Race you!

Humans in 18th century England were not terribly different from humans today. They did not have our technology, but they did "normal" things such as get married, have children, quarrel with their siblings, take vacations (if they were lucky at birth), work at hard manual labor (if they were unlucky), snub their neighbors, and so forth.

Despite these similarities, many of their customs and opinions will puzzle the modern reader, particularly the American readers. The British had some very strange assumptions! Or perhaps assumptions that simply seem strange in today's world. I'll see if I can't detail and demystify a few over the next couple weeks.

Blasted Thorns

I view this as a work-in-progress. If I ever go and get it officially published, I'll redo all the artwork from the beginning in a celtic knotwork/art noveau style. Mostly hand-drawn with less reliance on Photoshop. Probably hand-letter as well. But in the interest of updating 3x a week, this is the best I can do.

The Doctor's Bag

I mentioned a doctor's medical bag a few weeks ago in the Strychnine & Firearms Curiosa post. I finally had a look at it today and must sadly say, that it is not as old as I was told. When they said "full of tools" I was expecting a surgeon's bag, with knives and saws and such. Sadly, no.

Granted, the bag was old, if by "old" I mean "in poor condition." The bag may be older than its contents, but not, I think, by a huge margin. A canister inside had a patent date of 1906. There were some patent medicine bottles... strychnine, inoculant. A variety of needles. Several rolls of cotton thread, a well-rutted cake of beeswax. You would wax the cotton thread before stitching someone up. A wooden needle case containing a small bullet and something like a lightweight corkscrew. A wooden tool that may have been used for inoculation. A leather strap. Tourniquet? To bite down on? Who knows? One of the items was marked Germany. Perhaps it was a World War I medical bag. Anyway, I'm sorry I have no pictures. I will have another look at it next week. If I notice anything more I will add it then.

Alissa blows a gasket

 A....saxophone.... that runs on a ...player piano roll.....

WHAT. THE HELL. IS THIS.

Where ya been girl?

Thereby distracting Stephen from his troubles

Irreverant ramblings on Galadriel & Elrond

Stephen has 3 sisters. Allan has one. He refers to her as "that harpy."

One morning this week I suddenly asked, "What is with Galadriel & Celeborn??"
"They're married?" my husband helpfully supplied.
"He hardly had any lines! He just, like, welcomes them, and lets her do all the talking. She's definitely in charge. And everyone desires her. What is it like being married to this woman that everyone else fantasizes about? Poor guy."
I rambled on that line of thought for a while, then:
"She's Arwen's grandmother-"
"Great-grandmother-"
"So they've been married for ages, and maybe the spark died out centuries ago. Wait, if she's Elrond's grandmother, why is he ruling his own little valley instead of living in her forest?"
And so on, til: "And since he's Elrond half-elven, how come the full-blooded elves let him be in charge?"
"He has one of the rings of power. I doubt they have a choice."
Which put things in a whole new perspective. Elrond, autocratic despot. Bet you never knew.