Coffee Craziness

☕️ Happy National Coffee Day! ☕️

Let's take a moment to celebrate our favorite life elixir and its wacky journey through history! ☕️📜

Back in the day, September 29 was apparently chosen as National Coffee Day because someone realized, "Hey, summer's over, time to caffeinate and get back to reality!" ☀️🌧️ But honestly, who can blame us for taking our sweet time?

Coffee's story started way back in 15th century Yemen, and boy, did it have a dramatic entrance! People were side-eyeing this new "bitter invention of Satan" drink. 😈 But then Pope Clement VIII was like, "Hold up, let me taste this magic potion," and suddenly coffee got a papal thumbs-up! 🙏🤷 ♂️

Europeans joined the coffee club, and Venice led the way with its very own coffeehouse, minus the fancy lattes. 🇮🇹☕️ But the real coffee revolution came when the U.S. said, "Buh-bye tea, hello coffee!" after that infamous Boston Tea Party. The rest is history, or should we say "brewstory"? ☕️🍂

Fast forward to the 1800s, and we've got the Arbuckle brothers selling coffee to cowboys. Yeehaw! ☕️🤠 Meanwhile, James Folger was bringing the caffeine love to gold miners out in California. From steamy coffee mills to the iconic Maxwell House and Hills Brothers, coffee was on the rise!

Then the 60s rolled in, and suddenly we wanted our coffee fancy. 🕺✌️ PEET's started the "speciality" coffee trend, and in '71, Starbucks strutted onto the scene, changing the coffee game forever. Now, we're in a $45.4 billion coffee wonderland, sipping our lattes and giving King George III a subtle nod of gratitude. Thanks for the tea tax, old chap! 🎩🍵

So, raise your mugs, my fellow coffee enthusiasts! Let's toast to the caffeinated journey that brought us together. ☕️🥂 And remember, life's too short for bad coffee and uninspired history lessons. Keep sipping, keep smiling, and let's keep brewing up a storm! ☕️💥

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©TLK2023

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The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

Dabbling in Roman Saltwater Wine

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Australia’s Favourite Craft Beer Festival is Back for a Whirlwind Tour in June - GABS

Attention beer lovers! It’s time to clear your schedule as the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABS) festival is back and bigger than ever in 2024! If this will be your first GABS experience, you’re in for a treat. With over 500+ beers on tap to choose from, all under one roof, you won’t know which way to turn.  Over 120 different breweries from all over Australia and New Zealand will be…

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From Sudsy Beginnings to Hopscotch Heaven: A Toast to the Quad Cities' Brewing History

Sip-Sized Q.C. History The Quad Cities, cradled by the mighty Mississippi River, boasts a brewing heritage as rich and robust as its beers. Fueled by an influx of German immigrants and a thirst for quality ales, the region’s brewing history stretches back to the mid-1800s. Let’s raise a glass and check out the story of how the Quad Cities transformed from a brewing hub to a craft beer…

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Schaller Brothers Main Street Brewery advertisement, 1884

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

I want to talk about the Rosetta Stone for a second:

This chunk of rock is the reason that anyone today can read Egyptian hieroglyphics. It's an incredible artifact (which is unfortunately in the British Museum, but I'm getting to that) because it allowed us, for the first time, to go back in time and actually hear from the people we had studied so much about. It allows us to look at pictures inscribed thousands of years ago and know what the carver meant by them. There's a reason it became an iconic piece of rock.

But my main point here is how much we love this rock. In one of the most impressive archaeological collections in the world, assembled through centuries of violence and thievery and racism, the crowning jewel of the museum is this rock. It's the banner image on their collection page of their website.

Isn't that interesting? This rock is special because of the way it connected cultures and allowed us to gain new understanding for people from another time and place. It's incredibly human, in the best possible way, that one of the world's most prized possessions is a tool that reached through millennia and brought us someone else's thoughts and words. It's wonderful that we are a species who places so much value in that.

But it's in the British Museum. An institution which offers a thorough summary of one country's attempt at world domination, at exercising their culture's own superiority over every other. At their disinterest in treating others like people.

It's not entirely known how the stone even came into British hands. The French discovered it. How it ended up in England's pocket was something that happened in hushed voices, between two world powers that hated each other but were united in their shared disrespect for Egypt's rights as a country.

