John Cox

Blogs · @wyome · Now · Shelf

Tagged history · everything

Interesting

Curtis Wright Maps

Texoma-Land Playground of the Southwest - Curtis Wright Maps

This is a dealer listing for a 1949 pictorial aerial-view map of Lake Texoma, the reservoir on the Texas–Oklahoma border created by Denison Dam, published as a promotional brochure by the Lake Texoma Sportsmen's Club under the name "Texoma-Land, Playground of the Southwest." The map sells the region as a vacation destination, with its lake, ranches, oil fields, caves and towns linked by labeled highways and railroads, and with distant cities like Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Chicago drawn in at the horizon. It was lithographed in color by MWM Color Press of Aurora, Missouri, and has a simple fishing guide for local anglers on the back. The copy is rated B-, with fold wear, toning and some image loss near Denton, and high-resolution scans are available for purchase.

Permalink historytexasoutdoor

Mental Floss

8 Expressions Our Grandparents Used That Are Disappearing

A tour of eight idioms common to our grandparents' generation that are fading from use, including "the bee's knees," "cooking with gas," "mind your P's and Q's," and "you make a better door than a window." Each gets a short origin story: 1920s animal slang, a 1930s gas-stove ad slogan, a Frank Robinson baseball quip, and a Jerry Lee Lewis song. The piece also argues that "peanut gallery" is better left behind, since it comes from the cheap vaudeville seats where Black Americans and other minorities were typically seated.

Permalink culturehistory

The Civil War | Ken Burns | PBS

The Civil War | All Episodes Now Streaming | Ken Burns | PBS | The Civil War | Ken Burns | PBS

This is the PBS landing page for Ken Burns's nine-episode documentary *The Civil War*, which premiered in September 1990 to about 40 million viewers and won 40 major awards, including two Emmys and two Grammys. It describes a five-year production covering the war's causes, battles, homefront, and aftermath, and notes the fully restored version that aired in 2015. Most of the page is a hub of companion resources: timelines, casualty facts, primary documents like the Gettysburg Address and the Sullivan Ballou letter, biographies, battle maps, archival photos, an episode guide, and pieces on the 4K restoration from 16mm film and on the music, including "Ashokan Farewell."

Permalink historyfilmdocumentarymilitary

Consequence

Director James McTeigue on How the V for Vendetta Mask Became a Global Symbol of Protest

Plays from YouTube. Nothing is loaded from Google until you press play.

In a interview timed to the film's 20th-anniversary re-release, director James McTeigue explains how the Guy Fawkes mask was made to work on screen (lighting tests, glossy versus matte finishes, and Hugo Weaving acting through voice and body with no visible face) and why it spread beyond the movie into the Arab Spring, Occupy, Hong Kong, and anti-Scientology protests. He credits the film's box-office reach with turning Lloyd's comic design into a symbol of collective anonymity, and argues it was an "anti-superhero" film ahead of the genre's saturation. The piece also notes the irony that Warner Bros., and now Skydance, profits from a protest emblem.

Permalink historyfilmmovies

Popular Science

In 1934, a doctor brought a dog back to life. He tried to do the same with humans. | Popular Science

Robert Cornish, a Berkeley prodigy, spent the 1930s trying to revive the dead with a see-saw "teeterboard" combined with injections of oxygenated saline, adrenalin, and heparin, plus rescue breathing. After failing on three human corpses, he practiced on a series of fox terriers all named Lazarus. Lazarus II came back for about eight hours, and Lazarus IV and V survived a few months, though blind and brain-damaged. The piece traces his brief celebrity (including a 1935 film), his removal from campus after animal-rights protests, and the refusals of several states and San Quentin to let him revive executed prisoners, after which he moved on to selling toothpaste. A cardiac-care specialist explains how modern CPR differs: chest compressions come first, timing matters, and the teeterboard was never adopted.

