Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
We did it team. We’ve made it to the last digest of 2020. Its been a helluva year. Just… in so many ways. Wherever you are, I hope you are having a happy, healthy end to the year. May the new year be brighter, filled with fun, happiness, and the best weekly digest I put together in my spare time. Enjoy all the great history threads, and don’t forget to offer some thanks to the amazing contributors who put in so much work.
I’m terribly sorry for the long wait today, but tis a holiday weekened and apparently family is all like “We want to see you. What is this reddit thing anyway?” You know what they say. Might be late, but always worth the wait.
Get some good reading suggestions or ask for specific ones in the Thursday Reading and Rec thread.
Join the party in the Friday Free For All!
We have a pretty good number of META threads, so buckle in. We start off small with Meta question on "place holder" answers.
A particularly interesting one was Why are certain scholarly history books SO prohibitively expensive?
And finally, was there any better way to spend Boxing Day then with the giant Can there please be some flair added to a title when a question is answered?
And thus we come to a close. Not just for the week, but for 2020. I’ll be back in action next Sunday and I’ll see you in the New Year! Keep it classy out there!
I also like to take a moment each week shouting out some of the unanswered questions that caught my eye and interest, but still hope for the attention of an expert. Hopefully they will inspire your question asking or help you take the plunge into writing some responses.
/u/Zeuvembie asked How Did Gingerbread Become Xmas Food?
And also asked Was Food A Major Medium For Medieval Art?
/u/OccasionalBassist asked Why did Basil the Copper Hand rebel against the Byzantine Emperor, and what were the conditions of the Empire that led to so many people following him?
Welcome back to another installment of "The Real Questions", where we take a look at the wilder side of /r/AskHistorians! Here, I shout out some of the unique, oddly specific, atypical, amusingly phrased, or otherwise interesting questions of the week, the ones that make me say "Finally, someone is asking the real questions."
Look at me, actually on time this week. What a concept!
Below are my entries for this week - questions with a ‡ have a link to an older thread. What do you think were the realest questions? And be sure to check out my full list of Real Questions.
I didn’t even realize I wanted to know that when I watched the movie, and the answer was also insightful! Thanks for educating me on if Steve could fly the plane in Wonder Woman 84!
Credit for the question to u/kawhi_leonard_
Credit for the answer to u/cessna120
Edit: Pinged for credit for the question and answer! Also added question context!