But the museum today doesn't seem to see the hypocrisy in any of this. They marvel, and expect us to marvel, at this artifact for its ability to connect us with ancient Egyptians. Meanwhile, the perfectly functional and safe museums in Egypt today don't get to display this stone. The tool that opened up study of their own history was stolen from them. The exhibit might as well be a neon sign, declaring that Britain cares more for ancient Egyptians than modern ones.

So there it remains, at the British Museum. A testament to both human connection and human violence. I think if I wanted aliens to understand human history, the Rosetta Stone might be a good place to start.

Wei Wuxian really got an arrow shot in between two of his lungs ribs, pulled it out, and then tossed it back and fucking killed the guy who shot him - If that's not fucking terrifying (and more than a little awe-inspiring) I don't know what is.

Women were also regularly employed in brewing, at least as much as men. Medieval peasants drank rather a lot of small (or low-alcohol) beer and ale. In the tenth-century Alfric's Colloguy, which records theoretical dialogues between a teacher and his students, one young man states, "I drink ale, usually, if I drink at all, and water if I have no ale. . . . I am not rich enough to be able to buy myself wine: Wine is not a drink for boys or fools but for old men and wise men." By the late medieval period, in brewing centers such as České Budejovice, from whence the name Budweiser comes, beer was being made on a large enough scale that it was being exported to Bavaria.

Medieval people desired to drink beer and ale not because water was unsafe, but because farmwork is extremely hard. Small beer and ale added additional calories to their daily uptake in an enjoyable way. Although the wealthy were probably able to procure professionally made and imported beers, most people, especially in the earlier medieval period, made their own ale or bought it from nearby producers. Ale was brewed primarily from barley and did not include the hops of beer, which meant it could not be stored for long before going off. As such, those who wanted ale had to be constantly brewing it to ensure a steady supply, making brewing a very common cottage industry. Women who brewed for their families would often brew excess for sale, allowing them to bring in a bit of money. Because brewing was a craft that could be learned at home, women could be employed as brewers in larger commercial breweries.

We find women in the brewing trade consistently: records show them paying taxes on their gains from brewing, and registering with the authorities who oversaw standards. When someone performed below these standards, they were frequently written up, so we can find the women who were not meeting them. The Durham Court Rolls from 1365 record that Agnes Postell and Alice de Belasis were fined twelve denarii for selling bad ale, about the equivalent of two days' work for a skilled craftsman. Similarly Alice de Belasis was separately fined two shillings, or the equivalent of five days wages, for poor-quality ale, which a court proved had no strength at all. Punishments for brewing bad ale could range from fines to ritualized humiliation. In England, the Domesday Book first recorded the use of the cucking stool (which would become the ducking stool in the early modern period) in Chester to punish those who sold bad ale or ale in incorrect measures. They would be forced to sit in a chair out side their home and be jeered at by locals. Fourteenth-century Scottish laws noted that any alewife who made "evil ale" was either fined "eight shillings" or placed in the cucking stool, a nod to women as the primary brewers in the region who could face the largely gendered humiliation as a result.

We also learn of women in the brewing profession through records of accidents. For example, one coroner's roll indicates that at around noon on October 2, 1270, Amice Belamy was carrying a tub full of gruit, an agent for flavoring ale, with Sibyl Bonchevaler at her work in Lady Juliana de Beauchamp's brewhouse in Staple, Eaton Socon. As they went to dump the gruit into the boiling vat of beer, Amice slipped and fell into it and was trapped by the tub that fell on top of her. "Sibyl immediately jumped towards her, dragged her from the vat and shouted; the household came and found her scalded almost to death. She was given the last rites of the church and died on the day following. This harrowing story reminds us what a physically tasking and dangerous job brewing, especially in large quantities, could be.

This episode is also interesting because the two women were working for another woman, and a lady at that, Juliana de Beauchamp. Brewing was commonly associated with women across class lines, since the brewhouse is listed as belonging to the Lady Juliana. All in all, during these years a woman was just as likely to be brewing ale as a man, if not more likely in some instances.

