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Original poster

Things that are utterly bloody fascinating

784 replies

ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 14:24

Let's hear it please - I love a good wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll start - The Willard Suitcases. Over 400 suitcases of possessions were found in an attic at the Willard Insane Asylum belong to patients who had died whilst inpatients so never left. The New York State Museum started a project to document the cases and their contents, and you can learn all about it and see the cases on their website.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
quirkychick · 08/03/2023 17:40

@KrasiTime the paternoster lift at Leeds University was out of action by the time I was there in 1989. An incident with a bike, I believe.

MrsMorton · 08/03/2023 17:11

Roussette · 07/03/2023 16:19

I'm quite fascinated by teeth. And how those before us centuries ago coped. They had wooden dentures and false teeth.
My dentist who is in his early 40s, is a seventh generation dentist, his dentist ancestors go back to the 1800s. Quite incredible. If he ever has time, (rarely) we do chat a bit, and he fills me in whilst giving me a filling! . The first dentist in his family in the 1800s was a barber and a dentist in the same shop!

We had a paternoster in the dental school (attached to the back of the dental hospital) in Birmingham. This nicely links your post with others!

I got stuck once because my instrument cabinet was too heavy. I graduated just over 16 years ago so fairly recent!

YouTarzan · 08/03/2023 16:16

peverted men like to throw money on the ground outside the mills when the women leave to watch the women scrabble on the ground/fight for the money as they dont wear underclothes

That doesn't make sense though. You'd have to be doing a handstand to show your nethers in one of those long skirts!

skeletonbones · 08/03/2023 15:24

AmandaJonah · 07/03/2023 01:48

How little is known about even fairly recent history of ordinary people. For example in Britain ordinary working class unmarried women used to let period blood run down their legs and this was seen as important to attract a husband.
liberationcollective.wordpress.com/author/lesleysmit/

On of the 'call the midwife' books talks about this. Theres an account of sister Monica Joan talking about men being attacted to the smell of menstruation and that peverted men like to throw money on the ground outside the mills when the women leave to watch the women scrabble on the ground/fight for the money as they dont wear underclothes and that some are menstruating.

Riverlee · 08/03/2023 15:17

One thing that fascinates me how every decision made changes your life. For example, when I was seven, my dad’s job relocated so we moved towns. I sometimes wonder how my life would have panned out if I grew up in my original town, with friends I knew from babyhood, different schools, hobbies, opportunities etc, rather than having to integrate into a new school, friendship group etc.

SlayB · 08/03/2023 14:31

TortolaParadise · 07/03/2023 08:43

There are videos posted on Youtube of a man who goes down storm drains and explores tunnels, underground train lines...even saw a river with boat and people underground. Can't remember the name of the poster but real fascinating stuff.

Do you know the name of one of his videos. Would it be in your library on YouTube I did
look but, I can’t find a man that does all those videos ? Anyone else help if you can’t remember ?

Madness101 · 08/03/2023 14:24

I love this thread, have saved it so I have something to delve into 🙂

My own one is a book called The Finest Road in The World, all about the roads in the Highlands from coffin roads, through General Wade and onto modern day. Every chapter is like a different rabbit hole.

I also love imagining how houses use to look when they were built. What each room’s purpose was and how it was to live in it. I’ve just got a new book by Bill Bryson about this

NeedWineNow · 08/03/2023 13:48

BabyTa · 08/03/2023 11:49

the five by hallie rubenhold about naming and giving a voice to the victims of Jack The Ripper, especially the fact very vulnerable women were branded prostitutes even though they weren't

I've got that on my Kindle ready for my holiday. Glad to hear it's worth reading. I've always quite fancied doing one of the Ripper walks. Has anyone done one?

GrannyWeatherwaxsHatpin · 08/03/2023 12:29

DailyMaui · 07/03/2023 22:24

The Spitalfields Life website is my black hole - I can spend hours and hours on there. I used to live near there and it is my favourite part of London - the layers and layers of history are fascinating. I've been on one of the Gentle Author's walking tours and it was really good. The books sold on the website are also a wonderful source of information about that area.

spitalfieldslife.com/

I'm also quite obsessed with Charles Booth's poverty maps of old London and wish they would do more series of "The Secret History of Our Streets"

Have you read Lucy Inglis’ “Into the Streets”? It started out as a blog, IIRC, but was then published as a book. It’s excellent!

SinnerBoy · 08/03/2023 12:14

k1233 · Today 08:07

Glass octupuses

They are pretty amazing, aren't they?

Original poster
ElizabethBest · 08/03/2023 11:57

@BabyTa I've read that, it was brilliant! I've read quite a bit of "ripperology" over the years, and never really got to know the real stories of the women themselves.

OP posts:
BabyTa · 08/03/2023 11:49

the five by hallie rubenhold about naming and giving a voice to the victims of Jack The Ripper, especially the fact very vulnerable women were branded prostitutes even though they weren't

k1233 · 08/03/2023 08:07

Glass octupuses

Things that are utterly bloody fascinating
KrasiTime · 08/03/2023 08:05

Great thread.

