The Victorian Murder Bottle...!

Did you ever get some advice from someone that turned out to be very bad for ya? Boy, the Victorians sure did! As this article from Listverse points out, the worse advice came from someone called Mrs Beeton, the household guru of the day.

Baby Bottles

Photo credit: Baby Bottle Museum

Roman mothers used hollow horns to feed their babies, and baby bottles were nothing new in Victorian times.[2] What was new was a special glass bottle fitted with rubber tubing and a teat. The idea was the infant sucked on the rubber tube, like sucking cola through a straw.

These bottles were backed by a popular marketing campaign and given names such as “The Little Cherub” or “The Princess.” Mothers loved how an infant could feed themselves; it was a source of great pride. These feeding bottles became the go-to accessory for the modern Victorian mother—but with deadly consequences.

There was a basic design flaw: The rubber tubing was set into the glass and nearly impossible to clean. Inside the bottle, warm milk made it the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The advice given by Mrs. Beeton, the household guru of the day, didn’t help. Writing in 1861, she declared it wasn’t necessary to wash the bottles for two to three weeks.

The result was babies drinking a soup of bacteria, often with fatal consequences. Indeed, the bottles soon gained another name: “murder bottles.” This, along with the condemnation of doctors, should have stopped their use. But it didn’t. Sadly, many mothers were taken in by advertising and continued using them regardless.

It seems to me that the smell of sour milk remaining in the bottle would have been enough of a signal to the mothers to clean the bottles, no matter how hard it must have been. Not enough common sense, I guess.

Coffee inside once again. The rain just keeps on coming!

The Prince Of Hangmen...!

Many of the bad guys of the old west had to meet the hangman at some point in their career, but I'm sure they were in no hurry to do so. Still, when the time came, they would be lucky to get a hangman with enough experience to earn the name "Prince of Hangmen." Here from Listverse is the brief story of this hangman.

George Maledon

Photo credit: True West Magazine

He was called the Prince of Hangmen, but much of his story is unknown. George Maledon probably began hanging men in the state of Arkansas in 1873. Some accounts claim that he hanged 50 men during his career, while other reports say he hanged 88 men before he retired in 1891.

Unlike other hangmen, Maledon appeared to take his job seriously. According to a newspaper article published in 1896:
A hanging by Maledon was worth going miles to see. It was a thing of scientific beauty. From the moment the subject began to prepare for the march to the scaffold, the little Dutch hangman was at his heels. He had been up before daylight, greasing his ropes, oiling the hinges of the gallows trap, and adjusting and readjusting his noose.

Maledon was always eager for the job to get done. If the condemned would falter in any way, Maledon would say, “Oh, come on, now. It’s nothing at all. You won’t feel it, and I’ll have it all over in a jiffy.”

Experience taught Maledon how to kill with a noose. He had bungled his first few executions, with one man slowly choking to death and another man nearly decapitated by the fall. To ensure a quick and bloodless death, Maledon began practicing his technique on bags of sand, each bag weighing anywhere from 41 to 102 kilograms (90–225 lb). After his study of weights and heights, hanging the condemned became almost second nature to him.

More than likely he even used a new rope to do the actual hanging. Just speculation on my part, you understand.

Coffee inside again today!

The Cat Connection...!

As you know, I have a cat...several cats, as a matter of fact. I like having them around, and even feed the almost feral cats outside. I finally discovered why I like them so much in this article from Listverse.

Cats Are Often Our Main Connection To Nature

Despite being man’s best friend, dogs haven’t become nearly as Internet popular as cats. Dogs and humans evolved alongside each other and and (most) dogs are smart enough to figure out how to coexist with humans so easily that there’s really not that much strangeness compared to living with a cat.

But when we have pet cats, we are living with tiny pumas. As we noted, humans have become so far removed from nature that we often don’t even think about nature until we’re shoveling snow or bracing for a hurricane. We have the same brains as our hunter-gatherer ancestors but can go for days at a time without really venturing outside, even though being in nature often makes us feel happier. Sharknados aside, we’ve pretty much removed ourselves from the food chain. But by surrounding ourselves with cities and walls, we’ve also erased our connection to all the other animals on this planet. It’s lonely at the top.

Cats are our furry little reminders that there’s a whole animal kingdom outside our walls. Knocking over papers, sleeping on laptops, or breaking into the pantry and eating all the Rice Krispies provides us with a much-needed connection to the wild world. So, thanks cats, for reminding us where we came from and who we really are.

I think this article pretty much says it all for me. Makes a lot of sense to this old man!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning once again.

He Left But Came Back...!

Many times what starts off as a good mystery becomes even a better mystery when solved. That is the case in this article from Listverse.

