Down the Rabbit Hole, Part 2

 

(As I watch something or read something, my phone is usually close by.  I often read or see references to something that piques my interest or reminds me of some trivial knowledge that I knew already, and I go to the internet, or maybe Chatgpt, to find out more.  Follow me down the rabbit hole.)

Otto, King of Bavaria

In the episode of the "Mobituaries" podcast called "The Habsburg Jaw,"  about royal inbreeding, another royal mentioned is Otto, King of Bavaria ( 1848-1916).  Otto was the younger son of Maximilian II of Bavaria and Marie of Prussia, neither of whom took much interest in their sons' childhoods, except that Marie decreed that Otto would always wear red, and his brother Ludwig would always wear blue.  (Maybe to help her tell them apart?)  They were raised by household servants.  

Ludwig became King Ludwig II and ruled from 1864 to 1886.  Otto served in the military, traumatized by his experiences in the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War and suffering from depression and insomnia for the rest of his life.  This experience may also have contributed to his other psychological issues.  

During Ludwig's reign, Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck succeeded in unifying Germany into one state and making Prussian ruler Wilhelm I the Kaiser of Germany.  Both Ludwig and Otto despised the Prussians and Wilhelm, but really had little power to oppose the Iron Chancellor.  Meanwhile, Otto began expressing symptoms of psychological distress following his service in the Franco-Prussian War, and he was declared mentally ill.  He was pushed out of the public eye, making his last public appearance in 1875.  He was kept in seclusion in a couple of castles, while physicians and officials loyal to Bismarck looked after him.  Bismarck most likely orchestrated a coup that deposed Ludwig in 1886 and installed the boys' uncle Luitpold, whom Bismarck could easily control, as Regent.  Three days later, Ludwig died mysteriously, and Otto was officially crowned, but Luitpold continued to rule as Regent.

Otto's mental condition is still debated.  Today's forensic psychologists speculate that he may have suffered from schizophrenia and/or perhaps symptoms of syphilis. In any case, he was in no condition to rule.  Reports state that he spent most days believing he was a dog, barking, growling, and howling.  In 1912, Luitpold died, and his son (Otto's first cousin) Ludwig became Regent.  The Bavarian constitution was amended the next year to allow Ludwig to assume the throne as Ludwig III.  Otto died in 1916.

 The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

While reading James McBride's biography of James Brown, Kill 'Em and Leave, I read about the T.A.M.I. Show that took place in Santa Monica California on October 28-29, 1964.  The musical line-up was stellar and included pop and soul acts like Jan & Dean, The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Lesley Gore, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and the Famous Flames, and The Rolling Stones.

Even a couple of the backup go-go dancers would become famous later on:  actress Terri Garr and choreographer/singer Toni Basil.  Movie director Joe Landis and his buddy David Cassidy were in the audience as 7th graders.  Tickets were distributed for free to students at local junior high and high schools, and the show was filmed and made into a documentary for a very successful run in movie theaters.  

By that time, James Brown and the Famous Flames were stars on the "chitlin' circuit" performing to black audiences across the South and in the Northeast, only a few years after Brown put the group together in Toccoa Georgia, where his day job was school janitor.  The TAMI Show exposed Brown to a much wider audience.  His vocal and dance performance brought the house down, just before The Rolling Stones were set to take the stage and close the show.  Keith Richards has said many times that choosing to follow James Brown on stage was the worst career move that the Stones ever made.

 

The TAMI show from Youtube 

The Sarasota Assassination Society

Today, Sarasota Florida is often a punchline for comedians making jokes about the advanced age or wealth of its residents, e.g. Sarasota is "God's waiting room." In the late 1800s, Sarasota and the surrounding area of southwest Florida was still very sparsely populated by fishermen, ranchers, cowboys, and poor farmers.  Slowly, land developers and railroad builders moved in, forever changing the landscape and bringing in many more people.  Some locals began to resent and feel threatened by the development, and the Sarasota Assassination Society, also known as the Sarasota Vigilance Committee, was born.  Organized by Alfred Bidwell and Dr.  Leonard Andrews, the group may have had as many as 20 members who all swore oaths of loyalty and obedience, promising to do all they could assist fellow vigilantes carry out acts against the group's enemies and to help them get away with it by getting on juries, offering perjured testimony in court, and aiding escapes. While some committee members claimed that their targets were criminals and swindlers, they were likely targeted because their deaths would personally benefit the group's leaders.

The two most famous victims were Charles Abbe and Harrison Riley.  Abbe was shot in the face on the beach with a shotgun while painting his boat, and Riley was ambushed on a road, first shot off his horse and then having his throat slit.  Eventually, nine members of the group were indicted, leading to the trials of eight men, with three being sentenced to death, four receiving life sentences, and one being acquitted. Two of those sentenced to death later escaped from prison, and the remaining one had his death sentence commuted to life in prison.

