history

Today in History: May 13

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

There were probably many motivations behind Cardinal Richelieu’s decision: sometimes, one does not need one’s dinner guests to always be armed with daggers and knives, especially not at dinner. An angry guest can always retrieve his sword on the way out, the Cardinal may have thought.

It is believed by Henry Petroski, the historian of things, among other writers, that the Cardinal was irritated by the disgusting habit some of his dinner guests displayed of picking their teeth with their daggers and the blades they ate with.

On this date in 1637, Cardinal Richelieu ordered his house staff to grind down and round off the sharp ends of his dinner knives, which led to an instant invention: the table knife, which is used to cut one’s meal but not stab at it and convey the chunks to one’s mouth, and can not be used to settle violent disagreements.
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Today in History: May 12

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

According to WikiSimpsons, the online encyclopedia of all things related to The Simpsons and the Simpsons, Homer Simpson was born on this date in 1952, which of course means that he remains the same age today that he has been since his family made its first appearance on April 19, 1987: somewhere around 36. The Simpson family’s appearance has developed through the years, however; above is a photo of the Simpsons from The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.
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Generation X?

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“You’d really hate an adult to understand you,” one girl named Susan is quoted as saying. “That’s the only thing you’ve got over them—the fact that you can mystify and worry them.”

Others are quoted as saying things like, “Marriage is the only thing that really scares me,” and, “Religion is for old people who have given up living,” or, “I’d prefer to do something for the good of humanity,” and, “You want to hit back at all the old geezers who tell us what to do.”

Man, those millennial kids today have so much anger! Except each one of these quotes comes from a book published in 1964 in the United Kingdom called “Generation X.”
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