Fay started with gimmicks like everyone else, wearing baggy pants, squirting seltzer, delivering straight lines for a comedian that circled him on roller skates - and he hated it. After humiliating himself onstage for two years, Fay decided to use the same persona he had offstage. No props, no costumes, no partner, he took to the stage wearing a well-tailored tuxedo and told jokes alone. It was so unconventional that The New York Times frowned: "“Fay needs a good straight man, as before, to feed his eccentric comedy." There was initial resistance to a man just standing and talking, but Fay's success would transform stand-up as an artform. Fellow comedians saw Fay succeed and they abandoned their props and emulated his style. Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Bob Hope and Jack Paar all cited him as an influence. Fay became one of the most influential stand-up comics of all time.

He was also comedy's most notorious racist. In January 1946, several months after Germany had been defeated, a rally of ten thousand white supremacists gathered at Madison Square Garden. They delivered speeches in support of Franco, Mussolini and their fallen hero Adolf Hitler. They promised that the defeat of Germany would not go unpunished. The podium was beneath a banner that saluted their guest of honor. The event was called "The Friends of Frank Fay."

Frank Fay: The Fascist Stand-Up Comic by Kliph Nesteroff (for WFMU's Beware of the Blog)
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 11:56 PM on September 9, 2014 (44 comments)

10 Elaborate Floor Plans from Pre-World War I New York City Apartments
posted to MetaFilter by nadawi at 4:58 PM on August 18, 2014 (35 comments)

Íslandskort is a digital collection of historical maps of Iceland put online in high quality pdf-files and jpegs by the National Library of Iceland. Here are a few of my favorites: 1, 2, 3. You can either browse a timeline of all the maps or browse categories such as first maps of Iceland, Iceland on sea charts in the 17th and 18th centuries and other maps, which includes maps of Frisland (1, 2), a phantom island that bedeviled cartographers for centuries.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 12:27 PM on August 12, 2014 (3 comments)

Delta Hot Tamales Are Hotter Than Ever

Delta "hots" themselves perfectly exemplify the tamale's malleable properties. Made with cornmeal instead of the lime-treated masa used in Mexico, a Delta hot is simmered (rather than steamed) in a spiced broth—hence the name. Though the dish's precise origin remains elusive, it's said that at one point in the 1920s a few Mexican cotton pickers made their way up from the Rio Grande Valley, toting a recipe that was then transformed by local African-American cooks—possibly aided by southern Italians who'd settled in the area. Whatever. By 1936, tamales were so entrenched in Delta culture that Robert Johnson, who'd made his pact with the devil just up the road from Greenville, recorded a song about them called "They're Red Hot."

posted to MetaFilter by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:42 AM on August 12, 2014 (46 comments)

"Burkhard challenged Miller to a 'Cheese Duel': Burkhard and Miller would sit at a table, and if Burkhard could cut a piece of Limburger cheese and Miller not wretch, Miller would be forbidden from complaining about Wisconsin and her cheese ever again."
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 1:47 PM on August 11, 2014 (42 comments)

Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason "After all, the story [of Ring Around the Rosie's plague origins] is itself folklore: a tale that was passed on by word of mouth first, then in writing and online media. And because it is also about folklore, folklorists classify it as 'metafolklore': folklore about folklore."
posted to MetaFilter by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy at 3:38 PM on August 8, 2014 (9 comments)

The internet and Metafilter are abuzz over Maddie & Tae, the teenage country duo whose first single strikes back against the pervasive and much-maligned trend of "bro country" sweeping the country charts. But Maddie & Tae are hardly the first female country singers to bring a decidedly feminist message to the genre. Here are some highlights, in chronological order, for your listening pleasure.
posted to MetaFilter by zeusianfog at 3:36 PM on August 8, 2014 (51 comments)

Some days, you just want to gaze at pictures of scissors, from ancient Korea to a pair that was used on the Moon.
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 7:52 AM on August 8, 2014 (26 comments)

