Headline of the day

^ Hmmmmm

What is the Mona Lisa’s secret? She smiles so enigmatically under the all-but-invisible transparent silk veil that covers her hair, turning her brown eyes as if she has just seen someone come into her field of vision.

The fascination and fame of this portrait, begun by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503, has always related to the elusive personality it communicates. Giorgio Vasari in the 16th century claimed Leonardo employed musicians and jesters to make Lisa smile.

Walter Pater in the Victorian age thought she resembled a “vampire”. Modern viewers sometimes see her face as androgynous, an observation first made by Marcel Duchamp.

I have a new theory. Perhaps the Mona Lisa had syphilis.

This painting may seem like a dream image, an unreal vision, but it is a portrait of someone real. Lisa Gherardini was the wife of a Florentine merchant called Francesco del Giocondo. Contemporary sources, including a note made in 1503 by an employee in the Florentine government at the Palazzo Vecchio, put it beyond reasonable doubt that she was Leonardo’s model (and not, as art historians used to claim, someone posher).

So, she was the wife of a merchant who lived in Florence in the age of Machiavelli, Michelangelo and the explorer Vespucci. Can we know anything else about her? The lives of women in Renaissance Italy are lost in the shadows. Only in Leonardo’s portraits and a handful of other works of art do Florentine women of this period come back to life.

Just add earthworms ... a brown-lipped snail. Photograph: Rod Williams/Alamy
Yet, as it happens, a handful of documents have survived that give glimpses of Del Giocondo’s life. For instance, she is recorded in the ledger of a Florentine convent as buying snail water (acqua di chiocciole) from its apothecary.

Snail water? I remember finding it comical when I first read this. Beyond that, I accepted a bland suggestion that it was used as a cosmetic or for indigestion. In fact, this is nonsense. The main use of snail water in pre-modern medicine was, I have recently discovered, to combat sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis.

Perhaps it was the disgusting, punitive nature of this concoction that made it seem a pungent cure. Snail water was still being used in the 18th century; books from the time are very specific about its medicinal value. The Pharmacopœia pauperum (1718) gives this recipe:

Take Garden-Snails cleansed and bruised 6 Gallons, Earth-Worms washed and bruised 3 Gallons, of common Wormwood, Ground-Ivy, and Carduus, each one Pound and half ...

More herbs are added to give the vile brew, credited to Dr Richard Mead, a physician at St Thomas’s hospital in London, a better flavour. Other 18th-century recipes concur in the use of snail water for treating such ailments,as you can see for yourself at the excellent Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, where examples of the recipe and its use for venereal disease are on display.

Is this why Del Giocondo needed snail water? If so, it is possible she wanted it for someone other than herself. In any case, her recorded purchase was more than a decade after she posed for Leonardo. But suppose she already had a sexually transmitted disease in 1503. What would that say about Leonardo’s most famous painting?

It’s not a whopper: Burger King Israel to sell adult-only meal with sex toy for Valentine’s Day

For those who think burgers are the (fast) food of love, then they are all set for a romantic evening: branches of Burger King in Israel will sell an "Adult's Meal" for Valentine's Day, including an adult toy, from 6pm tonight.
In a 30-second commercial for the meal, posted on YouTube by ad agency Leo Burnett Israel, a voiceover says: "Kid's meal? That's for kids," as the music changes from chirpy to something more seductive.
"Burger King presents the Adult's Meal, with an adult toy inside. Only on Valentine's Day, and only from 6pm," the ad continues.
The ad, which also features on Burger King Israel's Facebook page, has been watched more than 150,000 times.
The adult toys pictured include an eye mask, mini feather duster and head massager, next to an Adult's Meal box design featuring a neon hamburger and an 18+ sign.
CNBC.com contacted Burger King Israel but no-one was available to comment.
In the U.K. meanwhile, adult goods are set to see an increase in sales online around Valentine's Day, according to new figures from performance marketing company Webgains. The Fifty Shades of Grey franchise has caused an increase in online sales of bondage products, according to an emailed report.
Webgains predicts a 50 percent increase in online sales of such goods around the Valentine's release of Fifty Shades Darker, which premiered in London on February 9. Sex shop Ann Summers saw a 43 percent increase in sales of bondage products online between 2015 and 2016, using the Webgains affiliate network, and the report claims other adult retailers including Lovehoney and Bondara are also likely to see a surge in popularity.
Other brands have focused on different aspects of the feast of St Valentine, and have given away products. Snickers has replaced its strapline: "You're not you when you're hungry," with "You're forgetful when you're hungry," attaching free Valentine's cards to billboards at London's Waterloo station. It will also give away 3,000 cards on February 15, for those who forgot the saint's day.
And sandwich chain Subway is giving away a free 6-inch sub to customers who buy a large drink, as part of its "Customer Appreciation Day" in the U.K.
Meanwhile, the U.K.'s National Health Service is running a Valentine's Day campaign to encourage people to give away a kidney – while they are living.
An ad, set in a working men's club, features comedian Alex Smith singing: "I'd give you my heart, but I'd have to be dead, and I just got a free trial on Amazon Prime, so please have my kidney instead." It will run on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and was created by agency Aesop for NHS Blood and Transplant.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/burger-king-israel-sells-adult-only-meal-with-sex-toy-for-valentines.html

It's the smile of a woman who's just heard that Leppie's been banned for 30 days for posting socialist nonsense on chit chat.

That Leonardo was a smart guy, well ahead of his time with the internet.  But of course he couldn't build it because the materials hadn't been invented, bit like helicopters. (he invented them apparently).

Yes, yes, yes, Leppie.  I'm sure he had socialist leanings.