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thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
This Is Noir House
@thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
51 followers 110 following 460 posts
Why aren't I writing?
I should be writing.
Those demons won't take care of themselves.
It would be so much worse if they did...
thisisnoir.house

@danielmconnolly.bsky.social
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thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
In case you really need to see Mrs. Coolidge's pie...
From the Congressional Club Cook Book (1927) CUSTARD PIE 3/4 cup sugar. 1 tablespoonful flour. 2 eggs, beaten. 2 1/2 cups milk. Mix sugar and flour, add a pinch of salt. Bake in single crust. Dust a little nutmeg on top after pie is baked. Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Wife of the President of the United States.
November 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
An abundance of cornmeal muffin recipes. I'm told abundance is hip.

I'll go with Yates' recipe because it's from IL.

In 1888, Yates married Ellen Wadsworth, also a native of Jacksonville, IL.

Was Ida your mother, Ellen? Your governess? Old Nanna Wadsworth?

I need to know.
From the Congressional Club Cook Book (1927) CORNMEAL MUFFINS 2 cups cornmeal. 1 cup flour. 1 cup sweet milk. 2 eggs, well beaten. 1/2 cup sugar. 2 tablespoons baking powder. This quantity will make 14 muffins. Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Wife of the President. CORN MEAL GEMS 1 cup flour. 3 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. 1/2 cup of cornmeal. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 tablespoonful of sugar. Should be sifted and mixed together. To these dry ingredients add 3/4 cup of milk, 1 egg, well beaten, and 1 tablespoon of melted butter; bake in buttered gem pans for 25 minutes. Very good. Mrs. J. Zach Spearing, Wife of Representative Spearing (La.). IDA'S CORNMEAL MUFFINS 2 cups cornmeal and 1/2 cup flour. 1 pint milk. 2 eggs. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. 1 heaping tablespoonful sugar. 1 heaping tablespoonful lard and melt. 2 level teaspoonfuls baking powder. Beat eggs with salt and sugar and add 1 pint milk; put in cornmeal and flour and let it stand about one-half hour; then put melted lard in last and then add baking powder. Make batter consistency of cake and bake at once in greased muffin pans. Mrs. Richard Yates, Wife of Representative Yates (Ill.)
November 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
Mr. Flannigan cleared concussion protocol and was sent back in, accompanied by a roar from the crowd.

Hale and hearty ain't what it used to be.
The Washington Herald. Washington, District of Columbia. Tue, Jun 29, 1926. Death Mocks Doctors' O.K. Police were striving, early this morning, to penetrate the mystery which surrounded 60-year-old Jacog Flannigan, 521 Eighteenth St. N.E., who walked into Casualty Hospital last night, asked to be examined, and then, despite the facts that physicians pronounced him in the prime of health, lapsed into unconsciousness, dying shortly after 10 o'clock. The man, according to police, said he had been sent to the hospital by a Dr. Baker, of Hyattsville, and spoke of having been in an automobile accident. Dr. Baker could not be located, when the man became unconscious, and repeated examinations by the hospital staff failed to reveal any malady. Investigation at Hyattsville showed that a man named Michael Flannigan, who lives on P St. N.W., had been injured here early in the evening in an automobile accident, but had refused treatment, and he was located at his home at 10:30 hale and hearty.
November 17, 2025 at 3:51 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
The merriment continued until unconsciousness came to him again, about 9:30 o'clock. Fifteen minutes later he was dead.
Times Herald. Washington, District of Columbia. Tue, Jun 29, 1926. LAUGHTER BRINGS DEATH An aged man laughed himself to death at Casualty Hospital last night. Jacob Flannigan, 60, of Bladensburg, Md., was the victim of the malady, which has proved a baffling puzzle to physicians and which the District coroner will endeavor to solve at an autopsy today at the District Morgue. Stricken At Home Flannigan was stricken with fits of laughter at his home yesterday and Dr. W. B. Baker of Hyattsville was called. Realizing that the illness was a strange one, Dr. Baker sent the man to Casualty Hospital, asking physicians there to observe him and diagnose the case. The aged man was hilarious when he reached the hospital, and physicians were unable to control his laughter. After a while, however, Flannigan's laughter gradually subsided, but ended only when the man lapsed into unconsciousness about 3 p.m. He did not regain consciousness until 9 p.m. and immediately began laughing again. The merriment continued until unconsciousness came to him again, about 9:30 o'clock. Fifteen minutes later he was dead. Because of his lapses into unconsciousness, physicians at Casualty were unable to make a diagnosis of the case. The coroner, therefore, ordered an autopsy.
November 17, 2025 at 3:51 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
"The Oxford English Dictionary derives the word horehound from Old English hoar (furry, as in "hoarfrost") and hune (a word of unknown origin designating a class of herbs or plants). The second element was altered by folk etymology."
Marrubium vulgare - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 15, 2025 at 4:05 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
They really want you to know about surcingles.

