everyone and their uncle has a tumblr

“In 1404, King Taejong fell from his horse during a hunting expedition. Embarrassed, looking to his left and right, he commanded, “Do not let the historian find out about this.” To his disappointment, the historian accompanying the hunting party included these words in the annals, in addition to a description of the king’s fall.“

LMFAOOOOOO rip to that guy

i thought maybe this was fake, but there’s even a citation!

Taejong Sillok Book 7. 5th year of King Taejong’s Reign (1404), February 8.

Happy 618th anniversary of the day King Taejong fell from his horse!

Apparently the recorders were really intense about this. We have a record of King Taejong complaining about a recorder who followed him on a hunt in disguise and another who eavesdropped on him behind a screen. No one was allowed to see the records, even the king (one king did and killed five men based on what was written there, after which they took greater care to ensure it would never happen again), and changing the content or disclosing it was a capital punishment. Even when there were rival political factions trying to influence the writers, they wrote down what was a revision and what wasn’t and kept an original version with no revisions in it.

They also made sure to back up their data. They made four copies of it, then when three copies were lost in the Imrim Wars they decided to make five more copies just in case. One copy was destroyed in a rebellion, another was partially damaged in an invasion, and Japan stole one copy during their occupation and moved it to Tokyo University, where it was mostly destroyed in the Kanto Earthquake (47 books remained and were returned to South Korea in 2006). Now the whole thing is digitized, free on the internet, and translated into modern Korean for all to see.

It took centuries of meticulous recorders, justifiably paranoid copiers, absolutely determined historians, and painstaking infrastructure for this joke to be possible. Happy 618th anniversary to the day King Taejong fell from his horse.

Happy 619th anniversary to the day King Taejong fell from his horse!

happy 620th anniversary of the day a king fell off his horse everybody

[sic] is my favorite editorial notation because of its inherent bitchiness.

(via @batmantaking-hobbits2gallifrey )

A very happy 150th birthday to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and major book collector Amy Lowell, one of our most important benefactors. Many of our literary treasures come from her collection, including a number of miniature books created by Charlotte Brontë (here styling herself "The Genius C.B.") as a child. And thanks to a generous acquisition endowment, we've been able to add to the collection in the nearly a century since her death.

Houghton also holds her own papers, including an example of the cigars she scandalized polite society by smoking in public. Sadly, we don't have the love letters she wrote to her partner Ada Dwyer Russell, as she ordered them destroyed after her death.

real

[ID User TechnoL33T says: Piracy can't be stealing if paying for it isn't owning]

the homies are melancholic and despondent and their sleep is troubled by visions

Fuck cottagecore, I want 80s fantasy film core. The sky is a strange hazy amber color, the foliage is purple, and everything is covered in an obscene amount of glitter. There are muppets and/or Hensonian creatures everywhere. Tim Curry is probably there. Everyone is dressed like they're going to a renaissance festival. There are wild chickens running around underfoot. I am the town bookseller, which basically means my shop is filled to the brim with dusty, leatherbound books that I will either sell or potentially give away to you, if you express sufficient interest in them. You read these books and then have magical coming-of-age adventures and save the world. You try to bring the books back later but I tell you to keep them. There are unicorns and fairies and goblins and giants and other feral magical creatures without names who want to eat you. Be safe out there.

Scotland stole a memorial pole from the Nisga’a Nation - but it’s now being returned which is good. Hopefully the first of many stolen things.

florence welch and ethel cain

Jeanne d’Arc - Eugene Thirion // Joan of Arc’s Death at the Stake - Hermann Stilke // Sun Bleached Flies - Ethel Cain

dishwashing affirmations

bro oh my god … vanilla extract

vanilla extract smells wonderful but tastes horrific on its own. but mixed with sugar and flour and cream it tastes just like it smells. we need the support of others to reach our full potential

no man is an island everyone is vanilla extract

Because sometimes we all just need to see a guy head-bump a beautiful Beluga whale

Note: that is not a lumberjack!!! Most likely it is a domesticated marine biologist, possibly a domesticated fisherman, (you can tell because it has been clothed in wool, which stays warm when wet, so it is is clearly well cared for).

While this may be appropriate enrichment for your DOMESTICATED and WELL TRAINED marine biologist or fisherman, please remember that lumberjacks may be tame, but are not domesticated. They are still wild, and they absolutely will freak out if they see you swimming around in their forests.

did you write this notice for the belugas or

Who else would I write it for? It’s not like orcas care about ethical wildlife photography.

I feel like neil gaiman’s regular presence on this hellsite is like… an unintentional secret that we all have. I never question it, and yet it’s just like… on your right you will see the queer podcast fandom. on the left you will see author of coraline and good omens and the sandman. yeah he’s here. yeah sometimes he’ll appear in your notes or respond to a shitpost when you least expect it. it’s fine.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Fun history facts: One of the 31 people arrested at Stonewall on June 28th 1969 was American folk singer Dave Van Ronk, who was not at the Stonewall Inn at the time and was cis & straight as far as I'm aware. He'd been eating dinner at a nearby restaurant when he noticed a riot happening, said "Well I suppose I should go see what the fuss is about," stepped outside, and immediately started throwing bricks at the cops.

van ronk is quoted as saying about the riots: "as far as I was concerned, anybody who’d stand against the cops was all right with me."