Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

Entries Tagged as 'Medieval history'

The Sacred Exchange of Knucklebones

June 11th, 2010 · 6 Comments

We’ve been lassoed into some emergency parenting today, and Microkhan Jr. is tugging on the hem of our deel as we type these very words. So let us just quickly share with you two things that bring much gladness to our collective heart: the above Donny Hathaway gem, an Afro-Cuban spin on “The Ghetto,” and [...]

Blitzed on Feudalism

February 10th, 2010 · 11 Comments

Living in Europe during the Middle Ages was certainly no picnic, given the abundance of horrid diseases, the precariousness of the food supply, and the constant threat of having one’s arms lopped off by a passing knight. Yet how much agony and anxiety did the denizens of Medieval fiefdoms really experience? Not bloody much, given [...]

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Tags:alcohol·beer·England·Medieval history

Too Big to Fail?

November 25th, 2009 · No Comments

In the midst of our annual Thanksgiving pigout, we’ve often justified our gluttony on the grounds that the ensuing expansion of our girth really shouldn’t be frowned upon by society. After all, isn’t the disapproval of fatness of a modern phenomenon, egged along by the Fitness Industrial Complex? In Medieval times, we tell ourselves, our [...]

Stars and Stripes Pale in Comparison

November 10th, 2009 · 3 Comments

A pal of ours recently quipped that he’s always had a yen to visit Mozambique, albeit because he’s always dreamed of traversing the sandy beaches of the Bazaruto Archipelago. No, our friend is attracted to the nation for a single, simple reason: he digs flags that feature weapons, and Mozambique’s official banner certainly qualifies. Given [...]

Be Thankful for What We’ve Got

October 6th, 2009 · No Comments

A pal of ours is on jury duty this week, and reminded us of one of the great pleasures of the process (at least in New York): getting to view Enter the Jury Room on your first morning. Narrated by the late Ed Bradley, the short film is surprisingly witty and informative, especially for those [...]

Misled by Nicholas of Cologne

October 1st, 2009 · 1 Comment

We can’t say we’re utterly convinced as to the verisimilitude of the Children’s Crusade. But there is, at the very least, a primary source. And it doesn’t mince words: About the time of Easter and Pentecost,without anyone having preached or called for it and prompted by I know not what spirit, many thousands of boys, [...]

Divorce in Ye Olden Tymes

July 27th, 2009 · 3 Comments

Following up on last week’s divorce theme, we thought we’d take a look back at pre-modern marital splits. While divorce may not have been common in the West until the advent of women’s lib, it was apparently a staple of several Asian and Middle Eastern societies for centuries: The outpouring of scholarly and popular works [...]

The Middle Ages Get a Bad Rap

July 7th, 2009 · 3 Comments

So you think Medieval knights were condemned to lug around unwieldy swords, while their Renaissance counterparts bounced around with mere wisps of metal weaponry? Dr. Timothy Dawson believes you’ve been grossly misinformed—a fact he expounds upon at length in one of Microkhan’s all-time favorite publications, the Journal of Western Martial Art: These results show that [...]

Medieval Monkeys

April 24th, 2009 · 5 Comments

Microkhan has a longstanding fascination with non-human primates, and so was intrigued to stumble upon the homepage of Kenneth Gouwens, a history professor at UConn. One of Gouwen’s specialties seems tailor-made for us: “Distinctions drawn between humans and simians in the Renaissance and in our own era.” Alas, Microkhan wasn’t able to locate any of [...]

Black Death Rethink

April 21st, 2009 · 3 Comments

Have plague-infected rats (as well as their attendant fleas) gotten a bad rap in the history books? A pair of Georgia-based geographers think so. Their rather unconventional theory is that an unknown viral condition, rather than bubonic plauge, was responsible for Europe’s Black Death: “The Black Death went so fast, but we knew bubonic plague [...]