gerardmenfin's comment on "Did medieval German women hang their butts out the door to ward off storms?" Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community

Just answered this one (tried to at least!) www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

Who was the dog-like hairy performer shown on a picture of the "Congress of Freaks" of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1927? His name was Jeff Davis and u/mikedash wrote about the life of Davis and other "freaks" on r/AskHistorians www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

This took a day because I was swamped, and after pond-ering the best approach I leaped into it. It was toad-ally worth it until I croaked.

In fact, if Dalou had not died in 1902, leaving his project unfinished, there would be a 30-m high marble penis in the centre of Paris. Outshining the Eiffel Tower in terms of phallicness, Dalou's Dildo would be the star of tourist shops and street hawkers.

Monument to the workers, 1898. A phallic project of Jules Dalou

While I don't think that Jules Dalou wanted Noir's crotch to become so shiny, he spent 10 years on this "Monument to the Workers" that he himself called "priapic". In Dalou's mind, there was no better way to symbolize the workers than a giant and erect virile member.

gerardmenfin's comment on "What is the history of the name Kevin being stigmatized as vulgar / low class/ stupid?" Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community

Time for a question only Reddit could spawn. What is the history of the name Kevin being stigmatized as vulgar / low class/ stupid? /u/gerardmenfin knows the details!

From the AskHistorians community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the AskHistorians community

@askhistorians.bsky.social joins 30 academic and adjacent subreddits in condeming the attacks on US research infrastructure. Please read and share.

www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

gerardmenfin's comment on "Where did the trope of impoverished elderly people eating cat food come from?" Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community

/u/gerardmenfin uncovers where the trope of impoverished elderly people eating cat food comes from.

Eugene Bullard's ad for his athletic club in Paris in 1933. Bullard himself is posing on the photo as a muscleman.

My answer really didn't do justice to the wealth of information about these men and women, so here's Eugene Bullard's ad for his athletic club in Paris in 1933. Bullard, who had been a boxer, is the man posing on the photo.

Here's the animated "Powers hypnodisc spiral" from 1948 mentioned in the answer. Music from the movie Forbidden Planet, 1956 (Bebe and Louis Barron)

gerardmenfin's comment on "What is the history of the black and white swirl's association with hypnosis, and was it (the swirl or the hypnosis) ever used in 'legitimate' psychiatry?" Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community

Feeling sleepy? Follow those subconscious commands to visit AskHistorians, & discover gerardmenfin talking about the #history of the black & white swirls associated with hypnosis. Was the hypnodisc ever used medically, or simply on stage? AWAKE, and find out!

To be fair I didn't find that much on Władysław Gliński, but that was a driven individual for sure. He came up with his own version of hexagonal chess as a kid and spent the next 50 years relentlessly developing it and promoting it around the world.

gerardmenfin's comment on "Does anyone know more about the mysterious chess player Władysław Gliński?" Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community

Does anyone know more about the mysterious chess player Władysław Gliński? You can count on /u/gerardmenfin to track down whatever niche #History mystery, and know that you’ll get a truly fabulous answer!

African statue of a woman giving birth (possibly Dogon)

The Pulsoconn of Dr Macaura, a vibratory massage device sold as a cure-all in the UK and France in 1911-1912. Macaura presented the gizmo at the Royal Albert Hall and at the Casino de Paris, but he was accused of fraud and eventually fled to avoid prison time. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...