The first time I stumbled across a reference to the disease known as phthiriasis (pronounced “thuh-RY-uh-sis) I was reading Plutarch’s gleeful account of the death of the Roman tyrant Sulla.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138 – 78 BC), who had a… Read More
I had on an itchy wool sweater the other day that practically drove me bonkers. It got me thinking about how pious people in the Middle Ages wore hair shirts–usually a linen chemise lined on the inside with itchy, bristly… Read More
According to entomologist John Maunder, the move towards low-temperature detergents means more bugs can proliferate. Says Maunder, “If you wash lousy clothing at low temperatures, all you get is cleaner lice.”
Source: Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly… Read More
The word “honeymoon” probably originated from an old northern European custom in which newlyweds drank mead, made with fermented honey, every day for a month.