I first heard of the group after reading Tony Dunbar's fictionalized account, The Story of the Sarasota Assassination Society.

 Lady Day = New Year's Day

From 1155 to 1752, January 1 was not New Year's Day in England, as I learned from a random video that popped up on my social media feed one day.  During those years, the New Year was celebrated on March 25, known as Lady Day, or the day of the Feast of the Annunciation in the western liturgical calendar.  This was the day set aside by the Christian church to commemorate the day on which the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her that she was pregnant with the Son of God.  Great Britain adopted the official Gregorian calendar in 1752, replacing the Julian calendar, and the Gregorian calendar marked January 1 as New Year's Day. (Scotland had already changed the date of New Year's Day in 1600 but kept the Julian calendar until 1752.)

"Mad Jack" Churchill

An old episode of one my favorite tv shows ever - British comedy panel trivia show "QI"- reminded me of John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, aka "Fighting Jack" or "Mad Jack" Churchill (1906-1996).  Churchill was a distant relative of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but the two had no close relationship. "Mad Jack" acquired his nickname as a British army officer during WWII because he charged into battle carrying a longbow, a broadsword, and bagpipes.  He left the army briefly in the late 1930s.  During this time he edited a newspaper in Kenya, worked as a male model, appeared in a couple of movies, and even won bagpiping competitions, but he immediately reenlisted as soon as Germany invaded Poland.  He engaged in major operations in Norway, Sicily, and Yugoslavia.  He was captured on a commando raid in Yugoslavia in 1944.  The only survivor of his unit, he played his bagpipes as German troops moved toward hi,  The Germans believed that he was a close relative of Winston and sent him to a special VIP POW camp, from which he escaped and was recaptured before being transferred to another camp for the remainder the war.  He was upset that as he was deployed to the Asian theater, Japan surrendered, ending the war.  He said,  "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"

Following WWII, he served in British Palestine for a while, appeared as an archer in the 1952 movie "Ivanhoe," and he became an internationally recognized surfing champion and innovator when he was stationed in Australia.  He officially retired from the military in 1959.

Jack, on the far right, in a training exercise landing, brandishing his broadsword 

Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba

Queen Nzinga  aka Njinga) (c. 1583-1663) is another subject that I was reminded of by the British trivia-comedy panel show "QI."  Nzinga was trained to rule from childhood in what is now Angola, and she assumed the throne following the death of her brother in 1624.  Her reign was a very tumultuous time in southwest Africa as the Portuguese encroached deeper into that region and exploited the slave trade.  During her reign, she led warriors into battle against the Portuguese and allied with the Dutch West India Company against them.  When the Dutch left Africa, she was forced to make peace with the Portuguese, and, in the process, it is estimated that she sold 200,000 captured prisoners to the Portuguese for the slave trade.

Today, she is remembered as a fierce and capable ruler who led African resistance to European conquest.  However, as is the case with many female rulers, it is often hard to separate fact from fiction since male chroniclers often go to great lengths to denigrate strong women and to besmirch their legacies.  Many stories about Nzinga were written and reported as historic fact, but their veracity cannot be proven.  One story that is most likely to be true is that during a meeting with a Portuguese governor, the governor sought to intimidate the Queen and "put her in her place" by forcing her to sit on the ground while he sat on a stool.  She simply ordered a servant to kneel and to become her stool.  Another plausible story is that she employed units of female warriors in battle.   This was not unheard of in Africa; the rulers  of Dahomey employed elite female units well into the late 19th century.

Other stories that may have been exaggerated or totally fabricated:

1.  She murdered her brother in order to become Queen.

2.  She murdered her brother's family and ate their hearts.

3.  She maintained a male harem of 50 - 60 men, often dressed as women.

4.  She forced the men in the harem to fight to the death for the right to have sex with her and then had the winner beheaded the next day.

It's difficult to know the entire truth.

(lithograph from the 1830s)

Moustache Cups

The other day, a cousin shared a picture of a couple of moustache cups that once belonged to her husband's ancestors.  It may have been my first time seeing one.

The moustache cup was a specialized cup for drinking coffee or tea that was popular in Victorian Britain.  It has a built in semicircular ledge inside designed to keep moustaches dry, and the ledge was actually called a moustache guard.  A British potter called Harvey Adams is credited with designing the first cups in the 1870s.  Moustaches were in fashion at the time, but there were two problems with drinking hot beverages:  1.  Moustaches were often waxed, and the heat would melt the wax, and 2.  Coffee and tea can stain moustaches.  From 1860 to 1916, the British Army required soldiers to grow a moustache, so moustache cups became quite popular, and there were numerous manufacturers in the UK and in the US.  Moustaches were required following the Crimean War because they were believed to convey strength, courage, and authority.  (Supposedly, some regiments even stockpiled artificial moustaches for men who couldn't grow their own.)

