Curiosa: Very Precious, Indeed

Across my desk this morning: A Thousand Notable Things of Sundrie Sortes : Whereof Some are Wonderfull, Some Strange, Some Pleasant, Divers Necessary, a Great Sort Profitable, and Many Very Precious by Thomas Lupton (1627). It's a household receipt book, containing directions on everything from keeping your ink from freezing to destroying caterpillars to curing baldness. For the most part it's a marvelous testament to the power of the placebo:

You shall stay the bleeding of the nose, if you write with the same blood in the forehead of the party that bleeds, these words, following. Consummatum est. A thing proved with many.

And don't get me started about the experiment proving why you should keep toads out of your sage patch -- let's just say it would never pass muster with the NIH. But in other matters more sensible witnesses prevail:

If boyes or young men do use milke and exercise from the cradle, they are thereby more higher and taller of body, and of more comely and beautifull stature.

Amen. Drink your milk, fellows!

Fanfiction: Tea and Sympathy (Princess Tutu)

Title: Drabble: Tea and Sympathy
Fandom: Princess Tutu (anime version)
Character: Lilié
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Warnings: None.
A/N: Yet another Princess Tutu drabble. This one attacked me at a bus stop, off the realization that Lilié's rhetoric sounded unnervingly similar to another character's. I already found her disturbing as well as amusing, so ... Crossposted from nebroadwe to princesstutu and tutufic.
Dedication: Still for fmanalyst; all for you. :-)

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      She wakes each morning to the glorious certainty that man is at the mercy of the gods, his end inevitable from his beginning. ( Read more... )