Catholic Obstetrical Textbook Quote of the Day

"Obstetrical text-books, unfortunately, are written by such emotional men; by men who lack all training in ethics other than that inculcated in childhood out of the mental vagaries of the women in the household."

- Austin O'Malley, professionally

The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation (1919), pg. ix

This is an endlessly fascinating book. The frontispiece is a giant diagram of a vasectomy. Other books might have a photo of the author before the title page, but not this one.

iTunes Obscenities

I was poking around on iTunes today, looking for a Christmas gift, and happened across the page for No Irish Need Apply (2003). For those of you who have not seen it before, this is a CD recorded by The Gallant Sons of Erin, a band composed mostly of my family members, reenacting buddies, and neighbors and specializing in Irish-American music of the mid-19th century. My Dad plays guitar and sings, my uncle plays banjo, I play tin whistle, our friend Todd plays bodhran, our neighbor Nan plays fiddle, etc. Most of the songs are related to the experiences of the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.

Anyway, I had never seen its iTunes page before, so I was surprised to see that one of the song titles had been censored. "Fág an Bealach"* is the rallying cry of the the 28th MVI ("clear the way" in Irish), but it seems that iTunes read that first word as a slur and replaced the a with an asterisk. It's fun to see our album marked as potentially racy when, in reality, it is nuclear-level nerdy.

Come gallant sons of Erin who battle for the right,

Come show your Yankee brethren how Irish lads can fight!

The flag is waving o'er us and brightly gleams the day

We're bound for Carolina, Jeff Davis clear the way!

Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach

Jeff Davis clear the way!

We bear a noble motto,'twas heard in days of yore

When the famous Connaught rangers swept o'er the Spanish shore.

The foe went down before it, and so they will the day

When Erin and Old Bay State shout, "seceshes, clear the way!"

Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach

Seceshes clear the way! 

Our gallant comrades gone before have opened wide the track,

The bloody lash shall fall, but not this time on Cuffee's back.

Hark! How the noble fellows call from far Port Royal Bay,

Come on, me boys, the hunt is up, seceshes clear the way!

Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach

Jeff Davis clear the way! 

Old Erin's spirit wakes again, her sould is mounting high,

The soul of Robert Emmet gleams from out each patriot eye.

Lord, help the southern cohort, who in the battle's fray

Shall hear our Irish slogan, "seceshes, clear the way!"

Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach, Fág an Bealach

Jeff Davis clear the way!

* Sometimes spelled "Faugh a Ballagh." When I was about 13, we had a pair of kittens named Faugh and Ballagh.

Links!

Still grading, so I'll let others generate content. Enjoy!

• The Top Ten Books of 1709
• The Death of Washington, 14 December 1799 
• Gravestones Hold Secrets to Earth's Climate Past
• Images of the Antislavery Movement in Massachusetts
  

10 Gallon Hat, 2 Gallon Head

Is he planning to wear that hat on his entire body? He is just too adorable with his little pout and his overlarge tunic and standing on that chair.

via VIA

Catholic Obstetrical Textbook Quote of the Day

"Once crazy, always crazy, is an aphorism with much truth in it."

- Austin O'Malley, compassionately

The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation (1919), pg. 157

Grading

I'm spending the weekend grading a pile of final projects. While doing so, I am trying to walk that fine line between fairness and generosity of spirit.

Catholic Obstetrical Textbook Quote of the Day

"The vast majority of women are too lazy to take physical exercise as a hygienic duty at any time, and during pregnancy, their aversion to all effort to overcome indolence is so great they make even themselves believe they cannot."

- Austin O'Malley, respectfully

The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation (1919)

Ye Olde Thorn

Recently, I have been enjoying listening to books through Audible as I walk to campus or do chores. Pete and I have a membership that gives us one book a month and discounts if we want more than that. In the past few months, I've gone through What Hath God Wrought, The Great Cat Massacre, Battle Cry of Freedom, Misquoting Jesus, This Republic of Suffering, and several others.

While listening to Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History, I was enormously distracted by the reader's continued mispronunciation of the thorn ("y^e") as "YEE." I've always assumed that "y^e" is pronounced "the" and that the "YEE" pronunciation was part of the joke when used in the phrase "ye olde." Just as I would pronounce "y^t" as "that" and "y^r" as "their," I would say "the" unless I were dictating and needed to distinguish the thorn from regular old "the."

