Posts tagged as History
So Occupy Wall Street Won
With 5,478 documented arrests in fewer than three months, with New York City voters, in essence, actually liking Occupy Wall Street protestors better than the mayor, with dingbat Time declaring this the year of the protester, it's safe to say the battle for hearts and minds is won. Okay, yay, we won! So... what now? READ MORE
Mock Goose And Other Dishes Of The War-Rations Diet
There is a website, called The 1940s Experiment, whose proprietor, Carolyn Ekins, who was born and raised in the UK but now lives in Canada, is attempting to lose a hundred pounds by following a wartime rations diet, specifically made up of the foods eaten by the British public during World War II. For every pound she loses, Carolyn will recreate one authentic wartime recipe and post about it. She has already posted recipes for Mock Goose (made with lentils), Potato and Carrot Pancakes ("delicious") and an Eggless Fruit Cake (“looks curiously like meat loaf”), among many others. Carolyn has attempted—and succeeded at—this type of diet before; in 2006, she lost 57 pounds following the diet. This time, about six weeks in, she's lost around 25 pounds. READ MORE
Murder, Suicide And Mayhem In Brooklyn Heights (Yes, Brooklyn Heights!)
Very little happens in Brooklyn Heights. During Truman Capote’s years here, his friends would enquire, “But what do you do over there?” It was a fair question—and an eternal one. Mine wonder the same thing. One pleasure of America’s first suburb is that it is, to an extent unusual in an ever-churning city, impervious to change—economically, structurally, but also in a more fundamental sense: The question, Did anything happen in the Heights today? can almost always be answered with Not much. The news is blessedly mundane: Either a pet is missing or the street’s been sullied by a fallen tree or pothole. READ MORE
Happy First Anniversary, Neptune!
"It's a frozen lump of frozen gases and I suppose not a terribly friendly place. Let's wish it a happy birthday but perhaps let's keep as far away from it as we can as it won't give you a welcome." READ MORE
History Lesson: "Money Was Actually Created by Bureaucrats"
"We now know from ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian records... that credit systems (what is today called virtual money) preceded the invention of coinage by thousands of years. Money was actually created by bureaucrats to track state resources and spread unevenly, never completely replacing credit systems. Barter, in turn, is largely an accidental byproduct of the use of coinage or paper money, a refuge for people operating in cash economies where currency has for some reason become inaccessible." READ MORE
The MacArthurs: Money Can Buy You Some Things, Such As Mental Health Care
One other thing about the MacArthur "Genius" Grants (apart from the David Simon thing, which, who cares), awarded to some individuals working in some fields to which you may not necessarily be paying attention-oceanic acoustic engineering! Jellyfish propulsion!-to some that you may be-the poor honeybees!-is that getting $500,000 dropped on you over five years does not necessarily make you happy or successful. That being said, their track record on visual artists and writers over the decades has been nearly impeccable. (Ada Louise Huxtable in 1981! Thom Gunn in 1993! Meredith Monk in 1995! David Foster Wallace in 1997! Anne Carson in 2000! Lydia Davis in 2003! Tara Donovan in 2008!) So maybe, for once in its history, this'll cheer up one of this year's awardees, that poor sour David Cromer. Maybe he'll use it to pay for some therapy! Email me, David: I know the best short-term head-shrinker on the Upper West Side. It's time, honey.
Ancient Knives Unsurprisingly Found in Knifeland
England: packed with knives for 800,000 years. (Or, I guess, that's 800,000 minus 74,000 years if you believe in the Bible.) This pushes back the estimated time that humans settled Northern Europe by 100,000 years. "The researchers believe the humans adapted their way of life to cope with tougher living conditions, with few edible plants and animals, and extremely cold winters. 'My personal hunch is that they had some sort of clothing,' said [British Museum archaeologist Nick] Ashton." Just like they do now!
They Razed Clubland And Put Up A Food Court
Limelight Marketplace, the mall that has taken over the old Limelight space in the even-older Church Of The Holy Communion, is now open for business — complete with club-kid mannequins, flip-flop kiosk, and the obligatory "oh look we're in New York we're so fun and kooky, ack chocolate!" cupcake outpost. [Via]
The Crash Of '10: An Oral History
The Great Market Crash of May 6, 2010, affected everyone in different ways. With the passage of time we can look back at the events of that day from a historical standpoint. In three separate interviews we got the perspective of a trio of bloggers from The Awl, a semi-popular website of that era. READ MORE
