Stori3d Past
@stori3dpast.bsky.social
Harold Johnson. Maine (from away!). Bookseller. Pilgrim. Word Guy. Skeptic. History & Archaeology. Tolkien. Trek. Italy. Old English. Used to make YouTubes, now I make typos. 19th C antiquarian — Sideburns included! 🏺📖🧙🏻♂️
Pinned
Stori3d Past
@stori3dpast.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Just thought you should know.
Norse and Danish mead-horns sometimes had feet.
Norse and Danish mead-horns sometimes had feet.
The penny is dead.
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
US Mint in Philadelphia presses final pennies as the 1-cent coin gets canceled
The U.S. Mint has ended production of the penny, a change made to save money and in recognition of the growing irrelevance of the 1-cent coin.
apnews.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:57 PM
The penny is dead.
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.
November 12, 2025 at 8:47 PM
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.
November 12, 2025 at 8:12 PM
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.
Just finishing TS Eliot's "Waste Land and Other [Early] Poems." And this has been my experience of it. This one page, 20 meager lines, has 12 endnotes. At least one of which helpfully states "the relevance is not clear."
November 12, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Just finishing TS Eliot's "Waste Land and Other [Early] Poems." And this has been my experience of it. This one page, 20 meager lines, has 12 endnotes. At least one of which helpfully states "the relevance is not clear."
I drive a 2024 Kia Forte 4dr sedan. Thoroughly forgettable car, except that its old-school gasoline engine can do 52.4 MPG when I'm driving its 3000 lbs down backroads across southern Maine and it's barely 40° out. It's not that most carmakers can't; they just won't.
November 12, 2025 at 5:44 PM
I drive a 2024 Kia Forte 4dr sedan. Thoroughly forgettable car, except that its old-school gasoline engine can do 52.4 MPG when I'm driving its 3000 lbs down backroads across southern Maine and it's barely 40° out. It's not that most carmakers can't; they just won't.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
Have you heard about the corduroy pillows??????
They’re making HEADLINES!!!!
They’re making HEADLINES!!!!
Happy Corduroy Appreciate Day to all who celebrate! 11/11, the date most resembling corduroy!
November 11, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Have you heard about the corduroy pillows??????
They’re making HEADLINES!!!!
They’re making HEADLINES!!!!
I've just tried to read & absorb TS Eliot's "The Waste Land." But I learned that in order to *really* understand its 17 pages, I need to read 2200 pages of other works from St Augustine to Shakespeare to Indian mystic writings.
It is the "Darmok" of poetry. Every line is drawn from somewhere else.
It is the "Darmok" of poetry. Every line is drawn from somewhere else.
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
I've just tried to read & absorb TS Eliot's "The Waste Land." But I learned that in order to *really* understand its 17 pages, I need to read 2200 pages of other works from St Augustine to Shakespeare to Indian mystic writings.
It is the "Darmok" of poetry. Every line is drawn from somewhere else.
It is the "Darmok" of poetry. Every line is drawn from somewhere else.
"Man in nation that had been Protestant for 140 years writes mean thing about Catholicism. Film at 11."
Whenever you despair at the amount of deeply-ingrained hatred on social media, check out what people were writing about each other in the 1600s.
Whenever you despair at the amount of deeply-ingrained hatred on social media, check out what people were writing about each other in the 1600s.
November 11, 2025 at 2:16 AM
"Man in nation that had been Protestant for 140 years writes mean thing about Catholicism. Film at 11."
Whenever you despair at the amount of deeply-ingrained hatred on social media, check out what people were writing about each other in the 1600s.
Whenever you despair at the amount of deeply-ingrained hatred on social media, check out what people were writing about each other in the 1600s.
Tolkien wrote that an author has created a successful secondary world if you, the reader, feel like it's a real place while you're in the story. If that's the rubric, then Ultima VI was a really successful secondary world!
Ultima VII is a tough replay for me. The Guardian is a Very Bad Guy. And in the end (by Ultima IX) he basically wins. You chase him off in Ultima VII, but while you're occupied elsewhere he comes back and wreaks havoc on a whole world you've come to know & kinda love.
