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

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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.