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TheLitDetective

  1. One of the earliest hacker taunts, from 1862, appears to be: "O, pshaw!" books.google.com/books?id=V9Q8H…
  2. Also by this author: "Belcher's Address to Humanity" (1796). bit.ly/KNw68E
  3. 18th century title of the day: "Belcher's Cream of Knowledge" (1795). books.google.com/books?id=g-lbA…
  4. Great @davidwolman piece in Wired on a German artist's one last masterpiece: perfect $100 bills. Millions of 'em. wired.com/threatlevel/20…
  5. "Oy, oy, oy." My Village Voice piece on a bestselling sex-novel hoax by Newsday's Mike McGrady in 1966: villagevoice.com/2003-12-30/boo…
  6. My latest in @Slate: the electric "silent car" problem w/ pedestrians jingles all the way back to 18th c sleigh laws. slate.me/KrCVPw
  7. @ekrunk No idea, I'm afraid! I wasn't involved with the illustration on that one -- you'll have ask the folks at Defunct...
  8. An 1867 musing that "centuries hence," telegraph wires could become "a world-wide web" for surveillance: books.google.com/books?id=aaJLA…
  9. Victorian author & title of the day: "Whist of the Future" by Lt. Col. Barzillai Lowsley, (Ret., Royal Engineers). books.google.com/books?id=Ib0CA…
  10. My latest at @Slate, on the lost world of old Scotland Yard memoirs: "Ruffians, Pickpockets & Jewel Fences" slate.com/articles/arts/… #Sherlock
  11. @GlenDavidGold The whole magazine's wonderfully odd. There's also a bell-ringing race on p 176 and a rat-squeezing miser on p 188.
  12. An 1808 account of a balloon duel over Paris, fought with blunderbusses: books.google.com/books?id=grQaA…
  13. The Catcher in the Iron Mask: a 1921 attempt at sheet-metal baseball gear. twitter.com/TheLitDetectiv…
  14. @ahm Aggh... Yep, he got my iPod!
  15. Is it 1906? Are you full of moxie, yet seeking gainful employment? Then why not Start A Mirror Factory?... twitter.com/TheLitDetectiv…
  16. @swansburg I hadn't noticed that! And right next to a "Stop Paying High Gasoline Prices" ad, no less...