marycatelli (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marycatelli) wrote2018-01-02 08:44 pm
marycatelli) wrote2018-01-02 08:44 pm
Entry tags:
tidbits cross time
Pirates led by Benjamin Hornigold took a ship once, but did no injury to the people on board except taking their hats -- having thrown their own overboard while drunk the night before.
In Bavaria from medieval through early modern times, magic was regularly used in an attempt to induce wolf attacks on people (and to counter such magic, too).
A construction worker, when his boss innovated and put a rubber tire on the wheelburrow, said it was the best thing for the worker since the paycheck.
The Tower of Hercules, built in Spain during the Roman Empire, is the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. Second place to the medieval Irish Hook Lighthouse, which was a monastery of monks appointed to light the beacon fire.
Nineteenth century writers on elementals -- sylphs, undines, salamanders, gnomes -- frequently compared them to such things as X-rays, radioactivity, or radio waves.
The consular year began on January 1st in ancient Rome, because it was accelerated once to get a consul in office and out to help in the Second Celtiberian War. (They still suffered a defeat in August so crushing that the day was declared a dies ater and regarded as so unlucky that no Roman general would willingly fight on it.)
Hoover Dam was the first hard-hat construction; one of the bosses introduced them because of all the problems with falling rock.
Gotland is the place to go if you want buried pirate treasure. The Vikings brought back treasure, and would bury it for safe-keeping. It appears that an inexplicably large percentage was so safe its owners never found it again.
During the Revolutionary War, Cornwallis wrote, "We may destroy all the men in America, and we shall still have all we can do to defeat the women."
Welsh informants told 19th century folklorists that the fairies couldn't stand Methodist preachers or teetotalers.
Shinto temples are carefully demarked by boundaries. Even of rope or paper, they contain the holy ground within to prevent its contamination. And if it should be corrupted and become unholy, the boundaries will keep it in.
Great Britain sent an original copy of the Magna Carta to the New York World Fair -- in 1939. In 1940, after some discussion, it was agreed that it would remain in the United States for safekeeping. It went back only in 1947.
The Flamen Dialis of ancient Rome had a long list of forbidden actions. Such as sleeping for three nights outside his own bed, mounting a horse, looking at a legion under arms, swearing an oath, wearing most jewelry, eating leavened bread, and touching a dead body.
In the 19th century, steamers would not issue return tickets for trips to West Africa.
Francis I of France issued a law that victorious duelists had to pay compensation to the dead man's family and for the funeral.
The fervent denunciation of American munition makers as the instigators of WWI -- even the government had rebuked them, in the Nye Commission -- had effects. Businesses pulled away from the work. It did not help WWII rearmament.
Christmas Eve is the Italian Festival of Seven Fishes, which is to say, the dishes for dinner need to be made from seven fishes. (It's still in the fast of Advent, but it is, after all, Christmas Eve.)
The Knights of Ålleberg, in Sweden, are a classic form of the legend of the king in the mountain, who will return in his (their) country's hour of need. Variants differ about whether there are twelve or thousands -- though in this case, folklore helpfully supplies that it began with twelve, but other knights have joined them.
A 19th century British account of a woman returned by the Good Folk after seven years said she had no toes, she had danced them off at their dances.
In Bavaria from medieval through early modern times, magic was regularly used in an attempt to induce wolf attacks on people (and to counter such magic, too).
A construction worker, when his boss innovated and put a rubber tire on the wheelburrow, said it was the best thing for the worker since the paycheck.
The Tower of Hercules, built in Spain during the Roman Empire, is the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. Second place to the medieval Irish Hook Lighthouse, which was a monastery of monks appointed to light the beacon fire.
Nineteenth century writers on elementals -- sylphs, undines, salamanders, gnomes -- frequently compared them to such things as X-rays, radioactivity, or radio waves.
The consular year began on January 1st in ancient Rome, because it was accelerated once to get a consul in office and out to help in the Second Celtiberian War. (They still suffered a defeat in August so crushing that the day was declared a dies ater and regarded as so unlucky that no Roman general would willingly fight on it.)
Hoover Dam was the first hard-hat construction; one of the bosses introduced them because of all the problems with falling rock.
Gotland is the place to go if you want buried pirate treasure. The Vikings brought back treasure, and would bury it for safe-keeping. It appears that an inexplicably large percentage was so safe its owners never found it again.
During the Revolutionary War, Cornwallis wrote, "We may destroy all the men in America, and we shall still have all we can do to defeat the women."
Welsh informants told 19th century folklorists that the fairies couldn't stand Methodist preachers or teetotalers.
