Things I didn't know.

Did you know that during the lead-up to the Civil War, New York City was poised to possibly secede? What the hell, NYC!

First South Carolina. Then New York?
(from the New York Times Opinionator blog)

“New-York will be remembered with especial hatred by the South to the end of time,” raged the Richmond Whig on April 22. “Boston we have always known where to find; but this New-York, which has never turned against us till the hour of trial, and is now moving heaven and earth for our destruction.”

The linked article includes a cool drawing of the city courtesy of the Library of Congress.

In a word:

Stuff you may not know, either

The Stuff You Missed in History Class folks had a fun podcast recently:

Napoleon in Egypt: the Savants

I never knew Napoleon went to Egypt, nor did I ever know anything about the huge set of volumes produced by his little science-and-culture squad:

Description de L'Egypte

Look at that thing! The plate volumes are held at the NEW Bibliotheca Alexandrina - another thing I didn't know existed. Really, I'm quite an ignorant lady.

I first heard about the SYMIHC podcasts from this handy little list at Yes and Yes, and it was such a nice surprise. Obviously I can also second her recommendations for This American Life and Radiolab (hey, both shows did segments on the hookworms guy, that practically requires me to get out their vote) but I'll also take this opportunity to tout The WRVO Playhouse podcast of old time radio out of Syracuse. That, along with the Old Time Radio shows at the Internet Archive and the current stuff on our local NPR station, really gives me my scratchy airwaves fix.

What are some of your favorite podcasts or radio shows?