I subscribe to Samuel Pepys’ diary. Every evening I get an installment that corresponds to the same day and date that he wrote, 353 years ago. And every once in awhile he writes an entry that is really notable. Such… Read More
Posthumous execution—executing someone for a crime even though the person is already dead—has long been a favored method of punishment. I guess it makes people feel better, if the perceived criminal died before being sufficiently punished for his crimes.
Vlad… Read More
I’m at a Starbucks right now, sipping my double-tall-extra-hot-nonfat-latte, and thinking about the history of coffee. It arrived in Europe during the seventeenth century.
What did people drink before then? Like in Shakespeare’s day? Not water, if they could help… Read More
“Paying through the nose” means you’ve paid too much. The origin of the expression may have come from 9th-century Danes living in Ireland, who slit the nostrils of people that did not pay their taxes.