Category: Culture

Christmas Culture Geography Grapevine's Atlas History

Cold as Dickens

An old, public domain painting of a horse-drawn carriage moving through snow-covered England

Dickensian London is iconic, but its plentiful snowdrifts bear little resemblance to the modern city. Is this artistic license? Or are Tiny Tim’s environs evidence of a centuries-long frosty period that gave us Frankenstein, witchcraft, and America?

Tags charles dickens, Christmas, climate, frankenstein, little ice age, lutefisk, my forty-eight hour crash diet, witchcraft, year without summer

Culture Folklore Grapevine's Atlas

Butthole Orbs and Vicious Murder: The Haunts and Horrors of Japan’s Toilet Ghosts

Post author By Ben
Post date October 24, 2021
No Comments on Butthole Orbs and Vicious Murder: The Haunts and Horrors of Japan’s Toilet Ghosts

Mythic folk creatures built to scare the shit out of you.

Tags Aka Manto, Halloween, Japan, Kappa, Shirikodama, Spooky, Toilet

Culture Language Technology

The War on the Frowning Poop Emoji

Post author By Ben
Post date March 25, 2020
No Comments on The War on the Frowning Poop Emoji

How the history of our newest linguistic asset led to a serious discussion of fecal emotionality.

Tags Emoji, Frowning Poop, Poop, Sad Poop, Serious Journalism, Unicode

Christmas Culture Geography

Catalonia’s Coprophilic Christmas

Post author By Ben
Post date December 22, 2019
No Comments on Catalonia’s Coprophilic Christmas

Every Christmas, Catalonia prides itself on being fun, festive, and full of shit.

Tags Caganer, Catalonia, Christmas, Tio de Nadal