Interesting, even if I have cavils

[oursin]

You know, I would be a bit more convinced by this (article about The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes), if the author were not described as holding a post which does not exist - people are not Professors of 'the University of London' but of one or other of the constituent colleges federated to it. This may be a reporter's error, I suppose. There had also been a similar previous case, although it had only involved being listed in the Peerage as the heir, rather than actually succeeding: Michael Dillon. (Would like to check Clare Tebbutt's work on 'sex-change' cases of the 30s, too.)

But you know me and revelations about history of startling secret cover-ups...

(Okay, that thing about the Mountbatten papers is still muttering on, if we are talking about cover-ups.)

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Again, I'm a bit 'is this really a secret history?' about this: ‘Sex workers, reggae girls, squatters, all the ones who didn’t fit in’: how Rebel Dykes reveals a secret lesbian history. Some of that reminds me of heated hoohahs in the feminist periodicals back in the day - a forgotten rather than secret history?

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Are we surprised: Nazis based their elite schools on top British private schools.

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Somebody gets perhaps a little over-excited on first looking into Victorian pornography - or at least, over-generalising (#NotAllVictorians is I think appropriate). It was a very niche genre! But even so, has struck a very interesting and previously unexplored (to my knowledge) element, i.e. menstruation (NSFW, and usual content warnings for Victporn).

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Not exactly news to anyone who works on STIs in the early C20th, military health in WW1 and related issues: These Are The Forgotten Sex Workers Of The First World War Who Played An Important Role In Soldiers' Lives. The historiography on prostitution and its control around the front line and concern about this particular threat to military efficiency exists.

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Happy 50th. Predictor: The First Home Pregnancy Test.

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WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW THE TRUE SIGNS OF WITCHCRAFT, IN CASE THOSE DANGEROUS AND DEADLY VOICES COMES FOR YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE? THE VOICES NEVER STOPS UNTIL IT DESTROYS YOU! deeply weird and in design terms, a real blast from the past.

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This Ghost Town’s 'Curse' Isn't What You Think:

For years, guilty souvenir-takers have been sending those letters to the park staff, detailing the misfortune they believe has plagued them ever since -- and desperately sending their “cursed” items back. Yet the most curious thing about this so-called curse isn’t even how deeply people believe in it: It's how it began. This myth did not originate with superstitious Gold Rush prospectors, or credulous ghost hunters. It was started by the California Department of Parks and Recreation itself -- and it's had an effect the state parks service didn't expect.

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Everything You Thought You Knew About ‘Hobo Code’ Is Wrong. Incongruously, I am reminded of those articles that pop up from time to time about the alleged 'fan' code of Victorian ballrooms and similar. People like to think there are secret signaling systems? (Well of course there was the handkerchief code, but that was specific to particular settings where everybody knew what it meant, not bat-squeaks between strangers in public spaces.)