We had a paternoster lift at Leeds University. I Was there in the 80’s no idea if it’s still in use.

swedex · 08/03/2023 05:48

This thread is fabulous I'd love to spend time exploring all of it!
I love looking at old maps and comparing how places have changed

At the other end of the spectrum I follow whores of yore on insta and there's some fascinating stories about sexual activity in the past!

sashh · 08/03/2023 04:23

Deanandthellhounds · 07/03/2023 07:59

There was a butterfly or bird migration who would fly around a massive lake rather than cutting out several miles flying over it.
Scientists couldn't figure out why they didn't go over it.
Until they went way back in history and discovered that this lake used to be a mountain and the butterflies/ birds have followed the exact same path despite the mountain turning into a lake over years and years.

I was astonished!

Also I love mushrooms and fungi.
There is evidence that trees communicate using fungul networks of mycelium underground, a tree on one side of a forrest can warm trees the other side of the forrest, 40 miles away and those trees can make their leaves taste bitter or put up other defences before the pest is even close to them.
it's amazing.

Also a tree stump 'grandparent' can be sustained for years (decades) by theor 'grandchildren'. They share nutrients with fallen members. There's a great book about it.
hidden life of trees.

Show quote history

When Germany was two countries there was obviously a border with electric fences and guard towers.

These were taken down decades ago. But deer still act as if there is a barrier, they can see deer on the other side but don't cross.

So it is like they have a superstition.

OldFan · 08/03/2023 00:36

This is a bit more mainstream as I've heard there's Catfish on Netflix or something, but I got into it on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/@CatfishedOnline/videos about romance scammers. People can pretty much know the person is fake but they'll still carry on sending them money and messaging them etc.

If I ever got a scammer/wierdo on FB I would chat to them for a bit before posting what they came out with on a FB feminist group I was in. Grin

pleaseletmesleeptonight · 08/03/2023 00:20

Placemarking, so I can explore tomorrow, great thread.

dropthevipers · 07/03/2023 23:52

JoonT · 07/03/2023 22:58

I just found out that Charles Dickens visited my home town in 1862. He gave a reading in a local pub during a snowstorm and was then driven in a cart to catch a train back to London. Almost exactly 100 years earlier, Boswell and Dr Johnson stayed in the same pub on their way to Harwich, where Boswell boarded a ship for Holland.

I think the single most fascinating thing I know (thanks to Stephen Fry and QI) is that everything is made of atoms, yet atoms are mostly empty space. Also, the atoms that make our body change. It isn't just the cells (which also change). When you die, you are made out of different atoms from the ones that made you when you were at Primary School! So we're mostly empty space, and yet even that changes!!

remember someone saying on an edition of "Horizon" (science type TV programme) that if you took everything living on earth and removed all the empty space contained within atoms, then the amount of actual solid stuff would occupy the space of a single sugar cube. Had to go for a lie down after that.

JoonT · 07/03/2023 22:58

I just found out that Charles Dickens visited my home town in 1862. He gave a reading in a local pub during a snowstorm and was then driven in a cart to catch a train back to London. Almost exactly 100 years earlier, Boswell and Dr Johnson stayed in the same pub on their way to Harwich, where Boswell boarded a ship for Holland.

I think the single most fascinating thing I know (thanks to Stephen Fry and QI) is that everything is made of atoms, yet atoms are mostly empty space. Also, the atoms that make our body change. It isn't just the cells (which also change). When you die, you are made out of different atoms from the ones that made you when you were at Primary School! So we're mostly empty space, and yet even that changes!!

Peckhaminn · 07/03/2023 22:52

Crime junkies podcast I've listen med to for some time and the missing cases are overwhelming. How people - even in todays society's - just go missing without a trace. Considering the amount of CCTV etc.
There was a lady close to my home town who went missing in the middle of the twin centre during daylight and 4 years later theres absolutely no evidence or explanation to what happened to her. Her mum is still trying to solve it.

anythinginapinch · 07/03/2023 22:47

Fabulous thread.

I too am gripped by English language and it's changes - i offer this amazing video

Also, women's history of almost any type. Like this amazing diary of an American 17th C midwife Martha Ballard.

Also, The diaries of Victor Klemperer are amazing. A Jewish man who survived WW2 - and who kept a diary all his life; his Observations on the emerging language and use of language of the third reich is fascinating.

Also,

Mother87 · 07/03/2023 22:44

ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 14:24

Let's hear it please - I love a good wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll start - The Willard Suitcases. Over 400 suitcases of possessions were found in an attic at the Willard Insane Asylum belong to patients who had died whilst inpatients so never left. The New York State Museum started a project to document the cases and their contents, and you can learn all about it and see the cases on their website.

I read a novel recently, based upon this premise - can't remember the name anything these daysBlush but the story began with a rediscovered suitcase from an ex-patient in an asylum... It was very poignant/sad/a good read I thought

Weallhaveavoice · 07/03/2023 22:30

Misunderestimated · 07/03/2023 20:11

You might enjoy The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester.

Show quote history

thankyou
Theres another book for my list.
I am really enjoying this thread, so many interesting facts and loads of advice / books to read etc.