Due to the use of gas masks in WWI (Facial hair made making an airtight seal over the face difficult.) and the number of younger men drafted into service, the mandatory moustache was eliminated.  General Sir Neville MacReady also personally hated his own moustache and was in a position to abolish the rule, so he did.  Amongst the general public, moustaches also fell out of favor by the 1920s, so the demand for moustache cups plummeted.

By daveyll - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2629941 

 Cordell Jackson

A recent article in The New York Times brought Cordell Jackson to my attention.  (Link https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/obituaries/cordell-jackson-overlooked.html ).  Jackson (1923-2004) was one of the "Mothers of Rock and Roll,"  pioneering women who made blues, rockabilly, and rock music but, like many black male musicians of the era, they get very little of the credit that they so richly deserve.  Jackson is definitely worthy of inclusion in the discussion of rock history along with women like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Wanda Jackson, Big Mama Thornton, Memphis Minnie, Sippie Wallace, and Ruth Brown.

Cordell Miller Jackson was born in Mississippi, and she soon joined her father's string band, the Pontotoc Ridge Runners, playing guitar, piano, harmonica, and double bass.  In 1943, Jackson and her new husband moved to Memphis, and she became a real-life "Rosie the Riveter" in a defense plant, joined a band, and wrote and recorded songs.  When Sam Phillips pretty much ignored the demos that she sent to him in the earliest days of Sun Records, Jackson took advice from Chet Atkins who told her to start her own label.  She founded Moon Records in 1956, becoming the first woman to produce, engineer, arrange, and promote her own music on her own label.  She recorded in a home studio and brought in musicians from across the South to play on her records. Moon Records never became big, and she was forced to work various day jobs, but the company continued to operate up to her death in 2004.  Her music had a revival in the 1980s when "re-discovered" by a couple of DJs, and this led to national TV appearances, new recordings, and a bit of fame as America's "rock and roll granny."

Down the Rabbit Hole, part 1

 

 I usually have my phone nearby when I'm reading or watching something.  Not because anybody is ever going to contact me, but because I'm likely to read or hear a reference to something that piques my interest, and I have to look it up.  Like Alice, I go down that rabbit hole.  I'll post some of my interesting discoveries.  (Most of the info comes from Wikipedia, that's usually as far as I get.)

Gilles de Rais

Gilles de Rais (c.1405-1440) was a French knight who distinguished himself during the Hundred Years War.  As the Duke of Brittany, he was a member of the French court and became a top military commander, fighting alongside Joan of Arc, but there is little historical evidence detailing the exact relationship, if any, between the two.  In 1429, he was appointed Marshal of France.  By 1440, his fortunes had reversed.  In fact, his material fortunes disappeared and he was accused of malfeasance with family funds.  In May 1440, he assaulted a priest in his church during the seizure of a local castle, violating ecclesiastical immunities and infuriating Church and Crown.  In September 1440, he was arrested and tried in both ecclesiastical and secular courts for heresy, sodomy, and - here's the shocker - the murder of "one hundred forty or more children."  He and two servants were convicted and hanged in October.

Wait, What? Yes, according to testimony offered in court, Rais began dabbling in alchemy and the occult in the late1430s, even attempting to summon demons,  Participants in the black rites claimed that children's body parts were involved.  Peasants testified that their children disappeared after going to Rais' castle to beg for food.  Rais and his two servants all confessed to murdering children.  They were sentenced to execution and burning.  Rais was hanged, but his body was cut down before being consumed by fire, and he was buried in a monastery church in Nantes.  The church burial seems odd, but it was Rais' request, and the court granted it.  His accomplices were not granted the same mercy.  They were hanged, burned, and had their ashes scattered on site.

There are many questions about Rais and his crimes. There is no precise victim count, for example, and details about what actually happened are few.  Some investigators over the years have speculated that the charges could have been part of a plot hatched by the Duke of Brittany and the Bishop of Nantes, but there is little to no evidence of such a conspiracy.  Was it a frame-up or was Rais one of history's deadliest serial killers, or something in between?  We may never know.  

The Worst Superheroes Ever

So, the other day I said "(something) boy" - I can't remember what the something was - and our visiting daughter immediately said "Worst superhero ever!"  That sounded like a challenge, or at least another trip down another rabbit hole.  I started by asking Chatgpt who the worst superhero was.  The replay was something like "Some would argue that a possibility would be Arm-Fall-Off Boy."

Arm-Fall -Off Boy is a DC creation (funnily enough, so are the other three contenders for the "worst" title in my opinion).  AKA Splitter, he premiered in Secret Origins #46 in December 1989, and he's from the 30th century.  He has the ability to separate his limbs from his torso and to use them as weapons.  He only appears in a few comic books, but a character in The Suicide Squad movie is based on him.

