Article on Polish Prison Tattoos

Really fantastic article and slideshow on turn of the century Polish prison tattoos that have been, shall we say, "removed from their original contexts" and preserved.

Preserving the Criminal Code @ FOTO8 via Morbid Anatomy.

A Manly Post

My grandfather used to say that a man is not fully dressed without his pocket knife. I've been carrying this old one of his for about ten years now. I never knew my grandfather in any meaningful way because he died when I was too young to remember much about him, but he left literally boxes of amazing old tools and other grandfatherly stuff that helps me connect with him.

I don't spend a lot of time actively thinking about being a man, or doing manly things. I don't normally walk around thinking, "Damnation, I sure do like being a man!" and then go off looking for someone to wrestle. I only do that maybe once every couple months. Tops.

But yesterday I was cleaning and oiling my knife to put it away for the month of August (I'll be out of town all month and can't bring it on the plane), and I started thinking about that sentiment of my grandfather's. Carrying a pocket knife is probably the most manly thing I do, but I rarely think about it, and I doubt if more than a couple of people even know I do it.

I know I'm looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses a little bit here (something a historian isn't supposed to do), but it makes me wonder if our culture has lost the quiet, understated, and dignified idea of masculinity that my grandfather and his kind knew. The kind in which a man wasn't fully dressed without his pocket knife, but didn't have to go around bumping chests, slamming brews, and revving engines all the time to prove his manly worth.

Junior Toy Corp. Tricycle

Somehow this escaped posting in the earlier vacation photos from Oregon. Spotted this awesome vintage tricycle at an antique store in my home town of Silverton. I bet there used to be a headlight, or at least a really cool reflector.

Check out that fender! 

Junior Toy Corp., Hammond, Indiana

Precious Cargo

Just mailed off two copies of my book manuscript to my editor. Woot!

Plant To-Day!: War-Era Food Posters

An excellent and extensive online exhibit from the collections of the National Agriculture Library.

Is This a Bike Blog?

Okay, so I just changed the header image to a photo of me working on a bike, and the category with the most posts is bicycles, but is this a "bike blog"? It surprises me when I come across this blog on other bloggers' links under categories like bikes or bike blogs, but maybe it shouldn't. I do talk about bikes a lot, but I also post recipes, photos (not of bikes), essays, history-related things, and utter miscellany. In fact, my whole point in starting this blog was to have a space to write about all kinds of things, including but not limited to bikes. I suppose I should embrace the label, but I'm ambivalent about writing a "bike blog" again. I guess if you want to call it a bike blog, though, you can.

Image: Magritte, The Treachery of Images (1928-29)

Easy Banana "Ice Cream"

Saw this on BoingBoing the other day and it sounded good, so we tried it tonight. It's basically just a blended banana. No dairy, no nothin'. Just a banana and some honey if you want. It's not exactly like ice cream, but as my wife said, it's somewhere between ice cream and gelato. I think it's more like custard, actually.

So here's the recipe: cut a banana into chunks (we used two bananas) and freeze in a covered container. Put the frozen banana chunks into a food processor or blender (we only have a blender and it worked fine) with a teaspoon of honey and whatever else you want to add to your "ice cream"; we added five or six raspberries for color. Blend until you've got a consistency like soft ice cream or a dense custard (see photo below), then scoop into bowls (you'll need a long spoon to retrieve the goo if you use a blender like we did). It's a satisfying dessert and for the extremely minimal effort, very well worth it.

Ambivalent Utility Panel is Ambivalent

Vacation Photos: The Ol' Homestead

Most of our time in Oregon was spent relaxing (and working) at my childhood home outside of Silverton. We take pretty much the same set of photos every summer.

One of the pansies we planted for our wedding four years ago, and which have since gone feral.

The Ol' Homestead, a.k.a. Sheep Creek

Up the road.

Up the hill.

These California poppies are a relatively new arrival in all of the local ditches. Johnny Poppyseed must have visited recently.

