100 Years Of Fashion In Three Minutes

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

The History Behind Game Of Thrones

"Beginning around 1377, medieval England was shaken by a power struggle between two noble families, which spanned generations and involved a massive cast of characters, complex motives and shifting loyalties. Sound familiar? Alex Gendler illustrates how the historical conflict known as the Wars of the Roses served as the basis for much of the drama in Game of Thrones." Some commenters on YouTube are wailing that they've been spoiled. By history.

Teach The Children About Hammertime

I actually do remember JFK's assassination rather vividly and I was only four years old. Source.

The Jesus Myth

John Blake writes for CNN:

Those who argue against Jesus’ existence make some of these points: 1) The uncanny parallels between pagan stories in the ancient world and the stories of Jesus. 2) No credible sources outside the Bible say Jesus existed. 3) The Apostle Paul never referred to a historical Jesus. Price, author of “Deconstructing Jesus,” says the first-century Western world was full of stories of a martyred hero who is called a son of God. “There are ancient novels from that period where the hero is condemned to the cross and even crucified, but he escapes and survives it,” Price says. “That looks like Jesus.”

Those who argue for the existence of Jesus often cite two external biblical sources: the Jewish historian Josephus who wrote about Jesus at the end of the first century and the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote about Jesus at the start of the second century. But some scholars say Josephus’ passage was tampered with by later Christian authors. And Price says the two historians are not credible on Jesus. “Josephus and Tacitus – they both thought Hercules was a true figure,” Price says. “Both of them spoke of Hercules as a figure that existed.”

Read the full article.

Historically Hung

It's the oldest art yet found in this hemisphere:

A stick figure man with a giant phallus dubbed "the little horny man" by its discoverers is the oldest rock carving found yet in the Americas, researchers say. These findings might shed new light on when the New World was first settled, scientists added. "The figure is probably linked to some kind of fertility ritual," Neves told LiveScience. "There is another site in the same region where you find paintings with men with oversized phalluses, and also pregnant women, and even a parturition (childbirth) scene." Carbon dating and other tests of the sediment covering the petroglyph suggest the engraving dates between 9,000 and 12,000 years old. This makes it the oldest reliably dated instance of such rock art found yet in the Americas.

(Tipped by JMG reader Casey)

Quote Of The Day - Jack Layton

"Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change.

"In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done. My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." - Canadian progressive Jack Layton, in a posthumously published letter to his countrymen.

Read Layton's full letter.

RELATED: My obituary post on Layton is here.

Rick Santorum Defends The Crusades

“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical. And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom. They hate Western civilization at the core. That's the problem." - Former Sen. Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum, who says that Christians have never persecuted Muslims.

Explaining UK, Great Britain, England, Etc

(Tipped by Rex Wockner)

Ten Centuries In Five Minutes

Today: Free Museum Day In NYC

From 6pm to 9pm today, all the museums along the Upper East Side's vaunted Museum Mile are offering free admission as part of the 31st Annual Museum Mile Festival.

One day a year, for the past 31 years, nine of the country's finest museums, all ones that call Fifth Avenue home, collectively open their doors from 6pm - 9pm for free to New Yorkers and visitors for a mile-long block party and visual art celebration. This traffic-free, music- and art-filled celebration fills the street and sidewalks of Fifth Avenue from 82nd to 105th street, the mile now officially designated as Museum Mile. Over 50,000 visitors attend the festival annually. This year's 31st annual festival kicks off at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum with an opening ceremony, at 5:45pm, on the steps of its landmark building on Fifth Avenue @ 89th Street.

Via Gothamist, the participating museums:

El Museo del Barrio; Museum of the City of New York; The Jewish Museum; Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution; National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Neue Galerie New York; Goethe-Institut/German Cultural Center; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About Van Gogh's Ear....

It looks like he didn't cut it off himself after all. Gauguin did it.

What is not disputed is that Van Gogh lost his ear when the two artists were living in the South of France in December 1888. The Dutch painter, who traveled to France after teaching himself to draw, was attempting to set up an artists' retreat. The two were known to fight about art. Van Gogh believed an artist should paint what he saw, while Gauguin painted according to his memory. But on this occasion, they were fighting over a prostitute named Rachel, outside the brothel where she worked, the book says.

Paul Gauguin cut off Van Gogh's ear, says Hans Kaufmann of Hamburg University. 'To get rid of Van Gogh, who was begging him to stay [in the south of France] Gauguin waved his weapon in the direction of the victim while they were in front of the house of ill repute. 'The left ear fell. We cannot say if it was deliberate or an accident. In this situation, the protagonists vowed to keep silent. Then Gauguin disappeared, abandoning his friend. 'The next day, the police questioned Gauguin. That's when he made up the theory about self-mutilation.'

RELATED: Here's Don Mclean's Vincent.

What Might Have Been

The 40th anniversary of the first moon landing is coming up and just released is President Richard Nixon's prepared statement had things ended in disaster. It reads in part:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace. These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice. These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

Once of my most vivid childhood memories is my parents struggling to keep my nine year-old eyes open to watch the landing live on television in the middle of the night. I don't think I had any idea just how dangerous an undertaking it was, I just wanting the space program speeded up so I could go bouncing in low gravity myself. I'd like a gift certificate, Mr. Branson.

Gotham's Newspapers Are Sold Out

I couldn't find a single local paper today to read over lunch. Every newsstand is completely wiped out and now I see that Towleroad is reporting that people are lined up around the block at the NY Times headquarters to get today's issue. I should have realized that today's papers would be collectors items. Even worse, I had to read USA Today over my Lenny's Combo #1.

Barack Obama, Our 44th President

There's A Lot Of Ruin In Metropotamia

I was cruising around Strange Maps and found this February post about Thomas Jefferson's rejected plan on dividing the Northwest Territory into ten states. Jefferson's names were rejected as "too silly." Some factoids about the never-were states:

• Sylvania would have covered much of present-day Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and some of northern Wisconsin.
• Michigania would have incorporated most of Wisconsin, but nothing of Michigan.
• Most of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula would have been the state of Chersonesus, which is simply the Greek word for ‘peninsula’.
• The northern part of modern-day Illinois would have been the state of Assenispia, after the Assenisipi River, also known as the Rock River.
• In between Assenispia and Pennsylvania would be the state of Metropotamia, a name referring to the many rivers originating there.
• The states of Illinoia, Saratoga and Washington would have incorporated large parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio respectively.
• Polypotamia (‘Land of Many Rivers’) and Pelisipia would have covered the western and eastern parts of Kentucky, mainly (and therefore are partially outside the Northwest Territory, as it is bounded to the south by the Ohio River, Kentucky’s northern border).

Assenispia. How the school kids would have loved that.

An Escort We Love

Mike Jones has placed his infamous "Ted Haggard Massage Table" up for auction on eBay, to benefit Denver's Project Angel Heart, which delivers meals to people with HIV/AIDS. Anybody want to own a piece of American political history? That massage table belongs in the Smithsonian. I love that Mike's eBay seller name is "escortmjones".
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President's Day

Happy President's Day, y'all. We all know who your most-disliked President is, but who's your favorite? I'm partial to Grover Cleveland, about whom I wrote term papers in two non-consecutive semesters. Cleveland famously hired a man to take his place in the Civil War, an action I defended in a middle-school civics class, as the Vietnam draft was taking the older brothers of my classmates.
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