Memes. Love or hate them, they’re hard to escape. Let’s do a medieval meme review.

1/ Sorry for the weird sound at the beginning. File errors.

2/ There are whole Bsky accounts like “weird medieval guys“.

3/ Cave Canum

Know thyself

4/ The Book of Dog Names:

Superdog’s name is Krypto

Livre du Chasse (see Episode 29 note 5 for more!)

Here is the Christie’s description for this specific manuscript.

Edward, Duke of York (1373-1415–he died at Agincourt!!!)

“Gentlemen of England now abed”: An (incredibly famous) line from Henry V

“Gallant, springing, brave Plantagenet”: From the scene in Richard III where the two murderers go to kill Clarence, Duke of Gloucester (on RIII’s orders, of course).

Interpolated: to insert between two parts.

RIP Wrigley, bestest girl (2009-2024). Now we have Addison, the best boy.

5/ Here’s a name–age calculator: https://randalolson.com/name-age-calculator/

Interestingly, Jessica has almost the same arc as Tiffany, but Tiffany is definitely a very 1980s neon name and Jessica is not. Is it because of the prominence of a Jessica in Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice that makes it clear to us that the name is not a modern invention?

The Tiffany video

6/ If you’re wondering why we mention Carl Gustav and not Charles III, it’s because we recorded this in 2022 when Elizabeth II was still alive. Also, if you’re wondering why Em says “Carl VI Gustav” rather than “Carl XVI Gustav,” the answer is…I have no idea. Sorry.

7/

I don’t know, Jesse. NYT has gone downhill lo these last two years. [ARGH, yes. –Jesse]

8/ Melvil Dui. For some reason we (the world) kept the spelling of his first name but not his last. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey I’m not a Dewey Decimal superfan, but I’ll admit it’s very useful.

9/ I have heard the “don’t use first person pronouns in your essay” rule explained as: it’s your essay, we know it’s your opinion. So just say what it is. [Yes, but you might be quoting other people’s opinions, some of which you like and some of which you don’t! And you have to be able to say “THAT person says X, but I think Y.”–Jesse]

10/ The Oxford Dictionary of African American English: https://www.oed.com/discover/odaae

The Dictionary of American Regional English: https://www.daredictionary.com/

Passing Slang of the Victorian Era: https://archive.org/details/passingenglishof00wareuoft/page/n5/mode/2up

11/ “I will never be detail-oriented enough” J/K guys, in the last two three years since we did this, I’ve become EVEN MORE detail-oriented. I will NEVER STOP.