The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s left-wing origins | Life and style | The Guardian

Lizzy Magie, inventor of the Landlord’s Game, which we now know as Monopoly, in 1936. Photograph: Anspach Archives

In 1903, a leftwing feminist called Lizzy Magie patented the board game that we now know as Monopoly – but she never gets the credit. Now a new book aims to put that right…

Source: The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s left-wing origins | Life and style | The Guardian

Flyting Was Medieval England’s Version of an Insult-Trading Rap Battle | Atlas Obscura

Flyting from Norse folklore and Old England should be incorporated into American politics. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)

Imagine a world that had swapped its guns for puns and its IEDs for repartees. Such a planet is possible if only those in power would manage their conflicts with flyting, the time-honored sport of verbal jousting.

Flyting is a stylized battle of insults and wits that was practiced most actively between the fifth and 16th centuries in England and Scotland. Participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric, and early bathroom humor to publicly trounce opponents. The term “flyting” comes from Old English and Old Norse words for “quarrel” and “provocation.” ‘Tis a form of highly poetic abuse, or highly abusive poetry—a very early precursor to MTV’s Yo Mama and Eminem’s 8 Mile.

“Court flyting” sometimes served as entertainment for royals such as Scottish kings James IV and James V. The most famous surviving exchange is The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie, which was performed in the early 16th century by…

Source: Flyting Was Medieval England’s Version of an Insult-Trading Rap Battle | Atlas Obscura

Archaeologists discover previously unknown Anglo-Saxon industrial island in Lincolnshire | Culture24

This sceat was discovered on an Anglo-Saxon island in Lincolnshire © Portable Antiquities Scheme

An Anglo-Saxon island which could have been a monastic or trading centre in Lincolnshire is being described as one of the most important discoveries in decades by archaeologists, who say hundreds of dress pins, 21 styli and a “huge” number of 7th and 8th century coins are merely an “enticing glimpse” of an ancient settlement…

Source: Archaeologists discover previously unknown Anglo-Saxon industrial island in Lincolnshire | Culture24