Found History

Ever wonder if the Trojan Horse would work today? Here’s your answer. (Thanks again to Rob for the link.)

[Read more →]

Suzanne Fischer points to a rib-tickling page purporting an origin in the Craigslist archives and an age of about 100 years. Among the more interesting classifieds of 1906: – My Electric is Off Again. Edison Will Not Answer His Telephone. – M4W: Honest Farmer 65 Seeks Healthy Wife 18 to Bear Children, Pull Plow, Cook [...]

[Read more →]

Ever wonder how Europe managed the transition from scroll to codex? This short video may provide some insight. I suspect the periodization is all wrong—historians of the book can let us know—but anyone who has ever worked in tech support will see the comedic conceit is right on. BTW: Unless you speak Norwegian, you probably [...]

[Read more →]

Unfortunately for Bonds, it seems MLB’s historians now are saying Aaron hit 805. This according to The Onion. Thanks for the tip, Jerm.

[Read more →]

My good friend Rob was particularly disgusted by my Venerable Bede joke (sorry, Rob), so I’m going to try to make it up to him by posting one of his found history picks. Video podcast Yacht Rock parodies the silky sounds of late-70s and early-80s pop acts like Steely Dan, Chicago, Hall and Oates, Toto, [...]

[Read more →]

I was cleaning out my TiVo last night, and I caught this odd trio debating the makeup of Lincoln’s cabinet. The phone is an especially nice touch. (Don’t blame me for the crappy video embed. My initial instinct was to pull this from YouTube. After several fruitless searches there, I finally remembered Viacom’s DMCA lawsuit [...]

[Read more →]

It’s not nearly as subtle as the Colonial Williamsburg sketch from a couple months ago, but here’s some more history from Saturday Night Live. Enjoy! Update (7/6/07): I just noticed that the original clip was pulled from YouTube. I replaced it with another, but don’t be surprised if the new one vanishes as well.

[Read more →]

This Week in Geek Humor has a post today chronicling “The 20 Funniest Computer Geek Humor Bits of All Time.” I personally don’t find all the author’s choices very funny, but I appreciate his clear attempt to open a historical dialog.

[Read more →]

Saturday Night Live had a funny sketch this weekend exposing the anachronisms inherent in living history museums and exploring how family- and employee-friendly public history venues like Colonial Williamsburg struggle with historical realities (e.g. slavery) that aren’t so family-friendly. As of this posting the video is still available from NBC, but I can’t promise it [...]

[Read more →]

“America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad-ass speed” — Eleanor Roosevelt … (epigraph from the new Will Ferrell comedy, Talladega Nights)

[Read more →]