Posts tagged history

mentalflossr:

From a goodbye to astronauts stranded on the moon to Nixon’s refusal to resign to Sarah Palin’s VP victory remarks, here are a dozen speeches that were never delivered.

The “Moon Disaster” speech gave me chills to imagine the astronauts stranded in space, waiting to die. Yikes.

mentalflossr:

How All 50 States Got Their Names

1) For my fellow history geeks, this is supercool — you can view Queen Victoria’s journals online for free until June 30. I can barely make out her handwriting but it feels kind weird and awesome to look at such a famous figure’s journals. Via Wendy the Superlibrarian.

2) Entertainment Weekly reveals a partial new character list for Season 3 of Game of Thrones (beware spoilers in comments if you haven’t read the books). Colour me shocked (but pleased) that Meera and Jojen Reed will be in after all.

3) I meant to post these links ages ago, saved a draft and never got around to it: The Most Embarrassing Star Wars Official Merchandise at Gizmodo and 12 Craziest Pieces Of Star Wars Merchandise at Smosh. These are truly mind-boggling and insane. Just look at this:

Whaaaaa?!

I want the R2-D2 Christmas Lights, though.

Fact about me: When I was in university, the main medieval history professor I ended up having classes with is an expert in monasticism. So instead of learning about politics or warfare or anything, you know, cool I ended up learning way more about monks than I ever wanted and reading the Rules of Saint Benedict and hagiographies and writing essays like “Policies of Enclosure in Cisterian Monasteries in France and England” (<— my actual final paper).

Turns out, some monks didn’t really like reading all that stuff either and complained in the margins of the manuscripts they had to copy and drew dirty doodles. Via io9 and Lapham’s Quarterly:

1) Here’s a story for you fans of cross-dressing heroines (like me :) ) and general historical woman awesomeness: “Male Explorer Revealed To Be a Female Two Centuries After Being Awesome” at The Mary Sue.

2) Via author Michelle Rowen, this “Guide to 80s Teen Book Series” is a flashback straight out of my childhood Scholastic bookclub order forms.

3) Benedict Cumberbatch has replaced Benicio Del Toro as the villain in the next Star Trek movie. This makes me happy, and gives even more people to opportunity to say “Benedict Cumberbatch”. I think his name has done more for his fame than his acting (which is very good).

4) What if Dr. Seuss drew Batman? This!

5) Want to work across the hall from me? Harlequin digital has a job opening for a Web Copy Editor (Toronto office).

Retronaut is an online archive for all things vintage, retro or just plain interesting. Most of it is photos, but they also post things like old ads, propaganda posters, scans from books and magazines, etc.

I’ve barely scratched the surface as to what’s available, but here are some of my favourite galleries so far:

• Art deco superhero posters
• Tips for Single Women, 1938, makes me laugh
• “I dreamed I was ‘X’ in my Maidenform bra”, 1944-1966 — a ton of trippy bra ads
• 1910 visions of 2000 and Postcards of the year 200, c. 1900
• And another that I can’t find that was predicted fashions of the future from the ’30s or ’40s. If you have the link, please send it to me!

Tips for Single Women, 1938 — scans of a magazine on Retronaut. This one is my favorite for the phrasing alone: “Don’t talk while dancing, for when a man dances he wants to dance.”

Think historical novels and BBC miniseries have schooled you in Victoria-era etiquette? Test your knowledge in this Victorian Period Mind Your Manners game from the McCord Museum. Presented with different locations and situations, you have to pick the appropriate reaction and clothing. You can also play through as a man or woman.

When I played I scored much better in some areas than others. Balls and walks in the park? Perfect. Victorian dinner parties, not so much. Oh BBC, you’ve failed me! But I guess long meals don’t make as good TV as parties…

(Thanks to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for posting the original link a while ago.)