Snippets

Overheard today:

1.
At the museum, one guard to another: Yeah, and he had these black glasses, and a big afro, you know, and a tutu.

2.
Outside a bar, one twenty-something guy to another: Dude, I told you, bro. You need a Snuggie.  A MOTHERFUCKIN' SNUGGIE, DAWG.

3.
Inside another bar, one old man to another: I'm in it for the fries.  Most of us, we're in it for the beer.  Not me.  The beer is just the accessory for me.  It's the fries that matter.  Call me a fruitcake all you want -- I don't give a rat's ass.  The fries are the best part.

Nathan Bailey

Canting Dictionary (1736): A Collection of the Canting Words and Terms, both ancient and modern, used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, House-Breakers, Shop-Lifters, Foot-Pads, Highway-Men, &c.

Transcribed here:  http://www.fromoldbooks.org/NathanBailey-CantingDictionary/transcription.html

Highlights:
It is all Bob - all is safe
Captain Hackum - a fighting, blustering Bully
Drumbelo - a dull, heavy fellow
Nigmenog - a very silly fellow
Juckum-gage - a chamber pot

What are your favorites?

BOO!

Did I scare you?

*

More early film.  I am obsessed, I tell you.

Early film:

I should know more about it.

Desperately searching for a film (1906) called The School Children's Strike, described as "a film in which rebellious youngsters take revenge against the strict discipline of the principal by burning down the schoolhouse." Will love you forever if you can help me find it.

In other news, I stumbled upon this during my search -- which is arguably even cooler:

Pookie!

Acknowledgements

So I've been reading a lot of dissertations lately - like you do, when you're trying to write one - and hands down the best part of any dissertation is the acknowledgements section.  It's like the gossip column / family tree of academia.  A real place for discoveries like, "oh, so you're not gay after all" or "I see that so-and-so helped you work through your argument in chapter four -- interesting."

Anyway, since it's pretty much the only part of my project that seems manageable right now, I've been giving mine some thought off and on today.  Non-human entities that are getting a shout-out will most definitely include Google Books.  Do you know how many times today alone I've read a footnote referencing an obscure, unpaginated [love that word] 19th-century journal and thought, where the hell am I going to find this RIGHT NOW on the day after Christmas so I can read it RIGHT THIS SECOND?  And then there it is, right there, on the interwebs.  I don't even have to put on non-pajamas-type clothes and venture out into the snow.  A real life-changing source for 19th-century nerds.

And speaking of snow, pleaseohpleaseohplease let tomorrow be a snow day, but only if I get paid on snow days.  It's really important that I sit at home and read again.  And build a snowman in my front yard.

Lewis, Louis.

Lewis Hine, [Greel's Shoe-Shining Parlor. Said he was 15 years old. Works some nights until 11 p.m.  Indianapolis, Ind., 08/1908]

Photograph courtesy of the National Archives.

Louis Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, late 1838 or early 1839.  Likely the first [extant] photograph of a person.  The photograph took more than ten minutes to make, but the man at the bottom left getting his boots polished was standing still long enough to show up in the image.

Transcription:

It's weird.  Heartfelt, carefully-scripted, earnest, loving texts become this:

Verso of print, bottom center [sideways], in blue ink: To my love Hazel / on her birthday, July 6 [illegible] / love, love, love [cursive]

Bye Bye Bread

Stuck in my head all day, these two:

1.



2.



Also: Hi. I have a blog now.