tidbits cross time
Jan. 16th, 2016 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliOne locale in France had inhabitants known as "green-coats" because once a tailor had produced green jackets in a cloth that never wore out. (hmm. That's a lot more interesting if you take it literally.)
During the Shang dynasty, Chinese kings would sometimes personally carry out the task of divining (using bones and pressing a hot poker on them). This appeared to be related to royal births.
WWII vastly increased paperback publication with the ASE -- Armed Services Editions -- calculated so that a man could carry one in his pocket. (And they did. It was not unknown for a wounded soldier to pull the book out his pocket because he could not retreat and it was at least a distraction from the shells.)
One Countess of Essex once sought an anti-love potion, to make the Earl fall out of love with her, so she could pull off a divorce.
At the Battle of Concord, the American militia had actually more military experience in their ranks than the British forces.
The real problem manuscripts faced in the Middle Ages was the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Cutting off Europe from papyrus. Everything else was more expensive, so they took to reusing old paper.
In Auvergne, peasant women would gather and sew and sell the products to the iteritant peddlars -- in order to pay for the lamp oil for the gatherings.
Under James I, Puritan censorship noticably changed how Shakespeare's plays were printed, omitting all the profane language.
Albert Einstein, at the age of twelve, learned geometry. He was offended by the proof of the Pythogeran theorem and set out to make a simpler proof.
During the Han dynasty, imperial concubines were ranked with title and residences that were named suitably. The highest rank, Brilliant Companion, lived in the Sun-Bright Residence.
During the Shang dynasty, Chinese kings would sometimes personally carry out the task of divining (using bones and pressing a hot poker on them). This appeared to be related to royal births.
WWII vastly increased paperback publication with the ASE -- Armed Services Editions -- calculated so that a man could carry one in his pocket. (And they did. It was not unknown for a wounded soldier to pull the book out his pocket because he could not retreat and it was at least a distraction from the shells.)
One Countess of Essex once sought an anti-love potion, to make the Earl fall out of love with her, so she could pull off a divorce.
At the Battle of Concord, the American militia had actually more military experience in their ranks than the British forces.
The real problem manuscripts faced in the Middle Ages was the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Cutting off Europe from papyrus. Everything else was more expensive, so they took to reusing old paper.
In Auvergne, peasant women would gather and sew and sell the products to the iteritant peddlars -- in order to pay for the lamp oil for the gatherings.
Under James I, Puritan censorship noticably changed how Shakespeare's plays were printed, omitting all the profane language.
Albert Einstein, at the age of twelve, learned geometry. He was offended by the proof of the Pythogeran theorem and set out to make a simpler proof.
During the Han dynasty, imperial concubines were ranked with title and residences that were named suitably. The highest rank, Brilliant Companion, lived in the Sun-Bright Residence.