Cast Ballots, Not Aspersions...or, at the very least, do both.

Hope you all remembered to vote today. In my very humble elitist liberal opinion, this is the first election in many, many years in which we are not deciding between a douche and a turd, so this is pretty exciting stuff.



Also, enjoy the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee's list of White House Cats

Happy Halloween

Funny history is uncovered daily in my office, it's just a matter of recording it. Let's see if I can get back in the habit.

Happy Halloween, readers - all two of you. Enjoy this photo of the Kennedy children's creep-tastic 60s Halloween garb.

We Can Dig It

Back in the late 90s, Warner Brothers Animation created a history-themed cartoon series called Histeria. Masterminded by the same wacky minds that brought you Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures, Histeria presented historical topics in the form of flashy, bizarre sketches and musical numbers. It was basically as though the Animaniacs ate a history book laced with acid.

Here's one of the sketches:



Yes, that is really Isaac Hayes singing.

I was alerted to the show's existence this afternoon while composing my own meditation on the theme from "Shaft," and it was love at first sight. (Even though my own Taft song was better.)

Topics on the show spanned Western civilization, from Caesar to Napoleon to the Clintons. And okay, some of them are kind of shoddily researched, but they appear to make up in entertainment what they lack in accuracy. Alas, there's no DVD set, but you should be able to catch a few dozen of Histeria's greatest hits on YouTube.

Y HELO THAR LADIES

From the February 17, 1912 issue of Harper's Weekly:
Pimpin' ain't easy, but it's necessary...in order to get in good with the suffragettes when you're Teddy Roosevelt.

Don't wait for the translation!

NPR featured an old favorite anecdote this morning, which, in this election year (and with some of our current elected officials), seems super-appropriate.

While running for president against Dwight Eisenhower, Adlai Stevenson was told by a supporter that he'd get the vote of "every thinking man" in the U.S. Stevenson replied, "Thank you, but I'll need a majority to win."

He totally didn't win.

Friday Links Just Pulled Into the Station

Tony Horwitz is my new hero. I've just begun Confederates in the Attic, which I should have read centuries ago, and which is one of the funniest and most engaging history books I've read in ages. This bodes well for his newest book, another review for which becomes Link Numero Uno in this week's links roundup.

• See, I told you - another review of the new Horwitz book, A Voyage Long and Strange.


• The secret abandoned rail platform beneath the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. A lot of the video clip seems sort of made up - I think people have pretty well known this platform's been there the whole time, and it wasn't actually built for FDR even though he used it. (Thanks, Daryl! For a guy whose blog title suggests a marked wish to eradicate history, you're still pretty cool. PS, I totally know it's a Ren and Stimpy reference, folks. Don't email me.)


• Mental Floss throws up a collection of Victorian-era memento mori -- easily the most strange and disturbing thing I've seen all week.


• Did we really have a gay president, or was he just a swingin' bachelor who happened to live with a close male friend and be called "Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy"? Oh, James Buchanan. Whatever your sexuality, you are an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a lavender-scented bow. (Best Week Ever)

Because You Always Wanted James Buchanan Desktop Wallpaper

Today's fun history find comes from the Presidential Portraits collection of the National Guard's Heritage Series Image Gallery, where a collection of cheesily awesome collage portraits pay tribute to the U.S. presidents who are also former National Guardsmen.

The portraits range from the pretty standard (James Madison in front of a Constitution backdrop) to the entirely-too-much (Theodore Roosevelt's men from San Juan Hill superimposed, Quantel-like, onto his forehead), to the in-questionable-taste (Garfield's profile, side by side with a smoking pistol? That's sort of not funny. Except that it is. Sorry, James. I was much nicer to you before I found out what a jerk you were to your wife. But that's another post for another time.).

Large versions of all of the paintings are available for download, or if you really love them, you can even order prints! I'm not sure if you can order the prints on velvet tapestry, but that's sort of how I'm picturing them.