The Hare & The Crow

thepensivebrony:

“you shouldn’t be depressed, people have it worse than you”

finally, after years of searching, the person with the worst life ever is found. formally, they are granted permission to be sad. but only them. only they have earned it. no sads for anyone else at all ever

(Source : lmnpnch)

(Source : globochem)

(Source : ruinedchildhood)

(Source : aryastarc)

(Source : 50you50me)

astronomy-to-zoology:

Some male Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) showcasing their ‘impressive’ mating displays.

Video Source

Bjam!!!

mattbelly:

the creepiest cats of ok cupid

annetdonahue:

I’ve finally accepted that these people get what true happiness and love are.

(Source : judgesontoddlersandtiaras)

thorjammer:

did i kill somebody with michelle obama and forget about it

erikkwakkel:

Awesome medieval book curtains

Now you see it, now you don’t. That’s what these medieval curtains do: they hide things from our eyes when they are closed - from a stern-looking Henry VIII (a beautiful green velvet curtain) to a shiny letter P (plain cloth, appropriate for a Cistercian book). They were added to the page for a different reason, however, namely to protect the illumination from wear-and-tear. It seems overprotective to have a curtain draped over golden letters or portraits. After all, if you close the book they are safe from harm - even a portrait depicting a bold-looking, excommunicated English king. One wonders whether there was also an element of surprise involved in the “revealing” of the image. The anticipation can almost be felt. What will that letter look like? Will Henry be scary? First you don’t see it, then you do.

Pics: my own (Bruges MS 78), Julie Somers (Leiden BPL 136 C), BnF (Paris lat. 153) and BL (Egerton 2572, more curtains here).

erikkwakkel:

Fun Medieval Doodles

Here is a small selection of doodles I tweeted over the past year (@erik_kwakkel). Although they are usually not exactly eye-candy, they are easy to like. I think this is because they are often very funny, but also because the activity is such a familiar one. Almost without thinking we ourselves doodle on notepads, post-it notes or in the margin of the newspaper.

While our drawings are often the result of boredom, in the Middle Ages there was often a more pragmatic rationale behind their creation. In some cases they were a response to the text, such as the Adam and Eve doodle above. Moreover, many were the fruit of correcting the nib of the pen, like the little dog’s head. They are the medieval equivalent, as it were, of our scratching on a piece of paper to get the ink flowing.

In other cases still it remains a mystery what the doodling scribe was thinking. Why draw the skeleton that seems to hold a glass, for example? Is it a warning that our enjoying the delights of this planet will ultimately come to an end? A medieval campaign against riding your horse while under influence? Whatever the meaning of this poor guy with his drink may be, and in spite of the fact we are reminded of our own mortality, sketches like this do brighten the page - and my day.

erikkwakkel:

Entertainment in a medieval book

The margins of a medieval book are usually empty. This is handy, because it means you can place notes in them, or fill them with doodles, like here. In this particular case the reader decided to add spectacular illustrations to the margins. Not only do they show us snapshots of medieval individuals living their lives, which is special enough, the images are often also quite funny. Humour is not an unusual occurrence in such old books, as I showed here. However, to have this much fun in the margins is not very common.

Pics: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264 (14th c). Browse the entire manuscript here and start enjoying dozens more images.

erikkwakkel:

Baseball in the Middle Ages

Rivalry in sports is not just something of our time. Nor is baseball. Both date back to at least the fourteenth century, when this image was made. What is less likely encountered in a baseball game today are the teams: monks vs nuns. The scene is from the margin of a medieval page, the location used to make fun of people. The manuscript contains a romance, popular among the medieval nobility. Somewhere, someone in a castle had a good laugh about these religious men and women playing ball. 

Pic: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264 (14th c). Browse the entire manuscript here. More enjoyable marginal drawings like this are found in this Tumblr post.