Month: January 2018

4 Oz Of Ale Is Hardly Sufficient

from Photohistorica

1945 seems like a long time ago, but 1845? Rare is it to find an image dating so far back, and rarer still to see joy and mirth on the faces of the subjects (from Edinburgh ale, no less!), rather than that still, posed dread they usually exude.

To the right is Scottish photographer David Octavius Hill (including himself in this portrait of merriment). On the left is James Ballantyne, who designed the windows in the House of Lords, and Dr. George Bell smugly sits in the center, one of the founders of the “Ragged Schools” for destitute children. Sláinte!

Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Heat Nor Gloom Of Night

Chicago Mailman N. Sorenson in 1929 (pinterest)

*The American postman’s creed: “”Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”

Per wikipedia, it actually derives from a quote from Herodotus’ Histories, referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire:

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.

— Herodotus, Histories (trans. A.D. Godley, 1924)

Oh, Snap, Osip

kerbey's avatarThe Blog of Funny Names

Alone I stare into the frost’s white face.  

On New Year’s Eve, I looked into the sky, and white flakes fell. Never had such a thing happened in all of my NYE’s. The dogs’ water bowls turned to blocks of ice. Never had I been forced to boil water in a kettle LIKE IT’S 1891 simply to make my dog’s water be water again. Is this global warming? Texas has forgotten how to Texas.

But Russia never forgets how to Russia. Russians spend every winter staring into the frost’s white face.

http://wanna-joke.com

Alone I stare into the frost’s white face. Such is the first line of poetry from Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam, whom we will be profiling this winter’s morn. Oh, sip some coffee as we study his life. Who knew the name Emily was just an abbreviation for Emilyevich? Oy!

Back in 1891, when people routinely boiled water in…

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She’s My Pride And Joy

Jack Corn, October 1974

Mr. Barry Howard of Cumberland, Kentucky may be smiling as his hand pats the hood of a new truck, but his wife’s pursed lips reveal more to the story. The truck was bought with funds received from his black lung payments, compensating for the shortness of breath caused by coal dust particles in his lungs.