Bathtub Carved from Quartz
The huge tub, 2 metres in length and 55cm in height was previously shown in Milan at I Saloni in April 2010 and is carved from a single enormous block of the purest white rock crystal, quarried in the Amazon region of Brazil. The block was discovered in 2006 when Paolo Baldi, father of the company’s current CEO Luca Baldi, learned of the existence of this ten-ton block of flawless crystal and had it extracted and transported to Italy intact.

This incredible bathtub is the second to be made from the immense block. The original was shown at Salone del Mobile in 2008 and immediately snapped up by a Russian magnate, but the tub featured in the Harrods window is by no means a replica of the first. Each is unique, though both were sculpted with diamond cuts and left partially rough to expose the natural beauty of the crystal. If you are thinking of snapping up this incredible tub, your pockets may have to be as deep as the quarries it is excavated from as it comes in at £530,000.

The name ‘Cuckoo-Pint’ may seem strange enough, but becomes all the weirder when one learns that ‘Pint’ is derived from ‘Pintle’, an old word for penis (and a reference to the phallic spadix inflorescence). Other names include Lords-and-Ladies, Cows-and-Bulls, and Naked Boys.

If you’ve ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you. You can be happy or successful or whatever, but that thing still stays within you.

Tim Burton

Even if I now saw you
only once,
I would long for you
through worlds,
worlds, worlds.

Izumi Shikibu, “Even If I Now Saw You,” from The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, translated by Jane Hirshfield (Vintage, 1990)

The Kattunayakan are tribal people who live deep in the forests of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve in South India. They collect and sell wild honey. Kattunayakan honey harvesters can tell from the ground whether a hive 60-80ft up in the air has honey or not and whether it is worth the effort to climb there. Children as young as eight go along not just as spectators but to actively participate. By the time they are 12 they are full members of the team. Photo credit: Tarsh and Tariq Thekaekara.

The movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” is based on this girl. Anneliese Michel. She was German Catholic and believed to be possessed by demons. They tried an exorcism but it did not work. She died of weakness and dehydration. There was even a court-case that followed.