Friday links

Molon Labe! (wiki): August 9th is the anniversary of the battle of Thermopylae.

The Secret History of Washing Machines.

Why Do Some People Always Remember Their Dreams, While Others Almost Never Do?

Winston Churchill’s Greatest Jokes and Insults For The Modern Day. Related: 10 Insulting Words You Should Know and If Shakespearean Insults Were Used Today.

Europe’s Underwater Wine Cellars.

How Lizzie Borden Spent Her Life After Being Acquitted.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include the birthdays of Aldous Huxley and Milton Friedman, the economics of airport food, Beatrix Potter's botanical drawings, and protecting cows from predators by drawing eyes on their butts.

Wednesday links

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, me hearties! Instructions, translators, and the Dave Barry column that started it all.

The Great British Hedgehog Census.

Swirling your wine is not pretentious; it's just good physics. My favorite part is how the analysis of the physics became someone's PhD dissertation.

Hey, Firefly fans - tomorrow is Unification Day. 

MIT Researchers Develop Seamless Underwater-to-Air Communication System.

Found: A 1699 "Beard Tax" Coin That Stopped the Tsar’s Police From Shaving You.

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here, and include Great Britain's network of secret nuclear bunkers, the Night of the Flaming Ballerinas, the man who cut out his own appendix, inventing a longer-lasting popsicle, and, for Dr. Samuel Johnson's birthday, a selection of his excellent insults and Scotland-bashing quotes.

Monday links

February 5th is World Nutella Day - here's a canonical list of Nutella recipes.

The Physics of Sunsets.

NatGeo visits the coldest city on earth. 

This Feb. 5, 1865 photo of President Abraham Lincoln in Washington is the last one taken of him.

How did Robert E. Lee die? His earlobe may have the answer to that.

You Can (Probably) Still Drink the World’s Oldest Bottle of Wine.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and are all Groundhog Day and Super Bowl related: Groundhog Day, Candlemas and weather predictions, Punxsutawney Phil has been correct 39% of the time since 1887, how long Bill Murray was stuck in Groundhog Day (8 years? 34 years? hundreds of years?), Life magazine archive of photos from Super Bowl 1, football during WWII, when almost all able-bodied men joined the military (this led to a combined Steelers/Eagles team called the Steagles), and whether or not footballs were ever actually made of pigskin.

Monday links

"A woman drove me to drink, and I never even had the courtesy to thank her": It's W.C. Fields' birthday: quotes, a brief biography and film clips.

Goldman Sachs president's personal assistant stole $1.2 million worth of his boss's wine, then embarked on a world tour while the FBI tracked him. But who was he before?

The crimes that changed history.

Advice from ancient Greece: Need Your Livestock to Breed? Reach for the Spice Cabinet.

Visiting Niagara Falls in the early 19th Century.

Is music universal? The Norwegian group Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) is beaming binary-coded music at one potentially life-friendly exoplanet 12 light-years away. 

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include Australia Day, the science of why swearing reduces pain, that time the Soviet Union paid Pepsi in warships, and the anniversary of the Soviet Army liberation of Auschwitz.

Friday links

The 47 names Disney considered for the 7 dwarfs.

Happy Bastille Day! Here's an old Jonah Goldberg article on the subject: The French are Revolting.

Museum discovers three cases of Madeira wine from 1796 in cellar. The wine was stocked in anticipation of John Adams’ presidential election.

The 100 Greatest Props in Movie History, and the Stories Behind Them.

A history of the closet.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include how barbed wire changed the West, Nikola Tesla's birthday, the Japanese soldier who refused to surrender for 29 years, the history of the equals sign, and correlation is not causation: charts of weird things that correlate with each other.

Friday links

This 1983 episode of The Family Feud pitted the cast of Gilligan's Island vs the cast of Batman.

Jazz was America’s “Secret Sonic Weapon” Against Communism.

South Indian frog oozes molecule that inexplicably devastates flu viruses.

April 22 is Earth Day: here's the story of the co-founder who killed, then composted, his girlfriend.

The Science Behind Your Cheap Wine.

The Coffee Revolt of 1674: Women Campaigned to Prohibit “That Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor".

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here, and include the history of women pirates, the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed 80% of San Francisco, the 8 year long McDonald's Monopoly Fraud, and some history - T'was the eighteenth of April in seventy-five (the midnight ride of William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (and Paul Revere))

Roundup of recommendations for beer, wine and whiskey pairings to drink with Girl Scout cookies

It's Girl Scout cookie time again - I always associate them with the beginning of Lent, when I' m contemplating giving up chocolate. Below, by cookie type, are wine pairing recommendations from Wine Club Reviews and Ratings and beer pairing recommendations from Beer and Brewing. Further below, an infographic with suggested whiskey pairings:

Thin Mints

Wine: There are two types of Thin Mints made today, but both combine a wafer, chocolate, and peppermint flavoring. To truly experience the mint & chocolate combination, however, don’t reach for the milk – try a Syrah instead.

