Kaye McElle

2/16/2026 @ 4:30 p.m. EST: The air temperature is 37° F with a 23° dew point and a light south breeze under a sunny sky at Samp Mortar Lake in Fairfield. (Photos by Paul Piorek)

Satirical cartoon accompanying an article from a broadsheet of 1815, entitled "The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square". Shows an elegantly dressed lady of the Regency period with the head of a pig, eating out of a silver trough. Horniman Museum collection

It’s the 211th anniversary of an editorial in The Times which “deplores the credulity of Londoners”. Apparently, they’d fallen en masse for a rumour that there was a gentlewoman living in the capital who was unremarkable but for the fact she had a pig’s head 🧵

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Poor Rupert. He ran off so we'll never know the intended staging of his flowers.

Enjoy the Sunday caption contest. Give away ❤️s, retweet to encourage more competitors, include #GirlsOwnCC

William Blake’s illustration for “The Tyger” has what appears to be a dippy grin for some reason.

The wonderful thing about Tyggers
Is Tyggers are burning bright
Their tops are made out of rubber
In the forest of the night

What bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy,
Immortal hand or eye
Did frame the most wonderful thing about Tyggers,
Their fearful symmetry!

Propaganda during WWI and WWII in fact

#WorldHippoDay

#Roman mosaic with hippopotamus
on display in Naples Archaeological Museum. This is one of the Nile mosaics found in the House of the Faun in the ancient ruined Roman city of #Pompeii. #art
#AncientBlueSky

"Oh Maisie you silly girl! I didn't say 'When Mr Rupert gets here take all his damn flowers and stick them in a glass.' I said stick them up his ..."

"Right then," gulped Rupert, sensing his proposal would not be accepted, "I'm off then."

#GirlsOwnCC

A, 🤮.

B, the past tense of the verb "to sunset" is "sunsetted."

Carving of a hippopotamus figurine made from calcite, featuring a stocky body, prominent bulging eyes, short legs, and textured surface, displayed on a glass shelf.

Apparently it's #WorldHippoDay! 🦛🦛
Let's celebrate with this #Egyptian carving of a Hippo, made 5.000 years ago from calcite.

Hippopotami were associated with life, regeneration, and rebirth.

On display at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

📷 me 🏺

"oh, and we were really hoping for fresh cook today."

"Oh Maisie you silly girl! I didn't say 'When Mr Rupert gets here take all his damn flowers and stick them in a glass.' I said stick them up his ..."

"Right then," gulped Rupert, sensing his proposal would not be accepted, "I'm off then."

#GirlsOwnCC

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

My quote of the day

Kurt Vonnegut

Professor finds Iron Age coin hoard near Bury St Edmunds Tom Licence says he feels a personal connection to the coins, which are to be auctioned.

The other thing I've been thinking about that hoard - there was no opportunity, none at all, for the heritage community, the public to intervene to stop this. 1/4

#Archaeology #Detecting #Treasure

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trump Administration Announces That We Don’t Know Where the Sun Goes at Night After deciding carbon dioxide does no harm, it was the logical next move.

"You can simply decide to forget progress. Disease is caused by miasma, insufficient beef tallow, corn syrup, the evil eye. You can simply decide to burn coal and witches and books again."

Excellent essay from @petridishes.bsky.social

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Book page showing suggested ring inscriptions, including ‘Île ring thy thumb, then clap thy bum’

A brief escape to the 17th century, where one writer is giving his suggestions for heartfelt inscriptions on poesy rings to a lover

Truly a lost golden age of roman-... oh wait no never mind
#17c

Acting like he’s SO not into the whole portrait thing but clearly very into posing! Also proud of his crazy armor & that beard. By Jacopo Bassano, whose day is today.

WOMEN👏DON’T👏WANT👏CHOCOLATES 👏FOR 👏VALENTINE’S 👏DAY 👏THEY 👏WANT 👏MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S 👏COLLEGIATE 👏DICTIONARY 👏TWELFTH 👏EDITION 👏

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!

"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

Roses are red
Linguists are in anguish
That there aren't many words
Which rhyme well with language

#linguistics

Whew! And I thought it was me.

