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corrocamino
12-04-2012, 06:15 AM
I hated history for the longest time (into my 30s), owing to the soporific dronings of sinecurists in my sad secondary school. Eventually, I sidled up to it, and into it, via biography and autobiography, and I've been addicted ever since.

I love this specimen of historicity:

The Hittite word for "arse" was (straightforwardly transliterated)...ars. What a coincidence? Not at all. It seems that the antecedent Proto-Indo-European root is confidently inferred to be *ars-, which has been carried forward in more than one branch of the great linguistic family!

Nothing new about kicking arse! :>)

Your turn!

corrocamino
12-04-2012, 02:34 PM
OK, let's try this one....

During the first half of the nineteenth century, "sophisticated" entertainments were few and far between. One such that was very popular for a time were the Panoramas of the Mississippi -- very (VERY!) long, oversized, composite canvases painted with geographically sequential, romanticized scenes of the Mississippi Valley, from source to mouth. One such was on the order of a half-mile long! These panoramas were "played" by unrolling from a huge scroll at one side of a stage and rolling up on another scroll on the opposite side, with accompanying narration and music. We have only historical descriptions and records, and no trace of the actual panoramas.

http://www.questia.com/library/430406/the-lost-panoramas-of-the-mississippi