Subterranean beavers are an unlikely, but not impossible, mining hazard. (from Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies, R. Brown, 1973)

*world's loudest groan* (The Saint Paul Globe, August 8, 1880)

Is one often unsure of one's mayonnaise? (Spokane Chronicle, June 21, 1926)

A thread of predictions for 2026 from 1926: "Machines will care for [man's] personal needs...flashing him radio-movies of the day's news as it happens" (Montana Record-Herald, July 28, 1926) (1/?)

I'm at the make-quince-jam-for-the-first-time-on-a-whim stage of furlough.

Currently on page 53. Will I finish this 918-page book before the shutdown ends?

Part of the reason I haven't been able to post much: I have been sans personal computer for many months. Behold, my new baby!!

Sometimes the big boss walks into your office randomly and you have to pretend you're working and not reading the wikipedia page list of people who disappeared mysteriously: 1910–1990

When's the last time you had a Chum Chip, a Wisecrack or a Party Poop? (1950)

Weird! House! History!!! history.house.gov/Blog/2025/Se...

Continuing to New England (as a verb)

New England Things I Saw Today A sign outside a diner that said: BUFFALO CHICKEN OMELET HELP WANTED And now I'm going to think about that forever.

Saw this neon sign lit up at night in NH and it cured what ails me. (Photo and story from indepthnh.org/2016/01/09/t...)

The joy of collecting stickers is only second to the joy of finally having a perfect use for said stickers.

(ad from the 1945 Colorado Springs Telephone Directory, Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company)

DC isn't ready for the 1970s bowling shirt flair that I'm about to bring.

Did you know you can get REGULAR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE from S&M Egg Ranch? (1940s city directory ad)

Would anyone be interested in viewing a photo archive of greeting cards from the 1930s-1980s? Asking as someone who has just inherited literally hundreds of my great-grandmother's cards...

Minnesota State Fair: the quackening

if none of the pasta shapes get a majority, it's first pasta post

Good moon alert!!

Perhaps biking 17 miles in one day is too much for someone who just got a bike a month ago.

Recent stress relief: Reading the Largest Prehistoric Animals article on Wikipedia, opening the entries for random animals and going, "Wow, that sure is a big, huh." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest...

Soda Water Time Soda Water Place (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, August 3, 1905)

Old ads that make you go hmmm: Clown croquet cookie campaign?

House: motion to adjourn for 9 years Senate: motion to adjourn for −20 years

Highly recommend Shark: the Illustrated Biography. You get to learn about how many weird sharks there are/ were and it's great.

Left to right: architects A. Stewart Walker, Leonard Schultze, Ely Jacques Kahn, William Van Alen, Ralph Walker, D.E.Ward and Joseph H. Freelander dressed as the buildings they designed at the 1931 Beaux Arts ball.

*pops up out of the grass* ... hello?

I have some really excellent 1931 newspaper stuff to share if I can just stand to be online for any length of time

Just saw the @dropouttv.bsky.social live improv show, and it was so so so good! Thank you to the cast for making this terrible week in DC a little better!!

THE CHAPEAU DE CORN (Puck Magazine, September 15, 1886)

Look! At! That! Mooooon!

Hansard - reminding you that MPs used to make barnyard noises during debates (1885)

A photo history mystery. Can any of my friends & colleagues help Kevin?

That's a heck of a job title. @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social

Excuse me, they did WHAT NOW? (Ronan Pioneer, Ronan, Montana, January 2, 1925)

The "local brevities" section is always a delight. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Honolulu, Hawaii, Feb. 17, 1904)

A remarkably early English language newspaper appearance of "baka," the Japanese word for idiot: (Mountain Home Republican, Mountain, Idaho, Jan. 2, 1925)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Bring back the weird little filler lines at the bottom of newspapers! (Mountain Republican, Mountain, Idaho, Jan. 2, 1925)

New Year's Day going SWELL over here (doing my first-ever Lego kit at 31)

I made some little charts with the reading data I've gathered over the last five years! 2024 was a banner year for comics consumption, but we may never match 2019's book level again.

What People Thought Would Happen in 2025 (a thread!)

My used book came with a bookmark!

Welp, I got COVID at Thanksgiving and my five year streak has been broken. 💔 This either means LOTS of history posts this weekend, or none as a cough and cough and cough...

Obsessed with this 13th century Byzantine bowl with a running sphinx on it that I saw today.

What People Thought Would Happen in 2025 (a thread!)

I tried to take a dramatic DC morning photo but the Monument looks like the leaning Tower of Pisa.

He was named Takelot but he Leftlittle. (From Eric Cline's "After 1177 BC")

I realized I should reintroduce myself since there are more people here now. I'm a historian and former journalist, and I mostly share weird history and things I learn about food! I like old newspapers (it's in the name), cookbooks, and things in the public domain.