Things I learned while looking up other things, 2021.6.11
Dear friends,
Although I shouldn't be, I'm always surprised by what legislators think they can ban outright. For example, after the battle of Cannae (216 BC), the Roman Senate supposedly forbade Romans from saying the word 'peace' in the city (and women were not allowed to cry in public).
If you thought being mauled by a great white shark was bad enough, great whites actually roll their (very humanlike) eyes at you when they attack (because they lack the nictitating membranes some other sharks have). So essentially, you'll be mauled AND mocked. Don't go in the water, is all I'm saying.
Buzz Aldrin claimed his per-diem for travel for the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
Edward Gibbon was, unsurprisingly, an indoor person. "Gibbon took very little exercise. He had been staying some time with Lord Sheffield in the country and when he was about to go away the servants could not find his hat. 'Bless me,' said Gibbon. 'I certainly left it in the hall on my arrival here.' He had not stirred out of doors during the whole of the visit."
At the annual Wilkes Walk (held by the parish of All Saints Leighton Buzzard during Rogation Tide), part of the will of a parish benefactor, Mr. Edward Wilkes, is read aloud, and while this is done, "a member of the choir must stand upon his or her head, the better to remember the occasion".
Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) got its English name from Jamestown, because some of the English soldiers brought to put down Bacon's Rebellion ate it in salads, and suffered from its hallucinogenic effects for eleven days.
In Stoic philosophy, what we call lack of willpower was called being 'defeated by pleasure'.
If you need a new way to say "I'm tired, I'm going to bed," I highly recommend "But the quincunx of heaven runs low, and ’tis time to close the five ports of knowledge." from The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, naturally, artificially, mystically considered, by Sir Thomas Browne.
Jonas Hanaway is credited as being the first Englishman to carry an umbrella. (Cab drivers threw garbage at him because they thought they would lose customers if everyone carried an umbrella.)
Here's hoping you're well and vaccinated (and if vaccinated, only returning to the in-person events, engagements, and obligations that you actually enjoy),
Your friend,
Erin
Although I shouldn't be, I'm always surprised by what legislators think they can ban outright. For example, after the battle of Cannae (216 BC), the Roman Senate supposedly forbade Romans from saying the word 'peace' in the city (and women were not allowed to cry in public).
If you thought being mauled by a great white shark was bad enough, great whites actually roll their (very humanlike) eyes at you when they attack (because they lack the nictitating membranes some other sharks have). So essentially, you'll be mauled AND mocked. Don't go in the water, is all I'm saying.
Buzz Aldrin claimed his per-diem for travel for the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
Edward Gibbon was, unsurprisingly, an indoor person. "Gibbon took very little exercise. He had been staying some time with Lord Sheffield in the country and when he was about to go away the servants could not find his hat. 'Bless me,' said Gibbon. 'I certainly left it in the hall on my arrival here.' He had not stirred out of doors during the whole of the visit."
At the annual Wilkes Walk (held by the parish of All Saints Leighton Buzzard during Rogation Tide), part of the will of a parish benefactor, Mr. Edward Wilkes, is read aloud, and while this is done, "a member of the choir must stand upon his or her head, the better to remember the occasion".
Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) got its English name from Jamestown, because some of the English soldiers brought to put down Bacon's Rebellion ate it in salads, and suffered from its hallucinogenic effects for eleven days.
In Stoic philosophy, what we call lack of willpower was called being 'defeated by pleasure'.
If you need a new way to say "I'm tired, I'm going to bed," I highly recommend "But the quincunx of heaven runs low, and ’tis time to close the five ports of knowledge." from The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, naturally, artificially, mystically considered, by Sir Thomas Browne.
Jonas Hanaway is credited as being the first Englishman to carry an umbrella. (Cab drivers threw garbage at him because they thought they would lose customers if everyone carried an umbrella.)
Here's hoping you're well and vaccinated (and if vaccinated, only returning to the in-person events, engagements, and obligations that you actually enjoy),
Your friend,
Erin
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