farallon-egg-wars
The Americas

Eggflation, Pt. 1: The Egg War of Early San Francisco

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Crude tent neighborhoods full of sweaty, tired miners multiplied, as did brothels and casinos, as the initial population boom included a staggering majority of men. Once an economy of hungry, tired, lonely men emerged, scores of people realized what — or who — the real goldmine was.

Case in point: One miner purportedly made a solid income when he came into possession of a women’s slipper, which he charged a lofty one dollar to his fellows for the simple privilege of touching it. That’s around $35 in today’s money.

Hand carved spoon hailing from Africa
Europe Origin Stories

Spoon Me Once: A Brief History of Spoons

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Much like the Language of Flowers and other courtship rituals of the past, there was an entire conversation hidden in your love spoon. For example, an anchor might symbolize settled love, while interlocking chains were pretty self-explanatory. A wheel could signify a willingness to work for your partner; a shield would offer protection. Balls in a cage could refer to love held safe or show a number of children. Arwyn, you dog!

Europe

Spices of Medieval Times: Seasonings Fit for a Ship-Wrecked King

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Summer, 1495. You’re Hans, King of Denmark and Norway, freshly anchored off the southern coast of Sweden for a little tête-à-tête with Sten Sture the Elder.

This isn’t a shake-hands-and-kiss-babies kind of diplomatic trip. You’re there because Sture, the “protector of the realm,” is trying to keep Sweden out of the Nordic union you’re supposed to be ruling over.

Frederic Edwin Church
Europe The Americas To The East

The Carrington Event: When the Sun Exploded

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“It was a sight never to be forgotten, and was considered at the time to be the greatest aurora recorded. The rationalist and pantheist saw nature in her most exquisite robes, recognising, the divine immanence, immutable law, cause, and effect. The superstitious and the fanatical had dire forebodings, and thought it a foreshadowing of Armageddon and final dissolution.”

Tipu's Tiger
Europe To The East

A Tiger Takes on Imperialism: Tipu Sultan vs Great Britain

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Tipu’s possessions, as well as anything associated with him, frequently had tiger stripes and tigers worked into the decoration. His throne? Jeweled gold tiger head finials. His coinage? Stamped with stripes. Swords and guns? Covered with tiger heads and stripes. Army mortars? Small bronze crouching tigers. Even the men who fired Tipu’s lethal rockets wore tunics woven with stripes.

Colonial Brewing
The Americas

Mistresses of Malt: When Brewing Belonged to Alewives Pt. 2

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Apache women also brewed up tulpi, another corn creation similar to Mexican pulque, used for girls’ puberty rites. Head further south and you might enjoy a cup of algoroba, a South American beer crafted from leguminous plants or asua, a crushed maize beer made by Quichua-speaking groups, or the Mayan balché. And to this day, women in Huacho Sin Pescado Peru make a mean chichi. 

Grainne Irish Pirate
Europe

Marauding and Misbehaving: Gráinne Mhaol, Pirate Queen

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When the English stripped Richard of the family lands he was set to inherit, Gráinne could have either A) started a rebellion or B) negotiated with the Crown. Surprisingly, Gráinne chose plan B. She parlayed with English representative Lord Deputy Henry Sidney in 1576, going so far as to offer him three galleys and two hundred fighting men. He didn’t take her up on the offer, but he did sail with her to inspect her coastal defenses of Galway. Gráinne made sure to bill him for her troubles. Sidney walked away with the impression that “This was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland.”