What's on Rimbaud's arm?

September 5, 2006 8:13 PM

What's the story behind this accessory tied to young Rimbaud's arm?
posted by Aghast. to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

Best answer: Most likely he was making his first communion.

Common practice a hundred years ago or so (and still in some places) was to wear a white arm-band for the occasion and his age looks about right.
posted by Jahaza at 8:15 PM on September 5, 2006 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks jahaza. That sounds likely.
posted by Aghast. at 8:21 PM on September 5, 2006

And this is a link to the exceptional Wood s lot; you know, so that the fellow might get some traffic to his site and not just have the bandwidth for an image syphoned.
posted by peacay at 8:47 PM on September 5, 2006

I thought I recognized the URL on that photo. Yeah, kinda bad form not rehosting it somewhere else. Imageshack will even let you one-click transload images. Here, I've done it for you.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:57 PM on September 5, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks stavros for the transloaded image. Meanwhile, I don't know what you guys are talking about since I am pretty ignorant about bandwidth and rehosting and syphoning. Admin feel free to delete or adjust.
posted by Aghast. at 10:07 PM on September 5, 2006

Offtopic: no worries, but I as I recall Mark almost had to quit blogging a few years back because his computer died and he couldn't afford a new one. A collection was taken up among the many webloggers who love his site, and we bought him a new one. Hopefully his financial situation is better now, but who knows, and although it almost certainly wouldn't cost him much if anything for the bandwidth used up by hotlinking that image here, it's kinda the principle of the the thing.

Many these days disagree as prices have dropped, but I've always been an annoying stickler for etiquette, even if it is slightly outdated.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:52 PM on September 5, 2006

Diversion: Might that practice have fallen out of favor with the use of armbands to denote membership in patriotic, government-mandated youth organizations, such as Hitler Youth, and the Communist Youth?
posted by The Confessor at 5:59 AM on September 6, 2006

Response by poster: I don't know, confessor, but I wouldn't be surprised, considering that those associations flickered (briefly) across my mind when viewing Rimbaud's armband.
posted by Aghast. at 12:58 PM on September 7, 2006