Recently, I got to thinking about glitter. What is it made of? When was it invented? Most important of all, what would happen if someone baked it into a cake and ate it? Continue reading
Category Archives: History
Confessions of an Austrian arsenic eater
In the depths of the Victorian era, the recreational use of arsenic would come to be known as one of the most bizarre and dangerous ways ever devised to get high. Continue reading
The grotesque accessory carried by history’s best-dressed man
Unlike his collection of ornate snuff boxes and high collars, this was one accessory Beau Brummell wished to rid himself of permanently. Continue reading
6 completely random facts about the first Bloomsday
The events of James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses, take place on June 16, 1904. They’re commemorated every year in a celebration called Bloomsday. Continue reading
This is not a cookie
This is 4,000-year-old homework. Continue reading
4 facts about Marie Antoinette’s hair that make no sense (and 1 that makes perfect sense)
One evening, Léonard was getting drunk in his apartment with a fellow hairdresser when Marie Antoinette’s valet unexpectedly knocked on the door. Continue reading
5 secrets from old Svalbard
Nearly a century ago, Martha Phillips Gilson published “A Woman’s Winter on Spitsbergen” in National Geographic. She discovered five secrets about this mysterious land of ice and isolation. Continue reading
