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Category / Conversation Starters

Secretly Documenting the Intimate World of 19th Century Sex Workers

No one knew that William Goldman led a double life. A model citizen and well-respected photographer in Reading, Pennsylvania at the turn of the century, he became treasurer of the State Photographers’ Association and was a valued member of numerous social organisations. It wasn’t until nearly 80 years after his death that his vast collection of…

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…

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…

The X-Rated Paris Grave

In Paris’ city of the dead, where winding cobblestone pathways have their own street signs, graves look like small gothic houses and the likes of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde have been laid to rest, there is one grave amongst the maze of tombs in Père Lachaise cemetery that’s not quite like the others. And apparently,…

Inside the Airtight Time Capsule Room Sealed in 1940, to Open in Six-Thousand Years

With all the Marty McFly “Back to the Future” fever that’s taken over the internet recently, taking a look inside the mother of all time capsules is probably the perfect way to finish up the week. The “Crypt of Civilization”, is an airtight room at Oglethorpe University in Georgia, USA, that was sealed up in 1940, containing a wealth…

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…

These Vending Machines for Stray Animals Should Be in Every City Around the World

Animal lovers gather round! Some very clever folks in Istanbul have created a vending machine that releases food and water for the city’s stray dogs in exchange for recycled plastic bottles. I couldn’t help but share this in the hopes that they get a little buzz to help spread the word. Take a look at how it works…

The Underground World of Tunnels Beneath Disney

I don’t know why I didn’t figure this out when I was a kid. Did I really believe Mickey and Minnie were taking their lunch break in the backstage shadows of the rides? Of course there was a vast network of secret underground tunnels! This is Disney we’re talking about after all… So here’s a fun fact…

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…

Vintage Japanese Advertising Could Sell Us Anything

The foamiest men’s shampoo to make bath-time oodles more fun? The latest must-have make-up for your back? Whatever they were selling, we would’ve been buying. If you were in post-WWII Japan, your eyeballs had the luck of watching the advertising world grow brighter, hipper, and (especially in the ’80s) weirder. From the surreal visuals and zany…

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