PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

The Colosseum was inhabited during the Middle Ages.

The word "nepotism" comes from the practices of Popes naming nephews (nepos in latin) as cardinals. The practice was so well-established that the Cardinal Nephew was an official position for a century.

There is a fragmentary trial document from Renaissance Italy. It is a testimony of the household assassin of an Archbishop and his abbot son, concerning a murder of a peasant that they allegedly ordered. This is an utterly unremarkable case for the era.

Nepos actually means grandson.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 02:53

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 16:34

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

It's a page or two late, but here's a fun fact: blueberries weren't cultivated successfully until 1916. Before then, you had to go out to wherever the bushes decided to grow.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2016 18:22

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Solice Kirsk posted:

He'd be the hands down winner in the lap time category though.

Do you want to know a thing which has never happened since time immemorial?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 17:12

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Solice Kirsk posted:

Is this a "me getting laid" set up? It is isn't it?

That would be more tasteful than the Eleanor Roosevelt fart gag I had in mind.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 17:22

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Phy posted:

We used to have a "poo poo I just figured out" thread; I didn't see it in the first three pages so I'm assuming it's been mercifully killed.

I just figured out that Roger Bacon the very clever monk, Francis Bacon the very clever proto-scientist, and Francis Drake the pirate/explorer were all different people living at different times. Shame on me.

Alhazred posted:

Francis Drake was also one of the last persons to visit the Roanoke colony before the colonists disappeared.

All the same guy. Who was also a time-travelling mass-killer.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2016 16:35

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Carbon dioxide posted:

Yeah, without a microscope, why would you even assume micro-organisms exist.

And even if you could see them, why would you not think, "Must be good water; stuff can live in it. :v:

# ¿ Apr 5, 2016 23:34

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

FreudianSlippers posted:

Male intimacy was not seen as being "gay" in the 19th and early 20th centuries:

Aw, heck, that just exemplifies the lack of chairs in the 19th century.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2016 15:47

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

I think it's the reason. Assassination is political.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2017 15:43

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Baron Corbyn posted:

I looked up the kind of funny pictures the not Johnny Smith kid was missing out on and honestly I'd be crying too if I didn't get to look at this.

You mean didn't get to Lear at that.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 01:24

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

While I share a lot of goons' mixed feelings about American cops, here's some interesting Baltimore Police history.

Distinct from other departments in the US, Baltimore has traditionally used a special type of baton called an espantoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espantoon

It's a long wooden baton with a special long strap that makes it easy to swirl and do baton tricks. Back in the 1990s the new police commissioner banned the espantoon since he claimed that twirling it was intimidating, but he replaced it with an even longer baton that lacked a tangent or strap, and that was arguably more dangerous since it was longer and could get a better swing. In 2000, a new commissioner brought it back as a popular cultural item for Baltimore cops.

While to one degree a baton can be bad if it makes cops feel more free to beat on people, I'm overall in favor of cops having a variety of non-lethal options. Particularly if they're actually following their procedures and totally banning head-hits which are a greater lethality risk, and using techniques designed to maximize subduing effect while minimizing risk of long-term damage.

The espantoon is one of the many, many subtle little local references in The Wire. I haven't watched it in forever, but there's a scene where the white-haired cop gets taken off the special anti-drug team and put back in uniform walking a beat, and it shows him happily walking down the street twirling his espantoon in the old-school way. This video clip appears to be Baltimore cops doing espantoon tricks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRl1TqSLpFU

Those are, in fact, New York cops, but you can see some B-more cops spinning the espantoon.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2018 16:13

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Should have just held up a picture of yourself saluting.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2019 00:10

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Just pee in your neighbor's kylix when he's not looking.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2019 12:50

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Gargamel Gibson posted:

Yeah but why does pussy taste like coins?

Because women's clothing often lacks pockets.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2019 20:29

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

DONT TOUCH THE PC posted:

Where does that leave the Danes?

Surrounded.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2019 19:16

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Alhazred posted:

In the 1950s the british were worried that West-Germany would fall and that the soviets would invade Europe from the east. So they came up with project Blue Peacock. They planned to place several nuclear mines in West-Germany, there was only one problem: The cold winter would gently caress up the electronics in the mine. The solution was to stuff each mine with live chickens and leave them with enough food and water to survive for a week. The project was ultimately abandoned because if it got out that Germany was considered expendable in case of an invasion it would be bad optics.

That is the old joke:
What's a tactical nuclear weapon?
One that goes off in Germany.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2019 23:29

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

And an Aga is also a fancy-pants gas stove in the UK. It's all connected!

Or maybe I need to go for a walk.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2020 20:35

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

flatluigi posted:

my favorite little etymology thing that still manages to gently caress people up somehow is that helicopter isn't heli + copter, it's helico + pter -- 'spiral wing'

It's more apparent in old recordings of people using the word and using a long E.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 20:24

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Alhazred posted:

In 1887 47 people signed a letter titled "Protests by artists against the tower of Mr. Eiffel". One of the people who signed the letter was the author Guy de Maupassant. Despite his protests the Eiffel Tower was built. Then for the rest of his life Guy de Maupassant would eat his lunch in the restaurant of the tower. Why? It was the only place in Paris where he could eat his lunch without seeing the tower he hated so much.

That is first-class hatred.

System Metternich posted:

I don't know if it was as quick, but while the state opera in Vienna is far from being as city-defining as the Eiffel Tower is, it's still an important part of the city's cultural as well as tourist infrastructure - quite contrary to its initial perception when the Viennese (including the Emperor) hated it so much that one of its two architects commited suicide. According to legend the Emperor was so shocked by the consequences of his criticism that for the rest of his life he said about every arts-related issue just a stereotypical "It was very nice, I liked it quite a lot"

And imagine the guilt. The other architect died from TB soon before. And then, every time you do to the opera, it's there.

Good. Screw Habsburgs.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2021 01:12

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

I dunno, the Pope's from South America. He could be more of a canasta player.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2021 23:06

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Byzantine posted:

That takes balls.

Your knowledge of anatomy may not be completely accurate.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2021 23:39

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

[quote="jazzyjay" post="513whatnnot sure dom28790"p
Updating my bucket list to include burying alive a boat load of murderous emissaries
[/quote]

Wow, all them promises of shure due have a place, Gosh, sure wouldn't to have to examoin th exiting Trump persons

# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 04:29

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

gleebster posted:

Wow, all them promises of shure due have a place, Gosh, sure wouldn't to have to examoin th exiting Trump persons

What the hell does that mean?

# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 04:34

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

drrockso20 posted:

Are you smelling burnt toast right now?

Juniper, more like.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 17:08

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

Originally it was a time to spit up coffee?

# ¿ Apr 5, 2022 14:57

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

I think the fancy lads didn't shave, but were shaved.

# ¿ May 1, 2022 19:43

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 16:34

gleebster: Dec 16, 2006; Only a howler; Pillbug

No trucking is mentioned in the quoted text.

# ¿ May 9, 2022 00:33

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