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  • Review: Seven Myths About Education June 29, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite
    Review: Seven Myths About Education

    There is a lovely story from a successful scholarship school in New York. When the head was asked how he had managed to keep standards so high at his institution, when other nearby schools had lost their edge, he replied that it was simple. Every time a new instruction from the Department of Educaton or […]

    Starving Duel in Idaho June 22, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Starving Duel in Idaho

    By the nineteenth century duels were falling out of fashion. The state typically prosecuted and even the girl (or very occasionally the boy) who were argued over resented the fact that blood was going to be spilt on their behalf. There came, then, an interesting rash of fighting duels without weapons: because there was some legal […]

    Burning Libraries: The Oregon Trail June 21, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Burning Libraries: The Oregon Trail

    The Oregon Trail is one of those endless low budget cowboy flicks that were trundled out in the 1930s: the original action films with moral certainty and moral scenery; oh and it also had John Wayne, one of seven cowboy movies he made in 1936. The IMBD database includes the following description. U.S. Army Captain John Delmont […]

    Last Meals of US Condemned June 10, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite, Contemporary, Modern
    Last Meals of US Condemned

    A book on the history of the last meal (including attempts to intoxicate the soon to be executed) would be a fascinating one. Not least is the rather poor taste in banning the custom in some states in the US, that seems an unnecessary act of spite to criminals living their difficult last hours. There […]

    Historical Barbies: Warning Shallow Post! May 29, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite, Ancient, Contemporary, Medieval, Modern, Prehistoric
    Historical Barbies: Warning Shallow Post!

    Barbie  is an American doll that has been marketed across the globe since 1959 and that was based on an earlier German ‘sexy’ doll Bild Lilli (another post, another day). Barbie was, of course, an instant success and continues to outsell all rivals – there is a Barbie doll purchased every three seconds somewhere in the world – […]

    Johnny Norton: Electric Boy! May 28, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Johnny Norton: Electric Boy!

    Electriticy proved endlessly fascinating to the general public in the second half of the nineteenth century. Take the electric boy, Johnny Norton. Johnny gave off constant electricity from his body, so much so that if you went up and shook his hand you would receive a shock. Nor was this just a spark after walking […]

    A Duel in the Middle of a Battle! May 22, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    A Duel in the Middle of a Battle!

    Du ***Thanks to Chris S for sending this story in*** Attentive readers may have noted that StrangeHistory has recently been indulging in duel stories.  Today’s duel comes from the American Civil War and involves a confederate and a union soldier. Of course, the first reaction to any such story is the sheer redundance of this […]

    Power and Ageing: Blair, Bush, Clinton, Obama and Thatcher May 10, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Power and Ageing: Blair, Bush, Clinton, Obama and Thatcher

    It is well known that power corrupts but what does power do for the ageing process? To judge by President Obama’s rapidly whiting hair (and kudos for not getting out the dye too often) then there is nothing more likely to make you old before your time than to be in charge of a major […]

    Love Goddess #9: Damian Hirst’s Madonna May 9, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite, Contemporary
    Love Goddess #9: Damian Hirst's Madonna

    ***Thanks to Invisible for sending this one in*** Damien Hirst, media-savvy horseman of the post modern art apocalypse and the Madonna, mother of Christ, eternal sweetness and light, whose breasts produce condensed milk for the faithful. What would happen should these two contrary forces come together? Well, there is no reason for speculation because in […]

    Image: Bloody Babs Says Goodbye to Tommy April 21, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Image: Bloody Babs Says Goodbye to Tommy

    Barbara Graham was executed by the State of California, June 3 1955, in the gas chamber at St Quentin: she had been found guilty of the murder of one Mabel Monahan, an elderly lady. There are some questions about her guilt. Perhaps we can lay this to rest, immediately, by noting that whether BG actually […]

    Flirty Fishing: Evangelical Prostitution April 19, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite, Contemporary
    Flirty Fishing: Evangelical Prostitution

    The Children of God were a rather silly American Christian group, born in 1968, that went, however, almost immediately off the rails, rode down the sidings and ended up chugging along in the blackest, grimiest ditches known to human experience. They specialized, for one, in unusual sexual practices. Some of these are too sordid to […]

    Britain and Pearl Harbor April 18, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Britain and Pearl Harbor

    The whole question of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has been mired for years in conspiracy theories. There are, naturally, huge problems with said conspiracy theories not least the motive of the American leadership in allowing the destruction of an important part of their Pacific Fleet; it is not as if Japan was being […]

    8000 Year Old Memories in Oregon? April 15, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Prehistoric
    8000 Year Old Memories in Oregon?

      ***Dedicated to Wade*** By happy chance I recently came across two different references to Crater Lake (Oregon). The most intriguing, given this blog’s longstanding coverage of oral transmission, is a memory (?) of the lake’s creation. Let’s start with the geology of the region: about 8000 years ago Mount Mazma erupted and created a […]

    The American Civil War: An Exceptionally Nice Conflict? April 10, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The American Civil War: An Exceptionally Nice Conflict?

    The American Civil War was a grim event: of this there should be no question. Perahps 400 thousand young men were killed, who would have contributed to the future of their country/countries. There was lasting bitterness, particularly in the South, where even today there are debates about Confederate Flags and northern culpability. For an outsider, […]

    Declaring War in WW2: National Styles March 23, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Declaring War in WW2: National Styles

    The characters of countries are reflected in their cuisines, their clothes, and their soap operas, so why not in their declarations of war? Thought it might be fun to see whether this notion stands up and so this morning ran through every WW2 declaration of war that I could find from 1 September 1939 through […]