The Racist Origins of the Ice Cream Truck Tune
WARNING: Hey all, fair warning… there’s discussion of racism and really, really disturbing racist terms. So proceed with caution. Okay, deep breath… If you’re like me, you’ve probably never thought too hard about why the ice cream truck rolling through your neighborhood plays that familiar, jaunty tune to call all the kids out into the...
Why the Lantern Shield Was the Wickedest Weapon From the Middle Ages
If you know anything about the Middle Ages, medieval warfare, or just life during that time in general, then the fact that they came up with some truly insane weapons probably won’t surprise you. It’s hard to blame them, I guess, because the Middle Ages were not the best time in history to be alive....
Discover the Secret Diary Written on the Floorboards of a French Castle
History is chock-full of amazing people living lives you wouldn’t believe, and that’s only for the tiny, tiny percentage of humans we actually know something about. So whenever a “secret diary” is uncovered and we have another chance to peer into the past, I am here for it – and I didn’t know it until...
Did Pilgrims End up at Plymouth Rock Because Their Beer Supplies Were Dwindling?
Here’s a tale about the founding of America that they don’t (but should) teach you in high school – beer (or lack thereof) played a role in the choice to make Plymouth Rock the first landing place for English settlers in the New World. First, let me dispel the notion that the proper Separatists were...
10 Interesting Facts That Will Definitely Capture Your Interest
It can be really difficult to keep the attention of people out there these days, don’t you think? There are endless streams of information coming from all forms of social media and different websites, and now we have wars about which facts are true, which are false, etc. It’s enough to make your head spin!...
12 Code Words That Industries Use and Don’t Want People to Know
Have you ever heard a term and thought, “WTF does that mean?!?” Yeah, me too. And that’s why I’m writing this today. Because certain industries have these code words that they use to trick us… and I’m just not one for many secrets. Today we’ll be looking at 12 code words used by select fields...
A Brief Refresher on the History of “Jim Crow”
You probably know the name Jim Crow from your high school history books, and from public discourse on race relations, as they continue to be an issue that plagues Americans hoping for a different sort of society. Jim Crow references the laws that were prevalent across the American South into the 1960s, but get this –...
11 Times People in History Managed an Eloquent “Eff You”
There’s a saying out there that cursing shows a lack of imagination and vocabulary, and while I don’t really ascribe to it – sometimes a curse word is the best and only word that will do – there are, apparently, beautifully polite and savage ways to tell someone to go f%ck themselves. These 11 examples from history...