will pooley
@willpooley
historian of witchcrafts, tarot, folklore, France 18-20th century ed. Cambridge Elements in Magic also #CreativeHistories yes, that’s an actual photo of me. never had ebola. yet
“a detail is itself a kind of argument” cracking piece from @joemoransblog.bsky.social on detail in history writing 🗃️
incredible discovery here: the 1762 original of the ha ha ha yes sicko cartoon courtesy of thomas waters new book “Magic”
can you tell I forgot to take the first loaf out and left it in for an extra 40 mins
and as this story and others have noted, lots of companies cutting back because these tools get v expensive v quickly
welcome to the half baked future! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The caption to an image in this story about the progress of models in completing tasks that take humans minutes or hours notes that they are counted as “complete” if model achieved 80% which might explain the story conclusion:
OTOH here in britain you can barely walk down the street without bumping into a chad steel plant www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
“2 fevrier j’ai ü 10 songes je me rapille j’ai donné un coup de poingt à paris d’auzon” (2 february I had 10 dreams I remember I punched [the mayor of auzon] monsieur Paris) im meant to be doing other things today but all i *want* to do is decipher the dream diaries of 2 rural laborers from 1855
“Great cartomancer and palm reader If you want to know your entire future by the cards or the lines of your hand, come to the person who lives at 18 rue du Collège, the only vendor of AMERICAN POMMADE which will radically cure sores, hair loss and encourage growth” (Journal de Roanne, 9.12.1883)
Marie-Anne Lenormand (1772-1843), without question the most famous fortune teller of her age, whose name remains associated with the vogue for Tarot and cartomancy after the French Revolution
it wasn’t Kardec either, who i also came across while walking. was immediately drawn to the dolmen, then saw who it was. should have known!
it wasn’t Jacques-Louis David, though he was worth stopping for a picture given that among his many revolutionary and imperial projects was a redesigned Napoleonic deck of cards
guesses for whose grave i was there for (jim morrison gets an instant block)
there is no place on earth to rival paris for the refinement of its cuisine
academic archaeologists are reportedly proposing referring to the famous site as “Stonehenge FINAL FINAL EDITED DRAFT FINAL”
so is this a mistake or did advertisers request upside down adverts as a strategy to gain attention? (La Petite Gironde, 3.12.1882, p.4)
what did nelly say to the caricature of a frenchman during the heatwave? “it’s getting hot in here, so talk off all your cloves”
some fascinating 1877 classified adverts in code reminding me I need to read Hannah Frydman’s new book on sexuality and classified ads
continuing my wet theme i am thinking i might swim a length for every year ive gone round the sun. given the pool is 91m that’s almost 3km!
may seriously need to add “plan for the effects of climate change” into my “how to do archival research” blog post williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2024/02/19/d...