I am a living historian who, about a month ago, broke his ankle at an Revolutionary War Living History event. Sitting at home in recovery has gotten me to thinking: what would the recovery process be like for the people of the time period I was portraying be like?

For a few years now I have tried understanding why exactly people seem to be so fascinated with the PIE; to my limited understanding, we still do not know very much about the different cultures or parts, there are vastly different theories about them; if anyone can put what is known into layman’s terms, I would be very appreciative.

You see it everywhere, especially in media. The chef starts spitting cooking terms in French, pulling out French cooking techniques, and the audience goes "oh wow this guy is skilled." (I'm looking at you, Food Wars, with your bad French pronunciations and at least 2 French words in every sentence). Cooking is full of French words, terms, and techniques. But why? Why French, specifically? What made it so much more prestigious than English, Spanish, Italian, German, or even non-European cuisines like Chinese, Japanese, Indian, or Egyptian? How did French get so special?

Was there some change in French cuisine that caused this sudden rise in popularity among other European nations? Perhaps innovative new techniques or methods? If so, what caused those innovations to occur in France and not, say, England or Spain?

Additionally, was there a cuisine that preceded it in terms of widespread popularity, or was French the first style of cooking to gain such international prestige?

I am Portuguese and am a recent immigrant from a family thats been in the USA for 3 generations. I cannot for God's sake name any Portuguese movie stars let alone famous celebrities like artists and musician. Despite Portuguese being the first tongue in the house. The only famous Portuguese people know are those mentioned in history classes

The only person in my family who knows any Portuguese celebs are my grandparents who were the first gen immigrants to America…….

However everyone in my family knows who Alain Delon is because even my dad (who grew up in Portugal before moving at 10) ould often see movies of him on local TV in Libson. My grandparents would often play Alain Delon movie because they were big fans esp my grandma who still crushes on him tdoay (and has been since she was a teen).

Even my ma who isn't Portuguese but British had caught Alain Delon exposure because her mom also lusted after Alain despite living in the UK of Scottish ancestry and brought over posters autographed pictures, VHS movies, etc.

Someone else on reddit who lives in Croatia says their family put an Alain Delon poster in the living room so this is why I am curious.

Was Alain Delon that huge that he's not only famous in Europe at hi peak but even as more popular than many local A list actors of various countries? Excepting obviously UK which had its own separate ecosystem-and even here Alain Delon as perhaps the only French actor who managed to get a hardcore following from the French hating populace as seen in my Grandma who even often throws insults at the French like calling them frogs but exempts Delon because he's soooooo suppppppeeeeerrr hottttt (her words despite being a 60 year old grandma)-I notice so much cross Europe from Spain to Germany all the way to Russia and Seen and even as far outside of Europee proper like TUrkey and Israel………

Alain Delon has a following esp among women! Even French bashers have anti-Frenchy girls who swoon after Delon as seen by my Scottish Grandma who lived in England most of her life (enough that she has an English accent instead of a Scottish one).

Was he just that much of a super star at his peak? What at a similar level of fame in Europe to Sophia Loren and British Triple A stars like Peter O'Toole and Sean Connery?

I know that the majority of US state governments mirror the federal government pretty closely, with some variations (I believe Nevada has a unicameral legislature, etc.), but mainly you have a governor, a state legislature, and a state Supreme Court, and functions as a small constitutional republic. And I know that any new state being admitted requires the approval of congress, and on principle, it's extremely unlikely that any state constituted as a monarchy would be admitted to the unions. But is there law against it?

It is not uncommon to see renaissance paintings of Old Testament figures alongside Hebrew text (usually a related biblical passage). Where did the painters get these from? Did they use the help of Jews?

We know so much more from this period than, say, Trajan’s Dacian wars or Heraclius or the entirety of the Sassanid Empire. Why does this one period of Roman history have so many surviving sources, which even cover people and places adjacent to Rome (for example, the insane amount of detail we have on Antiochus III but not any of his predecessors or successors)?

I see this word thrown around all the time on reddit and in the news. I thought Oligarchies were governments ruled by a few people. Do these rich Russians hold official government positions? Do they wield significant government influence in a country under Putin’s thumb?

For example, when similar economic depression occured in Russia while reforming in 1990s, their life expectancy plummeted. But how didn't it happen in great depression?

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia!

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Come share the cool stuff you love about the past!

We do not allow posts based on personal or relatives' anecdotes. Brief and short answers are allowed but MUST be properly sourced to respectable literature. All other rules also apply—no bigotry, current events, and so forth.

For this round, let’s look at: LGBTQ History! Happy pride, AskHistorians! This week, we celebrate all things related to LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer - including asexual, intersexual, and more!) History! Whatever form that takes for you, use this week the fly the flag!

My brother and I were talking about this the other day, and he suggested they were afraid of MI6, but I'm not so sure that would've been enough to keep them out of literally every country. Obviously the Soviet Union had the eastern block, but former Soviet nations don't really have the policies I'm talking about.

Let me preface this by saying that I love this subreddit and I understand that the rules of this sub contribute a lot to the quality of the answer one can expect for it .

Yesterday I checked , using another subreddit , if any of my comments were deleted and I found out that seven of my answers on ask historians were deleted . No notification ever appeared and if I go to the comments in my profile I can still see it in the thread. About the answers itself: I've reread them and I understood why the majority of them were deleted but I still think that a couple of my submissions are in line with this sub rules'. I'm not pretending that I didn't do anything wrong but I would like to know which rules did I break , in order not to repeat the same mistake in the future. My question is : is there a way to improve this situation? I understand that mods cannot justify every single action but is there a way to at least notify people when their comments are deleted? And is it acceptable to message the mods and ask why your answer was rejected?

Were they assimilated? Displaced? Were they in favour of the mainland Chinese populating their island?

I'm aware of Chiang's bad reputation from his totalitarian rule over China and later, Taiwan. But there has been some sympathy directed his way from Richard Bernstein's China 1945 (2014) and Jay Taylor's The Generalissimo (2011), taking into consideration the impossible situation he was in. I'm curious with what the consensus is.

NOTE: This is my second attempt posting this question, since it went unanswered last time.