Valentines Day stuff! Also, BRAND NEW EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY MEME!

[beboots]

 Good evening, everyone! Happy Valentines day, for those of you who celebrate it!

First, a brief link recommendation. If you've never heard of Postsecrets, you should definitely check them out: essentially, people send in anonymous postcards with their secrets on them. Some are sad, some are quirky, some are touching, and all are absolutely awesome

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[beboots]

Have you ever heard of the War of Jenkins' Ear? I actually don't know much about it (it's notorious, though). Essentially, the British were just WAITING for an excuse to go to war with Spain in the early 18th century, and when a merchant sailor named Jenkins reported being boarded by some Spaniards and having part of his ear cut off (not even the entire thing! Like the bottom lobe) he brought it up with parliament and THERE YOU HAD IT. Even contemporaries thought that he was whiny, though, apparently. ;)

Hmm... that was short... how about a few more?

The Blackfoot and the Cree of the North American plains are considered traditional enemies. Apparently they still get in bar fights today. Ask each side how it began and you will get different stories. Not knowing any Blackfoot personally, I only have the story that a Cree friend of mine told me. Apparently it's recent enough in that it involved some horses; horses made their way up to the Canadian plains from some escaped Spanish horses from the South and were pretty available by the 1730s/1740s up here, even before any white folks came from Eastern Canada. I'm told that it involved a lot of horse theft: like, one specific clever Cree guy going out and stealing like EVERY HORSE this one Blackfoot chief ever had. Some chiefs could accumulate herds of a hundred or more horses; it's easy to graze them on the plains, as long as you winter them near the foothills of the mountains. This Cree man was VERY persistent. ;)