Weight Loss (and Resolutions) in the Victorian Era

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New Year's Resolutions, Weight Loss

It’s almost New Year’s Eve, and that means it’s resolution time; I bet a lot of us will be resolving to lose weight this year.  It is generally known that our culture’s obsession with being skinny is a relatively modern phenomenon.  The great painters portrayed Venus as quite a bit more corpulent than today’s supermodels and movie star sex symbols.  Most books from the 18th and 19th century I have read have both men and women criticizing skinny women as being unattractive “waifs”, and “ample” women are viewed as desirable.  So our culture’s obsession with dieting must also be modern right?  Apparently not entirely.

My husband and I recently moved into a new house previously occupied by a retired couple.  We are still getting a good bit of their mail, including a new arrival yesterday called, “Tribune, News for Today’s Seniors.”  Normally, this would go straight to the recycle bin, but one of the headlines caught my eye: “150 Years of Battling the Bulge – How America Became a Nation of Dieters.”  Hmm, 150 years?  That would take us all the way back to 1862!  Were people really kale-cleansing under Queen Victoria and during the American Civil War?  I read on.

According to the article, in 1863 Englishman William Banting published the first “diet” book, called “Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public.”  The book outlined a diet surprisingly similar to the Atkins Diet, focusing on eating lots of protein and cutting back on carbs.  Sounds pretty familiar.  Even more interesting was the 1903 American product called “La Parle Obesity Soap.”  To quote the article, “A 1903 advertisement promised the soap would, ‘positively reduce fat without dieting or gymnastics.  Absolutely harmless, never fails to reduce flesh when directions are followed.'”  Any modern product that promised to “reduce flesh” if I rubbed it on said flesh would certainly send me running to the parallel bars for a little gymnastics as a less-creepy alternative, but someone must have bought this stuff back then.  In fact, a quick Google search on “weight loss soap” got me to this site.  Someone is STILL trying to market such a thing!  Apparently, we were just as gullible in the Victorian era as we are now when it comes to instant, effortless weight loss techniques.  Good luck with those resolutions!

Reference:  Erickson Living Tribune, January 2013, Erickson Publication.

Image from Magazineart.org

Downton Dress for New Years

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1920's fashion, downton abbey, Turn-of-the-Century fashion, Victorian fashion

Want to look like Lady Mary for New Year’s Eve?  There are tons of turn-of-the-century-inspired styles out there right now, and I have a feeling there will only be more available when Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby comes out next year.  Here’s our suggestion for looking your best at the Manor’s New Year’s Eve party.

The dress is the Sounds of Soul Dress, from ModCloth.  The shoes are the Everything’s Aglow Heel in Gold, also from ModCloth.  The necklace is the Mudd brand Bronze Tone Simulated Crystal Pendant from Kohl’s.  The cool custom head-piece is from owllamode’s page on Etsy.  Check out the other beautiful stuff she has in her store and Happy New Year!

Learnin’ in Dixie

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Civil War, Confederacy, Richmond

The American Civil War ran from 1861 to 1865, right smack dab in the middle of the Victorian period in England.  This week, I went to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.  Richmond was the capitol of the Confederacy during the Civil War and has many very interesting historical sights, monuments, and museums pertaining to the war.  During my time at the museum, I found one item of particular interest.  On display were several textbooks printed during the war for use in Southern schools. The names of the books are shown in the photos below: The Southern Confederacy Arithmetic (apparently we had our own math in the South?), Geographical Reader for the Dixie Children, York’s English Grammar Revised and Adapted to Southern Schools (Adapted?  Perhaps they added “Ya’ll?”), and Johnson’s Common School Arithmetic.

According to the museum placard, these textbooks were filled with Southern propaganda.  In some cases, it was blatant.  One of the math problems in Johnson’s Arithmetic was, “If one confederate soldier kills 90 Yankees, how many Yankees can 10 confederate soldiers kill?”  The placard in the photo says,

The Geographic Reader described the Southern Confederacy as consisting of the states that, ‘lie south of the United States and possess a warm climate.’  The United States, ‘once the most prosperous country in the world,’on the other hand, was now a country ruined by the triumph of Northern abolitionism.

