On Twitter there are currently a lot of Christians and Muslims getting really angry about ways that Jews work around restrictions on work during Shabbat, and, like, honestly I do not understand why they care? Just a lot of non-Jews telling nice Orthodox Jews that they’re doing their religion wrong for no reason.

Rail Yard, Duluth, MN, , Photo by Ralston Crawford, 1961

I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD.  If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?

Reading a book about slavery in the middle-ages, and as the author sorts through different source materials from different eras, I am starting to understand why so many completely fantastical accounts of "faraway lands" went without as much as a shrug. The world is such a weird place that you can either refuse to believe any of it or just go "yeah that might as well happen" and carry on with your day.

There was this 10th century arab traveller who wrote into an account that the fine trade furs come from a land where the night only lasts one hour in the summer and the sun doesn't rise at all in the winter, people use dogs to travel, and where children have white hair. I don't think I'd believe something like that either if I didn't live here.

i need “Happier than a necromancer in a natural history museum” to become a known phrase immediately

can’t stop thinking about them

having to tap the "if an australian place name sounds strange to you please google it and make sure you're not just mocking indigenous languages" sign again

I just want you all to know, that if and when this site does experience a real exodus and/or get sunsetted for good, even if we don't keep in touch I'll remember you so fondly. You're the online equivalent of the other kid on the beach where we built sandcastles together; the girl at the campsite where we explored the trees. You're the drunk person who shared kind words in the bathroom at the club, you're the talented artists at the life drawing class or the poetry night in a city where I don't live anymore. It makes me sad that maybe in the future our paths won't cross so easily, but even when we leave this little shared piece of cyberspace, carried away on our briefly intersecting trajectories, just know I still love you

17th century Ottoman tent from the Dresden State Art Collections

So I'm visiting my mom, right? and yesterday she tells me a funny story about hearing a weird rhythmic tapping noise coming from the basement bedroom. So she investigates and finds that there is an American Robin who has, apparently, noticed his reflection in the bedroom window and come the conclusion that it is, in fact, a rival robin that must vanquished. and he spent HOURS tapping on the window trying to get his Evil AU Twin out of his territory. Haha, so funny, birds can be so amusing.

Except. This morning I found myself awake far earlier than anticipated due to an incessant -taptaptap. taptaptap.- sound from from the window directly above my bed. I blearily look up and see this same damn robin back at it again, STILL trying to convince his reflection to leave him alone. And he proceed to stay there attacking himself for most of the day. Honestly, I'm shocked he didn't have anything better to do with his time. Like, find food maybe. Or at least cease wasting his energy. But I guess this is the most stubborn robin in town and that he's utterly determined to defeat the greatest foe he's ever faced.

If he wakes me up early again I'm gonna be so pissed.

Tell me you know nothing about history without telling me you know nothing about history

1888 Portrait of a woman from the Ekerkunst family (photo by Jan Mieczkowski, Leopold Türkel)

(Museum of Warsaw)

It made me so happy to open my notes and see the number of people excited about seeing the Public Universal Friend on their dash.