"At church he will ever sit where he may be seen best; and in the midst of the sermon pulls out his tables [notebook] in haste, as if he feared to lose that note; when he writes, either his forgotten errand, or nothing"

Rare 1600s complaint about people Being on Phone

(Joseph Hall, Characters of Virtues and Vices, 1608)

i find it so interesting how people act like "critically examining a piece of media" is the opposite of "enjoying that piece of media." rip to you but i actually find it really enjoyable and compelling to dissect and think through the art i engage with

ok no actually I do want to know your car's name if it has a name, and why. bikes and other vehicles also welcome! I had a bike named Mel after Mel Bush from Doctor Who, because it was red. I fell off and regenerated broke my arm

Hey do you guys want to see the wildest ever translation of the line Ad hanc te amentiam natura peperit, voluntas exercuit, fortuna servavit from Cicero's 1st Catilinarian Oration?

Joseph Alanen, The Defence of the Sampo, 1910 - 1912.

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo (sometimes known as Sammas) was a magical artefact forged by the “Eternal Hammerer” Ilmarinen that brought riches and good fortune to its holder: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kalevala

constantly making airy offhand comments to my preferred younger son about how he’s next in line for the throne after his brother but he still hasn’t killed my detested firstborn for me. kids these days have no fucking initiative.

I keep sending them off on “boar hunts” together and wouldn’t you know? they keep coming back after with big smiles and boar heads and the unmistakable stench of brotherly camaraderie. what sick sad days are these!

like most things the u.s. takes its fire safety systems from welsh mythos – fire alarms correspond to gwyn ap nudd, lord of dragons, and the sprinkler system is a manifestation of caswallawn, whose tears caused the flooding of the whole earth after he abandoned his lover to pursue kingship

the second the internet decided "language prescriptivism" was always classist and elitist, then descriptivism became always righteous and good, and any time language changed or evolved one must simply accept it because that is what language does, there is never any need to examine why it changed, what that change means, or who it serves.

artists of classics tumblr, someone should illustrate some of the characters from theophrastus. for example there is a description of the kind of person who "is apt to keep a jackdaw as a housepet, and buy it a little ladder and make it a tiny bronze shield to hold as the bird hops up the ladder" (characters 21)

thank you to people in the notes for pointing out that this is very similar to the "type of guy" genre of tumblr post. some other types of guy from theophrastus: