Train Dreams
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're covering the history of the Pacific Northwest from the late 19th century to 1968 with Train Dreams! Join us as we learn about boot memorials, Chinese and Chinese-American railroad workers, women working as fire lookouts, and more! Sources: Dina Gachman, "The History of Lady Lookouts," Smithsonian Magazine, available at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/female-fire-lookouts-have-been-saving-wilderness-over-century-180977352/ Photo of Hallie Daggett and Her Dog, Fish and Wildlife: https://www.fws.gov/media/hallie-daggett ...
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Hedda
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 1950s with Hedda! Join us as we learn about pretty little things, 1950s fashion, sparklers, women working as professors, and more! Sources: "Celebrating the Legacy of England's First Female Professor," King's College, available at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/celebrating-legacy-of-englands-first-female-professor "Gender Breakdown for Teachers in History," Making History, available at https://archives.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/statistics/gender.html Peter West, "Five Lessons on Bringing Truth Back to Politics from Britain's First Female Philosophy...
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The Book of Clarence
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to first-century Jerusalem with The Book of Clarence! Join us as we learn about Mary Magdalene, Barabbas, Biblical sick burns, and more! Sources: Martínez-Cruz, B., Mendizabal, I., Harmant, C. et al. Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma. Eur J Hum Genet 24, 937–943 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2015.201 Gresham D, Morar B, Underhill PA, Passarino G, Lin AA, Wise C, Angelicheva D, Calafell F, Oefner PJ, Shen P, Tournev I, de Pablo R, Kuĉinskas V, Perez-Lezaun A, Marushiakova E, Popov V, Kalaydjieva L. Origins and divergence of the...
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Akira
Did That Really Happen?
It's a new year, so it's time for our New Year's tradition of taking a look at movies that tried to predict the future. This year, we're traveling to the year 2019 with Akira! Join us as we learn about the Tokyo Olympics, biker gangs, technical schools, riots, and more! Sources: 2020 Host City Election Announcement: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/2020-host-city-election Image of the Stadium: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1087204/olympic-stadium-for-tokyo-2020-completed' January 2019 image, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kokuritsu_Kasumigaoka_Rikujo_Kyogijo-23a.jpg...
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Frankenstein (2025)
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 19th century with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein! Join us as we learn about syphilis, big-ass blunderbusses, the Evelyn Tables, Arctic expeditions, and more! Sources: An account of divers schemes of arteries and veins, dissected from adult human bodies, and given to the repository of the Royal Society by John Evelyn, Esq; F. R. S. To which are subjoyn'd a description of the extremities of those vessels, and the manner the blood is seen, by the microscope, to pass from the arteries to the veins in quadrupeds when living: with some chirurgical...
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The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to a full century of American history with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman! Join us as we learn about naming of enslaved people, "paddy rollers", Black communities in East Texas, and more! Sources: Sparks, Elmer E, and Celia Black. Interview with Celia Black, Tyler, Texas. Tyler, Texas, November , 10, 1974. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975009_afs17476/. Sparks, Elmer E, and Charlie Smith. Interview with Charlie Smith, Bartow, Florida. Bartow, Florida, None , 3, 1975. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975023_afs17510/. Jennifer Davis, "A Voice from the...
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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 18th-century France with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer! Join us as we learn about tanneries, the town of Grasse, infanticide, perfumers' guilds, and more! Sources: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/perfume-the-story-of-a-murderer-2007 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/perfume_the_story_of_a_murderer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume:_The_Story_of_a_Murderer_%28film%29 A.O. Scott, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/movies/27perf.html Tracey Rizzo (2004) Between dishonor and death: infanticides in the causes célèbres of eighteenth-century...
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Walker
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to a weird, weird version of 19th-century Nicaragua with Walker! Join us as we learn about William Walker's ill-fated efforts in Sonora, the Filibuster War, the El Nicaraguense newspaper, and more! Sources: Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch: "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'": https://youtu.be/XL54pji1nfA?si=o0UbrhVH1ewe3p3J Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_(film) Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/walker Roger Ebert's Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/walker-1987 Craig J Clark, "Alex Cox Says Goodbye--and Good Riddance--To...
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Freaky Tales
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1987 Oakland with Freaky Tales! Join us as we learn about punk v. skinhead battles, Sleepy Floyd, Operation Ivy, and more! Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center, Timeline of the Racist Skinhead Movement: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/timeline-racist-skinhead-movement/ Christopher Phelps, "Skinheads: The New Nazism," Marxists.org: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/10048.html Steve Knopper, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off: How Black Flag, Bad Brains, and More Took Back Their Scene from White Supremacists,"...
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Citizen X
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the Soviet Union of the 1980s with Citizen X! Join us as we learn about the people who hunted Andrei Chikatilo, the myth of eyes retaining the last image they see before they die, blood typing tests, leather jackets, and more! Sources: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_X Monday Morning Critic Interview with Chris Gerolmo: https://youtu.be/OTgt3qA8bE4?si=KPSXouQ0xBQoTONS Rare Historical Photos: 1980s Soviet Fashion: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/soviet-fashion-from-1980s/ Ebay, Vintage NKVD Coat:...
info_outlineThis week we're traveling back to 1890s New England with The Lighthouse! Join us as we try to figure out what the heck is going on in this movie, and along the way learn about seagull myths, how lighthouses work, New England dialects, Davy Jones, and more!
Sources:
"Seagulls," A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford Reference Dictionaries, available at https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100450456;jsessionid=0C830965CCC27A471D73ABD544FFA75D
Fletcher S Bassett, Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and of Sailors in All Lands and in All Times (1885). Available on Google Books.
Etymology Online, available at https://www.etymonline.com/word/Davy%20Jones
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Folk_lore_Record/zW0AAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=davy+jones+locker+folklore&pg=PA66&printsec=frontcover
Thomas L. Cromwell, Jr., "Ye Olde Englysshe 'Ye'" American Speech 24:2 (1949) 115-19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/486618
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2701/pg2701-images.html
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lighthouse_(2019_film)
Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lighthouse_2019
Vanity Fair, "Willem Dafoe Rewatches Spider-Man, The Lighthouse, Platoon & More | Vanity Fair" https://youtu.be/88MCNN0abIU?si=ZDLA7om0MmdMYjBy
GQ, "Robert Pattinson Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ," https://youtu.be/pz52gPH3ou4?si=J3SfP1S8lpCrc_Ix
Eric Grundhauser, "When the Lights Go Out: 8 of the World's Loneliest Lighthouses," Atlas Obscure (25 August 2015). https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/when-the-lights-go-out-8-of-the-worlds-loneliest-lighthouses
Sean Kirst, "Dark Past Haunts Lighthouse Thursday, October 31, 1996," The Soul of Central New York: Syracuse Stories by Sean Kirst (Syracuse University Press, 1996). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ht4w1r.33
Michael Brian Schiffer, "The Electric Lighthouse in the Nineteenth Century: Aid to Navigation and Political Technology," Technology and Culture 46:2 (2005): 275-305. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40060849
D. Alan Stevenson, "The Development of Lighthouses," Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 80: 4130 (1932): 224-42. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41358948
"Beacons of Safety," Scientific American (1926). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24976807
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Sur_Lighthouse
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-john-n-b-home-to-foghorn-inventor-1.941959
"Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)" http://balladindex.org/Ballads/Hugi380.html
"Doodle Let Me Go (Yaller Girls)" https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/doodleletmego.html