/u/EnclavedMicrostate's posts
'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' is going to get a sequel for some reason, and I've been seeing a few takes that the first book was actually quite problematic. What are the issues with it?
Mark as read: Add to a list
Every once in a while a website will claim that teeth extracted from dead soldiers at Waterloo supplied dentures across Europe for years. Is this a myth, and moreover why does it seem only Waterloo gets this treatment, as opposed to bigger Napoleonic battles like Wagram or Leipzig?
Mark as read: Add to a list
As of 2010, 81.9% of people in Taiwan spoke Hokkien at home, compared to 83.5% speaking Mandarin and 6.6% speaking Hakka. Why has Hokkien remained so popular despite, presumably, the emigration of mainland Nationalists in the 1940s? In addition, why is it not a national language when Hakka is?
Mark as read: Add to a list
In 1974, Fleetwood Mac temporarily disbanded, to be replaced with a 'New Fleetwood Mac' with neither Fleetwood nor Mac in it. Whose bright idea was it, why did they think it would work, what was the response, and what happened to the members of 'fake Fleetwood Mac'?
Mark as read: Add to a list
A lot of older hymns and songs in English appear to have rhymes that, to modern ears, don't actually exist except on the page – 'blood' and 'good', 'love' and 'move', for example. Did these rhyme at the time but have diverged, or were they always a bit contrived?
Mark as read: Add to a list
In the film 'Hail, Caesar!' (2016), there is one scene in which a Protestant, a Catholic and an Orthodox priest and a Jewish rabbi are consulted about the titular film-within-a-film's depiction of Jesus. How far did film studios in the 50s actually try to avoid offending religious sensibilities?
Mark as read: Add to a list
'In this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.' So wrote Voltaire in reference to the British admiral John Byng, who was shot in 1757 for 'failing to do his utmost'. But how much did Byng's execution change attitudes and practices in the Royal Navy?
Mark as read: Add to a list
A vomitorium was not, as commonly believed, a room where rich Romans went to induce vomiting in order to eat more, but rather a high-capacity entry/exit into/from a theatre. But how did the notion that vomitoria were for vomiting in come about? Was it purely a matter of mistaken English etymologies?
Mark as read: Add to a list
Postwar West Germany became home to considerable numbers of Turkish immigrants, and 3-7 million Germans today have recent Turkish ancestry. What drove Turkish migration to Germany? What led to Turkish immigrants settling down long term rather than a more seasonal or circular migration pattern?
Mark as read: Add to a list