-Eleanor Janega, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society

a brew of history

♡₊˚ 🦢・₊✧ moodboard ♡₊˚ 🦢・₊✧

pairing: barista!ellie x artsy!reader

✎ summary: in which a dedicated assistant collections manager at the local history museum finds her routine pleasantly disrupted when she crosses paths with ellie, a barista at the coffee shop just opposite her workplace. their daily encounters over cups of coffee gradually evolve into deeper conversations about history, art, and life. as they bond over their shared interests and develop a mutual admiration, ellie begins to see the museum—and her own life—in a new light. however, when unforeseen challenges threaten both their professional and personal lives, amidst the whispers of history and the gentle hum of the universe, ellie discovers that love is the truest artifact of all—one that transcends time and echoes through the ages.

✩°｡⋆⸜ 🎧✮ playlist ✩°｡⋆⸜ 🎧✮

⭒ dreams by the cranberries ⭒ i’d have to think about it by leith ross ⭒ north by clairo ⭒ steeeam by shelly ⭒ the universe by gregory alan isakov ⭒ warm glow by hippocampus ⭒ stubborn love by the lumineers ⭒ (you) on my arm by leith ross ⭒ true blue by boy genius ⭒ green is the colour by pink floyd ⭒ little willow by paul mccartney ⭒ too sweet by hozier

Interesting thing about Lincoln.

As a person and a politician, he was defined by his way with words. He was a lawyer, which involves speaking in courtrooms and appealing to audiences. He rose to national prominence because of how well he did in a series of public debates. He wrote speeches that have lasted through the ages because of their concise yet vivid phrasing.

He understood the world through the lens of storytelling. He had anecdotes for every situation, and constantly used them to provide metaphors explaining his stances or his strategy or his view of an issue.

As president during a Civil War, a huge part of his job was crafting the narrative explaining what they were fighting for. The Gettysburg Address reframed the national narrative so the founding moment of the country wasn't the ratification of the Constitution--as the South claimed--but the Declaration of Independence that listed the ideals that all the states should be held to. Of course, the South was doing the same thing, so that the conflict was not only a battle of muskets and cannons--it was a war of stories.

And he was killed by an actor.

In a theater.

He was struck down by an opposing storyteller in a palace of artifice. An actress made a point of cradling his dying head in her lap so she could have a part in the drama. He lived by stories and died as the center of one, in a place made for telling such stories.

It's poetic and tragic and so shockingly fitting that the war of stories claimed him as its central victim.

It’s no secret that many of us are partial to a glass or two of beer. It turns out the ancient Egyptians felt the same and were brewing “liquid gold” using the millennia-old Egyptian beer recipe.

So the other day I met [unnamed tumblr mutual] in person for the first time when she came over to the apartment and beyond having a really wonderful afternoon together, she brought over some cannabis edibles because I mentioned that I was thinking about trying an edible to see if it could do anything for my pain levels, but also not wanting anything that even approaching "strong". I'd tried a few CBD only products and they didn't do much. Maybe an edible with THC in it too would actually do something.

Turns out that yes, taking an edible actually does help with pain. It didn't do much of anything for the muscle soreness, but it cut down on the neuropathic pain and dulled the migraine a little. It also dropped my heart rate, lowered my blood pressure and relaxed me, which hey that's all good. The entire experience of using cannabis as an edible is the complete opposite to my experience smoking cannabis. Smoking it, whether as a joint or through a bong, usually only ever made me anxious, put me on edge, and spiked my heartrate. I'm starting to wonder if that's more from the smoking part than the drug part. If the anxiety and spike in heart rate was some kind of inflammatory reaction to smoking. I've had a few nice experiences passing a joint around with friends, but every time I've tried it on my own, it's been bad vibes. I don't "do" drugs, or even drink because I'm always worried it will make me crash or feel worse somehow. So this was a really nice surprise.

You know how brewing used to be considered “women’s work,” and how some of the iconography around witches has been speculated to derive from the medieval beer industry? Well, now I’m picturing a Macbeth-esque coven discussing some concoction and sounding like urban hipsters talking about craft beer (”Yeah bro, the eye of newt really makes this”).

Advertisement from Souvenir program : eighth annual trade exhibit : June 6 to 12, 1938, Forest Club, Hastings and Forest : business and professional directory / sponsored by Booker T. Washington Trade Association. Title from cover. Includes history of the Association and Housewives League of Detroit, advertisements and business directory arranged by type of business.

National Union of the United Brewery Workmen matchsafe, made ca. 1900-1910 by Whitehead & Hoag Co. of Newark, NJ