Three Links Make a Post

I read all the way down the thread (TL:DR – Oak Island “Roman” sword is a pretty obvious hoax) before I even realized that J. Hutton Pulitzer was the same guy who invented the Cue Cat. In case you were wondering what he was up to these days. 

While trying to look up some names for a fic, I found this article about the real Moka Efti. The version depicted on tv (and in the headline) is everyone’s idea of a decadent Weimar nightclub, but from the description of the original place, it sounds like a coffee bar that expanded into a two-story emporium with a bar, restaurant, dance floor… but also a barbershop and an office of typists who would take letters for customers (sort of a 1920s version of a copy-and-print shop?). I wonder if the line between what we’d consider a dance club and what we’d consider a mall or arcade used to be blurrier? 

Over on We Hunted the Mammoth, Dave has discovered some MRA types who’ve taken up writing haiku, but in order that we don’t think they’re gay or anything, call them “High T (as in testosterone) -ku.” And they’re bizarrely terrible. WHtM regulars have been amusing themselves writing poetic responses. 

ETA  -- Make that four links: a Canadian supermarket chain has begun selling cricket powder. I'd be curious to try, but it would depend on the price. My experience with stuff that's marketed as "high-protein, low-carb" (other than actual meat) has not been great, but those items were likely made from chickpeas or soy rather than insects.

In Less Fun Local News

Meanwhile, some activists vandalized small businesses in Hamilton last weekend as a protest against neighbourhood gentrification; someone retaliated yesterday by vandalizing a lefty bookstore in the same city, and with a provincial election coming up, I’m really worried by *anything* that might swing the undecided voters conservative. Especially since the Ontario conservatives are still fighting over who’s actually going to lead their party, at least two of the leadership candidates are campaigning on a “get rid of the new sex ed curriculum and restrict abortion access” campaign, and one of those two is also the brother of the late Rob Ford.

ETA — oh, and now a group has announced a “Patriot Walk on Locke” (the street where the businesses were initially vandalized) for later this month.

I told someone else who was despairing over this that all we can do is try to keep doing positive actions and hope it’s enough of a counter-weight, but I admit, I feel as though my country’s crumbling beneath me; apologies to my friends in the US, UK and elsewhere who I know have already been feeling that way for ages.