Vacation Photos: Rogue River/Crater Lake

After basking in the goodness of Portland, we drove down to the Rogue River in Southern Oregon to spend a night camping with some friends driving up from San Francisco on their way back to Washington. The campsite was amazing, but it had already been claimed by 5 million mosquitoes, a fact that did not become apparent until it was too late. After a night of mosquito swatting and realizing that two people can not, in fact, sleep comfortably in the back of a Subaru Forester, we headed back home with stops at Crater Lake and at Toketee Falls in the Umpqua National Forest. The scenery and the friends made the 40-something (not even kidding) mosquito bites well worth it.

The Rogue Rover at Natural Bridge Campground

The campground was originally established by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s; many of these original stoves are still around, although most are not in useable condition.

Farther down (up?) the Rogue River.

Crater Lake looks just like in pictures, only way bigger.

An extremely leaky wooden aquaduct at the Toketee Falls trailhead.

Toketee Falls

Vacation Photos: PDX

So I wasn't so good with the blogging while on vacation, which didn't bother me one bit. Surprisingly, the Interwebs didn't implode without me checking them every day, and I also didn't go into a trembling, weeping fit just because I couldn't waste half my day fiddling around on the computer.

So anyway, I'm going to parse out my vacation photos over a few posts. First up, our 24-ish hours in Portland, including a really kick-ass wedding, reconnecting with good friends, and drooling over the bikey goodness that is PDX these days.

Yup, on-street bike parking. Sigh.

Just for you.

Is that a porteur rack I spy? And inverse levers? A bike after my own heart.

Oh Portland, I like you.

Bike box! They really do exist.

Wedding site, Cathedral Park, under the St. Johns Bridge

Black/white makes terrible photos look artsy.

The groom spent part of the morning after his wedding showing us his chickens.

Good haul.

A very early Columbia; note foot rests on the fork.

Tiny little rod-brake tricycle.

The Michelin Man of your worst nightmares.

DRFN on the Road: Orygun

Starting tomorrow at an unholy hour, we'll be heading up to my homeland for a couple of weeks, with stops in Portland and along the Rogue River in the southerly Cascades near Crater Lake. The majority of the time will be spent on the Ol' Homestead outside the boomtown of Silverton. I'll try to post some photos as we go, but it may be sporadic or even not at all. I'll try, though.

Not What You Think It Means

Another funny one outside of Jefferson Elementary in North Park. There are a bunch of these on the fence around the playground, and now that school is out for the summer, I can take a picture without getting arrested. Obviously kid-created, but I'm curious about the adult who said, "yeah, that's what respect is, go ahead and put that one up."

About the Worst Place to Leave a Couch

Somebody really put some thought into this. Outside Jefferson Elementary in North Park.

Shiny Bits

My new-old Peugeot is the first bike I've worked on that doesn't need much more than cleaning. At some point before it's finished, I will probably repack the headset, hubs, and bottom bracket, but for now just a good cleaning, polishing, and oiling of the moving parts is about all that's required.

Encontro Nacional Bicicletas Antigas (Portugal)

My stewardship over the Old Bike Blog put me on the radar of the Portuguese organization "Men in Bike" who put on an annual event called the "National Meeting of Old Bikes." Someday, I would really like to go to this event. They also design a nice poster.

The group "men in bike” was created in 2000 in the town of Burinhosa, in the neighborhood Pataias, in the district of Leiria / Portugal. It was a group of friends that over the years started to organize events related to the two wheels. After a study, the group discovered that one of the first and most important means of transportation of the human being was going into oblivion, especially in Portugal. Because of this lack of valorization, the group decided to organize a meeting of Old Bikes, a novelty in this field in Portugal.

LINK

Also, see photos from last year's meeting.

Practice Makes Perfect

I was struck by a bit of phrasing from my friend Esteban's recent media crit piece on bicycling at FlowTV. He refers to bicycling as,

...a daily practice that eschews the motorized and energy-intensive progress of late modernity and espouses a slower and more sustainable model for how to build a life and a society...

I've been trying to write a post that says pretty much exactly that for a long time. I am especially enamored of the phrase "daily practice" because it imparts an almost meditative, or even a craft-like quality to bicycling.

Along somewhat similar lines, I have been thinking of bicycling as a humane practice, one that imposes little or nothing on those who share my environment: no noise pollution, no exhaust, no danger of being killed or injured. The only thing bicycling demands is consideration for fellow humans who travel by non-dominant means. Although this sometimes seems to be too much to ask, I do firmly believe that more bicycles on our roads means a more humane world for everyone, whether they ride or not.

