Headless Fun Fact + Hamilton Connection
So, you know that Jonathan Oldstyle guy that appeared in the finale?
Apparently "Jonathan Oldstyle" was another pseudonym of Washington Irving's. Specifically, he used it in nine satirical letters written to The Morning Chronicle in 1802-1803. It marked Irving's first appearance in print, before Sleepy Hollow or Rip Van Winkle, when he was 19 years old.
So, first of all, kudos to Shipwrecked having one Irving pseudonym replace another Irving pseudonym as bard.
But it gets more interesting.
The editor of the paper at the time Irving wrote those letters? Was Aaron Burr.
Who sent five of those letters to his daughter Theodosia, because he was so impressed for the work of one so young.
His final letter, eerily enough, was on dueling , which had recently been formally outlawed in New York (April 1803).
Declaring the practice of dueling with pistols "unceremonious," [Irving] recommends instead that duelists draw lots to see who gets to have a brick dropped on his head from a window. "If he survives, well and good", [Irving] says, "if he falls, why nobody is to blame, it was purely accidental."[11] [Irving] even suggests that dueling be licensed by "the Blood and Thunder office" of the state as an official event, where the public can watch, as "this would be a valuable addition to the list of our refined amusements."
Which.... good god, the irony, y'all. Not just because of what Jonathan Oldstyle does in Headless, but in real life, the Burr-Hamilton duel happened in July 1804. Just over a year later!
@shipwreckedcomedy did y'all know about this connection when you made that Hamilton reference in the Unsolved Babesteries finale??? Because that's just... wow.