Strange Times 194: One Apprehensive Misogynist
When I was 13, I thought the movie 200 Cigarettes was pretty cool. A few years later I watched it with a group of friends and they hated it so much that I apologized afterwards. Now, an ostensible adult, I’ve tricked my friend Henry into watching it again. Was it good or not? The episode title might give it away.
I’m currently working on a new roleplaying game called Letters to the Stars. It’s a solo RPG that you can play with your friends—a story generator about captains braving danger in deep space where every turn you take a break to send a message to a buddy about what’s going on. (It can also be played solo, with the messages simply beamed into the void.) If you like tabletop games but find it hard to schedule time to play with your friends, Letters to the Stars is for you! Click here to be notified when the Kickstarter launches or go here to join the open beta. I’m eager to hear what you think.
Oh! And if you’re interested in how the game gets put together, I wrote a post on the Patreon about sourcing public domain art for game design. If you read it, let me know what your favorite source of public domain work is—I’m putting together a list.
Today we have Ladies in hats, Princes with the sniffles, and a French doctor who just wants you to breeeeeeeeeeeathe. Listen to your breath—or somebody else’s—on…
July 13, 1921
Attempting to avoid a group of spectators, aviator Harry Hawker crashes his plane and dies amid the wreckage.
A gang of burglars robs a Harlem insurance office—a theft most notable because the normally slang-averse Times describes them in the headline as “Yeggs.”
A woman in Indiana is arrested on charges of forging the name of the late President Roosevelt on a $69,900 promissory note.
The Weather: Partly cloudy today and Thursday; no change in temperature; gentle variable winds.
I love Mrs. Astor content so much that I’ve created a tag for stories involving her. Click here for the story so far.
LONDON, July 12.—Parliament received two mild shocks today as a result of the heat wave.
Austen Chamberlain, who hitherto has stuck to a conventional black coat and top hat, appeared today in the House of Commons in a light gray frock suit without a waistcoat and with a cummerbund of divers colors substituted, the whole surmounted by a dove-tinted felt topper.
Lady Astor, too, varied her millinery. The simple form of toque which she has worn for eighteen months was replaced by a broad-brimmed black chip hat, simply trimmed with a chaplet of small flowers. Simple as it was, it struck a more aggressive note of femininity than did the unassuming toque, and more than one apprehensive misogynist frowned openly, though the rest of the House viewed the hat with benevolent toleration.
From the newspaper that brought you several months of daily updates on the health of Caruso comes…the Prince of Wales has a cold!
London, July 12.—The Prince of Wales is suffering from a slight cold and as a result he had to cancel an engagement to attend the inspection of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich today.
On inquiry at York House The New York Times correspondent was informed that upon his doctor’s advice the Prince was remaining indoors. The Prince’s indisposition is not regarded as serious but it is not yet known whether it will be advisable for him to go out tomorrow.
I love anybody whose response to phrenology isn’t, “That’s bullshit!” but “That’s not bullshit enough!”
PARIS, July 12.—Palmistry, phrenology, graphology and all other sciences by which those expert in them can arrive at complete and conclusive estimates of character are at best partial affairs. The only perfect way of telling character is by phrenoscopy.
Its principal and possible its only exponent is Dr. Maingot of this city, who in his laboratory, which is rigged up with devices like a mediaeval torture chamber, can tell the character of a baby or a centenarian.
“I need only to see how you breathe,” he says, “to know all about you.”
For phrenoscopy is the science of breathing. It is thus that Dr. Maingot expounds his theory and practice:
“Phrenoscopy is a radioscopic method by which one is able to examine carefully the diaphagm, from which can easily be deduced the salient facts of the character of the subject witohut the least possibility of deception. In the face, in the handwriting, in the shape of the head, one can see certain elements of character; but the radioscopic picture of the movement of the diaphragm is the surest method of all. The reason for that is that one breathes according to one’s character, and no one can alter his method of breathing except as he alters his character. With his first breath the infant shows the traits that will mark him for life, and with his last breath man shows what sort of person he was in his life.”
It should be added that in the treatment of the thorax Dr. Maingot is a serious scientist. The revealing of character by phrenoscopy is only his hobby.