But now I'm doubting myself. Ever since I listened to this book, I have been paying attention to the times when I've heard others read the thorn aloud (surprisingly, it has come up rather often — I suppose I travel in strange circles). More than half of the people reading old documents said "YEE" instead of "the" and now I'm all turned around. I was sure I was right, but now I'm not.

I'm putting a poll up in the sidebar. Since many of you are skilled in the ways of Early Modern English, I trust your judgment to set me straight.

Cheery Reading of the Day

I am currently doing some background research for an undergraduate course on the history of life and death issues. This project brings a whole host of light reading across my desk:

Fun Fact of the Day

In 1790, 84 of the 573 households in Plymouth, MA were headed by women. That's 14.66%.

Three households (.52%) were headed by black men (Cato Howe, Prince Goodwin, and Plato Turner).

Authentic Fabrics

Via Jezebel, this article in the Smithsonian Magazine highlights the work of the wonderfully named Rabbit Goody, who weaves historically accurate fabrics for Hollywood costumes. Some of her big projects include the John Adams HBO miniseries and work with various historic homes.

Textiles are certainly not my specialty, but I love them. I have several coverlets from Family Heirloom Weavers in Red Lion, PA and they are so wonderfully cozy-looking. Warm, too!

Widows of Plymouth

While perusing the Plymouth epitaphs, I found several gravestones dedicated to women who outlived their husbands by several decades. I suppose many towns may have had elderly widows, but I can't help but wonder whether the combination of men dying young and women never remarrying is more common in maritime communities. I won't be able to answer that comparative question until I have documented several other cemeteries, but I can look at a few examples of Plymouth's long-term widows:

Not a Hat

While I was looking for more daguerreotypes of kids in hats, I came across this image in the online collections of the George Eastman House. The little girls are hatless, but check out that farmer's tan!

Usually, 19th-century portraits show children dressed within an inch of their lives, but this photograph was taken by Julia Margaret Cameron, whose artistic portraits are rarely so stiff or formal. The religious overtones of this portrait cast the children as cherubs, saints, or the Christ child, but the little one's sun-darkened arms make it immediately clear that she belongs to earth, rather than to heaven. It's a lovely image.

Visit the George Eastman House website for more photos by Cameron and other famous photographers of the 19th century.

In Which I Identify With Creationists

This weekend, I went home to see my family and assist with some early Christmas preparations. During my visit, I had a chance to examine my 14-year-old sister's world history homework, which was genuinely appalling.

Her teacher has adopted Gavin Menzies' 1421: The Year China Discovered America as a key text for their class and is, apparently, teaching it as factual information. Menzies' central argument is that a Chinese fleet commanded by Zheng He sailed from China in 1421, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed on to North America, eventually establishing a colonial settlement in modern-day Rhode Island. Menzies (who neither reads nor speaks any Chinese language either ancient or modern) bases his argument on a handful of maps, speculative interpretation of DNA evidence, and the existence of structures such as the Newport Tower and the Bimini Road. He claims that records of the voyage were intentionally destroyed by Chinese officials, but provides a wealth of very specific and uncited information about the expedition. In short, it is a crackpot theory.

This Hat is Brought to You by the Harvard Theatre Collection and the Number 3

Young Irving Selden and his magnificent hat.

See this and many other unusual portraits from the Harvard Theatre Collection here!

Susannar Burgess

I apologize for the dearth of substantive posts lately — it's that time of the semester. Between commenting on drafts for increasingly panicked students, navigating holiday obligations, and trying to get a bit of my own work done, I haven't been giving this blog as much attention as I would like. Hopefully, I'll have some down time over break to recommit myself.

In the meantime, here's another fun entry from Benjamin Drew's transcriptions of Plymouth, MA epitaphs:

See also Annar, Marther, Prissilar, etc.

Jacob Lakin Stone, 1758

The Old Burying Ground in Groton, MA is home to several beautiful Park workshop gravestones from the 1750s. Of these, the most impressive is the Jacob Lakin stone. Its unusual shape, intricate detail, and elevated position (on top of a tomb mound) make this stone an eye-catcher.

Happy Desembar!

This message brought to you by Obadiah Wheeler
and the Farber Gravestone Collection.