"Though red big barns and big red barns are semantically identical, the second kind pleases our ears more." The Secret Rules of Adjective Order.
posted to MetaFilter by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:58 PM on August 7, 2014 (63 comments)

Looking for a good detective/noire movie.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by askmehow at 3:22 PM on August 3, 2014 (35 comments)

"DISCLAIMER TIME! 50 is a very small number. I make no claims to any of these lists being either comprehensive or some sort of objective analysis of the 'best' films directed by women. I make selections based on on what I've seen, what I like, and the position of the stars. One film per director. Ready? Let's go."
posted to MetaFilter by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:12 PM on July 31, 2014 (64 comments)

Born in 1913, Rose Murphy was an imaginative and percussive jazz pianist and singer nicknamed "the Chee-Chee Girl" for obvious reasons. Although she didn't make many recordings, she continued to perform up until her death in 1989.
posted to MetaFilter by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 8:20 PM on July 27, 2014 (8 comments)

Norway seems to be particularly good at making interesting museums. If you're touring, the museum of magic is spell-binding. The museum of knitting is a real purl. The petroleum museum is a gas. The Lofoten Stockfish museum is off the hook. And the Norsk Hermetickk-museum is about the history of sealing things in cans.
posted to MetaFilter by Joeruckus at 3:02 AM on July 25, 2014 (9 comments)

In 1929, the Indiana Bell Telephone Company decided to build a new office building. Rather than demolishing the old building, on the advice of Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., they moved it.
posted to MetaFilter by zamboni at 9:53 AM on July 17, 2014 (18 comments)

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is an annual weekend conference discussing food, its history, and culture. Since 1981 the papers presented at the Symposium have been collected into a conference volume called the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, most of which have been made available for free in their entirety via Google Books. Each volume consists of about 25-40 papers surrounding the theme of that year's Symposium (e.g. Eggs, Authenticity, or The Meal).
posted to MetaFilter by jedicus at 12:04 PM on July 17, 2014 (8 comments)

Ed Brubaker on Velvet (his new comic book series with Steve Epting): “I loved the idea of flipping the typical male-oriented spy story, and doing one about a woman who was also a mature, middle-aged woman.”
posted to MetaFilter by flex at 10:35 AM on July 15, 2014 (32 comments)

"TrowelBlazers is a celebration of women archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists who have been doing awesome work for far longer, and in far greater numbers, than most people realize." [via]
posted to MetaFilter by brundlefly at 12:51 PM on July 7, 2014 (4 comments)

Digital Classicists: Scholars who study the ancient Greek and Roman empires are creating a growing array of 21st-century interactive, multidimensional presentations about people, places and events from the world of antiquity. If you dig around you'll uncover some deep and meticulous work by geographers, historians, archaeologists, and art historians working in digital space.
posted to MetaFilter by GrammarMoses at 8:52 PM on July 5, 2014 (34 comments)

"We use these nests primarily for the song birds," said Alison Hermance, WildCare's communications manager, as she gestured toward a blue knitted nest carrying baby finches and a gray and white nest full of tiny and eager chestnut-backed chickadees, their beaks wide open in anticipation of a feeding.
posted to MetaFilter by gingerbeer at 9:25 PM on July 4, 2014 (21 comments)

The post-war boom gave rise to new concepts of modernity in domestic architecture and, of course, massive suburban development. One such concept was the California ranch-style home, pioneered by Cliff May (1909-1989). Another contemporary architect, Joseph Eichler (1900-1974), had his own vision of modernity in America's new suburbs, but both styles used similar language. At the time, these new designs for living were seen as modern and at the cutting edge of sophistication, but sophistication within reach of the average professional, middle-class family. They were designed to have a practical as well as an aesthetic value. Welcome to mid-century modern.
posted to MetaFilter by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:21 PM on July 4, 2014 (29 comments)

“Would you like to – solve mysteries? belong to a secret club? ride, swim, travel, go to parties with the best friends in the world? Then the wonderful adventures of Trixie Belden are written just for you. Don’t miss a single one!”
posted to MetaFilter by szechuan at 10:44 PM on July 2, 2014 (26 comments)