The idea of bicycling as an entry into larger issues of morality, humanity, and ethical action, and not just boring media buzzwords like "sustainability" or "livability", is endlessly fascinating to me. It's something that Americans started thinking about in the 1890s and early 1900s, when bicycling was not only mainstream, but was, in fact, a quintessential expression of modernity. A return to thinking about the bicycles, along with riding them, is one of the most exciting (to me) things to come of the recent resurgence in bicycle popularity.

Challah Buns or Rolls

Challah is a traditional Jewish Sabbath egg bread, typically braided to form a handsome loaf, but challah dough can also be used to make tasty buns or rolls. My challah recipe comes from the oh-so-recommended Joy of Cooking (75th Anniversary Edition).

Dissolve 2 1/4 tsp. yeast in 1/2 cup warm water (about 5 minutes). Add 1/2 cup flour, 2 lightly beaten large eggs, 2 lightly beaten yolks (keep the separated whites for a wash later), 3 tbsp. vegetable oil, 3 tbsp. sugar, and 1 1/4 tsp. salt. I use a whisk to mix by hand until blended thoroughly. Then, gradually stir in 2 1/2 cups flour (I usually stir in a 1/2 cup at a time).  Knead the dough for 8 minutes, until elastic and smooth (it shouldn't stick to your hands). Put the dough in an oiled bowl (I use olive oil for this), and cover with a clean cloth to let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours).

Punch down the risen dough, knead it a little, and put it back in the bowl, cover it, and put it in the fridge for 2-12 hours. I usually let mine rise in the fridge for about 3 hours, which seems to be fine.

For traditional braided challah, this is where the shaping of ropes and braids comes in, but for the rolls/buns, just divide the dough into six balls of equal size. Lightly oil a baking sheet (again, I use olive oil) and place the dough balls on it, covered, in a warm place for about 45 minutes. They will rise substantially, so don't worry if they look too small at this stage.

For baking, heat your oven to 375 degrees (F) and while it's heating, brush the dough balls with the egg whites (with a pinch of salt added, if you prefer). Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the bottoms of the rolls sound hollow when tapped and the tops are golden brown. Let the rolls cool on a rack, and they're ready to be cut into buns for burgers or sandwiches, or used as sweet rolls for breakfast or snacks.

Quick and Easy Spanish Tortilla

I haven't posted a recipe for a while, so here's one I made last night. This is my typical "wife's not home for dinner" dinner, also known as the "minimum effort for maximum reward" dinner.

I slice half of a small potato into fairly thin slices, then cut the slices into chunks. I saute the potatoes in olive oil over medium heat in a medium-sized sauce pan until soft (test with a fork), then add a small handful of chopped red onion for a few seconds. Whisk three eggs and pour them into the pan with the onion and potato. Then I grind a little black pepper over the top, turn down the heat, put the lid on the pan, and cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat, or until the center of the tortilla is firm.

I'm using a non-stick pan, which along with the olive oil, makes the tortilla easy to extract. While holding the lid firmly on the pot, flip the pot over so the tortilla falls into the lid, then up-end the lid onto a plate, and you're done. I usually add a little salt to taste after the tortilla comes out of the pan, and that's it. I've also had good luck adding rosemary to the mix before putting the lid on, but I'm not always in the mood for rosemary.

Are These Slave Children?

I'd like to suggest that it doesn't matter if this photograph, recently discovered in North Carolina, actually depicts enslaved children, or if it depicts free or emancipated children. Their unspeakably sad faces and tattered clothing could be read as evidence of a slave regime's brutal cruelty, or it could be something else. Only those children will know for sure.

The bill of sale that accompanied the photograph for a slave named "John" seems to correspond with one of the children, who has also apparently been identified as "John." This provides some evidence for the assumption that these children, or at least one of them, was enslaved at some point, but we don't really know for sure if these children, as they sat for this photograph, were in fact enslaved, free, or recently emancipated.

The assumption that nineteenth-century photographs of Southern blacks depict slaves or conditions of slavery is a pernicious one. Because relatively few photographs of actual verified slaves exist from the pre-Civil War period, historians frequently rely on post-emancipation photographs to provide visual evidence for the conditions of slavery, the assumption being that the material conditions of black life in the South were not vastly different after 1865 than they had been during slavery. Fair enough.