Shinto temples are carefully demarked by boundaries. Even of rope or paper, they contain the holy ground within to prevent its contamination. And if it should be corrupted and become unholy, the boundaries will keep it in.
Great Britain sent an original copy of the Magna Carta to the New York World Fair -- in 1939. In 1940, after some discussion, it was agreed that it would remain in the United States for safekeeping. It went back only in 1947.
The Flamen Dialis of ancient Rome had a long list of forbidden actions. Such as sleeping for three nights outside his own bed, mounting a horse, looking at a legion under arms, swearing an oath, wearing most jewelry, eating leavened bread, and touching a dead body.
In the 19th century, steamers would not issue return tickets for trips to West Africa.
Francis I of France issued a law that victorious duelists had to pay compensation to the dead man's family and for the funeral.
The fervent denunciation of American munition makers as the instigators of WWI -- even the government had rebuked them, in the Nye Commission -- had effects. Businesses pulled away from the work. It did not help WWII rearmament.
Christmas Eve is the Italian Festival of Seven Fishes, which is to say, the dishes for dinner need to be made from seven fishes. (It's still in the fast of Advent, but it is, after all, Christmas Eve.)
The Knights of Ålleberg, in Sweden, are a classic form of the legend of the king in the mountain, who will return in his (their) country's hour of need. Variants differ about whether there are twelve or thousands -- though in this case, folklore helpfully supplies that it began with twelve, but other knights have joined them.
A 19th century British account of a woman returned by the Good Folk after seven years said she had no toes, she had danced them off at their dances.
I'm experiencing difficulties.
A construction worker, when his boss innovated and put a rubber tire on the wheelburrow
Who? When? How do we know this?
Nineteenth century writers on elementals
Such as whom? Is there an example handy?
steamers would not issue
ALL steamers of every line and nationality? Why not?
Good thing it's easy to look things up!
In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Dialis was the high priest of Jupiter.
There were 15 flamines, of which three were flamines maiores, serving the
three gods of the Archaic Triad. According to tradition the flamines were
forbidden to touch metal, ride a horse, or see a corpse…
It did not help WWII rearmament
What did not? The fervent denunciations?
[The story of the WWII American helmet is grimly amusing. “The most damaging phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way!’” said Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper in an interview in Information Week, March 9, 1987, and it's the motto of the US Armed Forces, then and now.]
I'm always fascinated by these entries, but this one was a head-scratcher.
Re: I'm experiencing difficulties.
Re: I'm experiencing difficulties.
That’s okay, I’m quite familiar with the time period. This is why, as of 1949 half the world’s manufacturing took place in the USA - or stated differently, we made as many things as did all the rest of the world combined.
[In 1946, the most common car seen on the roads of Soviet Russia (what roads there were) were Studebakers! Good old Theft-Laugh - er, ‘Lend-Lease’… Meanwhile, as Boeing was developing the XB-29, Wikipedia say:
On 18 February 1943, the second prototype, flying out of Boeing Field in Seattle, experienced an
engine fire and crashed. The crash killed Boeing test pilot Edmund T. Allen and his 10-man crew,
20 workers at the Frye Meat Packing Plant and a Seattle firefighter.
And yet despite all that, PLUS a bus-driver who snapped a photo of the flaming aircraft crashing, not one word of this appeared in the newspapers. America never had a D Notice setup per se; we did it ourselves.]
Update to add: On the other hand, the families of the slain were notified - unlike the Soviet Union, whose state-run airline Aeroflot never crashed. Ever. Ever. Your friend or relative flying to the Baltic for vacation… simply disappeared. «И хули? Такова жизнь!» (“So effin’ what?! That’s life, okay?!”) Not until glasnost did the relatives of Aeroflot crashes receive official confirmation, sometimes decades later.
Re: I'm experiencing difficulties.
Speaking of “that's life,” one of the reasons we'll never really know how many Red Army soldiers lost their lives is because a good many didn't - they just got lost! After V-E Day, when the army demobilized, illiterate farm-laborer conscripts who had been swept up and packed off in trains often had no idea how to get back to their villages! If they were smart or lucky they might remember the name of the rail-head town they'd embarked from; there, they could probably ask their way back home - but otherwise, oh well. Rebuilding the country meant ample work for able-bodied veterans; one was much like another, and young widows in need of comforting were everywhere…
I'd hate to be a genealogist in Russia!
Re: I'm experiencing difficulties.
Re: Practical Literacy
Baahh-hh - I've read enough. I know everything I need to know. I'm all set.
Yeah.