Permalink historyscience

dbourdeau.github.io

Cyphersolver — Unsolved Historical Ciphers: an open ledger of decipherments, contributors and corrections

A running public ledger, begun September 2026 by Daniel Bourdeau with Claude, that logs attempts on 496 historical ciphers (1398–1991) and records for each how the text was obtained: 162 keys recovered by cryptanalysis, 213 read with keys or decipherments that already existed, 89 closed without a reading, with every write-up saying why. It now takes outside contributions and keeps an open catalogue of 84 undeciphered letters. Its adjudication of the Voynich manuscript concludes it is probably meaningful-looking nonsense rather than a disguised language, since the text is far too predictable for any simple cipher of the European languages tested.

Permalink historyresearch

The Art of Manliness

50+ Old Fashioned Insults We Should Bring Back

This piece catalogs 50 colorful 19th-century insults drawn from historical dictionaries, arguing that modern English has lost vivid, inventive put-downs in favor of tired expletives and generic slurs. The insults range from creative descriptors of character flaws (like "afternoon farmer" for someone who misses opportunities) to observations of physical awkwardness ("duke of limbs"), with bonus examples of Theodore Roosevelt's particularly colorful invective. The author suggests these bygone terms deserve revival for their cleverness and specificity compared to contemporary name-calling.

Permalink culturehistoryvintagehumor

kk.org

Belushi / Timeline: A Visual History of Our World – Cool Tools

This issue's first entry reviews Belushi: On a Mission from God, a graphic novel biography by Alberto Schiavone and Matteo Manera, arguing that the book deliberately sidesteps the "why" of John Belushi's drug use in favor of his distinctive absurd-yet-comforting comedy and his meteoric rise. The second entry is Mark Frauenfelder's and Lora Poser-Brown's companion piece on Timeline: A Visual History of Our World, a children's picture-spread history by Peter Goes praised for its minimalist, two-accent color palettes, curving text, and surprising historical tidbits such as Mont Blanc's old name, "Mon Maudit." Together they form a short roundup of books that the reviewers think are best experienced in print.

Permalink historycomicsbooks

The Saturday Evening Post

The Surprisingly Complicated History of the Frisbee

Walter Morrison invented the modern Frisbee in 1946 by applying aerodynamic principles he learned as a fighter pilot to improve upon a casual game he and his wife had played with cake pans and popcorn lids in the 1930s. After Morrison sold his design patent to toy company Wham-O in 1957, the disc gained unexpected popularity on college campuses where students had already been throwing pie tins branded with the Frisbie Pie Company logo, leading Wham-O to adopt and rebrand the toy with the now-familiar spelling. Ed Headrick, who joined Wham-O in 1964, redesigned the Frisbee's rim to create the modern version still used today and later founded disc golf, an offshoot sport that traces its own origins back to tin lid throwing games in Canada.

Permalink designhistory1950s

aeon.co

The politics of masculinity at the end of the Roman republic | Aeon Essays

This piece argues that Roman masculinity was never a fixed, unproblematic ideal but a contested performance, using Cicero as its case study: his oratory, his exile and his daughter's death, and his late philosophical turn all show a man repeatedly redefining what counted as manly. Its central point is that the modern nostalgia for a Golden Age of shared manhood misreads the ancient world, where virtus, self-control and public speech were as anxiously policed as they are today. The distinctive thread is Cicero's own framing of grief and political loss as emasculating, and his claim that bearing those feelings bravely was itself the truest form of manliness.

Permalink philosophyhistorypolitics

punchdrink.com

It’s Time to Bring Back These Underrated Classics

This roundup gathers the "Deep Cuts" column's picks of overlooked pre-Prohibition and mid-century cocktails that contemporary bartenders are resurrecting and reworking, arguing that the revival era's obsession with Savoy and Jerry Thomas classics left plenty of worthy recipes behind. It spans decades and spirits—from a New Orleans Martini variation (the Obituary) and a tequila-swapped highball (Dauphine's Roffignac) to obscure aperitifs, sours and punches—each given a modern tweak by a working bartender. The value here is as a reference list of drink names and one-line hooks to track down full recipes and techniques later, rather than a single argument.

