Spit Polish the Universe

lots of people tagging this with fascinating historical people. you are all my siblings.

also lots of people tagging this with john lennon. you are maybe more like cousins.

way too many fictional characters mentioned. [cartoonish buzzer noises].

the people tagging franklin expedition fellas/the terror characters are on thin ice (haha). just kidding, unless they're referring to pictures of people without extant daguerreotypes. like hickey.

many, many people tagging this wolf hall spoilers, or complaining that this post has spoiled the end of wolf hall. the last book came out in 2020, and your man has been dead nearly five hundred years.

various people misread tom crom for his great great grandnephew, ollie. some expressed relief at being wrong; others were rude to tom, noted royal marriage organiser and lifetime royal servant, on the grounds of his being a roundhead. what have you all got against oliver, and why are you all royalists.

too many people really hated that the post is about thomas cromwell, and that i like him. you're all allowed to not like him, and i know what he did, but this post is maybe not the forum to express your dislike, or try to turn me against him. presenting me with "better options", as if i'd never heard of joan of arc, will not endear me to you or your cause.

speaking of saints, many people picking jesus et al for this purpose. i've also been accused of reinventing worship of icons, and possibly idolatry as a whole. i want to deny this on the grounds of accuracy (one prays to saints for intercession, and receives it. i ask crumb for sympathy, and he does not provide it. he does not support me. i get over it.) but also, more importantly, because if cromwell finds out i've reinvented idolatry on his behalf he's going to to dig himself out of his grave and beat me to death with the shovel.

anyway everyone say hi to the earl of essex. unsympathetic bastard.

the postcard of thomas cromwell i keep on my desk: i was on committees with the duke of norfolk. and they beheaded me.

the postcard of thomas cromwell i keep on my desk: oh no! you achieved too much fame and status? and now people are misrepresenting you? should we strip your lands and title? have you been beheaded?

Cyanotypes of algae produced by botanist and photographer Anna Atkins (1799-1871), who is considered to be the first person ever to have published a book illustrated with photographs.