I find this fascinating and hilarious.  Hurray for Dixie!

The Vicky A’s on Christmas, aka Christmas with the Ghostbusters

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a christmas carol, charles dickens, the real ghostbusters, xmas marks the spot

On Christmas, there are few things I prefer than sitting down with either my favorite Christmas book (Dickens’ unparalleled A Christmas Carol) or watching my favorite Christmas movie (The Nightmare Before Christmas or some televised version of the aforementioned Dickens tale).  Sometimes, in a flurry of genius, they merge.  I give you on this Christmas 2012, the Real Ghostbusters in their animated tale “Xmas Marks the Spot”.

Again, this is a wonderful bit of Victorianachronism, bringing two of my favorite things in the entire world together: Dickens and the Ghostbusters (I’ll also accept Scrooged in this category for the presence of Bill Murray).  On Christmas Eve, the Ghostbusters find themselves in 19th century Britain thanks to an appropriately placed time portal and end up doing a ghostbusting job for none other than Ebeneezer Scrooge (you only get three guesses as to who they trap).  Upon returning to their time, everything has changed and they have to find a way to make things right.  This might sound like typical Christmas time-travelling hijinx, but what brings this into a more immediate and personal realm is Peter Venkman’s reaction to it: he loves the fact that Christmas is gone because thanks to his deadbeat con-artist father, Christmas was always full of sadness, hardship, and disappointment.  He’s thankful to be rid of it and embraces the humbug.  Could anything change his mind? What really is the Christmas spirit? Without further ado…

Part one of “XMas Marks the Spot”

Part Two of “XMas Marks the Spot”

Either Dickens is rolling in his grave right now or applauding the RGB for getting it right. Methinks it would be the latter.  A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from both of us at the Vicky A’s to you and yours!

Why I love, but would never marry, Jack London

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jack london, literature, victorian hotties

To start, I know Jack London is not exactly Victorian, but we Vicky A girls are equally fascinated by the Gay 90’s, the Gilded Age, the Roaring 20’s – basically all things pre-World War II.  Well, ok, we also love the fashion of the 40’s (why did we ever stop wearing HATS?!) but to keep this blog manageable, generally we will focus on the Victorian era (in Europe and the US) through WWI.  I can’t guarantee, however, that we aren’t going to go all flapper on you once in a while – particularly when that Great Gatsby movie finally comes out.  I digress slightly, but the point is that I’m going to talk about Jack London who was not exactly Victorian but was exactly awesome.

Have you ever seen those Dos Equis commercials with The Most Interesting Man in the World?  Jack London was actually the most interesting man in the world in his day, and I think he still holds a pretty high spot on the list of The Most Interesting People of ALL TIME, somewhere between Alexander the Great and Neil Armstrong.  Perhaps you think I exaggerate.  Allow me to explain.

Besides being a prolific and inspired writer, Jack London was a pirate, a fish-patroller, an able-bodied seaman, a gold prospector, a hobo, a Socialist politician, and a ranch owner.  When he was in high school, he went to a saloon to study.  That could be a Chuck Norris joke it is so ridiculous.  With his schooling delayed and sporadic, he was largely self-taught, and his many life adventures (and the colorful characters he met along the way) inspired his great and memorable stories.  He was incredibly intelligent and though self-educated, he was very well-educated.  He had a passion for workers’ rights and twice ran for Mayor of Oakland on the Socialist ticket.  He lost both times.  He spent time living in the slums of London in order to write about the experience in “The People of the Abyss.”  He wrote a dystopian novel about a fascist future that influenced George Orwell’s 1984, using this platform to further promote his Socialist ideas.  He fearlessly embraced adventure and new experiences of all kinds.  During a cruise in the South Seas on his sloop the Snark, the ship was battered and thrown off course in a sudden squall.  When his companion started to become anxious about their whereabouts and well-being, London said to him,

“We’re not more than two miles from land now.”