Beer: These dark and roasty stouts deliver a mouthfeel that pairs well with the crisp, minty crunch of the wafer cookie (especially if you keep your Thin Mints in the freezer). Consider yourself warned, though, as these beers range from 9—13 percent ABV and you’ll likely find yourself reaching for a second sleeve of cookies in record time.

Perennial Artisan Ales 17

Alesmith Speedway Stout

Shipyard Mint Chocolate Stout

Epic Big Bad Baptist

Hardywood Sidamo Coffee Stout

Samoas (Caramel deLites)

Wine: Banyuls is a red dessert wine from Southwestern France, which pairs amazingly with the dark chocolate stripes on Samoas. For a Plan B, pick up a Port.

Beers: Match the toasted coconut of these cookies with even more toasted coconut and the roasted caramel flavors in these beers:

Creature Comforts Koko Buni

Oskar Blues Death By Coconut

Bruery Mash & Coconut

Funky Buddha Last Snow

Wormtown Norm Chocolate Coconut Stout

Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties)

Wine: You’re going to see a trend here: when the cookie has chocolate, grab a bottle of red wine. Tagalongs are no different – find a fruity red wine such as Beaujolais or Zinfandel.

Beer: The vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter flavors from the Tagalongs sound like adjuncts in a stout. So grab these flavor-filled stouts to heighten the insanity of this pairing.

Off Color DinoS’mores
FiftyFifty Vanilla Eclipse
Prairie Artisan Ales Bomb!
Stone W00tstout
Terrapin Cinnamon Roll’d Wake-n-Bake 

Trefoils (Shortbread)

Wine: Light and refreshing, a Trefoil shortbread should be paired with Pinot Noir or even Sparkling wine if the mood is right.

Beer: Stick with tradition by pairing these classic cookies with traditional beer styles such as Baltic porter’s cheek-warming notes of dark fruits and coffee or a Scottish ale with notes of cocoa and coffee and a dash of smoke.

Smuttynose Baltic Porter

Founders Dirty Bastard

Jack’s Abby Framinghammer

Central Waters Brewer’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ale

Oskar Blues Old Chub

Lemonades

Wine: When snacking on these shortbread cookies with lemon-flavored icing, grab a buttery Chardonnay like the 2009 Cambria Chardonnay from Uncorked Ventures.

Beer: The shortbread texture of the cookies and lemon flavors in the icing make an excellent contrasting duo for these citrusy IPAs.

Ballast Point Sculpin

Night Shift Santilli

10 Barrel Joe

Neshaminy Creek Shape of Hops to Come

Against the Grain Rico Sauvin

Thanks-A-Lot

Wine: Shortbread dipped in rich fudge. It’s a tough one, as it combines the light shortbread with the chocolatey fudge, but try a Pinot Noir from Gold Medal Wine Club.

Beer: These shortbread cookies have had one side dunked in chocolate fudge. Keep the two-faced theme going by pairing with a contrasting beer such as these imperial IPAs:

Odell Myrcenary

Bell’s Hopslam

Firestone Walker Double Jack

Or reinforce the cookie flavors with the roasted goodness and creamy mouthfeel of these milk stouts:

Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout

4 Hands Chocolate Milk Stout

Savannah Smiles: 

Wine: These are a lemon-based cookie similar to the Lemonades but covered with powered sugar. Try a Pinot Grigio/Gris.

Beer: Push aside that lemon wedge you occasionally put in your beer and, if you must add a wedge, consider accenting your beer with the Savannah Smile instead. The lemon-flavored cookie wedges have been dusted with powdered sugar and pair well with these witbiers and bières de miel.

Allagash White

Westbrook White Thai

Jester King's Bière de Miel

Casey East Bank

Brasserie Dupont Bière De Miel Biologique 

Cranberry Citrus Crisps

Wine: Both sweet and tangy because of the cranberry, a good match for these would be a Viognier or the more popular Riesling.

Beer: Try these bières de garde for toffee notes and a subtle spice from farmhouse ale yeast that plays off nicely with the cranberry inundated cookies. Make sure to let these beers warm up a little for maximum intensity.

Lost Abbey Avante Garde

Two Brothers Domaine DuPage

Schlafly Bière de Garde

The Commons Bière De Garde

Hill Farmstead Bière De Norma

 By the way, Samoa fans, you can buy Samoa-flavored coffee creamer.

