



[Annoying Girl found on Giphy by accident. Owl found here, Twirly Girl here and Dog Bar courtesy Rightymouse.]

In the 1730s, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur popularized a recent discovery: the seemingly lifeless could be revived with a wealth of strategies. This “Pliny of the Eighteenth Century” (Réaumur invented a precursor to the Celsius scale, influenced methods of silk production in China, and pioneered the process of metallic tinning still used today) wrote a pamphlet titled Avis pour donner du secours à ceux que l’on croit noyez (Advice to aid those believed drowned).
After debating the pros and cons of tickling the nose with feathers and filling a drowning man’s mouth with warm urine, Réaumur reveals what he believes to be the best technique: using a pipe stem to blow stimulating tobacco smoke into the intestines through the rectum. Louis XV found the pamphlet dazzling and encouraged its wide distribution. Startlingly, as Anton Serdeczny discusses in his recent book on reanimation, soon riverbanks across Europe were lined with “resuscitation kits”, as close-by as a contemporary defibrillator, which contained all the necessary supplies for giving a nicotine enema (and later, thankfully, included bellows as a substitute for breath).
[Source.]
22:02:20 22/02/2022
Stack O’ Lee Blues, Mississippi John Hurt (1928)The song was published in 1911 and first recorded in 1923 by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, but the origin predates both, as a song called Stack-A-Lee was mentioned in in the Kansas City Leavenworth Herald, in 1897 as being performed by “Prof. Charlie Lee, the piano thumper.”
Lloyd Price covered it in 1958 as Stagger Lee. The true story had nothing to do with a crap game, but it did involve a stetson hat.
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 28 December 1895
Shot in Curtis’s Place
William Lyons, 25, a levee hand, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o’clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets, by Lee Sheldon, a carriage driver. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. Lee Sheldon is also known as ‘Stag’ Lee.
The Pop-Up Book of Memes.
[h/t Mme. Jujujive]
Disturbing medieval babies.
[h/t Amy O.]
Vaccine passports and digital IDs.
For the past few days, this has been my earworm. I like it.
Weather Anywhere. Facebook factcheckers flagged it for sexual content.
[Top image: La Charge, Félix Edouard Vallotton, 1893.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.
It’s 2150. There are all sorts of Aliens living throughout space.
Johnny Express (2014) by South Korean CGI studio Alfred Image Works.
Pokey LaFarge knows.
The Heavy from 2013. Great retro soul sound.
Had some good karma come visit in the past week: doc called and said there’s nothing important to discuss, Gord sent me some cool prints, and my workload has expanded. Then it balanced itself somewhat: a computer crash did some minor damage, and snakes ate my catalytic converter at 3am yesterday. Life happens.
Have a great weekend, and we’ll be back twitchin’ & bitchin’ tomorrow.

Drummer (1973) Sculpture by Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974)
Materials: whalebone, ivory, substantia nigra
Inuit sculpture, Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal
Ashevak’s whalebone sculptures were inspired by stories of shamans and spirits he learned during his childhood. He began carving in 1970 but was only able to create art for four years – he and his family died tragically in a fire in 1974.
[Image found here.]

[Found here.]