Claw foot tubs - I used to have one in Covington. I like the fact that they're very solid and functional and deep (so good for the rare deep soaking bath) and at the same time they're romantic, in an old fashioned non-excessively-frilly kind of way. I'm generally fond of older architecture that hasn't been updated in bad ways (the 1970s-ification of the house next to us in Covington was frightening!), and claw foot tubs, original woodwork, and elaborate mantels are all signs of that.
Devil duckies - They go in the claw foot tub. One Halloween, we found them at $1 for 3, or thereabouts, on American Science and Surplus. So we bought 15 of them, filled the claw foot tub, added red food coloring, and had a devil duck pond. E put dry ice in the toilet tank, and the bathroom was the spookiest room in the house. I've since given away several of the duckies, because really, how many does one person need? But I've also adopted a normal ducky, a dead ducky (black with green beak and x-es for eyes), and a vampire ducky (dressed like a Bela Lugosi vampire), so I've got a little line of duckies on the counter of the guest bath.
Duct tape - holds stuff together. Also removes paint and plantar warts.
Experimental archaeology - because I've got competing tendencies toward bookworminess and needing to *do* things. I'm always amazed at how long people will sit around talking about how stuff was done in the past without being hit by a compulsion to try it.
Social history - I'm not that keen on battle formations and long-past political debates. I am fascinated by the different ways different societies in the past dealt with issues of gender and sexuality and family and social class, especially since they're often so different from modern perceptions of "the way it's always been."
Stegosauri - this is a fairly recent obsession, brought on by a strange compulsion to hear a song from my childhood that I can't find anywhere. The lyrics include, "My name is stegosarus, I'm a funny-looking dinosaur."
Visual irony - irony is my preferred form of humor, and I'm generally pretty visually oriented. There's lots of good 20th c. art that falls into this category, and I ought to be able to pull an example or seven off the top of my head, but I can't right now.
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Devil duckies - They go in the claw foot tub. One Halloween, we found them at $1 for 3, or thereabouts, on American Science and Surplus. So we bought 15 of them, filled the claw foot tub, added red food coloring, and had a devil duck pond. E put dry ice in the toilet tank, and the bathroom was the spookiest room in the house. I've since given away several of the duckies, because really, how many does one person need? But I've also adopted a normal ducky, a dead ducky (black with green beak and x-es for eyes), and a vampire ducky (dressed like a Bela Lugosi vampire), so I've got a little line of duckies on the counter of the guest bath.
Duct tape - holds stuff together. Also removes paint and plantar warts.
Experimental archaeology - because I've got competing tendencies toward bookworminess and needing to *do* things. I'm always amazed at how long people will sit around talking about how stuff was done in the past without being hit by a compulsion to try it.
Social history - I'm not that keen on battle formations and long-past political debates. I am fascinated by the different ways different societies in the past dealt with issues of gender and sexuality and family and social class, especially since they're often so different from modern perceptions of "the way it's always been."
Stegosauri - this is a fairly recent obsession, brought on by a strange compulsion to hear a song from my childhood that I can't find anywhere. The lyrics include, "My name is stegosarus, I'm a funny-looking dinosaur."
Visual irony - irony is my preferred form of humor, and I'm generally pretty visually oriented. There's lots of good 20th c. art that falls into this category, and I ought to be able to pull an example or seven off the top of my head, but I can't right now.