But the implicit assumption that black life is equivalent to slavery, no matter what the era actually depicted, or the actual legal status of the people represented, runs the very significant risk of assigning an immutable association of "slave" to any photographic depiction of nineteenth-century blacks.

This is not to say that historians should not use what photographic evidence is available to them, or that they should ignore the very real fact that the majority of black Americans before 1865 were indeed held in slavery, or that black life in the post-emancipation South did not materially differ in many ways from slavery.  Rather, I would argue, the two sad boys in the photo above tell us less about slavery than they do about a broader and richer swath of American history that, yes, includes slavery, but like these children, need not be defined by it.

Blagh

I've never been one of those here's-everything-I-do-every-day kind of bloggers. I suspect that most readers are grateful for this without realizing it. An average entry would be something like this:

"Didn't sleep well last night. Having a hard time getting going on work this morning. Got a few hours of writing done, though. Worried about the deadline. Made some pizza crusts to freeze for later in the week this afternoon. Did a little more work before bed."

Wow. That's pretty thrilling, huh? But there are other things that are slightly more exciting, or even just things that I come across on the Interwebs that are worth sharing, but out of sheer laziness, I don't post them here. I'm going to start trying to do it more often, though, so look out world, I've got some bloggerin' to do.

Grove

I discovered yesterday that the "Golden Hill Gateway" trail connects the neighborhoods of North Park and Golden Hill, running alongside the golf course. Who knew? Probably a lot of people. Anyway, I took this photo yesterday and monkeyed with the effects. This is right alongside the golf course and there are signs warning you that you might be beaned by a golf ball, so watch out. Soothing.

New-To-Me: 1980/81 Peugeot PBN-10

Busy time around here, but I invested in some "bike therapy" last weekend to give my hands something to do when my brain is done working for the day. Been planning a project around a bike like this for a long time: something I can take on longer rides or even light weekend tours, but can also be comfortable for riding around town and can use for errands. This is the starting point, changes will slowly come. The basics: 60cm steel frame ("Peugeot 103 Special"), 700c Mavic alloy rims, 12-speed, Simplex shifters, Weinmann side-pull caliper brakes. Bars and brake levers will be the first changes, then saddle, then additions like fenders and racks, but again most of that is very long-term. I have a lot to learn about bikes with more than three speeds and these new-fangled cotterless cranks in the mean time.

Working Hard, or... Yes, Working Hard

So my recent (and ongoing) foray into cartooning notwithstanding, my posting here has slowed down a little bit because other things have picked up. After a slow winter, during which I primarily failed to find employment, the spring has brought a flurry of activity (but still no employment). Here's the list of things currently in the works:

Got a contract to publish an edited and annotated Civil War memoir by Captain Francis Moore, 2nd Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. In addition to the editing and the notes, I'll be providing an Introduction and Epilogue. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the transcription, and then comes all of the editing, notes, and writing. All of this needs to be done by July 31. Looks like the finished product will be out by 2012, right during the 150th anniversary of the war.

I'm putting together an organization called the San Diego Utility Bicycling Association. Our first steering committee meeting is this week, and I'm excited about the prospect of increasing the profile of utility (i.e. not sport) bicycling in our area. Wasn't quite able to get this off the ground soon enough to get in on San Diego's Bike to Work Day, but that's okay; there's always next year.

I'm also continuing to revise my dissertation for publication, and still trying to find a press for it. Related to this, I'm moving towards having a submission-worthy article for a major academic journal (which one, still to be determined) that will be the "preview" article for the book.

In addition to all this, I'm preparing for a month-long funded research trip this August, which will be time spent filling in some holes in my dissertation research and also doing some preliminary work on my next book, all of which requires no small amount of "presearch" to make sure I maximize my time in the archives.

Finally, I've started a super-secret project that combines bicycles and history (durr, why did it take me this long?).

So yeah, that's what's going on. Seems like I'm forgetting something. Of course, there's always the administrivia of daily life, too. Turns out, not having a job is hard work.

Bicycle Jim, A Smart Boy Detective, ca. 1894

Can't be too smart if he thinks he can outride a bullet on that bicycle.