Stories within stories

No lies detected.

The trajectory of internet memes in society is something we could have never predicted 20 years ago. However, memes have been a way of communicating before we even called them “memes." For instance, Kilroy Was Here was a meme that was popularized in World War II by American soldiers. They would draw the image of a bald guy with a large nose looking over a wall with the caption “Kilroy Was Here” on walls and other surfaces.

This is art

Did you know that Ernest Hemingway used to shoot sharks with a tommy gun while fishing for marlins? Neither did I until I found @weird_hist, a Twitter account that drops random little-known historical tidbits and fascinating images from the past. Each one of @weird_hist's tweets is a gateway to a historical k-hole. First, you'll naturally want to fact-check the information. Did the CIA really equip cats with radio transmitters to try and spy on the Soviets? From there you're just a few more clic

We're probably not alone in feeling like history class is, well, ancient history at this point. While we enjoyed tales of social justice and exploration (and balked at tragic plagues and bloody wars), our brains haven't really held on to many of the details. Fortunately, history memes have a way of reminding us of all those sentences we highlighted in our textbooks. They provide us with the feeling of being smart as we recall the strategies of Genghis Khan, or revel in the fact that there was e…

Okay, maybe we don't all have the urge to watch war movies and read books about statecraft and strategy. I fully recognize that as a 33 year old millennial woman, this may be considered…odd. But if you, too, watched Band of Brothers as much as I have, you may understand the fascination with paratroopers descending through a smoke-filled French sky. Or the admiration for the camaraderie depicted in the HBO miniseries. These guys saved each other's asses as they all attempted to save Europe. For…

The greatest nation on earth

Et tu, Brute?

It is said that history repeats itself. And judging by the current turmoil in Russian and Ukraine, and the consistent shit show pretty much everywhere else, the statement does bear some truth. For all the world's technological advancements, hard-learned lessons, and brutal wars, we can't seem to get past the scourges of intolerance, hatred, and greed. While this senseless repetition is exhausting to witness in real time, it's a bit less torturous when it's expressed in the form of memes. Histor…

Once a year, or perhaps even more than once, I get the urge. It's an ache, really. A yearning for a place I have not been, and the camaraderie of men I have never really known. Men whose bravery would put most people's heroes to shame. Men that, if you can believe it, after they hooked up with I Company, came back. No, I'm not talking about the Fellowship of the Ring. I'm talking about the admirable, vulnerable, sensitive, and handsome men of Band of Brothers, which is quite possibly the best W…

The more you know.

As adults, a lot of what we learned in history class has disappeared into the ether, or has become blurry, muddled by our very own hectic timeline. To make things more complicated, we learn about the past in a way that is very much centered on the places we've grown up in and call home. This type of tunnel vision can make the overlapping of eras seem pretty damn unbelievable. For example, unless you've seen or read The Last Samurai , it may seem surprising that samurai were around during the Ci…

Things that aged like milk

Delish

It's never too late to learn