From Huck magazine: “In the week Hattie Wiener spends a copious amount of time alone in her Manhattan studio, propped up in bed with a heating pad – a tool many use to help relieve back pain and other aches. On Sundays, however, the 87-year-old transforms, prancing around her apartment in her laciest lingerie, while a friend snaps photos of her to post on OnlyFans. “You would think that perhaps my oldness would be a turnoff sexually. But it isn’t to young men,” she said. “It’s heartening to know that so many young men allow themselves to be admirers of older women’s bodies.” Hattie is one of a number of women who have launched OnlyFans accounts in their later life, demonstrating that old age is not just Alzheimer’s and wheelchairs and nursing home and smells, but that it is also interesting and adventurous and exciting and beautiful.”
It just got easier to visit a vanishing glacier, but is that a good thing?
From the NYT: “For thousands of years, humans have raced to be the first to scale a peak, cross a frontier, or document a new species or landscape. Now, in some cases, we’re racing to be the last. The term last-chance tourism, which has gained traction in the past two decades, describes the impulse to visit threatened places before they disappear. Studies have found that the appeal of the disappearing can be a powerful motivator. But in many cases, the presence of tourists at a fragile site can accelerate the place’s demise. There is some evidence that a visit to a threatened place can inspire meaningful behavioral change in visitors, potentially helping to offset the negative impacts of a trip. But research is still in its early stages, and results are mixed. In a place like Chamonix — where tourism is the mainstay of the economy, and where climate change is already having palpable effects on tourist offerings — such tensions are playing out in real time.”
Note: This is a version of my personal newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.
The 12-year-old enslaved boy whose discovery revolutionized the vanilla industry
From Nautilus: “Almost every vanillabean that is sold has been pollinated by human hands, in a deft gesture using a toothpick or a needle. And that method was discovered by an enslaved 12-year-old Black boy named Edmond Albius in 1841 on the tiny volcanic island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. His invention rescued the island’s collapsing economy, transformed a tropical orchid into a cash crop and commodified vanilla, turning it into the world’s most recognized flavor. When growing wild, vanilla is only pollinated by one species of bee, found exclusively in its native country of origin—Mexico. In the early 1800s, it was introduced to the Netherlands and France, where it was considered an aphrodisiac, became a hit with Elizabeth I, and was widely popularized for use in food and perfume. But no one was able to grow it outside of Mexico, until Albius.”
Editor’s note: If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else. And if you really like it, perhaps you could subscribe, or contribute something via my Patreon. Thanks for being a reader!
Somewhere in the desert of Namibia, the song “Africa” by Toto is playing
From Now I Know: “The Namib Desert is a roughly 62,000-square-mile expanse running down the western coast of middle and southern Africa. It’s roughly the size of the U.S. state of Georgia, but if you were to visit, you’re not likely to stumble into anything — it’s almost uninhabited by humans and, for that matter, by any animals more sizable than a large bug; while you may find a few elephants, lions, or antelopes there, even they are few and far between. But if you go visit, you may discover an audio reminder of where you are. Because somewhere in the Namib Desert, right now, the song “Africa” by the band Toto is playing. These seven white pillars with the mp3 player and a solar panel are a work of art, created by a German-born artist named Max Siedentopf who moved to Nambia. In 2019, he decided to create an homage to his adopted homeland.”
Florence Nightingale was known as The Lady With The Hammer, not The Lady With The Lamp
From Virago: “She became world famous, immortalised as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’, an icon of tender womanhood selflessly caring for men. She was called a ‘ministering angel, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.’ But like all good stories, this one is too good to be true. Her achievement lay in organising the wards and training the nurses to run them, and her tough-minded nature would have revolted at the idea of milking the gratitude of sick soldiers by playing the Angel of Mercy at the dead of night. In reality, Nightingale was known to the troops as ‘The Lady with the Hammer’ after she broke into a locked storeroom to release much-needed medical supplies, in defiance of a military commander. But a powerful, belligerent, rebel woman was far too coarse and unladylike, so the Times simply made up a different story.”
Fans at a Chiefs game got frostbite and will likely have to have fingers or toes amputated
From the NYT: “Several fans of the Kansas City Chiefs who attended a playoff game on a bitterly cold January day in Missouri suffered frostbite that required amputations, according to the hospital that treated them. Twelve people, including some football fans who were at Arrowhead Stadium on Jan. 13, had to undergo amputations involving mostly fingers and toes, according to Research Medical Center in Kansas City, said in a statement on Saturday. The exact number of fans who attended the game who had amputations was unclear. The playoff game against the Miami Dolphins was -4 degrees with a wind chill of -27 degrees at kickoff, the fourth-coldest game in NFL history and coldest in Chiefs franchise history. The estimated 30% lucky enough to avoid amputation after undergoing treatment the past few weeks in hyperbaric oxygen tanks will have sensitivity and pain and will be more susceptible to frostbite.”
Phosphorous stones burst into flame when they are struck together
Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as “serendipty engines,” such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg’s Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis’s Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton’s The Browser, Clive Thompson’s Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy’s Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova’s The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me.