Today I learned, quite by chance, that Dilly Knox (classics scholar and cryptographer who worked on the Enigma code) was Penelope Fitzgerald's uncle. Small world.

British-made zippers bore the brand name Lightning, which had to be carefully ground off the metal pulls with a dentist’s drill.

Clothing Britain's Spies During World War II
https://daily.jstor.org/clothing-britains-spies-wwii/

Rediscovering a Founding Mother - an article about Julia (and Benjamin) Rush
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rediscovering-founding-mother-180970037

(via Twitter)

Ready For A Linguistic Controversy? Say 'Mmhmm'

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/08/17/606002607/ready-for-a-linguistic-controversy-say-mhmm

Once upon a time, English speakers didn't say "mmhmm." But ( Read more... )

Romans had whaling industry, archaeological excavation suggests
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/11/romans-had-whale-industry-archeological-excavation-suggests

(I mean. Was I not going to quote from Twelfth Night? That seems unlikely.)

Putting this in the "cross-dressing" tag, although Twitter (where I found the link) reminds me that the assumption that all such figures found in the archives must have been cross-dressed women does erase the possible presence of trans men:

‘A poor wench in man’s clothes ( Read more... )

From the British Library Medieval Manuscripts blog:

http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/10/an-african-abbot-in-anglo-saxon-england.html

History is so much more interesting than we often give it credit for...

The power of angels - a charm against the plague
http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2015/01/charm-against-the-plague/

So I've been watching the Pepys diary feed a little more closely lately because Pepys is basically wracked with jealousy that his wife might be having an affair with the dancing master who has been coming to their house. (His reasoning is basically, "well, I would, with a woman, so how can I believe that she wouldn't?" The thing is, he knows that ( Read more... )

The story behind a Rembrandt painting's journey from a New Jersey basement to the Getty
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-getty-rembrandt-20160505-snap-htmlstory.html

(link via Twitter.)