“Which way?”  asked his worried friend.

“Straight down, Martin, straight down.”

He was tough, strong, and self-confident – quintessentially masculine – as well as well-spoken and thoughtful.  He was an amateur boxer known to be involved in the occasional bar brawl.  He signed letters, “Wolf.”  He is the best storyteller I have ever read.  He was a passionate and exciting man whose stories thrilled and challenged me in my youth and still do so today.  Plus, look at these pictures.  He was hot.  This is why I love him.

He was also an alcoholic, a white supremacist, a bit of a misogynist, and a Nietzschean.  He relished the ideal of the Nietzschean superman, and many of his characters personified the traits of that ideal, always large, light-eyed white males both physically and mentally superior to those around them.  He referred to his second wife as his “Mate-woman” and had a Darwinian view of love and relationships with little respect for the idea of monogamy.  I have a feeling he was not the type of husband to do the dishes after his wife cooked him dinner.  He died at the age of 40, his ill health at such a young age a result of his destructive lifestyle.  This is why I would never want to marry him.

I respect and admire him (and I devour his writings) while simultaneously being repulsed by some of his ideas and beliefs.  He would be a great bad-boy college fling before settling down with a nice, normal man.  I love him, but I would never marry him.

Once you go Jack, you never go back.

I close with a credo popularly attributed to London though it cannot be proven that it is entirely written by him.  Regardless of its origin, it sums up his attitude about life very neatly, and I still find it inspiring.

“I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.”

Sources: Alex Kershaw’s “Jack London, a Biography,” a little from Wikipedia, and mostly from my own years of reading about him in various sources.

Presenting: Edgar Allan Poe, Astronaut

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anachronism, astronauts, edgar allan poe, poetry post

Rarely do I come across something that so fully embodies our glorious theme of Victorianachronism as this amazing image right here.

I give you Edgar Allan Poe as an Astronaut, by Baltimore street artist TOVEN, originally seen on BoingBoing. He so frequently mused on the stars and the heavens, so it seems only appropriate that he might find himself out there one day.

Evening Star, 1827

‘Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro’ the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
‘Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold—too cold for me—
There pass’d, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.

How to Make the Perfect Scone

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afternoon tea, high tea, scones

The Vicky A girls like drinking tea, and what is a tea party without scones?  It’s a boring tea party, that’s what it is.  Scones can be tricky to make, so here the Vicky A girls give you some fool-proof techniques to make perfect scones every time.

First, set the oven to 350 degrees.

No, 350 degrees!

Wait, crap, the recipe says 375 degrees.

Phew, hardest part is done.  Drink some tea, you deserve it.

Ok, now put the cup down and get back to work.  The next step is to gather your ingredients. Try not to knock over all of the knives you own in the process, like we did.

Knives! All of the knives are EVERYWHERE!

Ok, get a grip, this is why we wear steel-toed boots in the kitchen.  Because of the knives.  On to the ingredients.

Note the “off-brand” nature of many of the ingredients.  Vicky is a thrifty lady.  You will also need some other ingredients not pictured here, but those are secret.  Also, drink some tea at this point.  You’re doing a great job (Just kidding about the secret ingredients).

Wow, this is really stressful.

Phew, tastes so good.  Ok, one of the classic rookie mistakes in baking is the ole’ baking powder vs baking soda switcheroo.  Do NOT use baking soda.

Use baking POWDER.  These are very different things, so don’t screw this up.

Now we’re ready to go!  When you are baking, it is important to use a recipe.  Make sure your recipe is written clearly and legibly.  See also our post on handwriting.

When the Vicky A girls make scones, we like to use Alton Brown’s recipe, which you can find here.  It is reliable and easily adaptable for any type of scone – fresh or dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, you name it.  So start by getting that recipe and decide on the flavoring for your scones (our favorites include dried cranberries, dried blueberries or the strawberries you will see here). Next, combine your dry ingredients.  In baking, measurements need to be precise to get the expected results, so level off your dry ingredients with a knife before adding to the bowl.

