Dial 9 for Switch @dial9forswitch - Tumblr Blog

The Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio, February 21, 1947

I honestly always find the term ‘spinster’ as referring to an elderly, never-married woman as funny because you know what?

Wool was a huge industry in Europe in the middle ages. It was hugely in demand, particularly broadcloth, and was a valuable trade good. A great deal of wool was owned by monasteries and landed gentry who owned the land.

And, well, the only way to spin wool into yarn to make broadcloth was by hand.

This was viewed as a feminine occupation, and below the dignity of the monks and male gentry that largely ran the trade.

So what did they do?

They hired women to spin it. And, turns out, this was a stable job that paid very well. Well enough that it was one of the few viable economic options considered ‘respectable’ outside of marriage for a woman. A spinster could earn quite a tidy salary for her art, and maintain full control over her own money, no husband required.

So, naturally, women who had little interest in marriage or men? Grabbed this opportunity with both hands and ran with it. Of course, most people didn’t get this, because All Women Want Is Husbands, Right?

So when people say ‘spinster’ as in ‘spinster aunt’, they are TRYING to conjure up an image of a little old lady who is lonely and bitter.

But what I HEAR are the smiles and laughter of a million women as they earned their own money in their own homes and controlled their own fortunes and lived life on their own terms, and damn what society expected of them.

thehorrorsofgoodwill

“Get in the godamned ship! Everythings on a cob! The whole planet’s on a cob!”

bat-tastic

ok i’m fucking screaming my friend found this on amazon and apparently it’s like a whole niche and

toxipop

@sommerrev You and Caitlin need all of these for the kitchen

sommerrev

holy shit

fattyatomicmutant-deactivated20

I want to collect Foodimals

bogleech

They’re called “Home Grown” figurines and I used to admire them all the time in whatever stores carried them. You’re all missing some of the very coolest:

ironychan

Thousands of years ago, somebody looked at a flock of sheep and went, “well, they aren’t cold.”

ekjohnston

Guys. Guys.

It’s so much better than that.

So once upon a time, goats and sheep were essentially the same animal, and all of them had hair. Now, you can do some stuff with hair, but you can’t do a lot, so mostly sheep/goats were kept for meat and milk.

Except then a mutation showed up, and some of the sheep/goats had WOOL instead. And someone realized that 1. you could spin that shit, and 2. then you could WEAVE that shit, and 3. IT GREW BACK.

Generations of selective breeding ensued. Two visibly discrete species emerged, one primarily for meat and milk, and the other primarily for wool. They also have different behavioural characteristics, because independence was not helpful in a sheep, so it was bred out of them. Sheep remain one of the few non-draft animals that we farm even though they are not delicious.

The most similar part of sheep and goats that remains today is their skeleton. On an archaeological dig, you find THOUSANDS of bones and bone fragments that can only be identified as “sheep/goat”. It’s incredibly frustrating, but also kind of hilarious after you’ve spent enough time in the sun.

ANYWAY, human beings have always been smart and surprisingly good at changing nature because they want a sweater.

darthmelyanna

The entire knitting community needs to hear this.

tessie-the-bee

Oh man I’m so glad I can add this to my arsenal of responses to people who say all GMOs are made of poison.

dial9forswitch

Are sheep not delicious???

theleadingfraeulein

Graah! So good. The first time I’ve seen switching in a JnJ (an invitational!). The dancers are Julija Jadzevičiūtė and Pamela Gaižutytė.

dial9forswitch

This makes me happy <3

as-warm-as-choco

Before the computing era, ILM was the master of oil matte painting, making audiences believe that some of the sets in the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogy were real when they weren’t. They were the work of geniuses like Chris Evans, Michael Pangrazio, Frank Ordaz, Harrison Ellenshaw and Ralph McQuarrie ! Forever thank you, to their handmade art and the work of their colleagues, that made us dream of impossible worlds and fantastic places across Earth and the Universe.

There are more background paintings on this article, featuring comments by the masters/artists themselves !

Some of the following pieces were made by other artists 2:

the-time-goddess-of-221b-deacti

exCUSE ME?!?!!??!??! TheYRE PAINTINGS?!??!!?!

starsintheskysandsontheshore

SHUT UP I thought they were miniatures!!!!

sodeartomyheart

It’s too beautiful. I could cry.

firey-rising-demon-deactivated2

I love this because I’ll be watching a movie and think “how did they do that? Is that a building they built for this movie? Was it there beforehand? Is it cardboard or CGI? Is that actually some place on Earth that they’re filming?” And the answer to all of these now is “nope, that’s a painting”. I can’t believe some of the most iconic, familiar shots were paintings!

yiduiqie

I reblog this every time it comes past, no regrets

southernsideofme-deactivated201

emeraldmercury

Best post

joshscorcher

This is oddly satisfying.

gestopft-deactivated20200103

is this what the kids are listening to these days?

stevedusa

Took me a while to identify what in the world the other brass was till I realized it wasn’t.

beelzibubbles

Someone even transcribed it!

adi-max-deactivated20230723

@viathevoid @poweredbyinfinity my favourite video ever

inkskinned

this morning i almost fell off my bed and woke up in the middle of a dream and the first coherent line of thought i could muster was koalas get their medication from pharmarsupials

invite-me-to-your-memories

i understand the historical reasons why English is the most common language

but if I was writing a speculative fiction novel

and I said “the language that most people learn as a second language, usually for professional reasons, is also the only one with a spelling system so terrible that spelling words correctly is a broadcasted competition”

you’d be like “extremely unrealistic 0/10”