Jacque Verges

Photo credit: Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Jacque Verges was one of France’s most controversial lawyers, until he died of a heart attack in August last year. He was nicknamed “The Devil’s Advocate” for taking on clients like Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, and terrorist Djamila Bouhired, whom he saved from from being sentenced to death for bombing innocent people. Because of cases like these, it should come as no great surprise that Verges was well known by the public and closely watched by the media. It would be natural to assume that when he went missing in 1970, it was by the hand of one of the countless enemies he likely racked up over the years. Only we know for certain that that’s not what happened, because eight years after disappearing, Verges reemerged and carried on with his life as if nothing happened. He began practicing law again in 1979, still defending the worst people he could find, such as his old friend Khieu Samphan, who was convicted of committing genocide while he led the Khmer Rouge, a Cambodian communist party.

Many theories have been put forward as to where Verges was for those eight years. Some say he was an advisor to Pol Pot, another former leader of the Khmer Rouge, who was in power from 1975 to 1979. Others claim he was trained by the KGB. Verges himself never explained where he was for those eight years, simply saying that he was on holidays “very much to the east of France.” He also said he enjoyed reading his own obituaries, and the fact that nobody had any idea where he lived for almost a decade.

So where do you reckon this ol' boy was hiding all those years...and why? Strange stuff, for sure!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning!

To Help You Stay Warm...!

Here from history is a bit of a fashion tip for those living in colder areas. I'm not sure how practical is really is, but I reckon the only way to tell is to try it!

Greenlandic Seal Fur Thongs

Photo credit: atlasobscura.com

Mostly, clothes have become skimpier throughout history. But the modern thong is a surprisingly old innovation that Greenlandic Inuits have been rocking for several hundred years.

The naatsit is a traditional G-string-like undergarment made of seal fur, chosen for its durability and not-too-hot and not-too-cold level of insulation. It’s stitched together with reindeer or whale sinews and made fashionable with decorative beads or the head of the seal attached to the codpiece.

Men and women both wore the undergarment. They might conceal it beneath a thicker pair of seal fur trousers or just sport the naatsit itself when chilling about the house, much to the shock of visiting Danish missionaries.

I'm just guessing here, but these must have been comfortable. Not sure about how warm they were, though.

Coffee in the kitchen this morning.

Along With The Riches Comes Guilt...!

I really don't believe for a moment that when someone invents something that makes them rich that they feel any guilt at all. Even when they find out that the product they invented is totally out of control. Somehow I just can't place rich and guilty together in the mind of most folks.

K-Cups

If any of us had invented a product that was helping to devastate the environment, we might well feel regret about it, and so it is for the inventor of the Keurig pod, more commonly referred to as the K-Cup. The man in question is John Sylvan, who developed the idea for the single-use plastic coffee pods during the early 1990s. The concept ended up being worth billions. The big problem with these pods is that the plastic that is used to manufacture them is not biodegradable and generally can’t be recycled, and thus, it ends up as waste.

As with so many of the other visionaries on this list, Sylvan now argues that he did not realize his invention would become so big in the US that around one in three homes has a machine for the pods—he saw them as something that would only be used in offices. Then again, he also admits that he knew that their easy disposability and the addictive nature of coffee would almost certainly make them a success, so it does seem like he could probably have guessed at the actual outcome.

Don't get me wrong. I like the coffee pods and use them myself from time to time, but I'm not buying his argument that he feels guilty they got so popular and became a problem for the environment. Surly he was smart enough to see the possibility.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. No guilt trips allowed, though.

Check Out This Burger Recipe...!

One of my all-time favorite meals is a great big juicy ol' hamburger. I haven't had one in a while and this article from AtlasObscura reminded me of that fact. I'm just crazy enough to think that I would like to try this burger, ya know?

Guberburger

A now-shuttered Missouri drive-in brought local acclaim to patties topped in peanut butter.

One small drive-in burger joint in the city of Sedalia, Missouri, introduced fast-food fans to a peanut butter–slathered hamburger known as the Guberburger. The Wheel Inn, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Kansas City, attracted customers with their well-loved patties, the most unique of which featured peanut butter, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato as its signature toppings. Hungry drivers pulled up for roadside service from the 1940s until 2007, when a highway expansion project compromised the building.

A former employee took the initiative to reopen The Wheel Inn in a new location, extending the guberburger’s life for a few more good years. Unfortunately, the second location shuttered in 2013. Even though the original location and the business behind the guberburger are gone, other local joints have taken it upon themselves to keep the legacy alive. You can still find peanut butter–topped hamburgers at eateries in Sedalia today, a result of The Wheel Inn’s nearly 70 years as a local staple.

I reckon many folks will hate the thought of peanut butter on a burger, but I think it might be kinda tasty! Might have to try this one at home, ya know?

Coffee out on the patio this morning.