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Reposted by Dean Hamilton

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 16h

Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms!

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 13h

Starting to suspect the @nytimes.com doesn't even know to choose the lesser of two weevils...

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 15h

Yes! A historical "sneaker" (Assassin's Creed +Thief) where you are heisting the finger bones of St. Thomas, or filching St. Mark's body out of Alexandria. That would be fantastic!

static.klipy.com

Futurama: Shut Up And Take My Money Meme

ALT: Futurama: Shut Up And Take My Money Meme

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Reposted by Dean Hamilton

Kazuko M. @estherhawdon.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"the kitten catches one for a second... fallen leaves" Issa Kobayashi (images: Mikiko Noji)

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Typical evening walk with a Berner.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Damn it, hasn't anyone at the @nytimes.com seen Master & Commander? "With the rear wheels removed, you've gained elevation, but without recoil, there'll be no chance for re-load, so gun captains, that gives you one shot from the larboard battery … one shot only. You'll fire for her mainmast."

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Close...too damn close. Wordle 1,936 6/6 ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

static.klipy.com

Jeff Goldblum: Phew, Too Close

ALT: Jeff Goldblum: Phew, Too Close

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Dawn and a smiling October moon.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

My TBR pile is getting dangerously high!

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm thinking your headline should have cut off after the words "partisan disgrace". A 'good idea' has to include context. Making the "trains run on time" might be a 'good idea' but doing so by implementing a vicious fascistic state kinda ruins that...

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Peter Ustinov famously described Toronto as "New York run by the Swiss."

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'm guessing the Coldstream Guards or Wellington's 33rd of Foot would tear him to pieces pretty readily...

static.klipy.com

Sharpe Shouts 'Filth!'

ALT: Sharpe Shouts 'Filth!'

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My b-day this time last year...

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I remember they banned playing conkers at my elementary school (this is in Canada), so it was a restricted pasttime!

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That was the novelization of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" two-parter episode, right? Essentially a Dirty Dozen/Guns of Navarone re-make. Fun!

static.klipy.com

Battlestar Galactica: Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer Handshake

ALT: Battlestar Galactica: Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer Handshake

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Hmmm... Probably shouldn't have posted a long thread on Elizabethan-era bear-baiting during #FatBearWeek... sigh. Sorry!

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“I’m just a smol bear trying to make my way in the universe.”

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Snuck that one through... Wordle 1,929 5/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

static.klipy.com

Sneaky Raccoon Smile

ALT: Sneaky Raccoon Smile

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is the best of social media!

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

25. The Bear Garden is commemorated with a narrow lane named for it, running to Bankside & the Thames River, a block from the reconstructed Globe Theatre. No bears are now in evidence. <End of Thread!>

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

24. Bear-baiting, bull-baiting & other activities, though they waned in popularity in the 17th c, were finally banned in 1835 with the passage of the Cruelty to Animals Act.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

23. The ban on animal baiting of all types was a short-lived one, as it resumed with the Restoration. Samuel Pepys famously recorded a visit to the Bear Garden / Hope Theatre in 1666 deeming it "a rude and nasty pleasure." The last animal baiting recorded at the Bear Garden was in 1682.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

22. One prominent critic mused that the bear-baiting was ended by Cromwell, but not because of the vicious cruelties inflicted on the bears and the dogs, but rather because it gave to much pleasure to the spectators.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

21. As a result, Col. Thomas Pride raided the Bear Garden at Bankside, personally killing all the bears, ordering his troops to wring the necks of gamecocks across London. This was in addition to shuttering the theatres, closing alehouses & working to surpass “mirths & jollities” across the nation.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

20. It was finally brought to a halt in London in 1655 under the munificent Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell’s appointed “Major-Generals” were instructed to “encourage and promote godliness and virtue” in their roles.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

19. Bear-baiting as entertainment was not without its detractors. The Puritans in particular were hostile to the entertainment, although they were equally hostile to almost all other types of recreation. Only a handful of commentators expressed revulsion at the activity.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

18. It soon became used primarily for bear-baiting & never really lost it’s Bear Garden identity in the eyes of Londoners. Bear-baiting and other animal blood sports continued as a spectacle both in London and across England (and a number of other European nations).

