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Christmas Don’ts
On December 25, 2024 by Elyse♪ You better watch out,You better not cry,Better not pout,I’m telling you why:History is coming to town. ♪ These days, it’s not hard to make Santa’s “nice list,” especially with a spy, er, elf always looking over your shoulder. But in centuries past, the holiday season could bring worse fates than coal in your stocking.
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Clip of the Week: December 11, 2024
On December 11, 2024 by ElyseIs this bad customer service or the customer from hell? You decide: A traveller in the Lake district who found himself stranded owing to a mishap at 5.45 one morning went to an hotel and rang the bell. No one opened the door, and, though he rang again and again, he was unable to gain
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Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Ghosts
On October 30, 2024 by Elyse‘Tis the season for ghost stories, out-of-work spirits and erm, haunted gates. But what do we really know about ghosts, other than they’re friendly, can be trapped in glorified vacuum cleaners and occasionally dance with their still-living partners? Ghosts like their pints as much as the rest of us. All ghosts, according to the [Encyclopedia
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Clip of the Week: June 26, 2024
On June 26, 2024 by ElyseDoes anyone know a good barber? This guy could use a recommendation: Mr. Frederick Wilkins, landlord of the Tow Tree, a village inn at Burghill, in the lovely lands of pastoral Hereford, renowned as a man of a strange oath, and bearded like the pard, may now go to the barber again. Sixteen years ago
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Clip of the Week: June 12, 2024
On June 12, 2024 by ElyseThis is what happens when Americans go abroad: Mr. W. W. Umberhauer, a Philadelphia banker, had to change a suit of clothes yesterday on account of the peculiar effect the pattern had on horses in the Strand [in London] and other thoroughfares. Mr. Umberhauer is a guest at the Hotel Cecil, and the suit is
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A Neigh in the Life
On April 3, 2024 by ElyseEver since humans domesticated horses thousands of years ago, they’ve been our faithful companions, pulling our carriages, plowing our fields and kindly not throwing off small children placed on their backs for photo ops (thanks, Oreo!). However, it’s not all work and no horseplay. If the early 20th-century newspapers are to be believed, horses were
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Clip of the Week: March 20, 2024
On March 20, 2024 by ElyseAnd you thought losing the ring was the worst way the best man could ruin the wedding: An Essex clergyman has adopted a novel form of punishment for kissing. While a wedding was in progress the two principals rose from the chancel steps, where they had been kneeling, to advance to the rails of the
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Just Like Us, Part 1
On November 15, 2023 by Elyse“Stars—They’re Just Like Us!” Long before tabloid magazines started catching the rich and famous eating sandwiches and getting haircuts, the newspapers of yesteryear were already following them around. In an era when celebrity culture was just taking off, the subjects of these hard-hitting exposés were more often than not European royalty. It turns out they
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Mind Your Manners
On October 18, 2023 by Elyse“Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals,” the politician Horace Mann is said to have declared. While the stories below suggest otherwise, there’s no denying that good manners can make all the difference in just about any situation. If you follow the etiquette you (hopefully) learned in preschool, you’ll go far—into the judicial system, that