What gift did the last ruling German royal give his gay lover? A vase. From the 1880s, Queen Victoria's first grandchild and future Emperor Wilhelm II had a relationship with Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg. This ended two decades later due to the Harden-Eulenburg […] [Original post on toot.garden]

How many David Bowie masks does one museum need? Apparently, over 20. The V&A has a series of masks, some representing the different characters Bowie played as a rock star. Bowie was trained in drama, mime, and dance, and he understood music as performance art […] [Original post on toot.garden]

What adventurous setting inspired many children's toys? Outer space! Toys from the 2 decades in which human spaceflight went from science fiction to reality—the 1950s and 1960s—added lights and sound, while Japan's toy manufacturers perfected the small motors […] [Original post on toot.garden]

How did 1600s Dutch households keep their fire embers from going out at night? With a curfew. Yes, it's a pun. Curfews were metal covers that kept fire embers smouldering overnight, to be revived for the next day's cooking and heating. The word curfew comes from […] [Original post on toot.garden]

Would you carry plant oil and perfume in tiny bottles around your neck? Romans did. Perfume was used for its sensual pleasure, but also burned with offerings to appease the gods, and to ward off disease. Rather than alcohol, the base of Roman perfume was oil […] [Original post on toot.garden]

What does it take to design artistic mass-market goods? Producibility. For his designs of household appliances and kitchen gadgets, Italian Pino Spagnolo looked beyond aesthetic and emotional factors to the cost of materials, which affects the final price of the […] [Original post on toot.garden]

What could a bow shoot, besides arrows? Stones or pellets. Pellet bows propel a pebble or clay pellet from a silk pouch on a double string. The artistry is both in making the bow and string and in the shooting technique, or khatra. On releasing the string and […] [Original post on toot.garden]

What was singer Eartha Kitt known for, besides the definitive rendition of Santa Baby? Acting and activism. There's her growling purr, a half-dozen songs on the 1950s pop charts, roles on stage and screen—famously as Catwoman to TV's Batman—and as a voice actor […] [Original post on toot.garden]

Can a cookie tin be a work of decorative art? Yes. When the UK's Licensed Grocer's Act of 1861 first allowed the sale of individually packaged groceries, decorative cookie tins ("biscuit tins" in the UK) got their start. These simple metal boxes were soon […] [Original post on toot.garden]

Which rock guitarist only took up playing at age 20? Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix grew up poor and Black in the USA's Pacific northwest. At 19, he found himself in court facing a choice of 3 years in prison or 2 years in the Army—during the Vietnam war. He chose Army […] [Original post on toot.garden]

Which relative did Napoleon execute? A brother-in-law. Carolina, said to resemble her brother in political astuteness, lost her husband due to her own ambitious miscalculation. Carolina's rise began at 17 with her marriage to Napoleon's officer, Joachim Murat […] [Original post on toot.garden]

A beer jug promoted anti-slavery? Yes. John Turner made this jug around the 1800s in what's now Stoke-on-Trent. Then, its coal-fired potteries caused heavy air-pollution and hazardous working conditions typical of England's industrial revolution and continuing […] [Original post on toot.garden]

Who calls herself "a voracious she-centaur"? Grace Jones. Known for her distinctive androgynous appearance, bold features, and driving musical style, the Jamaican singer-songwriter started as a model in New York. From New York she went to Paris. Jones modelled […] [Original post on toot.garden]

A nude drag queen as political commentary? Yes. In 1996, Dame Edna Everage (performer Barry Humphries) posed in the nude for Lewis Morley, imitating Christine Keeler's infamous 1963 pose. Keeler was sexually involved with a UK minister, a Soviet naval attaché […] [Original post on toot.garden]