Sometimes I want to go back and play Ultima VII -- not to defeat the Guardian, but just to clean up Lock Lake again.
November 11, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Tolkien wrote that an author has created a successful secondary world if you, the reader, feel like it's a real place while you're in the story. If that's the rubric, then Ultima VI was a really successful secondary world!
Ultima VII is a tough replay for me. The Guardian is a Very Bad Guy. And in the end (by Ultima IX) he basically wins. You chase him off in Ultima VII, but while you're occupied elsewhere he comes back and wreaks havoc on a whole world you've come to know & kinda love.
Sometimes I want to go back and play Ultima VII -- not to defeat the Guardian, but just to clean up Lock Lake again.
November 11, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Ultima VII is a tough replay for me. The Guardian is a Very Bad Guy. And in the end (by Ultima IX) he basically wins. You chase him off in Ultima VII, but while you're occupied elsewhere he comes back and wreaks havoc on a whole world you've come to know & kinda love.
Sometimes I want to go back and play Ultima VII -- not to defeat the Guardian, but just to clean up Lock Lake again.
November 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Sometimes I want to go back and play Ultima VII -- not to defeat the Guardian, but just to clean up Lock Lake again.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
for reference, on a 1554 commentary on dioscorides, which definitely spent some time in Stuttgart and has a manuscript waste (+ alum tawed pigskin iirc) binding
November 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
for reference, on a 1554 commentary on dioscorides, which definitely spent some time in Stuttgart and has a manuscript waste (+ alum tawed pigskin iirc) binding
To the one person who liked this absolute gem, Thank You! To the rest of my apparent 2,300 followers, wow.
November 10, 2025 at 5:53 PM
To the one person who liked this absolute gem, Thank You! To the rest of my apparent 2,300 followers, wow.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
hey book history people: has anyone encountered marcas de fuego on the fore-edge of a book (instead of the top or bottom)? We’ve got a weird one (that also doesn’t show up in the BUAP database)
November 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
hey book history people: has anyone encountered marcas de fuego on the fore-edge of a book (instead of the top or bottom)? We’ve got a weird one (that also doesn’t show up in the BUAP database)
So #TIL about 8th C Byzantine emperor Constantine V. A brilliant military leader but also a tyrannical religious zealot. He was so unloved that people called him Constantine Sh*t-Named, after a rumor that he had defecated during his baptism.
November 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
So #TIL about 8th C Byzantine emperor Constantine V. A brilliant military leader but also a tyrannical religious zealot. He was so unloved that people called him Constantine Sh*t-Named, after a rumor that he had defecated during his baptism.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.
-William Morris (advising you touch grass)
-William Morris (advising you touch grass)
November 10, 2025 at 12:53 PM
A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.
-William Morris (advising you touch grass)
-William Morris (advising you touch grass)
I have 8 antique book auctions finishing up on eBay in an hour & the numbers look great. Yay holiday shopping season!
November 10, 2025 at 12:27 AM
I have 8 antique book auctions finishing up on eBay in an hour & the numbers look great. Yay holiday shopping season!
Reposted by Stori3d Past
1/ I sat on my bed on Friday after the kids went down for the night and made this. It's my own setting of Cædmon's Hymn, inspired by my friend Father Andrew Stephen Damick's recent trip to the UK, particularly to Whitby.
Cædmon's Hymn, by me! This was my first time really using Garageband!
Cædmon's Hymn
YouTube video by Sarah M
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 12:10 AM
1/ I sat on my bed on Friday after the kids went down for the night and made this. It's my own setting of Cædmon's Hymn, inspired by my friend Father Andrew Stephen Damick's recent trip to the UK, particularly to Whitby.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
The Great Courses is one of the shining points of the streaming era.
November 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
The Great Courses is one of the shining points of the streaming era.
Watching a "Great Courses" series on US National Parks, I've learned about "Nebkha Dunes." Desert sand collects around small tufts of hardy plants. Eventually the sandhill grows high, then the plant reroots & grows higher to stay above it. And on & on til it's a genuine dune.
