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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Things you always never wanted to know
In the 1800s, a Boston ship captain was caught kissing his wife in public on a Sunday upon his return from a three-year voyage. As punishment, he had to sit for two hours in stocks for "lewd and unseemly behavior."
Married women on average gave birth to 13 children in 17th century America.
Around 1500, Nuremberg in Germany had 14 public baths with low admission prices, special hours set aside for city employees and free admission once a week for prostitutes and for children accompanied by their parents. The possibilities of infection ÷ physical and moral ÷ soon led to their closing.
After becoming Emperor of Rome, Nero's dearest ambition was to sing in public, according to the Roman Chronicler Suetonius. After taking lessons, he made his debut in Naples. An earth tremor shook the theater, causing some of the audience to depart while Nero continued singing. At a later performance elsewhere, he had the gates locked so no one could leave them while he was on stage. Some women gave birth in the stands. Some men, tired out with listening and applauding, furtively leaped over the walls. Three clever citizens tricked the guards into letting them through an exit; one pretended to be dead and the other two carried him out.
A common taboo is that royal blood should not be spilled on the ground. When Kublai Khan defeated his uncle Nyan, he ordered him placed in a carpet and tossed to and fro until he died. In 1688, the king of Siam executed a kinsman by having him placed in mortar and pounded to death with a pestle so that no blood would touch the ground.
In 1885, Louis Pasteur saved the life of a 9-year-old boy, Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by a rabid dog. It was one of the most famous medical triumphs. Fifty-five years later, Meister was gatekeeper of the Pasteur Institute. When the Nazis captured Paris, a Nazi officer ordered Meister to open Pasteur's crypt. Rather than do so, Meister killed himself.
The Tinguian People of the Philippines have their own way of kissing. They put their lips close to each other's face and quickly inhale.
Common in Europe and the British Isles during the Middle Ages and later even in the New World was the practice of trying and condemning animals for injuring or killing a human being. For instance, the French parliament, the highest court in the land, ordered the execution of a cow. It was hanged, then burned at the stake. Dee-lish!
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