Maxine’s Tap Room in Fayetteville, Arkansas has whiskey and Girl Scout cookie pairings:

Beer and Brewing, source of most of the beer recommendations above, also has a roundup of pairing suggestions from around the intertubes: 

Suggestions from The Beer Chicks include these pairings:  

Caramel DeLites (aka Samoas) with Maui Brewing Co.’s CoCoNut PorTeR
Tagalongs with Wells & Young’s Brewing Company’s Banana Bread Beer
Thin Mints with Kiuchi Brewery’s Hitachino Nest Beer Espresso Stout
Trefoils with North Coast Brewing Co.’s Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout 

Central Track’s Melissa Mackaly suggested these pairings: 

Samoas with Founders Brewing Co.’s Dirty Bastard
Thin Mints with Great Divide Brewing Co.’s Yeti Imperial Stout
Do-Si-Dos with Founders Brewing Co.’s Imperial Stout 

Suggestions from the Brooklyn Brewshop include these pairings: 

Thin Mints with Bootlegger’s Brewery’s Mint Chocolate Porter
Tagalongs with Brooklyn Brew Shop’s own Peanut Butter Porter
Dulce de Leches with Revolution Brewing’s Mad Cow Milk Stout
Lemonades with Brooklyn Brewery’s Sorachi Ace 

And finally, Flying Dog Brewery includes the following pairings with its own beers:

Trefoils with Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout

Do-Si-Dos with Lucky SOB Irish Red Ale

Samoas with Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA

Tagalongs with Gonzo Imperial Porter

Thin Mints with Kujo Imperial Coffee Stout 

Monday links

Prohibition in the United States began on January 16, 1920: here's some history, contemporaneous newsreels, the women who tried to telepathically influence the vote, Abraham Lincoln and Milton Friedman.

How to Be a Lawyer Without Going to Law School.

For 15 Years, New Orleans Was Divided Into Three Separate Cities.

Jan. 15, 1919: Boston's 2.3 million gallon molasses flood kills 21 people.

No More than a Litre of Wine a Day, recommends a 1950s French Sobriety Poster.

Something new thing to worry about: sinus “fungus balls”.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky, the history of pickles, 1960 Russian ideas on life in 2017, how birds survive winter, and the Feast of the Ass.

Advice from 1658: How to Give Up Wine

A Warning-piece to All Drunkards (1682)

So, are the old ways always the best? I tend to think so, being a grandma. I don't know, offhand, whether any of my ex-alcoholic friends have tried the decomposing eel method, but it sounds as if it would be pretty effective. 

There are many who when they have drank much Wine, that is the worst thing in the world for them, fall sick, and die of it. Now if you would refrain, and abhor Wine and strong drink... let three or four live eels, put into the Wine, stay there till they die. Let one drink of this Wine, who is given to drunkenness, and he will loath Wine, and always hate it, and will never drink it again: or if he do, he will drink but little, and with much sobriety. Another way: wash a Tortois with Wine a good while, and give one of that wine to drink privately, half a cup full every morning for three days, and you shall see a wonderful vertue.

~ Giambattista della Porta, Natural Magick

Previous posts:

How to Prevent Pregnancy, c. 1260 (the weasel/scorpion method), plus other dubious medical advice.

Advice from 1380: How to Tell if Someone Is or Is Not Dead, with bonus Monty Python.

Via Ask The Past (blog)

Richard III is back in the news: he drank a bottle of wine per a day

A study of the teeth and bones of Richard III towards the end of his life suggests that he drank around a bottle of wine a day. 

The research, by the British Geological Survey and University of Leicester, revealed that the monarch described by Shakespeare as a "poisonous bunchback'd toad" enjoyed an extremely rich diet after ascending to the throne in 1483."We know he was banqueting a lot more, there was a lot of wine indicated at those banquets and tying all that together with the bone chemistry it looks like this feasting had quite an impact on his body in the last few years of his life," Angela Lamb, a University of Leicester geochemist, told the BBC.

The team carried out of isotope analysis of the samples to measure the levels of certain chemicals, such as strontium, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and lead, which can indicate the kind of foods a person ate.

The king's diet was far richer than that of even similarly high-ranking individuals for the period, said the team, whose findings were revealed last night in a new documentary, Richard III: The New Evidence, on Channel 4.

High alcohol consumption was, however, not unusual in the 15th century, when beer and wine were safer to drink than water. Such drinks also tended to be weaker than today.

Richard III, who was was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485, is far from the only English monarch to have enjoyed a tipple.

At Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII spent £3,000 (equivalent to £900,000) a year replenishing his cellar, while Queen Anne was nicknamed ‘dramshop’ for her gin consumption. Even prudish Queen Victoria enjoyed a claret – usually with a splash of malt whiskey in it, much to prime minister William Gladstone's disgust.

Via Telegraph, Daily Mail.