"...Rest stops are vanishing from the landscapes of America. All over the country, rest areas are losing the fight to commercial alternatives: drive-thrus at every exit and mega-sized travel centers offering car washes, wi-fi, grilled paninis and bladder-busting sized fountain drinks. They're on the chopping block for many states, their upkeep giving way with tight highway budgets. Louisiana has closed 24 of its 34 stops, Virginia, 18 of its 42; pretty much every state in the country has reduced its number of rest areas, or at least cut operating hours. And they're not just being closed, they're being demolished. "They're just toilets and tables" you might say. But if you take a closer look, you will see that they are much more. " (Via The Atlantic Cities, which includes an interview with the photographer, Ryann Ford)
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 1:32 PM on December 11, 2013 (110 comments)

NYT Dining & Wine's Ice Cream Issue:

• The Only Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Need (video) (recipe)
• Ever True to You, Local Parlor – A Cone to Remember
• Chocolate Ganache, an Easygoing French Treat (video) (recipe)
• You Say Soft, I Say Serve
• At Morgenstern’s Finest, a Swirl of Innovation
• A Crush of Summer Flavors
• A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Scoop
• A Malted Milk Crawl in New York

posted to MetaFilter by and they trembled before her fury at 6:38 AM on July 2, 2014 (59 comments)

For 37 years, Bothwell, a small town in Tasmania, has hosted an international competition to determine who can hand spin the longest 2-ply thread using 10 grams of wool.
posted to MetaFilter by tchemgrrl at 10:09 AM on July 1, 2014 (14 comments)

Fordite, also known as Motor Agate or Detroit Agate, is a relic from the old technique for painting cars: spray enamel paint and bake it on, layer after layer, car after car. The resulting overspray on the tracks and skids that carried the cars and parts would build up over time, and eventually need to be removed to allow everything to move smoothly. That enamel waste product is now valued to make colorful jewelry, seen here, here and here. This spray enamel process is outdated, with electro coating (or more formally, electrophoretic deposition) prevailing as a much more efficient process. Sure, it looks modern, but where's the fun in it?
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 4:51 PM on May 27, 2014 (40 comments)

The poet Rosemary Tonks turned her back on the literary world in the mid-1970s, leaving behind her a handful of strange and brilliant poems and a small band of devoted admirers who longed to know what had happened to her. For forty years she disappeared completely, 'evaporated into air like the Cheshire Cat', as Brian Patten remarked in a 2009 BBC documentary, The Poet Who Vanished. Now, with news of her death at the age of 85, the story of her life is starting to emerge.
posted to MetaFilter by verstegan at 2:39 PM on May 3, 2014 (14 comments)

For forty years around the turn of the 20th century, ostrich plumes were the height of fashion, and a major industry: at its peak, ostrich feathers were, ounce-for-ounce, nearly as valuable as diamonds, so much so that £20,000 of feathers went down with the Titanic. The market for feathers was, in large part, run by Jews: Sephardi Jews exported feathers, Jews in London and New York traded them, and Eastern European Jews left Russia and Lithuania in the thousands to farm feathers, flocking to Oudtshoorn "The Jerusalem of Africa." In 1914, the boom ended, leaving many destitute and leading to anti-semitic backlashes. A brief but entertaining history of the feather trade can be read in this PDF excerpt. Some of the beautiful "Feather Palaces" of Oudtshoorn still survive, as does a small Jewish community and some vintage fashion.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 11:37 AM on April 8, 2014 (10 comments)

2048, a tile game.
posted to MetaFilter by grouse at 6:10 PM on March 10, 2014 (120 comments)

I am The Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes... I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak. So tonight, I tell you this story.... If you lived near a west coast CBS radio affiliate between May 16, 1942 and September 22, 1955, you probably heard The Whistler, or at least knew of the radio mystery series that was somewhat in the style of the better-known franchise, The Shadow. If you missed it, you can catch up on Archive.org, with selections from 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and '52, or browse through a collection of 502 episodes.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 10:00 AM on March 6, 2014 (16 comments)

