformed, Monstrous Imbecile.

[When he attemped to say the words “King Carlos II of Spain,” this would frequently come out of his mouth]
#BaroqueCycle

ISAAC: It's right there in the Bible!
DANIEL: I know, the world started out good & has gotten worse. But the Apocalypse did not come in 1666.
I: It will occur not long after 1867. That is the year when the #Beast will fall.
#BaroqueCycle

DANIEL WATERHOUSE: Drake’s timing was carefully thought out. When I came of age in 1666, I'd be a man of the cloth w/full Uni education, so that I could stand on the Cliffs of Dover & personally welcome Jesus Christ back to England in fluent Aramaic.
#Quicksilver #BaroqueCycle

CHRISTOPHER WREN: What sort of Hooke-stuff you are looking for? Navigational instruments? Architectural drawings? Astronomical observations? Schemes 4 flying machines? Plant/animal samples? Clock-work? Optical devices? Chymical Receipts? Cartographical innovations?
DANIEL WATERHOUSE: I am thinking of small, precise, clever machines.
CW: I suppose you mean, small, precise machines, made cleverly.
DW: I meant what I said, Sir Christopher.
CW: So it’s the Logic Mill again?
#BaroqueCycle

Back when I was using #BaroqueCycle to try to contact higher-order Powers.

ENOCH ROOT: Nor am I of a humour to be rated a hobgoblin or any other figment of the humane imagination; for 'twas God who imagined me, just as He did you, and thereby brought us into being.
#BaroqueCycle

image: resurrection out of the swamp from _Splendor Solis_, attributed to Salomon Trismosin, the legendary Renaissance alchemist, claimed possessor of the philosopher's stone and teacher of Paracelsus.
I don't know Paracelsus.