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: Louis Wain Auteur of psychedelic fractal cats Ask him about: cat memes “British cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.” – H.G. Wells If you love yourself a good cat photo, you can go ahead and thank Louis Wain. Up until the…
Have: a piece of cake. It’s….pleasantly aged? Ask: is it past its sell-by date? According to the BBC, last week a slice of cake from the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana sold for £1,850 at auction (about $2,500 USD). A piece of one of the couple’s twenty-three cakes, the slice had been…
Have a drink with: William Banting Keto, paleo, intermittent fasting? Nope: BANTING. Ask him about: before and after pics When the Paleo diet became popular in the early oughts and the ketogenic diet more recently supplanted it as a nutritional craze, keen-eyed historians noticed something familiar about these diets’ recommendations to hork down all the…
Have a drink with: Napoleon Sarony Work with me, darling. Ask him about: Oscar Wilde, cover girl The author of an interview with the photographer Napoleon Sarony, published in the June 1895 edition of Decorator and Furnisher magazine, was clearly excited about getting to meet such a famous figure. In the style of the modern…
Have a drink with: The Early Birds There’s only one 10 o’clock in the day, and this ain’t it. Yell along with them: Go the @%(# to sleep. In the past week alone, major publications have promised that a good night’s sleep may be the key to successful business, effortless parenting, a better sex life…
Have a drink with: The Store Detective Enemy of deviant feminist candy thieves! Ask her about: hiding a football field’s worth of fabric in your skirt The modern department store came into its own in the 19th century, as retailers jumped feet-first into the growing Barnumesque sense of spectacle suddenly required to get a consumer’s…
Have a drink with: James O’Connell & Captain Costentenus Over 7 million blood-producing punctures! Ask them about: The many uses of coconut oil The Greatest Showman, the recent Hugh Jackman movie musical about impresario (and frequent blog subject) P.T. Barnum, centers in large part on the “Oddities,” a troupe of human curiosities Barnum brings from…
Have a drink with: Abdul Karim The jewel in the Crown Ask him about: Royal language lessons The movie Victoria and Abdul portrays the relationship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim, a young Indian man assigned to her service in the late 1880s. Karim, originally a clerk from Agra, India, came to Victoria’s service during…
Have a drink with: Marie Tussaud Utility, amusement, severed heads. Ask her about: working motherhood Looking forward to Halloween, I’m at Atlas Obscura today writing about Madame Marie Tussaud, the 19th century entertainer and artist who got her start making death masks of decapitated French revolutionaries. Marie left France at forty years old, with her…
Have a drink with: Dr. James Barry Poodle enthusiast, dandy, ace physician Ask them about: trans soldiers On July 26, President Trump announced a ban on transgender military service, citing the unsubstantiated likelihood that trans soldiers would subject the military to increased medical costs and an unacceptable degree of “disruption.” LGBT rights groups have since…