Although she is a literary legend, only one complete poem of Sappho's survives, along with substantial fragments of four others (the last discovered in 2004). Now two new fragments have been discovered.
posted to MetaFilter by Athanassiel at 9:16 PM on January 28, 2014 (89 comments)

Dating an Impressionist's Sunset. "Famed French Impressionist Claude Monet created a striking scene of the Normandy coast in his 1883 painting, Étretat: Sunset. Now a team of Texas State University researchers, led by astronomer and physics professor Donald Olson, has applied its distinctive brand of forensic astronomy to Monet’s masterpiece, uncovering previously unknown details about the painting’s origins." [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 11:00 AM on January 25, 2014 (21 comments)

Today is Iris DeMent's birthday, and I've been listening to some tunes by this delightfully idiosyncratic singer and songwriter, whose sound harkens back to an earlier era of American music. I thought some of you might enjoy hearing them today as well. Here's Out of the Fire, God May Forgive You (But I Won't), He's Not You, Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day, Sweet is the Melody, Let the Mystery Be, Our Town (featuring harmony vocal from the wonderful Emmylou Harris), He Reached Down (with Joan Osborne and Bruce Molsky), and finally, here's Iris dueting with John Prine on his hilarious number In Spite of Ourselves.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 3:56 AM on January 5, 2014 (30 comments)

The other day, I woke up humming Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues." That terrific performance is from Transatlantic Sessions, a long-running project uniting musicians from different countries and varying musical backgrounds. "For almost two decades, the sessions have been inviting American musicians – from Rufus Wainwright to Emmylou Harris to James Taylor – to the UK to collaborate with British musicians steeped in the folk tradition, and filming the results. Imagine Later with Jools Holland, if all the acts played on each other's songs. And with more accordion." Drawing from Wikipedia's list of performances, I offer for your listening pleasure... Transatlantic Sessions.
posted to MetaFilter by MonkeyToes at 9:41 PM on December 23, 2013 (18 comments)

Grammy-award-winner, multi-platinum artist Amy Grant does a mostly-acoustic, lengthy, combination interview and performance set for Woodsongs [1h20m, direct mp4 video link], partially to promote her new-ish album How Mercy Looks From Here, and mostly because she is totally awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 10:42 PM on December 23, 2013 (12 comments)

The 109^th issue [pdf] has been released.
posted to MetaFilter by 7segment at 2:38 AM on December 21, 2013 (124 comments)

The Yule Cat, called Jólakötturinn or Jólaköttur in its native Iceland, is something in the lines of a holiday threat. Those who don't work hard and make, earn, or receive new clothes before Yule will be devoured by Jólakötturinn, as told in the poem by Jóhannes Bjarni Jónasson (original poem with some illustrations). Myths say that Jólakötturinn belongs to the ogress Grýla, mother of the 13 "Yule Lad" trolls.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 7:06 AM on December 17, 2013 (22 comments)

What do you need to be an international CONTROL super spy fighting the forces of KAOS? A Shoe-Phone. A Cone of Silence. A Bulletproof Invisible Wall and a Laser Blazer. Then, and only then, can you Get Smart.
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 3:43 PM on December 16, 2013 (52 comments)

I'm looking for some non-fiction, anecdote-filled book recommendations covering the first ten to fifteen years of the sound-era studio system. Particularly those which focus on the activities of the studio personnel themselves (the writers, producers, crew, moguls), rather than the stars. Anything interesting on the poverty row studios would also be great.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by smithsmith at 8:34 PM on December 4, 2013 (7 comments)

