This week has passed rather fast, mostly with rather miserable winter weather. There was a little hope for more things opening up from the starting week, but that didn’t last long – at the moment we can feel lucky for not having the evening curfew changed to 6pm in stead of 9pm. As there are only counted minutes left of this Sunday, let’s get right to it and open this week’s Crate.

1. Fairy tales (at least in their original form) can be rather sordid affairs, but now it turns out that some of them might also hide a grain of historical truth. The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who, after not getting his due payment, led the all the children of Hamelin out of the village never to return, seems to point to a real historical event from 26 June 1284. What exactly transpired in Hamelin on that date is still a target of much speculation among historians.

2. Our current obsession with too much screen time is apparently just another one in a long line of historical grievances – as documented by Pessimists Archive. In 1898, it’s ‘too much reading’, in 1938 ‘ too much radio’ that might cause ‘boiler factory ears’ and in 1956 ‘too much TV’.

3. Snoozing, as these candle clocks show, is definitely not a new phenomenon either.

4. Artists tend to think that eventual fame is only dependent on the quality of their work, but research has shown that it -surprise, surprise – also comes down to who they are acquainted with. (Photo from 1911,
from left: Maria and Franz Marc, Bernhard Koehler sen., Heinrich Campendonk, Thomas von Hartmann, sitting: Wassily Kandinsky.)

5. Cars can be used for showing off many things, starting with one’s self-esteem and ending with other products. The practice of using cars as marketing vehicles in fact, dates back all the way to 1920’s and a number of these curious vehicles are still out and about.

And that was it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!

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