Category: History

Meretricious Rhadamanthine Hot Links

Johnny Rotten weighs in on Briexit… and Donald Trump.

Roger Daltrey weighs in on Briexit… and Donald Trump.

Luke and Sean share a shirt.

Earliest known definition of “cocktail” as a beverage appeared in 1803. The actual origins of the word are disputed; here’s one analysis.

Groucho Marx once hawked cocktail napkins.

Ever wonder why cocktails are served in different glasses? Me neither.

No idea what the 1927 Jiggling Chair was supposed to remedy.

Attempted Escape of the Maniac from The Wild Witch of the Heath, 1841.

This is mildly amusing. Move your curser, then do it real fast.

From the You Gotta Be Kidding Me Department:
Cloned Woolly Mammoths are planned to be introduced to an Arctic Siberian park in order to stop “global warming climate change.”

Horrific April Fools Day pranks of the 19th Century, and some were lethal. More pranks here.

[Top: Original image of the TV-HiFi console hottie found here.]

Headless Templates

Yep, that’s a 1930s precursor to photoshop. More info here.

Johann Friedrich Fleischer’s Contribution to the World: Lunar Humidity Distiller

lunar-humidity

“I will tell you this much however, that the rays of the Sun and Moon and Dew must be collected in a clean Jar or Vessel, separated from Rain and dirt, stench, smoke, and also from flying and wandering animals. The ways of attraction are many, but it is as well at home, as in an open place in the wind. As also a most fit and convenient Receptacle.”

Alchemist Johann Friedrich Fleischer‘s invention is described in his paper Chemical Moonshine, published in 1739. A subsequent publication in 1797 included the illustration above, by Sigismund Bacstrom, for its frontispiece

[Image found here.]

Cloudy with a 40% chance of Hot Links

How to ruin the game of Darts.

What if James Brown didn’t feel good? This amused me.

Angry customer complaint dates to 1750BC.

Can you spot the error(s) in this 1816 painting? I spotted three. Okay, 2-1/2. [Found here.]

I, kea.

It’s called the WTF Mobile.

From the Holy Crap Department: A dwarf star trapped by a black hole (only 2.5x the distance between the Earth and the Moon away)  completes an orbit every 28 minutes –  at a velocity of 1% of the speed of light!

All you need to know about developing nuclear weaponry.

What did Donald Trump Tweet about YOU? Find out here.

Q: Why did early cartoon characters wear gloves?
1.  Speed.
2.  Contrast.
3.  They were minstrels.
The correct answer is 4. All of the above.

Saturday Matinee – Chuck Barris & Eugene Patton, Count Basie & America Paz

Yeah, we lost another famous Chuck this week. Here’s Chuck Barris on The Gong Show featuring the late Eugene Patton, aka, Gene Gene The Dancing Machine. (If you thought I was going to post vids of The Unknown Comic, you’re mistaken, but here’s a link instead.)

GGTDM’s themesong was always Count Basie‘s 1938 hit “Jumpin’ At The Woodside,” so let’s go there. Here’s Basie’s Orchestra playing their 1937 hit “One O’Clock Jump” six years later in the movie Reveille with Beverly.

That 1943 Basie lineup likely included Buck Clayton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Snooky Young, trumpet; Dicky Wells, trombone; Earle Warren, Buddy Tate, Don Byas, Jack Washington, saxes; Freddie Green, guitar; Jo Jones, drums. Not sure who’s on bass.

This Funk Bass Slapfest is awesome, and the girl’s smacking a six-string. I’m guessing that this how Julliard students settle their differences and go busking at the same time.

OH WAIT! THAT’S AMERICA PAZ!

Very impressive, Ms. America.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Zircon Encrusted Hot Links

tweezers

Important Stuff:

Just read Chris Kyle‘s book “American Sniper” and I highly recommend it. Here are some interviews.

I read Marcus Luttrell‘s “Lone Survivor” – twice.

Johnny Mead‘s got a story from WWII.