The Vikings, pillagers and plunderers that they were, were the possessors of quite a bit of metal that needed to be used in some way. So they made jewelry. By the 8th century they had created a technique that is called trichinopoly or more commonly "Viking knitting", although it is really a type of weaving. If the Viking style of adornment appeals to you, you can learn this technique and make your own Viking-style jewelry. It's less complicated than it looks, and you don't even have to know how to knit in order to learn. You can learn to make a necklace or bracelet like this with this tutorial, or by watching a YouTube video. Once you master the basic technique, you'll be able to start improvising by adding beads and findings and semi-precious stones. It's possible that such jewelry was used as currency on those occasions when the Vikings actually paid for their acquisitions, like some sort of wearable bank account. Ostentatious types, those Vikings, but I suppose when you're known for your ferocity and lawlessness, you don't have to fear being mugged or looking nouveau riche.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan at 10:48 AM on April 3, 2013 (19 comments)

What are your best recipes for holiday goodies to give out as gifts, to make in bulk?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by xicana63 at 8:16 PM on November 24, 2013 (29 comments)

The Kelpies. Giant Horse Head Sculptures Tower Over the Forth & Clyde Canal in Scotland. The Kelpies were designed by artist Andy Scott. [Previously]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 11:42 AM on November 17, 2013 (13 comments)

Time for the 5th Annual Mefi Holiday Gift Drive for Children! Come right in and see how you can help out.
posted to MetaTalk by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:02 AM on November 13, 2013 (119 comments)

Best DC-area restaurants that require a car to get to?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by troika at 10:18 AM on November 5, 2013 (18 comments)

“The way the poem sits on the page does not necessarily tell you anything about how to read it.” Explains Hugh Kenner of radical modernist poet and New Jersey general practitioner Williams Carlos Williams. The series features archival footage, animation, and interviews with critics, poets and and neighbors, among them Helen Vendler, Marjorie Porloff, James Merrill, and Anthony Hecht. Also, Elizabeth Bishop, Hart Crane, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Robert Lowell, Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman. Produced by the New York Center for Visual History, 1988. Previously
posted to MetaFilter by zbsachs at 4:31 PM on November 2, 2013 (9 comments)

Numerous "Stranger's Guides" written for 19th Century tourists can be found on the Internet Archive. A sample: New York (1828). Boston (1857). Washington DC (1884). Montreal (1872). London (1828). Paris (1822). United States and Canada (1838).
posted to MetaFilter by ShooBoo at 11:12 PM on November 1, 2013 (16 comments)

Can you recommend any contemporary folk artists producing uncontemporary folk music?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Caskeum at 4:12 AM on October 31, 2013 (36 comments)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim offer 474 free art books online. 99 art catalogs from the Guggenheim. 375 MetPublications. An example: Masterpieces of Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 6:20 PM on October 27, 2013 (11 comments)

If you become a cultural icon, those who come after in your field will almost certainly be compared to you and your achievements. And if you were the late Julia Child, ground-breaking television chef and champion of French cooking in the United States, you would find your name to be the first half of a lot of comparisons. The Julia Childs, as it were.
posted to MetaFilter by Celsius1414 at 10:27 PM on October 14, 2013 (31 comments)

IN 1877 Isabel Gill visited an inhospitable volcanic blob in the mid-Atlantic to help her husband with ground-breaking astronomical measurements. Then she wrote a wrote a book about it, including an attempt to explain to fellow Victorian ladies the concept of a solar parallax in terms she thought they might be able to grasp:"I myself do not understand mathematical terms, so how could I use them with the hope of explaining these things to my readers? However, I can use knitting-needles, and perhaps they may do just as well."
Wierdly, more than a century later another astronomer visited the site and found the sandy paths which marked the Gill's lava-top camp still undisturbed by the Atlantic winds.
posted to MetaFilter by penguin pie at 9:10 AM on September 16, 2004 (17 comments)

Excellent collection of free, downloadable posters that you can print at home.

Are you looking for low-budget and stylish decor?
These vintage posters can be downloaded in a high-res ZIP format and printed. Most of them are advertising from years gone by.
posted to MetaFilter by Too-Ticky at 1:02 PM on October 7, 2013 (31 comments)