Opus – Page 146 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Prince Philip Movement

The Prince Philip Movement is a cargo cult of the Yaohnanen tribe on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu. The Yaohnanen believe that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort to Queen Elizabeth II, is a divine being, the pale-skinned son of a mountain spirit and brother of John Frum. According to ancient tales, the son travelled over the seas to a distant land, married a powerful lady, and would in time return. The villagers had observed the respect accorded to Queen Elizabeth II by colonial officials and came to the conclusion that her husband, Prince Philip, must be the son from their legends.

Tzadikim Nistarim

It is said that at all times there are 36 special people in the world, and that were it not for them, all of them, if even one of them was missing, the world would come to an end.

Pallas’s cat

Pallas's cat is a small wild cat named after the naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who first described the species in 1776. In 2002, the IUCN classified Pallas's cat as near threatened because of the broad but patchy distribution in the grasslands and montane steppe of Central Asia. Pallas's cats inhabit the Asian steppes between heights of 1,000 and 4,000 metres. It is found along the eastern and southern coasts of the Caspian Sea, through northern Iran, India, and Pakistan, in Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, western and central China, and Mongolia.

Helene Schjerfbeck

Helena Sofia Schjerfbeck was a Finnish painter. A modernist painter, she is known for her realist works and self-portraits, and also for her landscapes and still lifes.

Wet

Wet was an avant-garde Los Angeles-based magazine that revolved around the idea of gourmet bathing.

Oz

Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London.

Serge Mouille

Serge Mouille was a French industrial designer and goldsmith. He is best known for his light fixture designs.

Gypsy Rose Lee

Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer, famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author and playwright, whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.

Algonquin Round Table

The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of The Vicious Circle, as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929.

Burrnesha

Albanian sworn virgins (burrnesha) are women who take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to be viewed as men in the highly patriarchal Northern Albanian society.