Whenever I encounter a reference to the 'Red Baron' I think about how nobody called him that until Snoopy did.

Historical narratives are a strange beast.
Should probably do a thread about that at some point when it isn't 2am.
Basically it's an interesting exercise in how nicknames get popularised.

There's a reasonable argument to suggest that Schultz did more to cement that nickname for him for posterity than anything published in the West during or after the war.
Demonstrating the origins of stuff like this is always tricky from a historical perspective though.

I need to find more stuff on it before writing it up in any way. And probably to combine it with similar examples elsewhere in cultural memory.
Which may involve me writing a lot about Hamilton and how the future's cultural image of certain founding fathers is likely to be VERY different from what it has been until now.
Probably with a side reference to that Sinbad film everyone claims to have seen but which doesn't actually exist.

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More from @garius

3 Aug
WRITER'S REMINDER!

If you need to do a lot of typing, DON'T centre your keyboard on your bodyline, if it has a numpad.

Offset it to the right so the alpha keys are centred on you.

Reduces typing fatigue from twisting/over extending while typing. Image
If you're not sure where to align it, just centre the spacebar on your body. It's an easy guide to wear you want the alpha keys to actually be.

The net result should be your forearms pointing inward at the same angle as each other, with both elbows sticking out slightly.
I'm honestly surprised how many people don't spot this, and often end up with a really sore right arm or left shoulder as a result.
Read 4 tweets
31 Jul
Alex Scott was one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time. She's now growing into one of the finest sports commentators of her generation.

I am beyond proud, as a Londoner and a Gooner to be able to call her one of our own.

Fuck the haters. Stick your peerages up your arse
Scott has fought HARD for her chance to be seen as a voice of football. Not of WOMEN'S football, but of football.

If you want an example of just how extra a female sportsman has to be to get to the same default level of male sort to be noticed, she is it.
And DESPITE that, she has fought on to demonstrate not just that she is one of the finest players ever to wear the Arsenal badge, but that she can sit there, in the sports studio, as an equal to any man who wants to offer their two cents on sport.
Read 4 tweets
31 Jul
A few people have asked if I have a list of my history threads. I don't keep one as they're a spontaneous thing mostly. But here's a few I remember.

Let's start with how the Knights Hospitaller had one of the largest airforces in Europe after WW2. Really.
Then you've got Able Seacat Simon. The only cat ever to be awarded the Dickin Medal, the highest award for gallantry and service that a British military animal can be awarded.

How the allies used the 650 year old Anglo-Portuguese alliance twice in WW2 to avoid disaster.
Read 22 tweets
30 Jul
Okay, as requested, more history of weird stuff with food and logistics.

Let's talk about how Ski Yoghurt utterly dominated the 70s UK yoghurt wars, by understanding how humans work better than humans do.

Oh, and also through strippers.

Read on... /1 classic ski yoghurt pot, shaped like a milk churn.
Let's start at the beginning. In 1963 Ski yoghurt was introduced to the UK.

It was made by Express Dairies in Haywards Heath, but they were smart from the beginning. They promoted it as a healthy, swiss style snack and - the killer USP - it contained REAL FRUIT.
This was the beginning of the UK yoghurt explosion. Yoghurt was now OMG EXCITING as well as (allegedly) healthy.

Express Dairies had utterly nailed the yoghurt zeitgeist, By the end of the 60s, Ski had 40% of the WHOLE UK yoghurt market. 150m pots a year.
Read 41 tweets
29 Jul
Oh dear.

Think I'm about to be at war with the Soviet Union.
Okay that didn't end well.
Fucking Austro-Hungarians.

Now I know how the real Kaiser felt.
Read 4 tweets
28 Jul
We used to play Next Gen in the playground at primary school. There was always a quick scrap over who got to be Geordi.

I know there are issues with the portrayal, but it got white kids fighting to play a blind, black character. That's normalisation.
As I've gotten older, and rewatched and fallen in love again with Next Gen multiple times over, I've come to really appreciate Picard for the kind of Captain he is.

But Geordi... Maaaan Geordi always remains my favourite. The one I see the most reflections of myself in.
And I can't help but suspect that Geordi is one of the reasons I ended up with a career in tech, BUT ALSO why, when I was first offered a tech manager role at 23, I decided to step up into it.

Geordi made being a tech MANAGER, not just a developer, cool.
Read 6 tweets

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