fluff

Coats of Arms are bullcrap. We all know this, right?

/ Historiann / 19 Comments

Look what I made in 3 minutes with Google translate & the internet!

Liberal and left-leaning news orgs are happily publicizing the latest evidence of the dishonesty by the Human Stain (and his family).  He has allegedly ripped off another family’s coat-of-arms and rebranded it (you guessed it) as “TRUMP.”  I have a few thoughts that may prove unpopular, but here goes:

First, this seems to be a pretty venial sin compared to the heights of grifting and inept spycraft that he and his administration have reached in just 125 days in office, but okay:  more evidence of unscrupulous douchebaggery.  We get it!

But second, and my real point here:  historians know that coats-of-arms are all bull$hit, don’t we?  We know that all titles, knighthoods, and the like are all made up at some point or another, so who cares?  Someone was knighted or ennobled because he agreed to fight with the king, or let the king screw his wife, or loaned him money, or performed some such base and ignoble service to the crown, and that’s it.  That’s all titles and coats of arms mean!   Continue reading →

Smell ya later, Philadelphia!

/ Historiann / 7 Comments

Philadelphia, 10th and Spruce Streets, April 15, 2017

I just spent 22 hours in Philadelphia this weekend, and I have to say that I was charmed by its persistent Philly-ness. It still is, and may always be, the Philadelphia that I loved and left nearly 25 years ago.  At the time, I was thrilled to get out, but on my brief visit I was even charmed by some of the nastier details of life in the city.

I’m sure it’s because I no longer have to live there, and because I was on a high from my visit to give a book talk and meet students at Bryn Mawr College, my alma mater, but I was charmed by the somatic and sensory aspects of city life that I recognized instantly.
First, there’s the cigarette smoke on the street–surprisingly, that hasn’t changed in 25 years.  (My hotel room also had a faint trace of cigarette smoke–that was less charming, but I’m kind of a bloodhound when it comes to my powers of smell detection and analysis.)  Even the pee and vomit scents I detected in the daylight hours at many turns inspired nostalgia, probably because those aren’t smells I run into all that often in my life in Colorado. Continue reading →

So long to 2016, suckers.

/ Historiann / 5 Comments

My yoga teacher offers super-intense classes on several winter holidays in which we do 108 sun salutations (vinyasas.)  The last 108 class I attended was on Thanksgiving day, when I allegedly announced that “2016 has sucked a bag of d!cks!” One of my yoga buddies–another historian–gave me a little present today in the New Year’s Eve 108 class to help send this year on its way: Continue reading →

Remarkable providences: A November tomato harvest?

/ Historiann / 3 Comments

This is most unusual: a fresh tomato harvest on November 1, and no clear signal of a hard frost anytime soon.

tomato-harvest

Yes, it’s strange.  Frequently, we’ve already had a little, or even a lot of snow and/or a sleet storm on the Front Range.  Officially I think we had at least one overnight hard frost last month, but our tomatoes are in a south-facing garden against a very heat-retaining and radiating brick wall.  That, plus the fact that at this altitude, we rarely get to eat our own tomatoes until September makes these tomatoes very welcome. Continue reading →

Do you like her, or do you like LIKE her?

/ Historiann / 27 Comments
Coffee's for closers, b!tchez.

Coffee’s for closers, b!tchez.

I’ve been saying for months that the question of Hillary Clinton’s “likability” is unimportant. Why? Because we know that women are always thought less likable (or even unlikable) when we’re asking for a promotion or, even worse, acting as though we deserve it. And what is Clinton’s campaign but a months-long job interview for the biggest promotion of her life?  The obsession with whether or not Americans “like” Clinton seems pointless to me.

Just check out the comments at the bottom of the linked article. Collectively, it’s a bunch of paranoid frothing about the prospect of Hillary Clinton in power, but they’re right about one thing: their prescriptions to restore her likability include variations on suicide, dropping out of the presidential contest.  They all boil down to their passionate desire that she STFU and go away. That would work! Of course people love women when we no longer hold any power or influence! Of course. Continue reading →

Matching blue suits: failing the test of presidential leadership.

/ Historiann / 17 Comments
clintonwarrenbluesuits

Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 27, 2016.

Commentators everywhere were amazed by the fact that Hillary Clinton and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wore similar shades of blue at a campaign event last week in Cincinnati.  (Actually, I’d say Clinton’s suit was periwinkle, and it’s obvious that Warren is wearing only a blue jacket, not a suit.)

Nevertheless, we should consider the role of fashion choices in this election season.  After all, the choices our candidates make now are an indication of the looks we’ll have to see for the next four to eight years after the election.  My expertise in American history, women’s history, and the history of clothing makes me the perfect analyst of this important political question, It’s my patriotic duty this glorious Independence Day to share with you the results of my years of long study and reflection, plus 5 minutes of using Google images to look up photos of the presidents and vice-presidents of the last 5 administrations.

Prepare to be amazed, friends, by the results: Continue reading →

Your weekend Public Service Announcement: Colorado has snow, bears.

/ Historiann / 4 Comments
Y'all come back now when the airport reopens!

Y’all come back now when the airport reopens!

Why, Denver Post, why do you bother with these “news” stories?

Hungry bears emerging from hibernation.
It is snowing in Colorado.

More later today, because apparently drizzle and snow have shut down Denver International Airport and much of this entire state, so what else can I do but stay at home, put a pot of soup on, and get my blog on? Continue reading →

“She will wait for the appropriate time. . . and she will crush them.”

/ Historiann / 6 Comments
Memories of 2008!

Memories of 2008!

This just in from the Benghazi hearings:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent several hours at the United States Capitol on Thursday compiling a mental list of people she will destroy at a later date, an aide to Clinton has confirmed.

Clinton gave no outward appearance of compiling such a list as she answered questions relating to her tenure as Secretary of State, the aide said, but was busy assembling the list nonetheless. “This is the kind of multitasking that she is very good at,” he said. “Believe me, the entire time she was talking, she was working very hard on that list.”
In response to reporters’ questions, the aide said that there was “no firm timetable” for Clinton to destroy the people on her list. “She will wait for the appropriate time,” the aide said, “and she will crush them.”

Continue reading →