On This Day In History
March 30th, 2023: Donald Trump is indicted by the New York grand jury, making him the first US president (current or former) to face criminal charges.
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Gino Franceschini, New York City, was only 5 feet 6-1/4 inches tall and had to be 5 feet 7 inches to qualify as a fireman. In 1941, he made the neck stretcher shown in the photo. When measured, he still lacked an eighth of an inch. He hit himself on head to make a bump—and still couldn’t make it.
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In those days, unmarked women were considered imperfect, undesirable. One of the most enduring ullalim, a form of epic poetry that is chanted by the village bard, is the story of the warrior hero Banna who falls in love with the beautiful Lagunnawa. In the pre-colonial tale, their tattooed bodies are celebrated as badges of honor, wealth, beauty, and bravery.
When the American Catholic missionaries came and built schools in Kalinga, village girls were made to cover their arms with long sleeves. Being tattooed became a point of shame when women ventured to the city, and eventually fewer girls from the succeeding generation continued the tradition as Western concepts of beauty and respectability began to permeate the culture.
from "Apo Whang-Od And The Indelible Marks Of Filipino Identity"
VOGUE PHILIPPINES, April 2023 Cover Story
GUYS. GUYYYYYYYS. I don't know how many of you will be interested in this, but please allow me to share the latest Vogue PH issue. Because I am floored.
The woman on the cover is Apo Whang-Od, the oldest and, until just recently, the only remaining mambabatok (traditional Kalinga tattooist) in history. And now, at 106 years old, might also be the oldest person to be on the cover of Vogue.
In the last decade, Apo Whang-Od has been heralded to national treasure status in the Philippines for keeping a significant part of her people's culture (the Butbut tribe of Buscalan, Kalinga) alive, even through years of Western colonization and modernization. Through her, an art form and custom that was on the verge of being lost to history has had a reemergence, and allowed a lot of Filipinos to rediscover and reconnect with our roots.
I am just so pleasantly surprised and impressed that a thousand-year local tradition was perfectly captured in the cover of a fashion magazine. The portrait itself (photographed by Artu Nepomoceno) is such a good one, too. Allowing Apo Whang-Od to be the symbol of strength and beauty—in ageing, in culture and in being Filipino. Three cheers for this profound moment in representation, Vogue PH! THIS IS HOW YOU SEEEEERVE!
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Dasha the bear cub flies to Prague. Photo by Vladimir Medvedev, 1987.
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The Anaconda Standard, Montana, December 3, 1923
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St George and the Dragon by Briton Rivière
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Strawberry Hill House,
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Twickenham, United Kingdom
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Some of the feminine spiritual apparitions in the folklore and legends of Latin America & the Caribbean
There are many types of female ghost. They are typically (but not always) dressed in a white or red dress or similar garment, reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with local legends of tragedy. Legends are found in many countries around the world. Common to many of these legends is an accidental death, murder, or suicide, and the theme of loss, betrayed by a husband or fiancé, and unrequited love. Many of these entities are also said to appear near water, like the Sirens of Greece or the washerwomen of the Celtic people.
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~ Lion ring.
Culture: Etruscan
Date: early 5th century B.C.
Medium: Gold
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"That's the Pizza Tower tutorial song." "No, it's a traditional Italian folk song." No, it's literally a 140-year-old meme – "Funiculì, Funiculà" was written in 1880, as a joke, to commemorate the opening of a tourist attraction at Mount Vesuvius. (The tourist attraction was later destroyed by a volcanic eruption.) Go ahead and rewrite the lyrics to be about sticking your dick in a pizza – there is nothing you can do with this song that's more ridiculous than its original context.
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Can you recommend a random and obscure historic event or time period for me to go down a rabbithole researching? A lot of the stuff you talk about is very interesting and I’d love to have something like that to learn about
Nonnie, I have a great rabbit hole for you: the Balkans/South and Eastern Europe between about 1450-1500.
You have tons of super interesting historical figures/events:
Vlad Dracula The Man Himself, and all the very Vlad Dracula-like things he was doing, great if you enjoyed Dracula Daily and want to learn more about the man behind the myth;
Matthias Corvinus (the Raven King) and the mystery of his lost library, as well as all the subsequent Slavic folktales about him as a King Arthur-like figure (readers of some of my fics will remember our magical friend Matthias, ahem);
That time Matthias Corvinus threw Dracula in prison for fourteen years and whenever visiting clergymen were getting a little too pompous or full of themselves, he would trot out Dracula and scare the shit out of them;
Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, and his lover Radu the Fair (who was also Vlad's brother); allegedly Mehmed tried to seduce Radu, Radu panicked and stabbed him, then later decided that he was into it after all and they were together for years, especially as Mehmed supported Radu's attempts to unseat Vlad in Wallachia;
Renaissance artists and literature, religion, mysticism, magic, astrology;
The complex interplay of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Balkans, and the constant struggle between Ottoman and Christian political control, along with their related cultural legacies;
So much political intrigue and various battles, some of which continue to shape regional memory in complicated and interesting ways (i.e. did you know that they still ring the bells in Belgrade at noon, as a commemoration of John Hunyadi's 1456 victory over Mehmed and co?)
The rise of Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) and the rest of his scheming clan in the endlessly dramatic city-states of Italy;
The start of the so-called "Age of Discovery" and the conquest of the new world;
Anyway. I may or may not have written several episodes of a historical TV series set in this period. For reasons.
Have fun!
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Lee Sievan. Chinatown billboard with Lewis-Godoy Championship Fight Poster. 1940s
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An Arming Sword found near Castillon-la-Bataille,
OaL: 37.9 in/96.2 cm
Weight: 3.3 lbs/1489 g
England or France, ca. 1450, housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Children play in the melting snow (1950s)
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