This knife looks a little less scary.

Next, cut in the fat.  You can use butter, shortening, or margarine.  You can even use half of each.  Alton uses half butter and half shortening, so that’s what we do.   We also do not have a pastry cutter, and using your hands is easier and more fun anyway, so just get in there with that manicure!

Work the butter in, breaking up the large chunks, until the entire mixture is crumbly.

In a smaller bowl, combine the wet ingredients.  Alton’s recipe calls for milk and an egg.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and add your mix-ins.  In this case, we used fresh diced strawberries and chocolate chips.

Turn the contents over in the bowl gently to mix.  Mix only until just combined – do NOT over-mix.  Too much mixing will make the dough tough.

Turn the dough out onto a HEAVILY floured surface.  Don’t be shy – just dump the whole bag out.  You’re going to need it.

Flatten the mound and fold it in half a couple of times.  Don’t knead it, just fold it and flatten it back out.  Your hands should look something like this.

After mixing the dough, use a cutter in whatever shape you want to form your scones.  The Vicky girls, being the traditionalists that we are, went with round and just used a glass.

Put those beautiful scones on parchment paper and pop them in the oven!

Bake them until they are golden brown.  Watch them carefully – burned scones are not delicious.

Ugh, now here comes the worst part.  While they’re baking, you should probably clean up your mess, but keep in mind, husbands are excellent dish-washers.

Finally!  Now it’s time to enjoy your scones.  The Vicky A girls like ours with jam and clotted cream – the proper way, of course.  These are some of the brands we prefer (now is NOT the time to use off-brand products!), but you may have your own faves.

And finally, eat your scones!  With tea, of course.

Mmm…finish that pot.

Victorian Captions

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captions, Victorian women

Poetry Post #2: In Memoriam, A.H.H., Verses V and XVI and Some Words on Newtown

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in memoriam, poetry post, tennyson

We here at the Vicky A’s went silent on Friday upon hearing of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to the grieving families and educators and those in their extended community. This link lists a few ways in which you can help, including links to family and mental health counseling networks and a link to the official Sandy Hook School Support Fund, sponsored by the United Way.

Words at a time like this seem meaningless and empty, and yet, few words seem more appropriate in moments of grief than Tennyson. Rest in Peace, sweet children and heroic teachers.

V.

I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise,
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

In words, like weeds, I’ll wrap me o’er,
Like coarsest clothes against the cold:
But that large grief which these enfold
Is given in outline and no more.

XVI
What words are these have falle’n from me?
Can calm despair and wild unrest
Be tenants of a single breast,
Or sorrow such a changeling be?

Or cloth she only seem to take
The touch of change in calm or storm;
But knows no more of transient form
In her deep self, than some dead lake

That holds the shadow of a lark
Hung in the shadow of a heaven?
Or has the shock, so harshly given,
Confused me like the unhappy bark

That strikes by night a craggy shelf,
And staggers blindly ere she sink?
And stunn’d me from my power to think
And all my knowledge of myself;

And made me that delirious man
Whose fancy fuses old and new,
And flashes into false and true,
And mingles all without a plan?

Victorian Hottie of the Week – Hermann Rorschach

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Hermann Rorschach, victorian hotties, Victorian men, Victorian science

Let’s play a little game.  I’m going to show you an image, and you say the first thing that comes into your head.  Here is the image.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too.  This is Hermann Rorschach, the Freudian psychoanalyst responsible for the invention of the Rorschach inkblot test and a doctor I would visit even if he were out of my insurance network.  He lived from 1884 to 1922, and his joint interest in art and science lead him to develop the test for which he is famous.  I’m not sure why he isn’t famous for being incredibly good-looking, except that based on my personal (albeit modern) experience, this is about standard for the Swiss.