quote [ This particular craze is perhaps an extension of the overall fascination with taxidermy, and the ways in which the Victorians pushed creative boundaries with the controversial practice. Complete tableaux featuring dead bunnies studying in a library, for example, were all the rage, and giving the animals human characteristics after death — reading, having tea, playing croquet — was especially popular. ]

quote [ The artists had apparently never seen elephants, but they featured prominently in bestiaries ]

quote [ Although largely forgotten today, exercise by club swinging was all the rage in the 19th century. Daniel Elkind explores the rise of the phenomenon in the US, and how such efforts to keep trim and build muscle were inextricably entwined with the history of colonialism, immigration, and capitalist culture. ]

quote [ A shipwreck brought Chinese immigrants to the Monterey area. Discrimination forced them to start over. ]

quote [ The Ardlamont murder was an open and shut case. A young, wealthy aristocrat, Cecil Hambrough, was out hunting on the Ardlamont estate in Scotland with two associates—Alfred Monson, his tutor, and a mysterious third man named Edward Scott, who was identified only as a friend of Monson—when shots were heard. ]

quote [ Once upon a time, in pre-revolutionary Paris, French prisoners were set free under the condition that they married prostitutes and emigrated with them to Louisiana. The newlyweds were chained together, escorted to the port and sent to the land of the free. This bizarre and little-known anecdote of history comes from the story of one of the earliest examples of an economic bubble that gave birth to the term, “millionaire“, first coined in 18th century France. ]

quote [ Pondering the nature of open tryouts, the back-door way for some athletes into the professional leagues. Do you have what it takes to make a go for it? ]

quote [ The chance encounter has led to insights on how insects make it to distant islands. ]

quote [ Phones are ringing off the hook at companies providing a bit of Big Brother. ]

quote [ In the days before it was realized that birds migrate, ancient scholars struggled to explain why some species of birds appeared and disappeared as the seasons changed. The idea that these little feathered creatures can travel thousands of miles in search of food and warmth was unimaginable. But the notion was not entirely an alien one. ]