Permalink recipeshistorycocktailsunderrated

www.theguardian.com

Apocalypse no: how almost everything we thought we knew about the Maya is wrong

Recent advances in archaeology, particularly Lidar laser mapping technology, have revealed that the classic-era Maya lowlands (AD 600-900) supported between 9.5 and 16 million people—five times the current population of the region and comparable to the Roman Empire at its peak—upending decades of theories that rainforests could not sustain complex civilizations. This archaeological transformation has become politically charged in Guatemala, where the Maya constitute 44% of the population and their newly documented sophisticated urban networks, agricultural systems, and resilience are being mobilized by Indigenous leaders and a sympathetic government to challenge centuries of marginalization and demand recognition as the original inhabitants entitled to land, self-determination, and a reimagined constitutional order based on ancestral concepts like "the good life."

Permalink historyreadarchaeology

www.inverse.com

The oral history of Wolverine, the unlikely superhero who saved the X-Men

# Summary Wolverine's journey from a minor Canadian character created in 1972 to become Marvel's most iconic mutant was shaped by editorial decisions, creative writing, and perfect casting. Roy Thomas introduced him to boost Canadian comic sales, Chris Claremont developed his complexity and aging him up, and subsequent writers like Larry Hama explored his emotional depth beneath the gruff exterior, making him compelling enough to sustain multiple comic series, an animated show, and Hugh Jackman's transformative film performances from 2000 to 2017. His enduring appeal lies in the paradox of a powerful, dangerous fighter whose constant pain and deep loyalty to his team reveal an underlying vulnerability and humanity.

Permalink historycomicsfilm

Eater Nola

Where to Get a Great Muffuletta in and Around New Orleans

The muffuletta, a plate-sized Italian American sandwich layered with cured meats, cheese, and olive salad on a seeded loaf, originated in 1906 when Salvatore Lupo at Central Grocery created it as a convenient lunch for Sicilian workers in New Orleans's heavily Italian immigrant neighborhood. The piece traces the sandwich's history and cultural significance while providing a curated guide to where to find the best versions throughout the New Orleans area, from the original Central Grocery to modern variations at spots like Porgy's and Napoleon House.

Permalink foodhistoryrestaurantssandwiches

Moss and Fog

The Design That Shaped How We Live: A Visual Guide

This is a curatorial guide to design across ten categories—from kinetic sculpture and minimalist product design to typography, furniture, toys, and accessibility features—arguing that the best design often works invisibly to improve how people interact with everyday objects and spaces. Drawing on historical figures like Alexander Calder, Dieter Rams, and Andy Warhol alongside contemporary designers, it demonstrates how small, intentional decisions about form, color, and function can shape millions of lives. The guide emphasizes that meaningful design requires patience and rigor, whether it's making a chair, simplifying a interface, or cutting a curb to include wheelchair users.

Permalink designarthistorycreativity

Orphaned Films

apple.news

apple.news

Islands

The Oldest Wineries In The World That Are Still Worth Visiting

This article identifies the world's oldest continuously operating wineries that are still worth visiting today, ranking them by founding date and filtering for those with strong Google ratings (4.4+ stars). It provides details on each winery's history, specialties, and visitor experiences, ranging from Austria's Nikolaihof (founded 777) to Greece's Achaia Clauss (founded 1861), with information on tastings, tours, and typical costs for visitors.

Permalink historytravelwinetourism

discoverwildscience

12 Sites Buried by One Event and Preserved by It - discoverwildscience

Catastrophic disasters like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and mudslides have preserved entire ancient communities in remarkable detail—sometimes better than sites buried gradually over centuries—by sealing them off from looters, weather, and decay. The article surveys ten sites from Skara Brae in Scotland to Pompeii in Italy, arguing that lesser-known locations like Herculaneum, Ozette, and Joya de Cerén often reveal more about daily life than Pompeii's famous ruins, which now face degradation from mass tourism. While Pompeii may be history's most celebrated archaeological site, the piece contends that quieter, less-visited catastrophe sites frequently offer clearer windows into how ordinary people actually lived before disaster struck.

Permalink historysciencearchaeology