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  • The Index Biography #18 May 31, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    The Index Biography #18

    ***Filip takes the prize for the second time in two months…*** The Index Biography is a new form of biography pioneered by this blog and introduced in a previous post. The writer must find a biography of a famous individual from history, they must turn to the index and write down eight peripheral facts about the […]

    Daily History Picture: Texan Massacre May 31, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Texan Massacre

    Or rather the Texans being massacred by the rather orderly looking Mexicans. Memories of the Alamo.

    D’Annunzio and PR May 30, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    D'Annunzio and PR

    Gabrielle d’Annunzio was one of the most ghastly men to have walked the earth and, yet, he was unquestionably a genius, ‘a talented shit’. He dominated Italy’s literary scene for a half a century and packed more into his lifetime than most of us would manage in ten: a random line from his biography ‘fell […]

    Daily History Picture: Angry Mosaic May 29, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Angry Mosaic

    Love the rage on this second century BC mosaic.

    The Poisoned Bowl and the 5000 Letters May 29, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite, Contemporary, Modern
    The Poisoned Bowl and the 5000 Letters

    Beach has not offered up a rogue researcher for some time: the last was mummy maker, Bob Brier, a year ago. Rogue researchers, for the uninitiated are those men and women, with doctorates, who do things that others in their discipline might consider eccentric. To call someone a ‘rogue researchers’ is a sign of the […]

    Daily History Picture: Miss Lovely Eyes May 28, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Miss Lovely Eyes

      Dates to 1930, the masks looks like something Hannibal Lecter would put on.  

    History Journals and Their Limits May 28, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite
    History Journals and Their Limits

    There is something rather sinister about Mike Dash’s latest history post. The problem is not the subject, which is fascinating, women poisoning men in seventeenth-century Italy. Nor is the style off-kilter: it is, as always, accessible and fun. The problem is, quite simply, its length. MD’s new essay runs to almost fifteen thousand words: Beach finished the […]

    Daily History Picture: Into Hell May 27, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Into Hell

    New arrivals brought on down…

    The Stone of Oo: High Weirdness from Southern France May 27, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval
    The Stone of Oo: High Weirdness from Southern France

    Oô in southern France has two things going for it. First, that name, I mean what…?! And second the pierre d’Oô one of the weirdest objects to emerge the last three or four thousand years of human endeavour: a sculpture of a lady and her pet. At this point, readers should take a moment and […]

    Daily History Picture: Mickey Mouse Club May 26, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Mickey Mouse Club

    When Mickey ruled: the 1930s.  

    Execution by Dogs? May 26, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Contemporary, Medieval, Modern
    Execution by Dogs?

    North Korea is a frequent source of joy for bizarrists: if not for the poor wretched put upon people who live there. For example, last month Beach wrote up the Indian custom of death by cannon, only to be trumped by Kim Jong-un who had just executed his minister of defence with an anti-aircraft gun. This got Beach […]

    Daily History Picture: WW1 Crater May 25, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: WW1 Crater

    This picture is from Messines, Flanders, 1917. A massive crater created by 19 British mines under German positions. ‘The Image Works’. The blast was allegedly heard in London: memories of the audible Somme bombardment.

    Contacting Mars in the Late Nineteenth Century May 25, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Contacting Mars in the Late Nineteenth Century

    In the nineteenth century humans noted a series of unusual lights from different planets and moons. In the very late nineteenth century some speculated that these lights might be attempts to contact the earth: we have previously looked at an example involving the moon and Charles Fort. This was particularly true with the sighting of […]

    Death by Bell Ringing May 24, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    Death by Bell Ringing

    In a moment of divine madness, a couple of years ago, Beach asked a question about knights and lightning: basically were sardine cans on horsebacks with long lances natural lightning rods? He has been inspired today to ask another lightning question. The following passage is taken from Wikipedia page on bell-ringers, one of Wiks less […]

    Daily History Picture: Family Murdered May 24, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Family Murdered

    Killing the brothers one by one: disturbing middle ages.