1. Johnny Cash in Thigh-High Boots, 1960s
Found on Pinterest.
2. Souvenirs from Getting Struck by Lighting
They said it looked “like you threw a cannonball” through his cowboy hat. The story of how Jaime Santana was truck by lighting — and survived — is a fascinating read, from the moment he was thrown off his horse to the instant he realised his cellphone had melted onto his pants.
“Only by piecing together the bystander reports, the singed clothing and the burnt skin can survivors start to construct their own picture of the possible trajectory of the electrical current,” it explains, “one that can approach 200 million volts and travel at one-third of the speed of light.” An eye-opening tale about a subject seldom reported on.
Found on Mosaic Science.
3. Quilting the Solar System in 1876
Quilt, Solar System. 1983.0618.01.
Made by Ellen Harding Baker, a passionate astronomist in Iowa who actually used it to teach in lectures.
Photograph of Ellen Harding, maker of quilt 1983.0618.001.
Found on Pinterest.
4. All the Planes Above Us Right Now
Flight Radar 24 has a website that tracks all the planes in sky (which make for a kind of ghost-shadow of Earth’s continents). Here’s how busy the world was on Friday, December 1st 2017:
Found on Instagram.
5. Brassaï in…New York!
In 1957, the photographer synonymous with hazy, after-dark Paris went to New York. The places may be different, but the spirit of his slightly voyeuristic, dreamy-gritty style remains the same.
Found on Pinterest.
6. The L train station, New York, 1964
By Evelyn Hofer, found on Artnet. A reader suggests this is in fact pre-1950, possibly Fulton Station of 3rd Ave El.
7. Joe Reginella’s Memorial Statues Mark Fictional Disasters in NYC
New York sculptor Joe Reginella has fooled countless tourists with his statues scattered across the city, marking events that never actually happened. From a Staten Island Ferry encounter with an octopus to a New York Harbor UFO encounter.
Found on Hi Fructose.
8. A Soviet-Era museum in Kyrgyzstan, built into the side of a mountain containing over 33,000 Archeological artifacts.
The Museum Complex Sulayman is very James Bond villain-esque.
Found on the Evil Buildings Blog.
9. Ty Hyll the ‘Ugly House’
Looks like we just found our dream fall afternoon in north Wales, by a cottage swallowed in ivy and a magical little tea room. It’s “a 15th-century grade II listed building in the Community of Trefriw, in the county of Conwy,” according to its website (that for some reason dubs it “the Ugly House”).”
The Tea Room
Found on Facebook.
10. Cookie Baking in the Middle Ages Was Serious Business
These ye olde molds show that cookie and cake baking was quite an artistic feat back in the day. It looks like your ginger biscuit could be everything from lovers intertwined, to an elaborate allegory for scent or taste:
Ginger Bread Mold with Lovers, 15th Century
Allegory for Taste, 16th Century
Allegory of Scent, 16th Century.
Found on Medieval & Renaissance Material Culture.
11. An American Socialite Herding Men with a Bullwhip at Her Ball
We love seeing Brenda Frazier, one of the 20th century’s premiere socialites, leading a train of men with a bull-whip for her debutante ball at the Waldorf in 1938.
Found on Pinterest.
12. Married in the Parachute That Saved Her Husband’s Life
“Ruth Hensinger was married on this day in 1947, wearing a dress made from the nylon parachute that saved her husband’s life. Maj. Claude Hensinger, a B-29 pilot, was returning from a raid over Japan in August 1944 when his engine caught fire. When he proposed to Ruth after the war, he offered her the material from the parachute that saved him.”
Found on Smithsonian’s Instagram.
