Earlier this month, we got some color snaps of Shackleton’s 1915 Antarctic trip. Pretty nifty. But they’re not quite as captivating as what the Smithsonian put out this week: Full color photos of a San Francisco freshly wrecked by the 1906 earthquake. Click here to see more. Is it me, or is it a little […]
History
Posted in?!?!?
Eva Braun in Blackface
“What’s more loathsome than being Hitler’s girlfriend?” asks James St. James at the Wow Report. “Answer: Being Hitler’s girlfriend in blackface and drag!” From LIFE magazine’s newly published collection of Eva Braun’s Private Photos: Dear God.
Posted inMovies & TV
A List of Brilliant Movie Ideas
Having just won the Academy Award for Best Picture and earning over $100 million at the US box office, The King’s Speech is a decided success. And knowing that Hollywood likes to repeat its successes to the point of bleeding them dry, we can expect a forthcoming glut of historical bio-pictures about famous leaders overcoming […]
Posted inPolitics
Vote for the Most So-So President!
HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY, DUDES! It’s the day we reflect on possibly the hardest job in the country—if you don’t count the jizz mopper over at Mr. Peeps. While the most popular presidents are on the tips of our tongues today, what about the more mediocre ones? It’s time to tip our hats to this fairly […]
Posted inHomo
Flossie
If you’re looking for someone interesting to talk to about weird Portland histories, that person is Tim Hills, McMenamin’s in-house historian. Hills surprised me this week when I called him to talk about whether McMenamin’s is going to incorporate the history of infamous gay bathhouse Club Portland into its new boutique hotel that took over […]
Posted inHistory
Portland’s Vanished Black Neighborhoods
Two cool events coming up next week about the history of Portland’s black communities. One! Monday, February 7th, at noon, PSU prof Felicia Williams is giving a talk on the 10th floor of the Portland Building called, “Deliberate Destruction: A Look at Emanuel Hospital, The Portland Development Commission and Portland’s Black Community.” Sounds good and […]
Posted inHistory
Bad-Ass Dog Mocked Nazis, Got Away With It
Recent news indicates that dogs can be offensive and get away with it. Adolf Hitler, one of the most ruthless men in history, has recently been found to have had difficulty in dealing with the smack of a Finnish dog and the dog’s mockery of their regime, in documents that have recently been released. In […]
Posted inPortland
So I Guess Someone Stole The Satyricon Marquee?
That’s what I’m getting from this I, Anonymous submission. It does sounds like, at least, that the historic monument has found a loving home with someone who appreciates its long and debaucherous history, and you know, was there, man: I was here during the rise and the fall of the club Satyricon. I saw bullshit […]
Posted inFood and Drink
If the Romans Had Celebrated Thanksgiving…
Holy shit, I can already feel the hot, sour bile inching its way past my epiglottis and into the back of my salty, spit-filled mouth! This isn’t just gluttony. This is 79,000 calories of beautiful, cardinal sin: A quail stuffed in a Cornish hen stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a […]
Posted inFood and Drink
This Week’s Mercury Food Section: The Taste of Empires
In this week’s Last Supper, I explore the French influenced Vietnamese cuisine of Jade Patisserie and Tea House, located in the quiet, charming oasis of Sellwood. During one of my visits, after tucking into a particularly delicious meatball banh mi-type sandwich, I asked the server at the counter where the excellent baguette had come from. […]
Posted inHistory
Spotted in NE Portland
This past weekend, I had the chance to visit an old house in Northeast Portland—and it was a really weird house. For starters, the staircase to the upstairs was located in the downstairs bathroom. But I spotted this thing on the wall of one of the rooms and wondered, what is that? It looked like […]
Posted inHistory
The First Portland Building Ever Demolished to Build a Parking Lot
Monday afternoon Portland history lesson via Cafe Unknown blogger Dan Haneckow. He’s dug up info about an interesting historical site: the first Portland building ever demolished to build a parking lot. The building was an 1880 four-story commercial space on the north east corner of Second and Washington, designed by Warren H. Williams. Haneckow was […]