Other contenders include Bouncing Boy (no explanation necessary), Color Kid who can change the color of any object, and Matter-Eater Lad who obviously can consume any matter.

Suddenly, the creator of The Wonder Twins, from my childhood Superfriends days, seems like a genius

.

Fly-Tipping

I'm a huge fan of British television shows, the quirky comedies, the cheesy sci-fi, the relentless murder mysteries that make every small British village seem like the most dangerous places in the world, but my favorite genre is the weird (for Americans anyway) mash-up of game show, panel discussion show, and comedy that seems so popular in the UK.  These shows feature brilliant comedians and public figures engaged in various discussions and stunts for laughs.  The sheer wit on display in any one of these shows dwarfs what passes for wit in the US.  I really think the genre doesn't translate to American tv because most American entertainers aren't up to it.  (A couple of copies did air in the US in the last year, but they even had British panelists, and "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" did have a great American run.)

Anyway, my favorite is probably "Would I Lie To You?" The panelists bluff their way through utterly ridiculous stories and try to determine if the stories are truths or lies.  A recent lie used the term "fly-tipping" - new to me, so, off to the rabbit hole.

Fly-tipping is simply the term in the UK for illegal dumping of garbage in non-designated garbage collection areas - fields, woods, roadside, other people's dumpsters, etc.  Apparently, it comes from the British slang "tip," meaning "to throw out of a vehicle" and the phrase "on the fly," meaning "on the wing" or "on the move."

Face Meat

I was watching an episode of "Taskmaster," a fantastic comedy celebrity competition-ish British show in which contestants are judged on how they complete ridiculous tasks, and one of the contestants asked for "face meat" in order to complete a task.  What?  Now, we Yanks know that Brits eat weird stuff that we think sounds disgusting (full English breakfast, flavorless canned beans with everything, eel pie, kidney pie, etc.), but face meat was new to me.

It turns out that face meat, sold in the UK as luncheon meat for kids, actually had its beginning in Germany when a company called The Feldhues Group created Billy Bear Ham, with a bear face.  Billy Bear was introduced in 1986.  They also sell Happy Lion, Happy tractor, and Happy Fox among other varieties and produce a variety of meats and cheeses.  The company opened facilities in Ireland and across Germany, and ownership has changed hands over the years.  Customers can also custom order meats and cheeses with their own imprinted images.

OK ...... ?

 The Shortest Story Ever

When this meme appeared on my timeline, I was reminded of the story about Ernest Hemingway and the shortest and saddest story every written.  Supposedly, Hemingway once made a bar bet that he could write a story in six words.  He won after writing on a napkin:  "For sale.  Baby shoes.  Never worn."

In fact, the first connection of this story to Hemingway only appeared in 1991, but versions of the story have been found dating back to at least 1908, with published versions in newspapers and magazines in 1910, 1917, and 1921.

1910, The Spokane Press

 I turned to Chatgpt and asked what the shortest short story ever written was.  The response was the Hemingway story.

Then, I asked "What's the shortest published poem?"  The answer was:

"The shortest published poem is often attributed to Muhammad Ali. He reportedly wrote a two-word poem, which goes:

"Me. We."

These two words, when considered in the context of Ali's life and the broader themes of unity and interconnectedness, carry a lot of depth despite their brevity." (Published in The National Enquirer in the 1970s)

It made me wonder: Can't a poem consist of only one word or even one letter? Why not? Why does poetry have rules?

Glass Piano Princess

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Mo Rocca's "Mobituaries,"  specifically the episode about the Habsburg Jaw and the effects of royal inbreeding, when a guest referred to the "Glass Piano Princess," Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (1826-1875).  She was the eighth child of King Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, of the Wittelsbach dynasty.  Alexandra never married, and she was appointed abbess of a religious community specifically for noble ladies.  In 1852, she embarked on a writing career, mostly writing and translating children's stories and plays and donating the proceeds to orphanages.

However, she also became famous because of her long history of mental illness. which manifested itself in numerous ways.  The least significant manifestations were a fixation on cleanliness and a habit of wearing only white clothing.  The most significant manifestations appeared in her early 20s, and they caused huge disruptions in her life.  She developed delusions that the had a full grand piano made of glass lodged in her stomach and a miniature sofa lodged in her brain.  How?  She believed that she had swallowed them as a child.  For the rest of her adult life, she sometimes went through periods during which she was too afraid to move, afraid that she would shatter the glass piano inside of her and destroy her internal organs.  Doctors had no luck convincing her otherwise, but they did succeed in convincing her that she expelled the mini-sofa.  They administered a strong emetic to cause vomiting and surreptitiously added a piece of dollhouse furniture to the results, but they couldn't think of a way to convince her that she could expel a grand piano.