as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
Have a drink with: Your Local Mountebank Healthcare! Fireworks! Toads! Ask him about: What ails you We’re all getting a lot of weird healthcare advice lately, and I admit that it’s hard to stomach the idea that our country, which vanquished polio and smallpox with scientific elbow grease, is entertaining the medical expertise of a…
Have a drink with: The 1919 Anti-Mask League NO BARS, okay? NO. Ask them about: Coughing in large groups Since COVID-19 became a public health emergency in March, different cities and states have responded with protective measures, many of them including a recommendation or a requirement to wear a mask when in proximity to other…
Have a drink of: ANYTHING BUT BLEACH. Disinfectants are not medicine. Ask about: No. Don’t. Just DON’T. I can’t believe I have to say this, much less marshal the historical evidence to prove it, but, please: don’t drink bleach. Don’t inhale bleach. Don’t inject bleach. DON’T USE BLEACH TO DO ANYTHING BUT CLEAN UP AROUND…
Have a drink with: Astronaut Snoopy Houston? How about Petaluma? Ask him about: Getting NASA to the moon Tomorrow will mark fifty years since the splashdown of the Apollo 11 lunar mission (it’s easy to focus on the July 20th landing and next-day lunar walk, forgetting that the astronauts had to go through the equally…
Have a drink with: Joseph Priestley Chemist, radical theologian, likes bubbles. Ask him about: favorite La Croix flavor? Part of social life for well-to-do Europeans in the eighteenth century was to visit a spa town – someplace like Bath in England, or the town of Spa in Belgium – and “take the waters.” Not unlike…
Have a drink with: Your Local Phrenologist Lumps & bumps. Ask him about: The 10-Year Challenge Facial recognition technology is fun: particularly when you can log into your phone as an Animoji lion. But is it reliable, particularly when entrusted with decisions about security – and when profiling is a likely outcome? Suggestions that facial…
Have a drink with: James Marsh Maybe pass on the coffee, though… Ask him about: Arsenic and old cases In case you missed, it, I recently wrote at Atlas Obscura about 19th century efforts to take the threat and mystery out of arsenic poisoning, until then one of the most frequent and stealthy means of getting…
Have a drink with: James Jay They’ve given you a number and taken away your name… Ask him about: passing notes in class With the recent news that Congressional Republicans have rolled back broadband protections on the harvest and sale of Internet search data by service providers, information on how to protect the privacy of…
Have a drink with: David Bushnell Damn the torpedoes. Ask him about: The one that got away Folks in Warrenton, Georgia were understandably sad when Doctor David Bush passed away in 1826. Single and in his eighties at the time of his death, the old man was a local institution: in more than thirty years…
Have a drink of: Nice Cold 17th Century Beer Less filling; tastes great. Ask your friends: to buy you a round. In 1662 Charles II gave his charter to the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge (the “Royal Society,” for short). A hybrid of a gentleman’s club, an entrepreneurial incubator, a maker faire…
