History For Hard Times

He invented the wheelchair, many automatons, the latest at the time in harpsichord-piano fusion, and the in line skate. His contemporaries referred to him as “The Ingenious Mechanic.” Let’s talk about John Joseph Merlin.

That day, president Johnson asked the CIA to pull all gossip and dirt on Eartha Kitt. They compiled a dossier of every rumor surrounding her upbringing and how she became famous, and they blacklisted her privately as a “sadistic nymphomaniac.” They released the dossier to Broadway, to the cabarets she performed at, to every venue that made her who she was, and she had no idea that a man criminalized her sexuality, to ruin her career, because she did not agree with him.

In the 1650’s, a woman was preparing dinner for her husband. After serving him the bowl of soup, before he could lean forward and take his first bite, she suddenly screamed for him not to eat it. Wracked with guilt, and under the severe questioning of her husband, she revealed that she had bought poison from a local shop and served it to him. The papal authorities were called, and Giulia Tofana was arrested.

He was a polymath, printer, philosopher, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman and diplomat. He was NOT allowed to write the Declaration of Independence because everyone knew he’d throw some jokes in. Your favorite goofy, fugitive, bi-curious, lover of old women, the Founding Father Benjamin Franklin!

My interest in her peaked when I read the following on tumblr: Y’all think being in a goth relationship means wearing black together but Mary Shelley lost her virginity on her mother’s grave, carried her dead husband’s heart around in a book and lived in a crypt when he died. Peak goth began and ended in 1820. I hope you enjoy learning about the Queen of Goth as much as I did!