Would more entertaining names for medications make them more effective? These are some great names from A Manual of Chinese Herbal Medicine: Principles and Practice for Easy Reference by Warner J-W. Fan, M.D.

From vol. 2 of the previously-mentioned book by Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, a section on the River Beer Sellers or Purl-Men: “It appears to have been the practice at some time or other in this country to infuse wormwood into beer or ale previous to drinking it, either to make it […]

Tufts U. seems to have a pretty nifty collection of digitized texts on historic London. BoingBoing readers highly recommend Punch’s Henry Mayhew’s account of the livelyhoods of London’s poor.

Paul Brians has taken those annoying errors of usage into his own hands with a website and book. This site just helped me answer a question, and reminded me that most of the grammar questions I am asked are based on usage and not on wanting to know and apply the basic rules. I liked […]

and the films. The Simpsons commentary tracks reminded me how much I appreciate Matt Groening’s good taste. The movie list clinches it.

Here’s the Books from the Life in Hell calendars mentioned earlier:

Yes, I finally got rid of my old calendars. I was saving them because they were the Life in Hell and Futurama calendars that have good book and movie recommendations in them. So I finally copied them down so I could toss the calendars. Science Fiction books recommended in Futurama 2004 and 2000: (If you […]

I listened to Frank Zappa’s album Broadway the Hard Way an awful lot in college, so no wonder confinement loaf popped back into my head. According to the song, it’s “bean by-products compressed into a loaf, which is administered to problem prisoners. Their diet will be a slice of ‘Confinement Loaf’ and a cup of […]

Source of many excellent digital poster archives, those groovy Socialist historians in the Netherlands present us with photos of Turkish migrant workers in the Netherlands between 1965 and 1975. No one can do sideburns like Turks in the 70’s! Bonus: the unintentionally-hilarious-in-English caption “Turks brood.”