{"id":2099,"date":"2008-06-12T18:58:09","date_gmt":"2008-06-12T22:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2099"},"modified":"2008-06-12T18:58:09","modified_gmt":"2008-06-12T22:58:09","slug":"pigeon-house-of-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/pigeon-house-of-the-dead","title":{"rendered":"Pigeon house . . . of the dead!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry for the lack of posts today, dear reader. I spent most of the day transcribing my Pfizer interview from Tuesday: 65 minutes on the digital recorder added up to 4,000 words, and that&#8217;s after I elided some sections that I know I can&#8217;t run in the magazine.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I&#8217;m settling in to read, and just came across a word I&#8217;d never encountered before, which I figure I&#8217;ll share with you:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>columbarium<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>n. (pl. -baria) a room or building with niches for funeral urns to be stored. a niche to hold a funeral urn. a stone wall or walk within a garden for burial of funeral urns, esp. attached to a church. Origin: mid 18th cent.: from Latin, literally &#8216;pigeon house&#8217;.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry for the lack of posts today, dear reader. I spent most of the day transcribing my Pfizer interview from Tuesday: 65 minutes on the digital recorder added up to 4,000 words, and that&#8217;s after I elided some sections that I know I can&#8217;t run in the magazine. Anyway, I&#8217;m settling in to read, and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/pigeon-house-of-the-dead\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Pigeon house . . . of the dead!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-xR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17633,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-646-eulogy","url_meta":{"origin":2099,"position":0},"title":"Episode 646 &#8211; Eulogy","author":"Gil","date":"July 15, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 646: Eulogy No conversation this week, unless you count me talking to myself. I share some thoughts and memories about my father, who died last week at the age of 88 \u2014 or 87, depending on who he was lying to \u2014 along with the eulogy I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/dad2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C510&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/dad2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C510&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/dad2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C510&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/dad2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C510&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/dad2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C510&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4445,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-sept-11-2009","url_meta":{"origin":2099,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Sept. 11, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"September 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Football season's on! Why are you wasting your time on the internet? Oh, wait: you're here to check out another awesome collection of oddball links! Well, just click \"more\"! There are broken vows, and then there are Broken Vows. * * * Sango Hung: One of my funniest jokes ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Carrie Fisher\"","block_context":{"text":"Carrie Fisher","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/carrie-fisher"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2272,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/mourn-with-bootsy","url_meta":{"origin":2099,"position":2},"title":"Mourn with Bootsy","author":"Gil","date":"August 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's NYTimes has an article about the memorial service for Isaac Hayes. I can only hope for a memorial that features musical interludes by Chick Corea, Kirk Whalum and Doug E. Fresh (but I'll pass on orations from Revs. Jesse & Al). The best part was this description of Bootsy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bootsy collins\"","block_context":{"text":"bootsy collins","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/bootsy-collins"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/bootsy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/bootsy.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/bootsy.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9702,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-172-glynnis-fawkes","url_meta":{"origin":2099,"position":3},"title":"Episode 172 &#8211; Glynnis Fawkes","author":"Gil","date":"June 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #172: Glynnis Fawkes \"A lot of how I draw comes from Greek vases. They're like ancient comics.\" Glynnis Fawkes joins the show to talk about archeology, comics, dig romances, Homer and more! We celebrate her award-winning new comic, Alle Ego, figure out how to make art while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Architecture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"glyngreece","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/glyngreece-620x465.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/glyngreece-620x465.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/glyngreece-620x465.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4860,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-11110","url_meta":{"origin":2099,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 1\/11\/10","author":"Gil","date":"January 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell (look! there's proof!). Since I haven't gotten back to my Man Out of Time decade-trospective on books, I thought I'd check out one novel that's regarded as a Tops Of The Decade. Also, Emerson's Divinity School Address for a St. John's Alumni\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Ralph Waldo Emerson\"","block_context":{"text":"Ralph Waldo Emerson","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/ralph-waldo-emerson"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375507256","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4572,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-23-2009","url_meta":{"origin":2099,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 23, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"October 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, I had dinner with pals in Brooklyn and walked in the door at 1:15 a.m. (at least 40 minutes of my lateness was due to a two-car collision in the Lincoln Tunnel and two separate construction zones near the Meadowlands that turned magically turned three lanes of Rt.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Architecture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}