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Category / Editor’s Picks

Twisted Love Affairs of the “Lost Generation” of English Eccentrics

We’ve all heard of Hemingway and his band of literati’s and artistes that shook up Parisian society throughout the 1920’s, whom we nostalgically call the “Lost Generation”. Lesser-known to us however, is the “Bloomsbury Group”, a collection of talented bohemians across the channel who were pioneers of their time in British art and literature and openly rejected…

Men Wore Corsets, History Says

Pink for girls, blue for boys. Heels for women, flats for men. Corsets for ladies, burly silhouettes for gents? Turn back the clock and you’ll find history is full of contradictions. In fact, until the 20th century, pink was a boy’s colour, high heels were invented for men and yes, they also wore corsets. The…

The Real Jessica Rabbit

What I remember most about Jessica Rabbit is how she was always wearing that provocative red dress, cut oh so inappropriately low at the back, even just to run around town. Meet the real-life Jessica Rabbit, Miss Vikki Dougan, the 1950s ‘It girl’ who inspired the iconic cartoon sex bomb… Photographs by Ralph Crane for…

Lulu White and her Belle Epoque Mansion of Interracial Sex Work

In New Orleans, stories seem to seep out of the soggy ground. Something about the heady mix of influences– African, Caribbean, Native American and French – against a landscape of backwaters and bayous creates a culture of permissiveness where characters invent the most outlandish versions of themselves in ways that would be dismissed as implausible…

Life Inside a Genie’s Lamp, in Brooklyn

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who furnish, and those who decorate. “My apartment is something that has evolved over time,” says New York City interior decorator Sean McNanney, “Ultimately my main inspiration is an Upper East Side classic six transported to Wes Anderson’s take on Old Constantinople – if that…

A Decade before the World had the Internet, France was Online & Hooked on Minitel

When the world wide web entered our homes in the mid 90s, the French must have been feeling a distinct sense of dejá vu. After all, anyone in France with a telephone had been online an entire decade before the internet came along. From 1978 to 2012, there was Minitel, one of the most successful pre-World…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 652)

1. The U.S. Is Giving Away Lighthouses for Free Each year, the US General Services Administration auctions off lighthouses to the public. This year, the General Services Administration (GSA) will give away six of the historic beacons, including the Warwick Neck Light, at no cost. An additional four will be sold via public auction. The…

So How Did a Company Selling Rubber Tires Become the World’s Authority on Restaurants?

It actually makes a lot of sense. It’s also genius marketing. But really, how did the world’s most talented chefs and esteemed restaurants and come to be so concerned with the approval (and stars) of a company that sold rubber tires? Let’s go back to the very first issue that Michelin published in 1900. At that time…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCLV)

1. Backstage at the Folies-Bergères Found on Pinterest. 2. Marital Duels In medieval Germany, married couples could legally settle their disputes by fighting a Marital Duel. To even the field, the man had to fight from inside a hole with one arm tied behind his back. The woman was free to move and was armed…

Meet the Hollywood Bombshell Who Invented the Basis for Modern WIFI

If this beautiful Hollywood starlet looks a little bored or unimpressed while posing in her rather ridiculous glitzy get-up, it’s because she probably was; her mind elsewhere– for instance, oh say … masterminding the breakthrough technology that would bring us the basis for modern-day WiFi and Bluetooth. Hedy Lamarr was voted the most desirable pin-up girl during World War…

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