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When a new mother found herself and her kittens on the wrong side of a nasty-looking stream, Twink was there to help.
A pamphlet published in 1815 sought to satisfy the public’s increasing thirst for information about matters of science. The anonymous authors chose as their overall subject the Quadrupeds of the British Isles, and the traditional enmity between Dog and Cat was noted, of course. But there was also this heartwarming little tale.
Posted April 13 2021
428
When Archimedes discovered the principle of displacement, he was hot on the trail of a clever fraud.
Hiero II (?308 BC – 215 BC), ruler of Syracuse in Sicily (an ancient Greek colony), made a present of a golden crown to a temple in honour of the gods. The crown was commissioned and duly delivered, but Hiero suspected that the craftsman had kept some of the gold and mixed in some lesser metal. So he turned to a relative of his, the mathematican Archimedes, and asked him to do some detective work.
Posted April 12 2021
429
French travel writer Pierre-Jean Grosley toured Georgian London just in time to witness a culinary revolution: the sandwich.
In 1770, Frenchman Pierre-Jean Grosley delighted French readers with his account of a visit to London and of the habits of its citizens high and low. Two years later, Thomas Nugent translated it, and Grosley’s impressions found an equally delighted audience on this side of the Channel. It is to this work that we are indebted for an eyewitness account of the ‘sandwich’ and its ... spread.
Posted April 11 2021
430
A loyal dog shows his initiative in recovering his master’s property, though his timing might have been better.
In 1815, at a time when Sir Humphry Davy was popularising chemistry with his famous Royal Institution Lectures, a little handbook was published providing a light-hearted introduction to British zoology. Of course there was a lengthy section devoted to the Dog, and following some remarkable incidences of loyalty, devotion and even acting ability, the authors turned to examples of canine initiative.
Posted April 10 2021
431
In 64, Nero watched on with fascination as Rome was consumed by fire — the Emperor’s idea of performance art.
The expression ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ is used today of those who are idle in a crisis. It derives from the Great Fire of Rome in 64, during the reign of Emperor Nero, though the Emperor did not ‘fiddle’ (play the violin) while a week-long fire consumed two-thirds of the imperial capital, nor was he exactly idle. No indeed: he dressed up and sang a musical melodrama he had composed himself.
Posted April 9 2021
432
An angel appeared to Mary in her home in Nazareth, and offered her the chance to be part of nothing less than the reopening of the doors of Paradise.
Lady Day, or the Feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, is kept on March 25th each year, and celebrates the conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of his mother, a young woman named Mary from Nazareth in northern Israel. After Jesus died St John took her into his home, but tradition says that fellow evangelist St Luke, who left us this account, was also a lifelong friend and painted her first likeness.
Posted April 7 2021