Preserved Moments of Historical Sass (Vol.4)

sassy: adjective \ˈsa-sē\ impudent, lively, spirited, vigorous, distinctively smart and stylish, showing no respect for people in authority, saucy, pert, confident, chic. Students from five states smile through the gate of Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, March 1939. Photograph by Anthony Stewart from National Geographic Two Couples in Bathing Outfits c.1934 from Letters of Vintage …

The Chained Books of Zutphen

A spot of ‘book p0rn’ for you on this fine Friday, which takes us to the 16th-century chained library of Zutphen, in the east of the Netherlands. Photos by Eric Wakkel No need for a library card here, the Zutphen hasn’t updated its system for more than 550 years! Each book is fitted with a metal…

The Reclusive Peeping Tom Photographer and his Cardboard Camera

Charming eccentric or tolerated local boogyman? The townspeople of Kyjov in Czech Republic could never quite decide. Miroslav Tichý took nearly a hundred photographs a day with his homemade camera, wandering around the streets of his hometown, often spotted at bus stops, the main square, the park and the swimming pool, although he was frequently arrested…

5 Medieval-style ‘Game of Thrones’ Restaurants in Europe

Fan of the show or not, I thought you might enjoy some of my picks for a medieval style feast in Europe… 1. The Medieval Taverns of Prague Prague is pretty much your go-to European city for medieval-style taverns. The dining room pictured above is literally called Medieval Tavern, located in the heart of the…

The Guy Who Digs up Lost Cities Buried at Sea

For the last thirteen years, he’s been busy digging up a lost underwater civilization the size of Paris off the coast of Egypt. The remarkably well-preserved ruins that were discovered have been sitting at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea for the past 1,200 years, at long last solving the mystery of the lost city of…

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

1. Weird Weather Not a sideways twister but a roll cloud. These rare long clouds may form near advancing cold fronts. In particular, a downdraft from an advancing storm front can cause moist warm air to rise, cool below its dew point, and so form a cloud. When this happens uniformly along an extended front, a roll cloud may form. Roll…

Reviving the Abandoned ‘Life of Pi’ Art Deco Pool in Paris

If you ever got around to watching Life of Pi you might recall the hero of the film, a young Indian boy living in French colonial India, was ironically named ‘Piscine Molitor Patel’, after a historic 1920s Art Deco swimming pool (piscine) right here in Paris … At the start of the film, our lead character “Pi”, short…

New York in Color, 1939 (like it was just yesterday)

It’s amazing how history can feel so much more real and alive when it’s in color rather than black and white. This footage of New York in 1939 comes from the Romano archives which has an extensive collection of unpublished historical footage from the 1930s and 40s in color available on their Youtube channel– worth…

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Abandoned Land of Oz

When I was a kid, I was cast as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz for my school musical. I was a very serious ten year-old and so I took the role very seriously. Another student had been cast as Dorothy’s pet dog, “Toto”, and stood next to me the entire time on stage wearing…

That Time Someone Found a Ferrari Buried in Their Front yard

In February, 1978, a Dino 246 GTS was discovered by a group of kids digging in the front yard of their home in Los Angeles. After much speculation and media attention with very few leads, it was eventually concluded that the car, which had been declared stolen four years prior by its owners, had been buried…