The sending of valentines has quite gone out of fashion, except amongst persons of the lower class.

Inevitably, their affair ended: Howard worried excessively about what the pack would think, and Agnes simply ate the flowers.

Inevitably, their affair ended: Howard worried excessively about what the pack would think, and Agnes simply ate the flowers.

Met Museum photo of an ancient Egyptian board game carved from cream-coloured ivory displayed against a dark background. The original name of the game is unknown. It is now known as ‘Hounds and Jackals’ or the ‘Game of 58 holes’. The game board rests on four bulls' legs. One of the legs, seen at back of the board on the right of photo, is completely restored. Another has a restored hoof (seen at front of the board on left). The board is shaped like an axe head. In the centre of the upper surface is an incised palm tree topped by a ‘Shen’ symbol (a circle atop a a horizontal line to which it is tied). The palm’s trunk runs down the length of the board. There are 58 holes in the upper surface; 29 arranged evenly on either side of the palm tree. At the lower side of the game board there is a drawer with a bolt to store the playing pieces. The playing pieces are made up of ten long pins (sticks) with carved animal heads. Five are hounds and five are jackals. In the photo, the ten pins are arranged randomly in holes on the game board. The board is carved from ivory with ebony detailing around the 58 holes. The pins are ivory. Measurements: Game board: H 6.8cm W 10.1 cm, D 15.6 cm. Hound pins: H 6 cm to 6.8 cm Jackal pins: H 7 cm to 8.5 cm
 The game was excavated in 1910 by Howard Carter from the tomb of an official named Reniseneb at Thebes. The tomb is dated to Dynasty 12, Reign of Amenemhat IV, circa 1814–1805 BC. “Ancient Egyptians likened the intricate voyage through the underworld to a game. This made gaming boards and gaming pieces appropriate objects to deposit in tombs” (The Met).

This Ancient Egyptian board game is almost 4,000 years old!

Known as ‘Hounds and Jackals’ or ‘Game of 58 holes’, its original name is unknown. It’s suggested it was played in a similar way to ‘Snakes and Ladders’.

📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

Love Poem, written in haste (with Autocorrect left on) O brave new worm that has you in it, my Darjeeling, my one true love – you make the Starbucks twinkle and shin down from the Sky Sports above. For your beautician is like no other - how it sets my heart on fir! You stir up my emoticons. You fill me with dessert. To gazebo upon your lovely Facebook, your petty mouse I’d love to kiss, your Bluetooth eyes like limpet pools – it makes me feel such blisters. Love is in the airing cupboard, it’s all a roundabout, it’s everywhere – so be Minecraft tonight, my angle, just say the wordle and I’ll be there. Brian Bilge Pump

I tried to write a love poem but stupidly left Autocorrect on. :-(

You may laugh, but the Macbeths are a much better role model for a marriage than Romeo and Juliet. They discuss their problems (killing the king of Scotland), share their hobbies (killing the king of Scotland), and resolve their conflicts (by killing the king of Scotland).

June 1857 fashion plate from the French publication “Journal des Tailleurs”. A footman, butler or waiter offers a tray of cookies to three small children while a young man, hands in pockets, watches. The three young children are all nearly identical, with shoulder-length blonde curls, and are all similarly dressed in tight little bodices, wide knee-length skirts and short drawers. The one on the left is wearing a red and white plaid dress, a straw hat with a bow and a feather on it, and blue boots with black toes. The one in the middle wears a pale pink dress with bright pink ribbons and black crisscross decoration, a hat decorated with lace and pink ribbon, and lace drawers and pink boots. The one on the right wears a white dress with a large lace neckline and sleeves, a dark pillbox-type hat with two feathers in it, and blue boots. The middle child *might* be a girl — but the conventions of 19th century children’s clothes do not guarantee it. The other two are definitely boys. Girls were never depicted with toy swords, for one thing.

1857 children's fashions. At least two of the small children here, possibly all three, are boys.

There's something you never see in Civil War epics.

Or, well, any media depiction of the 19th century.

🗃️🪡

#FashionHistory