Scribal Terror

Mariani devotion

Pope Leo XIII (d.1903) was known to have kept always at the ready a handy hip flask of Mariani wine, a tonic fortified with cocaine. He enthusiastically endorsed the beverage and allowed his picture to be used on sales posters. The text of the endorsement reads:  

His Holiness the Pope writes that he has fully appreciated the beneficent effects of this Tonic Wine and has forwarded to Mr. Mariani as a token of his gratitude a gold medal bearing his august likeness.

Pope Pius X was also rather fond of the stuff. Not incidentally, another admirer of Mr. Mariani's product was Dr. John Stith Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-cola.

Bacterial art

Yes, that's Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais's Ophelia reproduced in E. coli by artist Jo Wonder. Via Bioephemera

Fun fact

According to an article in Science magazine, which I just ran across while combing browsing the internet for information about deadly poisons entomology:

The millipede Pachydesmus crassicutis (Wood) secretes a mixture of benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide when it is disturbed. (Science 26 October 1962)

Indeed, there are times when I wouldn't mind having the ability to secrete a mixture of benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide when I'm disturbed either.

"In these days of inventions and of sea-serpents . . ."

The nineteenth century spawned a wealth of peculiar inventions. This website deals (in great detail) with the poison harpoons and lances that were invented at the height of the whaling era. Here's a sample:

 

In August 1833 an inventor calling himself "Mechanicus" described a hand-darted poison harpoon of his own design in a letter titled, "Sea-Serpent Harpoon" to the editor of the Mechanic's Magazine, and Register of Inventions and Improvements. He explained:

In these days of inventions and of sea-serpents, I deem it meritorious to contrive something for the destruction of such ugly looking monsters as have lately furnished such wonderment to the good people down east. Now, sir, if any of your readers should ever take a notion to go either whaling or sea-serpenting, I would advise them to be provided with some half dozen of the machines of which I send you the drawings.

The harpoon was of a two-flued configuration with a narrow hole drilled from the tip to the boss of the shank behind the head, joining a hole through the side of the boss into which was screwed a nipple for a percussion cap. The longitudinal hole through the head was filled with "a proper quantity of some poisonous substance, the effects of which shall be powerful and rapid." The firing mechanism, located in the side of the boss, consisted of a spring-loaded hammer and a two-pronged trigger to hold the hammer cocked. When the iron was darted into a whale, the blubber pressed the trigger back and released the hammer which detonated a percussion cap on the nipple. The explosion forced the poison out of the hole through the head of the harpoon, like a hypodermic needle, to kill the whale.

The poisonous substance used was prussic acid AKA hydrogen cyanide.

Chinese clepsydra

This is an ancient Chinese clepsydra or water clock.  Here's how it works, according to Cultural China:

The time-measuring device consists of several kettles filled with water, which are usually connected together. There are small holes on the bottom of upper kettles, so that once the kettles are filled up, the water will drop down stepwise and regularly to the lower kettles. The lowest kettle has an erect buoy in it carved with scale divisions. The clepsydra is a 24-hour calculagraph used to calculate time through observing the scale of buoy according to fluctuation of buoy enabled by changes in water level. It measures time day and night during both sunny and rainy days. However, there may be changes in the speed of dripping according to temperature condition, which lead to inevitable error or difference in telling time. Nevertheless, it can be corrected by using a sundial during fine days. 

On "the playing fields of Eton"

The translation of historical truths into legend and myth has always fascinated me. The Duke of Wellington is supposed to have remarked that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. In fact, there were no playing fields at Eton in the Duke's time. What he actually said in 1815 was, gentlemen, I think I owe my grasp of strategy to the tricks I used to get up to in the garden. Now, that was translated into French, then translated back into English fifty years later in the version that we now know. (From an interview with historical novelist Peter Vansittart)

The story of bird's nest soup

The door is open

Come on in and talk.  Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing  syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share. 

The binturong or bearcat

My alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, has a peculiar team animal called a bearcat. I had always believed this to be an imaginary creature. Then, many years later, Wikipedia came along and I looked it up. The bearcat is FOR REAL, he is related to the civet, and his other name is binturong. Doesn't he have a fine, fluffy tail? Hoorah for the bearcats! I wonder if they poop coffee beans.

 

Now I really must look up that imaginary creature called an Illini.

The Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla native to Mexico. . . . Originally cultivated by Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both the spice and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s. Attempts to cultivate the vanilla plant outside Mexico and Central America proved futile because of the symbiotic relationship between the tlilxochitl vine that produced the vanilla orchid and the local species of Melipona bee; it wasn't until 1837 that Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. Unfortunately, the method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, a 12-year-old French-owned slave by the name of Edmond Albius, who lived on Île Bourbon, discovered the plant could be hand pollinated, allowing global cultivation of the plant. --Wikipedia

Stormy weather off the coast of France

Ancient Roman mariners

Wikipedia caption: "Roman ship with spritsail on the Copenhagen Sarcophagus from the late 3rd century AD. It is one of the oldest depictions of spritsails in the history of navigation. . . .  Current location: Ny-Carlsberg Glyptothek in Copenhagen (Denmark), Inv.-No. 1299. The pic above shows a copy displayed at the Museum für Antike Schiffahrt (Museum for Ancient Navigation) in Mainz, Germany."

They not only have some high-tech rigging, but they've obviously figured out a way to keep their clothes dry on deck.

The door is open

Come on in and talk.  Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing  syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share. 

The night owl is curious

About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.

And the door is open all night.

Camel bladder vase

This 19th-century Pakistani leather vase was molded from the bladder of a camel. From the collection of the Museum of Leathercraft.

The door is open

Come on in and talk.  Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing  syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.  

Need a new rose pruner?

Vietnamese nose flute virtuoso

Collecting cochineal, 1777

The Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-coloured dye carmine is derived. . . .

Cochineal dye was used by the Aztec and Maya peoples of Central and North America. Eleven cities conquered by Moctezuma in the 15th century paid a yearly tribute of 2000 decorated cotton blankets and 40 bags of cochineal dye each. . . .

It has become commercially valuable again, although most consumers are unaware that the phrases "cochineal extract", "carmine", "crimson lake", "natural red 4", "C.I. 75470", "E120", or even "natural colouring" refer to a dye that is derived from an insect. One reason for its popularity is that many commercial synthetic red dyes were found to be carcinogenic. The dye can, however, induce an anaphylactic shock reaction in rare cases.

Wikipedia

Building and rowing a Boyne River currach (coracle)