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The Perfect Foot
On March 30, 2022 by ElyseFolks, put on your comically oversized nightcap—or pour yourself one—because this week, I have another Cinderella-esque fairy tale to read you. Since this blog is not yet available in podcast form, you’ll have to imagine my dulcet tones and/or high-pitched squeaks as you go along. Once upon a time, in the not-so-faraway land of Chicago,
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5 Times Love Didn’t Conquer All
On February 16, 2022 by ElyseHere at Second Glance History, it’s tradition at this time of year to share stories of love overcoming insurmountable obstacles, again and again. But in the immortal words of Patty Smyth and Don Henley, sometimes, love just ain’t enough. I’m not alone in having learned that the hard way. Patty and Don may not have
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The Hapsburg Anastasia, Part 3
On March 17, 2021 by ElyseSpoiler alert: Don’t ruin the ending! Read Part 1 and Part 2 first. Read in your best announcer voice: Last time on “The Hapsburg Anastasia,” Alma eloped with 22-year-old Yale University student and coal-and-steel heir Donald Andrews. Buoyed by love and presumably, lots of money, they fled to London to escape his disapproving parents. If
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The Hapsburg Anastasia, Part 2
On March 3, 2021 by ElyseWelcome! If you haven’t yet read Part 1, please don’t spoil the story for yourself—start there! When we last left our heroine, Alma Vetsera had failed to break her boyfriend out of an asylum, but at least she’d kicked her first husband to the curb. Alma made the most out of her newfound freedom—it helped
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The Hapsburg Anastasia, Part 1
On February 17, 2021 by ElyseRemember Second Glance History’s friend Crown Prince Rudolf, heir apparent to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? Conspiracy theorists claim that despite what the history books say, the Hapsburg prince didn’t die on January 30, 1889 in a murder-suicide with Baroness Mary Vetsera, his 17-year-old mistress. In fact, they say he left that hunting lodge
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Love in the Time of Ice Cream Sundaes, Part 2
On August 12, 2020 by ElyseSpoiler alert! Don’t ruin the ending: Read Part 1 first. When we last saw our heroes in October of 1910, Beatrice Sanders and La Vere Tallman were shivering in a cave in the Catskill Mountains and slowly realizing that sometimes love just ain’t enough. Six weeks after the start of their romantic escape into the
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Five Signs Your Relationship is Impawsible
On July 24, 2019 by ElyseHere at Second Glance History, we’ve come across our share of unusual divorces but never one with quite so much furor. (I’d apologize for the cat pun, but I’m just getting started.) Inspired by the release of the nightmare-inducing trailer for “Cats,” let’s look at someone else’s version of feline purrgatory—I promise there’s no singing
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‘Til Death Do Us Part
On October 31, 2018 by ElyseMuch has been written about the divorce rate in the Western world, and psychologists and nosy relatives alike have spent many hours pondering its causes. Although science tells us criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling are the most reliable harbingers of a relationship’s end, not all doomed marriages die of natural causes. In fact, if the