Former Soviet citizen Vladimir Jaffe politely attempts to educate students on the truth about life under communism. (The girl actually believes that the millions of people murdered by The Red Terror was “an accident.”) Their ignorance scares me.

Not Important Stuff:

Here’s what happens when you mess with a dead whale carcass.

This is what you get when you google Holy Crap.

Hungry? Eat this.

Perhaps you’d like a tin sandwich instead?

[Top image from here, and, yeah, they’re all tweezers.]

Medieval WTF

medeval-wtf

A long, long time ago this painting made complete sense.

There’s a wood-fired forge, anvils, metal working tools, a peacock, a gryphon(?!) a deer and a bigass possum watching a naked man without genitalia cringe as a woman takes an axe to a parrot while the wind is blowing.

It’s an illustration from a French manuscript entitled The Personification of Nature Making Birds, Animals and People [ca. 1405].

Okay, so Mother Nature had already finished creating The Birds,  The Animals and at least one of The People, but then she realized that the poor guy needed a pecker. If anyone else has a better analysis, post it, because I’m done here.

[Image found here.]

Hot Links of the Ogliocene

hell-pigs
A pile of half-eaten specimens of the small camelid Poebrotherium show that the entelodont Archaeotherium was in the habit of grabbing these little herbivores, bringing them back to a cache site, and consuming them. Or, at least one Archaeotherium was doing this, anyway.

How to levitate.

Do not enter void.

Dogs knocking down kids.

From the Amusing, Sad & Pathetic Department:
Montana Natural Man Ernie Wayne TerTelgte was arrested for fishing without a license (and resisting arrest) and defended himself in court. Watch the video, then read this.

THIS is just wrong. He thinks he’s a woman who believes she’s a snake. [Warning: Extreme body modifications NSFK.]

Think you’re good at spotting spelling/grammatical errors? I thought I was, but I flunked this test.

The only time Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy appeared together on television was on Ralph Edwards‘ show “This Is Your Life” in 1954.

About that SuperBowl ad by 84 Lumber…

If you like our Sunday potpourri of miscellaneous links, the entire archive is here. That in itself should keep you busy for about a week. If there’s something you’d like to see more or less of, lemme know.

Top image found here, via here. Those are Hell Pigs eating proto-camels somewhere in North America. They stood 4 feet tall, weighed up to 930 lbs, were fast, and were related to whales, not pigs. In other words, they were ancient land sharks.

The Apache Revolver (ca. 1869)

apache-revolver-1 apache-revolver-2

“The Apache Revolver is the Swiss Army knife of guns. Designed in the early 1900’s by the french gang Les Apaches this weapon was easily concealed and it is said that one bullet would always be left out of the chamber so as to not shoot yourself while it was in your pocket. Its range was very limited due to its lack of a barrel but it was an effective tool due to everything it could do, this weapon could shoot, cut and hit and could be easily folded up and placed in your pocket. Sheer Genius.”

The Wikipedia entry contradicts that description. This multi-purpose weapon was presumably designed by Louis Dolne of Belgium in 1860, went into production in 1869, and was discontinued by 1900. Here’s a quick video.

[Top image and caption from here; 2nd image from here.]

These poor destitute women and children fleeing persecution have been temporarily barred from entering the U.S.

immigrants

Just look at those starving and suffering poor crippled souls who are so impoverished that they had to leave their families, girlfriends, wives, children, parents and grandparents behind to fight and die for the countries they escaped from.

Via Executive Order, President Trump suspended immigration from 7 countries that support violent jihad: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria & Yemen. There are 50 muslim-majority countries (Pew Research Center, 2010) so…

86% of all muslim-majority countries are NOT affected by the immigration suspension.

For those who think this edict is outrageous, un-Constitutional and unprecedented, please read Article 1. Read the rest of the U.S. Constitution while you’re at it, including the Amendments. Sure beats watching “The View” for American history and practical math.

[Image from here.]

UPDATE:

nancy-pelosi-sanctuary-state