Markets

Game Market (Source: LACMA, Los Angeles.)

Fish Market
(Source: Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.)

Originally a set of four paintings (along with Vegetable Market and Fruit Market), these are masterpieces by Frans Synders in the Dutch still-life tradition.

The peacock feathers don't come across that well in rendition. You will have to visit LA to see the gorgeous plumage in person. (And yes, peacocks and swans were definitely eaten in the middle ages!)

The CC particularly loves the little cats (and kittens!) all clawing away at the fish and meat.

Ol' School Beer Pong

Think fratboy drinking games are something new? Think again, kiddo!

This is a wine/mead game c. 1570.

You get to blow into the pipe which makes the sails of the windmill churn, fill the glass, and chug, chug, chug. Behind the windmill is a "timer" with numbers. If you can't finish before the sails of the windmill stop, you get to drink as many glasses as indicated on the timer.

(Source: V&A Museum, London.)

Why Carrots are Orange?

Carrots in ancient times used to be white, yellow or purple.

The orange carrot is a relatively recent phenomenon. Dutch growers bred the orange carrot in the 1500's to be sweeter and less bitter than the yellow varieties. They were trying to "nationalize" the carrot by cross-breeding yellow carrots with the purple variety.

All of this was done to impress the House of Orange which returned the honor by adopting the carrot as the Royal vegetable.

This sweet orange carrot is now the dominant species across the globe although one does run into the other kinds in farmers' markets.