Category Archives: History

“I’m gobsmacked by this sticky wicket full of codswallop”

BBC Culture: How Americans preserved British English. “Americans today pronounce some words more like Shakespeare than Brits do… but it’s in 18th-Century England where they’d really feel at home.”

How Americanisms are killing the English language. “A book released this year claims that Americanisms will have completely absorbed the English language by 2120. Hephzibah Anderson takes a look.”

Why British English is full of silly-sounding words. “From ‘gazump’ to ‘gobsmack’, ‘squiffy’ to ‘snog’, British English is full of words that sound like barmy balderdash. Christine Ro explains why.”

Watergate’s Legacy in the Age of Trump

Here’s the Think with Alec Baldwin: John Dean: Watergate’s Legacy in the Age of Trump. (Podcast, 58 minutes.)

“When John Dean found his conscience, America found its backbone and impeached a president. The Nixon Administration tried to undermine American democracy during the election of 1972 through now-legendary dirty tricks aimed at their Democrat opponents. They almost got away with it. Dean was Nixon’s White House Counsel, and participated in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Then he began cooperating with investigators, and blew the case wide-open. Dean is one of the most complicated and fascinating characters in modern American history. In a frank and funny conversation with Alec Baldwin in front of a live audience, John Dean opens up about how it all went down – and how it could go down now under Trump, who he says shares Nixon’s paranoia and authoritarian instincts.”

“White House or Buckingham Palace?” – “White House, just because Buckingham Palace looks like it would take a really long time to mop.”

BBC Radio 4 Best of Today: Prince Harry interviews Barack Obama. (Audio, 39 minutes.)

“2017 began with Barack Obama leaving the White House and handing over the baton of the presidency to Donald Trump.

Our guest editor today, Prince Harry, met President Obama, in Toronto in September during the Invictus Games to talk about his memories of the day he left office, his post-presidential work with the Obama Foundation and his hopes for the future.”

This interview was published on 27 December 2017 and is available for listening or downloading for three more days.

“It was built in 170 AD.”

Deutsche Welle: Largest Roman city gate north of the Alps finally dated. “Archaeologists have determined the exact date of construction of the Porta Nigra in Trier — it was built 1,848 years ago. It’s the oldest monument of its kind in Germany.”

Deutsche Welle: Trierer Porta Nigra ist exakt 1848 Jahre alt. “Nicht nur der Schmutz der Jahrhunderte hat das Stadttor Porta Nigra in Trier tiefschwarz werden lassen. Jetzt wurde anhand von Holzfunden das wahre Alter des von den Römern errichteten Monuments festgestellt.”

“The horrors of surviving nearly three years in a concentration camp left him with a lifetime of fear and paranoia”

BBC: The Tattooist of Auschwitz – and his secret love.

“For more than 50 years, Lale Sokolov lived with a secret – one born in the horrors of wartime Europe, in a place that witnessed some of the worst of man’s inhumanity to man.

It would not be shared until he was in his 80s, thousands of miles from that place.

Lale had been the Tattooist of Auschwitz.”

Link via MetaFilter.