Blog archives: September 2016
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Sweetbreads, Sweetmeats and Bonaparte’s Ribs
September 30, 2016
Would you rather eat sweetbreads or sweetmeats? While sweetbreads might sound like sugary buns, they are actually a form of meat. To further confuse things, actual sweets – candies, cakes, pastries, preserves – used to be called sweetmeats.
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Boney the Bogeyman: How Napoleon Scared Children
September 23, 2016
In the same way that early 19th century British caricaturists portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte as a devilish tyrant, British parents and teachers used Napoleon as a threat to scare children into good behaviour during the Napoleonic Wars. In fact, the word “bogeyman” is sometimes said to be derived from “Boney,” the popular British nickname for Napoleon, even though it actually comes from the Middle English bogge/bugge (hobgoblin).
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Canada and the Louisiana Purchase
September 16, 2016
Ever wonder about that bit of the Louisiana Purchase that extends into Canada? Here’s how parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan once came under Napoleon’s rule.
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Caricatures of Napoleon on St. Helena
September 9, 2016
Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and subsequent imprisonment on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena provided opportunity for the last great blast of Napoleonic caricatures. Most of them appeared in 1815, the year of Napoleon’s second and final abdication from the French throne. Relatively few appeared in the years up to his death in 1821. Further to my post about caricatures of Napoleon on Elba, here’s a look at some caricatures about Napoleon’s exile on St. Helena.
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Some 19th-Century Money-Saving Tips
September 2, 2016
Although intended for young men, these “Twelve Golden Rules of Prudent Economy Necessary to be Studied in Early Youth, that they May be Practiced at Maturer Age” could usefully be heeded by anyone at any age, even today. They were written by William Fordyce Mavor (1758-1837), a Scottish teacher, priest and prolific author of educational books. Perhaps something to show the student in your life?
We must confess that fate, which sports with man, makes merry work with the affairs of this world.
Napoleon Bonaparte