I'm going to be saying surcingles all day.
Crop of part of the Faultless Nobelt Pajamas advertisement. Image of a horse with text: "*See the horse. He is wearing a surcingle. It is pulled tight, to keep the saddle in place. He runs and grunts in it, but ordinary horse-sense tells him he can't sleep in it."
November 13, 2025 at 4:11 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
From the Eiffel Tower. 6am.
Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. Friday, November 11, 1927. Facsimile of order of Marshal Foch received at the headquarters of the 33d (Prairie) division, composed of Illinois National Guardsmen, on the morning of Nov. 11, 1918. The official translation reads: "1. Hostilities will be stopped on the entire front beginning on the eleventh of November, 11 o'clock (French time). 2. The allied troops will not go beyond, until further orders, the line attained at that date and that hour. (Signed) Marshal Foch." The telegram was furnished to The Tribune by Capt. H.H. Weimer, D.S.C., acting for his comrades of the division.
November 11, 2025 at 2:36 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
What about a newspaper in England reporting what a Paris correspondent states a New York newspaper's Euro edition said went down?

Ah, that's perfect!

Fresh air kills, confirmed. As suspected.
Birmingham Gazette. Birmingham, West Midlands, England, Mon, Jul 6, 1925. Headline: Latest by Our Private Wire. Headline: "SAFETY FIRST" TRAGEDY. Text: How an Exponent was Killed. WINDOW SIGN FALLS ON HIS BACK. The "Westminster Gazette" Paris correspondent, in a message yesterday, states that according to the "New York Herald" (European edition), Mr. Garner Rose, a lawyer, of Niagara Falls, New York, was so confirmed a "Safety First" advocate, that he had an immense glass sign bearing the deterrent slogan erected above his office window. Several days ago Mr. Rose violently opened his window and leaned out to get a breath of fresh air. The jar of the opening of the window loosed the "Safety First" sign, which fell on his back and, splintering, cut him deeply. He was taken to a local hospital, where blood poisoning set in, causing his death.
November 7, 2025 at 6:32 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
The local paper has a little more detail.

Huh...
The Buffalo News. Buffalo, New York, Fri, Jul 3, 1925. Headline: SAFETY SIGN, IGNORED, FALLS, KILLING WORKMAN Text: NIAGARA FALLS, July 3. - Broken glass from a safety first sign caused the death, physicians say, of Garner Rose, 30 years old, of 4 B street, Echota, in Memorial hospital today. Rose was employed in a Buffalo avenue plant a few days ago assisting other men to close a window over his head hung the safety first sign. It was jarred from its position and broken when the window was moved. Glass entered Rose's back penetrating his lung. Dr Emes says death was caused by blood poisoning. His wife, three children and father survive.
November 7, 2025 at 6:32 PM
thisisnoirhouse.bsky.social
"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is a famous ambiguous image, which can be perceived either as a young woman or an old woman (the "wife" and the "mother-in-law", respectively). The young woman appears with her face turned away from the viewer while the old woman appears in profile"
My Wife and My Mother-in-Law - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 6, 2025 at 3:35 PM