The IMAX of the 1890s

This footage of from the last years of the 1890 is startlingly crisp and smooth. Gone are the fuzzy, jittery films that I’m used to. As the curator says, this could have been filmed yesterday.

(Thx kottke!)

Daisy

Been studying Old English (real Old English, like hundreds-of-years-before-Shakespeare Old English) and here’s an example of the little discoveries that I love.

I learned today that our word daisy comes from the OE name dæges eage, literally day’s eye. OE is chock full of these poetic names for things.

Bittersweet

Shakespeare wrote in Modern English which we can read well enough. Old English on the other hand is hardly recognizable as the root of our mother tongue. I’ve been learning OE for a while. Here’s a small taste.

Ƿiþ ſƿiþe moniᵹe biterneſse is ᵹemenᵹed ſio ſƿetnes þiſse ƿorulde.

Old English Boethius, chapter XI

In modern letters, it would read With swithe monige biternesse is gemenged sio swetnes thisse worlde, in Modern English With much bitterness is mingled the sweentess of this world.

Falsehood Flies

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead. (Jonathan Swift, The Examiner No. XIV, 1710-11-09)

My Average Mass by Year

Here’s my average mass over the last twelve or so years. I’d rather track body fat % and muscle mass, but those are harder to measure. Maybe this year I’ll make more effort in that direction. In any case, most of the variation in mass is attributable to to body fat, so this is a reasonable proxy for what I’m concerned with. This tells me that I need to get back on track with my health goals. Over the last three stressful years, I haven’t had the mental energy to maintain my goal weight and exercise routine (which caused a further drain in mental energy, a vicious cycle).

Married at 14

I just learned that my great, great grandmother, Gedske Henrie (née Schow), became her husband’s third polygamous wife when she was just 14. He was 51.

By all accounts it was a good marriage, but Mormon polygamy was never easy. Born into frontier Utah, what choices did she have? Did she marry him enthusiastically? Does that mean anything when you’re only 14?

When I was her age, I was still trying, rather unsuccessfully, to navigate the waters of adolescence. I was awkward and I had so much more to learn.

I can’t help but wonder what turmoil she kept to herself and didn’t hand down to us in our family histories.

Edit: I’ve since learned that, on the plus side, their first child was born when she was 20. I also just read an account of reading the journal of a girl whom Joseph Smith propositioned to be his secret wife. ?

Havamal 76

Cattle die, kindred die,
You yourself shall die,
But one thing I know
Shall never die:
The life-deeds of the foregone dead.
(my own reinterpretation of Havamal 76)