Wikipedia is the single best resource for laying down at 10, thinking, "What do I *really* know about Anne Boleyn?" and then falling asleep at 3am in the middle of an entry, inevitably, about hyperbolic geometry.
Try reading about the Sykes-Picot secret treaty of World War I (1916), in which Britain and France drew up the plan for each to take over parts of the soon-to-fall Ottoman Empire, drawing the lines for the "countries" to be that have defined all the problems in the Middle East over the past century. Most people are unaware of just how important World War I and the immediate postwar period are to understanding most modern problems. Unfortunately, none of the bad decisions were ever rescinded, and Versailles was nothing more than a "20-year truce" in the eyes of a French general who was shocked by what he saw going on, then all the problems that had come from World War I were put in the deep freeze of the Cold War for 45 years, and then thawed out and defrosted in the 1990s when no one alive knew anything about them (other than the people directly involved, whose descendants considered themselves still directly involved), and this has been the history we have lived for the past 30 years.
I had almost expected this to be about Harding admin alum Will Hays and his pre-making-the-code Hollywood pull (which is probably in Harding's Wikipedia page, come to think of it), and I was entirely not expecting a dead girl at a party level of scandal. Damn!
The Snake was a soul tune that came out in the late sixties by Al Wilson. (Not a poet, a singer, and he didn’t write it. Oscar Brown Jr, a civil rights activist and congressional also-ran wrote it.) Three cheers for Wikipedia.
Glad I’m not the only one who goes down online rabbit holes after looking up one thing and then being led to another and another and another. Those were all damn interesting rabbit holes you went down, too! Thanks - this was fun to read. (And I loved Boardwalk Empire.)
For the life of me, I never understood why Harding shows up at the top of people's "worst Presidents." Clearly, obviously, James Buchanan was a worse President than Harding. Like, I get that Harding didn't push the US to join the League of Nations, but the Senate had long since rejected it before Harding ever came into office.
This post captures the pleasures of reading history. Picking at a thread to see where it leads, following it from one source to another to another, then being surprised and delighted at what one learns along the way.
I Just Learned A Crazy Story About A US President Which Somehow Is Not On Wikipedia
Could you please write a book investigating *why* Stone hated Harding so much, and name it "Between a Stone and a Harding Place"?
That would be aces.
Wikipedia is the single best resource for laying down at 10, thinking, "What do I *really* know about Anne Boleyn?" and then falling asleep at 3am in the middle of an entry, inevitably, about hyperbolic geometry.
Try reading about the Sykes-Picot secret treaty of World War I (1916), in which Britain and France drew up the plan for each to take over parts of the soon-to-fall Ottoman Empire, drawing the lines for the "countries" to be that have defined all the problems in the Middle East over the past century. Most people are unaware of just how important World War I and the immediate postwar period are to understanding most modern problems. Unfortunately, none of the bad decisions were ever rescinded, and Versailles was nothing more than a "20-year truce" in the eyes of a French general who was shocked by what he saw going on, then all the problems that had come from World War I were put in the deep freeze of the Cold War for 45 years, and then thawed out and defrosted in the 1990s when no one alive knew anything about them (other than the people directly involved, whose descendants considered themselves still directly involved), and this has been the history we have lived for the past 30 years.
I had almost expected this to be about Harding admin alum Will Hays and his pre-making-the-code Hollywood pull (which is probably in Harding's Wikipedia page, come to think of it), and I was entirely not expecting a dead girl at a party level of scandal. Damn!
This was wonderful. More obscure histories please!
The Snake was a soul tune that came out in the late sixties by Al Wilson. (Not a poet, a singer, and he didn’t write it. Oscar Brown Jr, a civil rights activist and congressional also-ran wrote it.) Three cheers for Wikipedia.
Glad I’m not the only one who goes down online rabbit holes after looking up one thing and then being led to another and another and another. Those were all damn interesting rabbit holes you went down, too! Thanks - this was fun to read. (And I loved Boardwalk Empire.)
For the life of me, I never understood why Harding shows up at the top of people's "worst Presidents." Clearly, obviously, James Buchanan was a worse President than Harding. Like, I get that Harding didn't push the US to join the League of Nations, but the Senate had long since rejected it before Harding ever came into office.
This post captures the pleasures of reading history. Picking at a thread to see where it leads, following it from one source to another to another, then being surprised and delighted at what one learns along the way.
Good grief wtf 🧐