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

17. In 1604 Henslowe purchased the position of “Master of Her Majesty’s Game at Paris Garden”. In 1613-14, he & his partner tore down the Bear Garden replacing it with the Hope Theatre, a dual purpose playhouse/animal-baiting venue.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Aside from mention in plays & the general shape of the performance venue, bear-baiting & the theatre crossed over in several areas. Philip Henslowe, who built & owned The Rose theatre (the 3rd permanent playhouses erected in London, & the first in Bankside) also dabbled in bearbaiting from 1594 on.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

15. It would be nice to think Shakespeare had the bears of Southward in mind when he penned one of his most famous stage directions “Exit, pursued by a bear” in A Winter’s Tale.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

14. Slender: I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not? Anne: Ay, indeed, sir. Slender: That’s meat and drink to me, now: I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain,

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

13. The bear most familiar to modern audiences is Sackerson, who was highlighted in William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor: Slender: ….Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i’ the town? Anne: I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

12. Londoners flocked to the rings and certain bears soon achieved a modest level of “fame”, accompanied by nicknames such as Harry Hunks, George Stone, Ned Whiting and Harry of Thame.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

11. By all accounts it was a rousing success. “fending & proving, with plucking & tugging, scratching and biting, by plain tooth & nail on one side & the other, such expense of blood & leather [skin] was there between them, as a months licking (I think) will not recover” -Robert Laneham's Letter

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

10. The Earl of Leicester, hosting Elizabeth’s Summer Progress at Kenilworth Castle in July, 1575, brought in 13 bears and innumerable dogs to provide a bloody afternoon of “entertainment” for Elizabeth and her Court.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

9. Queen Elizabeth was quite taken with bear-baiting, staging it regularly at the enclosed tiltyard at Whitehall, most notably for the French Ambassador in 1559. The ambassador, so taken by the spectacle, he &his retinue promptly headed over to Southwark & the public bear-baiting the very next day.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

8. Bears were valuable investments for the impresarios operating the bear-baiting rings, so care was generally taken that the bears not be killed, although in no case was the treatment even remotely humane by modern standards. Teeth were filed short, to reduce injuries to the dogs.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

7. At the centre of the ring a bear, chained to a post, would be placed. Dogs, usually large English mastiffs, would be released into the yard to fight and attack the bear. The “performance” would continue until the bear was exhausted with fresh dogs replacing the spent, injured or dead ones.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

6. The bear-baiting ring consisted of a design not very different than that of the London theatres – an octagonal ring with tiered galleries, surrounding a fenced in “yard” or enclosure. Costs for entry was a penny for the bottom tier, two pennies for higher tiers.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

5. Bear-baiting “performances” were held seven days a week, including Sundays, a fact that often raised the ire of the church and the London Aldermen.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

4. All of these activities, to modern eyes, were inhumane, cruel and vicious bloodsports that inflicted pain and suffering on multitudes of animals, for the amusement of paid spectators. And yet, they were immensely popular.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

3. Blood sports were popular with the Elizabethans. Bear-baiting stood alongside theatre as a choice entertainment spectacle, alongside other animal blood “sports” such as bull-baiting, badger-baiting, rat-pits and cock-fighting.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2. These are the now famous Globe Theatre and its less-famous but almost equally popular neighbour, the Bear Garden, also known as the Paris Garden. The Bear Garden was a bear-baiting ring.

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Dean Hamilton @tyburntree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“By plain tooth and nail”: Bear-baiting in Elizabethan London - A Thread: If you glance at the famous Visscher's Panorama of London from 1616, you will see, tucked into the foreground of the picture, on the south bank of the Thames to the left of London Bridge, a pair of octagonal buildings.

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