Not unline an atoll.
Not unline an atoll.
November 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Watching a "Great Courses" series on US National Parks, I've learned about "Nebkha Dunes." Desert sand collects around small tufts of hardy plants. Eventually the sandhill grows high, then the plant reroots & grows higher to stay above it. And on & on til it's a genuine dune.
Not unline an atoll.
Not unline an atoll.
Reminds me of the Old English riddle about the bookworm who literally devours knowledge yet is none the wiser.
November 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reminds me of the Old English riddle about the bookworm who literally devours knowledge yet is none the wiser.
If you ever thought the term "bookworm" was just a saying, it's not.
This formerly gorgeous 1723 leather-bound French book has been reduced to kindling. Thoroughly unsellable, maybe worth $5 to someone at a country craft fair.
This formerly gorgeous 1723 leather-bound French book has been reduced to kindling. Thoroughly unsellable, maybe worth $5 to someone at a country craft fair.
November 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
If you ever thought the term "bookworm" was just a saying, it's not.
This formerly gorgeous 1723 leather-bound French book has been reduced to kindling. Thoroughly unsellable, maybe worth $5 to someone at a country craft fair.
This formerly gorgeous 1723 leather-bound French book has been reduced to kindling. Thoroughly unsellable, maybe worth $5 to someone at a country craft fair.
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
What's cool is these rules are laid out in a scene where "our hero" has left the mortal world & entered a Fäerie just like Tolkien's. An enchanted land under our sky & stars but only reachable via magic/grace. Complete with King & Queen.
Compare with "Smith of Wootton Major."
- Art of Courtly Love
Compare with "Smith of Wootton Major."
- Art of Courtly Love
Capellanus's 12 rules of love
1 Don't be greedy
2 Be faithful
3 Don't harm another's affair
4 Love one you'd be OK marrying
5 Don't lie
6 Don't blab about your affair
7 Obey your lady
8 Be modest
9 Speak no evil
10 Don't blab about others' affairs
11 Be courteous
12 Take only what she freely gives.
1 Don't be greedy
2 Be faithful
3 Don't harm another's affair
4 Love one you'd be OK marrying
5 Don't lie
6 Don't blab about your affair
7 Obey your lady
8 Be modest
9 Speak no evil
10 Don't blab about others' affairs
11 Be courteous
12 Take only what she freely gives.
November 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
What's cool is these rules are laid out in a scene where "our hero" has left the mortal world & entered a Fäerie just like Tolkien's. An enchanted land under our sky & stars but only reachable via magic/grace. Complete with King & Queen.
Compare with "Smith of Wootton Major."
- Art of Courtly Love
Compare with "Smith of Wootton Major."
- Art of Courtly Love
Capellanus's 12 rules of love
1 Don't be greedy
2 Be faithful
3 Don't harm another's affair
4 Love one you'd be OK marrying
5 Don't lie
6 Don't blab about your affair
7 Obey your lady
8 Be modest
9 Speak no evil
10 Don't blab about others' affairs
11 Be courteous
12 Take only what she freely gives.
1 Don't be greedy
2 Be faithful
3 Don't harm another's affair
4 Love one you'd be OK marrying
5 Don't lie
6 Don't blab about your affair
7 Obey your lady
8 Be modest
9 Speak no evil
10 Don't blab about others' affairs
11 Be courteous
12 Take only what she freely gives.
November 9, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Capellanus's 12 rules of love
1 Don't be greedy
2 Be faithful
3 Don't harm another's affair
4 Love one you'd be OK marrying
5 Don't lie
6 Don't blab about your affair
7 Obey your lady
8 Be modest
9 Speak no evil
10 Don't blab about others' affairs
11 Be courteous
12 Take only what she freely gives.
1 Don't be greedy
2 Be faithful
3 Don't harm another's affair
4 Love one you'd be OK marrying
5 Don't lie
6 Don't blab about your affair
7 Obey your lady
8 Be modest
9 Speak no evil
10 Don't blab about others' affairs
11 Be courteous
12 Take only what she freely gives.