In the first of my posts on lighting a couple of weeks ago, we saw how the world depended on candles and oil lamps…and as a result was a dim, rather dirty place; after all, burning oil creates smoke, which … Continue reading
Marissa Doyle
It’s early evening as I write this and getting a little dim in my office…so just now I leaned forward and with a small movement of my hand turned on the lamp on my desk. Lovely, clear light now floods … Continue reading
After a chilly spring, summer has finally arrived where I live in New England…with a vengeance! Thank goodness for air conditioning… Speaking of which, did you know that the first building to be air conditioned was in London…back in the … Continue reading
Well, have you? Swan Upping is the traditional census-taking of Mute Swans on the River Thames, wherein swans are rounded up, checked for bands or banded, and released. The king or queen of England, by ancient law and custom dating … Continue reading
I am an avid collector–and reader–of nineteenth century media. Give me an 1816 La Belle Assemblée or an 1810 Ackermann’s Repository of the Arts and Sciences, and I’ll be happy for hours: though the serialized fiction featured in them can be … Continue reading
One of the joys of leafing through the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a marvelous compendium of early 19th century British slang, is running across expressions and figures of speech still in use today that you would never guess were … Continue reading
One of the joys of writing historical fantasy is mining the past for tidbits and obscure events on which to hang a story…and one of the best places to do that is the wealth of magazines and other periodicals that … Continue reading
One of the most interesting people I “met” over the course of doing research for Evergreen is Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, known as “Mamie” to her friends. Mamie Fish, along with her frenemies Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Tessie Oelrichs, was one … Continue reading
Over the course of doing research on 19th century vocabulary, I ran across a fascinating fact about one of the most common casual expressions in use in modern times—“okay”. Or should I say “OK”? If I want to be 19th … Continue reading
I’m going to post a word, and I want you to tell me what mental image you get when you read it. Ready? Penknife. So what picture did you get in your mind? Maybe an object with short blades that … Continue reading