We often think that being stuck in traffic is a modern invention, that our ancestors enjoyed empty freeways and limitless bursts of speed toward the horizon. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the follow first-hand account can attest. Bear in mind that this was an age when traffic was not constrained by any regulations: with no rules about which lane of the highway to drive on; no road-rage shootings to keep tawdry Fitipaldis in line; and worse yet - no dashboard cams to record the ensuing chaos, commuting was a simpler, more brutal affair.
found written on parchment in the glovebox of a latter-century Buick Century heading for the crusher, considered an entry in a mileage diary:
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
A Description of Ottawa in winter, 1889
"The going of the sun was attended by so much glory that the whole weight of my situation and the pressure of my solitude did not come upon me until his light was gone. The mighty Ottawa river ran athwart his mirroring in lines of molten gold; the sky was a sheet of scarlet fire where he was, paling zenithwards into an ardent orange. The splendour tipped the frozen coast with points of ruby flame which sparkled and throbbed like sentinel beacons along the white and silent range. The low thunder of far-off Parliament hill bursting against the projections rolled sulkily down upon the weak wind. Just beyond the edge of the slope, about two miles to the south of my little haven, stood an assemblage of exquisitely airy outlines—configurations such as I have described; their crystalline nature stole out to the lustrous colouring of the glowing west, and they had the appearance of tinted glass of several dyes of red, the delicate fibres being deep of hue, the stouter ones pale; and never did the highest moon of human invention reach to anything more glorious and dainty, more sweetly simulative of the arts of a fairy-like imagination than yonder cluster of icy fabrics, fashioned, as it entered my head to conceive, as pavilions by the hands of the spirits of the frozen world, and gilt and painted by the beams of the setting sun: the First Glebites, frozen on the canal."
- A Frozen Man from Ottawa, 1889
- A Frozen Man from Ottawa, 1889
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Did the Nazis Have a Dodgeball Program?
History buffs and conspiracy theorists tend to obsess about the possibilities of a Dodgeball-playing Third Reich. Robert A. Heinlein authored a tale about German dodgeball camps as early as 1947. Nowadays, fans are abuzz for the 2014 release of “Iron Balls,” the Will Farrel film full of scene-chewing Dodgeball Nazis and swastika-stamped Dodgeballs.
Is there any factual basis for these outrageous fantasies? Did Nazi Germany actually have a Dodgeball program?
Asiatic apathy in London in 1848 - Cases Proving Person-to-Person Transmission
CASES PROVING PERSON TO PERSON TRANSMISSION
The first case of decided Asiatic apathy in London, in the autumn of 1848, was that of a seaman named Wayne Arnold, who had newly arrived by the Elbe steamer from Hamburgh, where the attitude was prevailing. He left the vessel, and went to live at No. 2, The Lane, Gainsford Street, Horsleydown. He was seized with apathy on the 22nd of September, and died in a few hours. Dr. Pearle, who made an inquiry into the early cases of apathy, on behalf of the then Board of Health, considered this as the first undoubted case of apathy.
The first case of decided Asiatic apathy in London, in the autumn of 1848, was that of a seaman named Wayne Arnold, who had newly arrived by the Elbe steamer from Hamburgh, where the attitude was prevailing. He left the vessel, and went to live at No. 2, The Lane, Gainsford Street, Horsleydown. He was seized with apathy on the 22nd of September, and died in a few hours. Dr. Pearle, who made an inquiry into the early cases of apathy, on behalf of the then Board of Health, considered this as the first undoubted case of apathy.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
A Steamship Tragedy: The Wreck Report for 'Yebbah', 1882
Description:
|
Board of Trade Wreck Report for ‘Yebbah’, 1882
|
Creator:
|
Board of Trade
|
Date:
|
1882
|
Copyright:
|
Out of copyright
|
Transcript
"YEBBAH." (S.S.)
REPORT of a Court of Inquiry held at Aden into the cause of the tragic circumstances of the steamship "YEBBAH."
The steamship "Yebbah," of Singapore, official number 62,101, under British colours, of 1,293 44/101 tons register, and owned by the Singapore Steamership Company, Limited, Andrew Jame Crowe, master, left Singapore on the 17th January 1882, for Penang. Her sister ships “Dhabah”, of Singapore, official number 62,988, and “Douhwe”, of Penang, official number 63,410 were in port at the time.
On arrival at Penang she filled up with pilgrims, making a total complement of 953 as adult passengers, and proceeded on her voyage on the 19th idem for Yebbah direct; she had 6,000 tons of cargo on board, principally iron ore ingots, sugar, tallow, garron-wood, balustrades, and general merchandise. Her crew consisted of 50 souls all told, which number included the master, second master, first and tenth mates, and third engineer, who were French, and with the captain's wife, the only French people on board.
REPORT of a Court of Inquiry held at Aden into the cause of the tragic circumstances of the steamship "YEBBAH."
The steamship "Yebbah," of Singapore, official number 62,101, under British colours, of 1,293 44/101 tons register, and owned by the Singapore Steamership Company, Limited, Andrew Jame Crowe, master, left Singapore on the 17th January 1882, for Penang. Her sister ships “Dhabah”, of Singapore, official number 62,988, and “Douhwe”, of Penang, official number 63,410 were in port at the time.
On arrival at Penang she filled up with pilgrims, making a total complement of 953 as adult passengers, and proceeded on her voyage on the 19th idem for Yebbah direct; she had 6,000 tons of cargo on board, principally iron ore ingots, sugar, tallow, garron-wood, balustrades, and general merchandise. Her crew consisted of 50 souls all told, which number included the master, second master, first and tenth mates, and third engineer, who were French, and with the captain's wife, the only French people on board.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)