It snowed. Again. Winter, you are such a giant
Seriously.
This? I snapped this yesterday as I left the office.
Merry Christmas one and all!
Today, Lady Day (don't forget to sign your farm contracts, peasants!), thankfully, it is sunny. Cold, but sunny. Mr. Bumble hasn't allowed a fire in the workhouse today, so here I am:
(4? 4 what?)
Despite the chill, I'm feeling pretty chill. Oooo...didn't even mean to do that! Three of my favorite songs came on one right after the other on my playlist this morning. And I had a short road trip to To-puke-a yesterday to pick up something from a friend. I took the back way along where the old American Indian land grants were, into North Topukea. It was interesting to see them under a dusting of snow, instead of in the summer heat, with archaeologists working on them. And it's relatively quiet around here (everyone probably went home to get under their blankets). So I'm nice and relaxed, like I rolled a doobie. I didn't, but I'm just saying. Chiillll.....
My three songs:
So, before I get to the fun history bits--my dear friend, who is the father of my godson, is also a pop culture/convention geek. He threw out the idea of having an Adventurer's Guild, which is awesome. There are two historic female adventurers I've been waiting to do for a while, and have been kind of working on their clothes here and there. Guess I'll pick them up now and finish them in earnest. Gertrude and Amelia. Gertrude, for obvious reasons, and Amelia is from the area.
Oh, and if you want to know what happened to Amelia, just read "Fluke, Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings," by Christopher Moore. Seems just as plausible as some other theories out there. :)
Alright...in my historical training, I've gravitated towards material culture (among other things), which of course encompasses the household. I kept finding little non-detailed references to bakers kneading bread dough with their feet. Not generally in the home, mind you, but male bakers, in bakeries...causing people to do their baking at home as often as possible. Well, that got me curious (in many ways), but I am not having much luck with just basic searches. I will dig into more detail in the library, but in the meantime, I did find two interesting things. First of all....the fine art of foot bread has not left us! MMM, model foot bread.
Alright, seriously...I had Nessun Dorma playing QUIETLY on my computer, and my coworker (a 50+ year old male, mind you), decided to crank up Pharrell Williams. I understand opera is not for everyone, but give me a break. Maybe I can passive-aggressively play volume wars with him. Surely he remembers I have a recording of myself playing fife with a bagpiper on this computer.
Anyway, in looking for foot bread, I discovered that a book I love has been digitized by Google Books. It has the very compact and pithy title "An Encyclopædia of Domestic Economy: Comprising Such Subjects as are Most Immediately Connected With Housekeeping; As, The Construction of Domestic Edifices, With the Modes of Warming, Ventilating, and Lighting Them: A Description of the Various Articles of Furniture; A General Account of the Animal and Vegetable Substances Used As Food; And the Methods of Preserving and Preparing Them by Cooking;..." and so on in that vein. While it is necessary to remember that this was written in 1845 by Thomas Webster, a man, who spent very little time in a Victorian kitchen, he does claim that he was assisted by the late Mrs Parkes. This book covers EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING...housing styles, bathing, cooking, food adulteration, carriages, medicines, clothing, furnishings, lighting, servants, fruit in England, types of fish and how to cook them, honey, types of water, and, of course...tea. Among other things, including a discussion of a douche bath, which is not at all what you think it is. My apologies.
Someone sent this fairly brief article to me, because they knew (correctly) that I would find it interesting. I know, the historians who are surrounded by more than a millenia of written history laugh, but around these parts, there is a misconception that a white face was not seen until after the American Civil War. The battle noted in this article took place in 1720, and French traders were making regular trips beyond Kansas City by (and possibly before) 1700. It's amazing the resistance we (we being historians of this field) encounter by people when we present these findings. They have had such wrong history drilled into their head for so long, that it really does make them ANGRY to find out it was wrong. Not angry that they have been lied to, but angry that we are presenting new evidence to the contrary. And we've only just scratched the surface, this really is a virgin field. A lot of the primary sources, like so many others, have been passed down in families and are still sitting in a box or a desk somewhere waiting to be rediscovered.
Netflix suggested I watch Sherlock (again), so I said "what the heck!" (again). Today I watched The Blind Banker--Benedict is so good at expressing emotion in his face. I'm a face person, I like interesting faces, and I like faces that can expressing interesting things (which is why I like watching Tom and Ben. Yes, we're on buddy names basis. They call me Kitten). There is a part that refers to his difficult school years, and though it is for less than a second, his face is so sad that I just can't.
Oh, and I think I want to ray gun the Copenhagen Zoo. Today it was four healthy lions. What is wrong with those people????
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