Today:
You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.
As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.
Keeping my Friday banter attempts going, I come to the community with a request that is very near and dear to my heart.
Tell me, what are your favorite history puns? Favorite jokes or one liners? I don't know if many people know this, but I'm something of a pun aficionado myself.
So throw up the funny and lets share a few chuckles, eye rolls and groans!
Hello all-
I recently posted another video in my ongoing series "Questions about Ancient Greece and Rome (you were afraid to ask in school)." The topic - partly inspired by a few questions I've answered here - is "Did the Greeks really think that Zeus slept with mortal women?" The format of this particular video is...unique, and I think very entertaining for readers of this sub. So, if you've got six minutes or so to kill, you can watch the video here.
Not sure how many people here will be interested, but Costume On, the online historical costuming con, is holding a second weekend of classes on May 16th and 17th! Classes listed here - some classes are already full (including one I was thinking of signing up for, rats) but plenty are still open!
So one of my favorite sports writers was furloughed for a few months by big Vox, not much college football to cover right now. He, Jason Kirk, was 1/4 of the amazing Shutdown Fullcast.
So he and his wife have now decided to do a really neat new personal show. Vacation Bible School! A slightly above Pop History level look at the historical context of the Bible, how its been interpreted through history, and how that again that has been refiltered for modern American Evangelical congregations. Or as he likes to say, he had to go to some "Church Ass Church".
Episode one looked at Genesis 1-5. And it featured some heaters:
The Serpent, who of course is later retconed into being Satan, might be the first Libertarian.
What did Cain expect when he brought a Kale Salad and Abel got some nice fatty Brisket?
The God of Genesis makes a lot of sense if you picture him as Jeff Goldblum.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, May 01 - Thursday, May 07
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 9,276 | 252 comments | In 'Pirates of Carribbean' Jack Sparrow says: 'You've clearly never been to Singapore.', implying that he has. How likely is it that a Carribbean career pirate from the golden age of piracy would travel to South East Asia? |
| 6,203 | 135 comments | I’m a middle class Roman citizen planning to check out the Colosseum. How do I find the schedule? Do I bring friends or go alone? Should I eat before, or will they have food? |
| 5,909 | 159 comments | Did Ancient Romans have any ethical dilemmas around slavery? |
| 5,826 | 427 comments | Did the Vikings believe that their opponents in battle went to Valhalla as well? |
| 3,830 | 125 comments | In the Disney movie Aristocats, there was a system of pipes that ran throughout the house that were apparently used to communicate between rooms. Were pipes like these ever used in history, or is this just an invention for the movie? |
| 3,329 | 117 comments | Why did the Soviets continue suffering high casualties in 1944 and 1945? |
| 3,080 | 70 comments | What led to the rise of the ubiquitous "wacky morning DJ"? When and why did radio shift to over-the-top entertainment programs? |
| 3,058 | 163 comments | Nowadays, Hitler is widely regarded as the most evil human to ever live. But who was used as the standard of comparison for evil before Hitler? |
| 2,999 | 61 comments | My great grandparents used oxen, wooden plows, sickles, and scythes to work the land and harvest wheat in the pastoral planes of Eastern Europe. How different (if at all) was their agricultural technology from that of ancient people (e.g. Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, etc.)? |
| 2,662 | 50 comments | How, exactly, did the CIA fail to assassinate Fidel Castro 638 times? |
###Top 10 Comments
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Bastille Day, one of my favorite holidays, is arriving pretty soon. Every year I love to read anything by the historian Robert Darnton, who writes about how popular literature contributed to the French Revolution. My fiance and I are thinking of celebrating in a different way this year by eloping! I hope everyone finds someone as supportive of their obsession with French history.
I have been thinking on something. Doesn't /u/SarahAGilbert's three parts series deserve to be in the wiki under the META part? I think it will be a fine addition to the two other links there. I mean specifically under the History of AskHistorians section in the META part of the wiki.
Edit: One small rabbit hole later, I don't know where this post (The culture of r/askhistorians) by /u/Artrw should be in the wiki other than under the META section.
Are their history publishers who put out good (and affordably priced) kindle format book editions that are worth putting on a hotlist and checking regularly? So many works I want to get ahold of from the AH booklist have no ebook edition or one with a high price point.
What historical figures were absurdly hypocritical?
I was thinking about "empire builders" and how many organizations were saved by a follow-up leader and how many were lost for want of one.
People like Hermann Von Salza who joined a small order of German Hospitallers then built into a major European power. Getting it recognized as a military order, getting (then losing) lands in Hungary, establishing a monastic state in Prussia Then absorbing another Order (who lacked their own EB)
Or Brigham Young who took a unstable religious movement, established a chain of authority that continues to exist and lead the settlement of hundreds of thousands in the middle of the desert.
Or even Stalin who turned an outcast European backwater into a superpower.
Makes me wonder if it's more important to be the first person to start an organization or the follow-up leader.
I have a small question. The generation that lost 50,000 peers during Vietnam war is the same group most likely to die from COVId-19 and likely lose 50,000 more of their peers or is it the great generation that’s at risk?
Appreciate I'm a day late to the party, but... I've been putting together a blog on Roman Trees, and the results of my PhD and subsequent postdoc. Please, check it out, have a read, ask me any questions you can think of!