Posts by Pamela
From the Archives: Lovelace, Babbage and Steampunk Comics (with a little grumble about Lord Byron)
Today is the 230th birthday of George Gordon, Lord Byron, and bits of his history are popping up here and there all over the internet. There are lots of good (or bad) stories to tell. He was a poet when poets were rock stars of the sex, drugs and iambic pentameter variety. And he was…
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Napoleon on the Art of War
Today I wandered down a research rabbit hole, as I so often do. I would argue that this is not because I am easily distracted but because I am easily focused. I get on the trail of a factoid or an idea and don’t let go. Even would it would make sense to do so.*…
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From the Archives: Word with a Past – Silhouette
I’m poking around in the long eighteenth century these days and stumbling across lots of surprising tidbits. Take silhouettes. I had long known that charming likenesses cut from black cardstock became a popular and affordable alternative to oil portraits in the mid-eighteenth century. To the extent that I thought about the word at all, I…
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