I FOUND THE PHOTO OF WHEN THE BURGER KING CLOWN CAUGHT MY HAIR ON FIRE AT MY FOURTH BIRTHDAY, I FINALLY

I finished my Rome book and have now begun one about Pompeii. I’m 65 pages in and I already love it: yes, it covers the volcano, but most of the book is about “this is what the town and daily life of it would have been like, actually.” Fascinating stuff. Things I’ve learned so far:

- The streets in Pompeii have sidewalks sometimes a meter higher than the road, with stepping stones to hop across as “crosswalks.” I’d seen some photos before. The book points out that, duh, Pompeii had no underground drainage, was built on a fairly steep incline, and the roads were more or less drainage systems and water channels in the rain.

- Unlike today, where “dining out” is expensive and considered wasteful on a budget, most people in Pompeii straight up didn’t have kitchens. You had to eat out if you were poor; only the wealthy could afford to eat at home.

- Most importantly, and I can’t believe in all the pop culture of Pompeii this had never clicked for me: Pompeii had a population between 6-35,000 people. Perhaps 2,000 died in the volcano. Contemporary sources talk about the bay being full of fleeing ships. Most people got the hell out when the eruption started. The number who died are still a lot, and it’s still gruesome and morbid, but it’s not “an entire town and everyone in it.” This also makes it difficult for archeologists, apparently (and logically): those who remained weren’t acting “normally,” they were sheltering or fleeing a volcano. One famous example is a wealthy woman covered in jewelry found in the bedroom in the glaridator barracks. Scandal! She must have been having an affair and had it immortalized in ash! The book points out that 17 other people and several dogs were also crowded in that one small room: far more likely, they were all trying to shelter together. Another example: Houses are weirdly devoid of furniture, and archeologists find objects in odd places. (Gardening supplies in a formal dining room, for example.) But then you remember that there were several hours of people evacuating, packing their belongings, loading up carts and getting out… maybe the gardening supplies were brought to the dining room to be packed and abandoned, instead of some deeper esoteric meaning. The book argues that this all makes it much harder to get an accurate read on normal life in a Roman town, because while Pompeii is a brilliant snapshot, it’s actually a snapshot of a town undergoing major evacuation and disaster, not an average day.

- Oh, another great one. Outside of a random laundry place in Pompeii, someone painted a mural with two scenes. One of them referenced Virgil’s Aeneid. Underneath that scene, someone graffiti’d a reference to a famous line from that play, except tweaked it to be about laundry. This is really cool, the book points out, because it implies that a) literacy and education was high enough that one could paint a reference and have it recognized, and b) that someone else could recognize it and make a dumb play on words about it and c) the whole thing, again, means that there’s a certain amount of literacy and familiarity with “Roman pop culture” even among fairly normal people at the time.

i do want to fight g!d, but in a way that’s like. play wrestling with a favorite uncle that’s gotten just slightly unhinged on your part bc he can see you’re pretty stressed and gave you license to go a little apeshit cos he knows he can handle it. im aware this is bizarrely specific but it’s How I Feel.

I met an Aaron Burr on Shamchat and it was an excellent conversation.

Fantasy Guide to Addressing Nobility

It can be hard to remember how to properly address your noble or royal characters when writing a fantasy court. Here is a quick guide:

1. King/Queen:

Usually addressed as either “Your Grace” or “Your Majesty”. Consort (married to a ruler and not reigning in their own right) can be addressed the same. Sire or Madam can be used also.

2. Prince/Princess:

They are addressed as “Your Highness”. They are NEVER addressed the same as a King or Queen

3. Duke/Duchess:

These are addressed with “Your Grace”. This was a common term also used by royalty before Henry VIII got to big for his codpiece.

4. Earl (Count)/Countess:

Are almost never referred as the “Earl of Narnia” but “Lord Narnia”.

5. Lord/Lady:

An easy one. They are called “My Lord” or “My Lady”.

6. Emperor/Empress:

These may be equal to a King/Queen for status but the have a grander title. They are only addressed as “Your Imperial Highness/Majesty”

I hope this helps when writing your court or fantasy novel.

These were the doodles I did in college in my history classes.

As in like what was the default thing you would draw on the margins when you were in class and had no creative ideas? Personally I was a wings and eyes kid. Usually wings though.

Please reblog to increase the sample size!

Love ABBA's insinuation that Bonaparte fell in love with Wellington

Menachem Bluming Muses: How to Explain Death to Children After Grandpa’s Passing

Remember when your little brother was born? After being in your mother’s tummy for such a long time, he finally came out to be with you and the family. How exciting. You’d been waiting for so long to meet him and play with him, and then he finally arrived.

Your baby brother was very comfortable inside mummy’s tummy, where it’s warm and he had everything he needed. But he couldn’t stay there forever.  When it was time, he came out to be with you.

In a strange way, death is similar to birth. We leave the world we know and enter the great unknown world outside.  All the people who have passed away are in that peaceful and happy place. Just as you were waiting for your brother to come and be with you, the souls of past generations were waiting for your grandfather to join them. Now they are all together. We miss them. But there’s nothing to be scared of.

Remember you used to talk to your baby brother, even before he was born? He heard you, though he couldn’t answer and you couldn’t see him. You can talk to your grandfather too. And you can send him a present. Every time you do something good, listen to your parents, do a mitzvah, give charity, learn Torah, think how proud your grandfather would be. At that moment, his soul in heaven gets a good feeling, a gift from you.

Just like he smiled every time you visited him, his soul smiles every time you think: “Grandpa would love seeing me do this."  So keep on making him proud.

Mendel (Menachem) Bluming Based on Rabbi Aaron

The pair wakes up and assesses the situation at hand, and enjoy (or don’t) a yummy meal, worrying about what was to come.

The Tatler, England, October 2, 1907

Overdress of a woman’s robe à l’anglaise English dress of Indian export chintz Painted and resist-dyed cotton tabby Centimetres: 118.5 (width) circa 1780