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Category / Editor’s Picks

The Ritz Hotel Heir who Taught Hemingway How to Fish

Hemingway was an erratic character – one we associate with the greatest novels of course. His short, precise prose about his image of manhood are thick within the canon of American literature: women, hunting, liquor, and fishing. So you know that story about old Hem liberating the Ritz in 1944. The one where he famously rolled…

A Life Less Ordinary with a Real-Life Snow White

Deep inside one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe, in-between Belarus and Poland, stands an old hunting lodge straight out of a fairytale. For over 30 years, ecologist Simona Kossack lived in this secluded glade without amenities nor electricity or running water and with an unusual band of forest friends. There was a…

The Factory Girl who Became an Art Deco Ceramics Sensation

When English ceramic artist Clarice Cliff first started designing pottery in the 1920s, her work was so out there, the styled garnered the name “Bizarre.” But the curious and colourful decorative pieces with abstract shapes and pastoral scenes soon gathered an impressive following. Ahead of her time, Cliff’s rise to fame during the mid 20th…

Churches and their Hidden Basement Bowling Alleys

Churches have bowling alleys? Yes, they do, but they’re a dying breed. There are thought to be less than 200 churches with bowling lanes left in America today, but as early as the 1860s, they were quite common across the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. It’s not the kind of thing you expect to find…

What’s Up with all the Lady Parts in Medieval Prayer Books?

Let’s say you’re flipping through a medieval Christian prayer book (as you do), and suddenly you come across a curious illustration amongst the prayers and psalms of something that looks unmistakably like female genitalia. A scolding voice in your head tells you to get your mind out of the gutter. But you wouldn’t be alone.…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 721)

1. An abandoned theatre in Portugal for sale Theatre 1854 is the sixth oldest theatre still standing in Portugal. In Portugal’s Portalegre, it’s asking €400,000 and is classified as a building of municipal interest, meaning its future restoration, conversion, or adaptation would be subject to planning consent. More found on The Spaces. 2. Watched Gladiator II…

When Dangerous Dancing Dandies were the Bad Boys of Paris

The Paris of the Belle Époque saw the emergence of a certain type of street outcasts; a subculture that combined killer style with the criminal underworld. They were known as, les Apaches. They lived in secret dens in the city outskirts, shunned the idea of honest labor and took their name from the allegedly savage native American…

Let’s Talk About the Bidet, the Bathroom’s Best-Kept Secret

It’s one of those things everyone’s heard of, but few truly understand. It sits quietly in the corner of the bathroom (or as an attachment to the toilet itself), radiating mystery and a slight sense of intimidation. Ask someone about it, and you’ll usually get a shrug or a vague explanation that trails off into…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 720)

1. Art Excavation by Shan Hur I love the make-believe element of Shan Hur’s installations, offering the viewer an appreciation for the art itself, but also for the adventurous ways in which objets d’art can often be discovered. 2. This Roman glass work from 300 AD, survived intact At the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier an archaeological museum in…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 718)

1. Bezoar stones: undigested matter found in the gastrointestinal tract of deer, goats, porcupines and other animals, once prized as magical cure-all stones, worn by royalty Arabian doctors had been using bezoars since the 8th century, and brought them into western medicine in the 12th century as an antidote to arsenic, a favorite poison used to…

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