PicoBlog

From its humble beginnings as a trading post to its reign as the "Queen City," Victoria, British Columbia has seen it all – gold rushes, royal visits, eccentric characters, and enough scandals to make its history a wild ride. Victoria Memories is not about fancy tea parties and the elite of the day – unless they play a role in the hidden ‘murkiness’ of Victoria. Beneath the surface of this seemingly tranquil town are the stories of regular people and places with its back alleys, murders, bootlegging, and plot twists.

Quite simply, it’s THE place where I now exist online. Instead of spreading myself around numerous social media platforms, I now have a single space where I can blather on about the things I love – chiefly history and current affairs, but also the lighter stuff, such as cooking and drinks, long-distance running, pretty landscapes, and horrific shirts. This is fine. I’ve been a journalist, historian, and TV presenter since 1992.

hello! this is the weird medieval guys substack. i am still deeply confused by the subtler nuances of this website so thank you for bearing with me while i work it out. you probably know me from twitter, where i post funny medieval art. this substack is where i give more fun information about: i post every week at the very least! i would love to post more but i have a full time job and it takes a lot of time to write posts.

“Luke O’Neil’s Welcome To Hell World is a vital and despairing collection of essays on modern American life.” -Longreads “Reading his popular, semi-weekly newsletter Hell World is a lot like staring deep into O’Neil’s soul, and it’s often a pretty dark place. Hell World is unusual, to say the least. It’s a mix of reporting, essay-writing, memoir, song lyrics, music videos, tweets, and whatever else appeals to him in a given week, all of it written in a stream-of-consciousness style that eschews commas, leans into run-on sentences, and is often thousands of words long.

Worthy by FinanceBuzz has all the info you need to learn how to grow your wealth - from investing tips to side hustles to the latest market & fintech news. Whether you’re trying to get out of debt or learning how to invest smarter, Worthy is the only personal finance newsletter you need. Here’s what readers are saying about Worthy: “I love all of your emails. They are clear, concise and to the point - kinda like me!

Every now and then, usually late at night, I will find myself looking up old YouTubers on social media. A lot of the original YouTubers who defined my younger Internet life no longer post or I just no longer follow them, but to me they almost feel like distant acquaintances. I hope they’re doing well, and it’s mind-boggling to recognize that many of them were my current age or younger when they became Internet-famous.

Readers, Remember last week’s link round-up, in which I noted I’d like to arrange a podcast discussion about 81-year-old Martha Stewart’s appearance on one of four Sports IllustratedSwimsuit Issue covers, and what it means? Well, I assembled a group of smart women whose newsletters and social media posts about it I found compelling (in which they expressed a range of opinions) and we talked earlier this week over Zoom.

The 10th episode of Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien’s “Who Killed JFK?” podcast dropped recently, not long after the show was downloaded for the 5 millionth time. The influence of hit series has clearly spread—now to the world of sports. On Twitter/X, Dan Kingerski, a serious hockey fan in Pittsburgh, calls attention to the “showstopper” of the series: when a CIA lawyer thwarted Congress’ assassination investigators with an audacious lie.

There are several technical terms used in ecology that also have an everyday meaning. Community is one of them. So what, you might say. Well, the problem could be in communication. I am not sure how common this is, but recently I was interviewed and during this interview I was asked about the ‘community feeling’ in soil and what that exactly is. Before that moment, I had only thought that this could happen, but now that it actually happened, I decided to write this little newsletter about it.