A Pox on All Your Houses

January 17, 2003 4:53 PM

What do Abraham Lincoln and Friedrich Nietzsche have in common? Independent scholar Deborah Hayden has the answer.
posted by jonp72 (9 comments total)

Well if they're not gay then lets say they have syphilis.

I'm getting sick of these books.
posted by Stan Chin at 5:05 PM on January 17, 2003

Did you even read the article? I, for one, found it quite interesting. I don't care for the theory that ascribes genius/greatness/whatever to disease, myself, but the article was certainly interesting and, IMO, worth posting.
posted by eilatan at 5:33 PM on January 17, 2003

Yeah. After I read the first few sentences and figured out it was about sketchy sensationalist revisionist history of popular historical figures, I said to myself "I wonder when Hitler's going to be mentioned." And boom, there he was. I finished the article, and my conclusion is that its dumb.
posted by Stan Chin at 5:51 PM on January 17, 2003

I assume the Bay Area crowd is simply too blasé to have mentioned it, but the Healthy Penis Campaign against syphilis is certainly worthy of a post. Um, NSFW. (It's proven a bit graphic for other places such as LA; even some SF advertising vendors have objected.)
posted by dhartung at 5:54 PM on January 17, 2003

"Who are... two people that have never been in my kitchen!"
posted by jonson at 5:55 PM on January 17, 2003

It's fascinating how, every couple of years, someone comes out with a book that attempts to demonstrate how every major historical figure suffered from a particular malady (in which the author styles themselves an expert).

One year everybody is schizophrenic, the next year they've all got lead poisoning, then they've got syphilis, then it's twisted family dynamics, etc. etc. etc.

Publish or perish, I guess.
posted by aramaic at 7:22 PM on January 17, 2003

One year everybody is schizophrenic, the next year they've all got lead poisoning, then they've got syphilis, then it's twisted family dynamics

Which day of the year is that? I want to make sure I'm out of town next time it comes around...
posted by ook at 9:12 PM on January 17, 2003

Publish or perish, I guess.

Syphilis? Viagra? Debt relief now? Worry your way to weight loss of 10 pounds a week?

This reads like e-mail scam spam of the worst kind.
posted by hama7 at 3:43 AM on January 18, 2003

Of related interest, I notice that the long-standing factoid "Henry VIII died of syphilis" is becoming discredited these days: see Henry and syphilis.
posted by raygirvan at 8:55 AM on January 18, 2003