Hankering, or “to hanker,” is derived from a craze in mid 17th century Holland. To haanke, was to peruse the red light district, looking for a desirable woman. The women would hang kerchiefs on metal poles in front of their establishments to indicate availability. “To Haanke” would be to look for this sign.
This peculiar saying probably comes from the Australian outback. A hand is a way of referring to someone’s stomach, as it “cradles” the food—undoubtedly, food in the stomach is worth much more than food just existing out there somewhere in the bush—or the wild frontier.
To really get into this, you need to look at the term “hatband,” which itself is derived from the late 80s fad bands—”hatbands,” named after the ballcaps that were popular at the time with band members.
Dick Christly was said to have started one of these “hatbands,” however, the band soon ran into legal trouble. After purchasing a tourbus, the bills came due, and the money ran out. Soon, Dick’s hatband was “locked up” (in itself a popular phrase of the 80s) in legal issues for sometime after. The saying stuck.
In the 1910s, in lower class tenements, the sink was basically a metal basin set under a spigot. When new mothers would was their babies in the sink, sometimes, especially if the baby was very light and little, people would leave their children in the tub while they lifted the basin out of the window to dump it.
The New York Times lists 13 infant deaths that occurred this way in 1913. Luckily, as modern plumbing began to be installed by 1920, cases of throwing the baby out were fewer and farther between.
During the late 1870s, the people of Clarke County, Nevada only had one source of clean drinking water, at All’s Well. All was notably stingy with his water. He was a superstitious man who rarely went to church and spent most of his time reading in his cabin.
One day, some of the people from the local town were coming up the hill to the well, when there was a large explosion resonating from the location of All’s cabin (which was incidentally right next to the well). When they arrived, buckets in tow, the found the well, the cabin and All completely destroyed. Until better equipment was available in the 1930s, the residents of the county had to make the trek to the next county over to get fresh water. Literally, All’s well had ended wells in the area for quite some time.
The mystery remains as to what happened to All.
Tom O’Reilly - I spent a lot of last year urging people to work on stuff that matters. This led to many questions about what that “stuff” might be. I’ve been a bit reluctant to answer those questions, because the list is different for everyone. I thought I’d do better to start the new year with some ideas about how to think about this for yourself.
First off, though, I want to make clear that “work on stuff that matters” does not mean focusing on non-profit work, “causes, or any other form of “do-goodism.” Non-profit projects often do matter a great deal, and people with tech skills can make important contributions, but it’s essential to get beyond that narrow box. I’m a strong believer in the social value of business done right. We need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts.
Smoking Children by Frieke Janssens.
“A YouTube video of a chainsmoking Indonesian toddler inspired me to create this series, “Smoking Kids”. The video highlighted the cultural differences between the east and west, and questioned notions of smoking being a mainly adult activity. Adult smokers are the societal norm, so I wanted to isolate the viewer’s focus upon the issue of smoking itself. I felt that children smoking would have a surreal impact upon the viewer and compel them to truly see the acts of smoking rather than making assumptions about the person doing the act. ”
There were no real cigarettes on set. Instead, chalk and sticks of cheese were uses as props, while candles and incense provided the smoke.
You can see the making of video here and see more pictures of this project at the artist’s website here.
(Source: sharekoube, via atitlehere)
