In which medieval Europeans know honey is just the thing to treat an arrow stuck in your face. A great literary figure, almost Aristotelian in his classification of the natural world, once said, “The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey…And the only reason for making honey is so … Read More
Mashed Potato Time
Wherein combatants in the American Civil War know nothing keeps a soldier in fighting trim like a wad of compressed vegetables. “Avast, ye scurvy dogs” kids playing pirate will shriek before making their friends walk the plank. While we might chuckle at a little bit of elementary school keelhauling, scurvy itself was a serious concern … Read More
Tonight I’m Gonna Party Like It’s a 500 BCE Symposium
Wherein the Greeks know the best philosophical discussions include singing, wine pong and courtesans. Some scholars and professors—at least ones who are not at all like me—find one of the highlights of their profession to be academic conferences. For those of you who’ve never indulged in such unrelenting excitement, let’s lift the veil on modern … Read More
I Love That Dirty Water
Wherein the people of Georgian England know a clean baby is a slimy baby. It’s time for my not-so-celebrated annual article about bathing! In reality, it would be time in about two months, but at the rate at which I’m putting out articles these days there’s no guarantee the next one will come out by … Read More
