Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   All gave some, some gave all. How can we be sure that in 50 or a hundred years, our children will understand the significance of a day like November 11th, Armistice Day and Veterans Day? The most interesting things I learned about the world wars, they didn’t teach me in history class. They’re stories that still speak of the sacrifice and courage and hope, but these are the stories that belong to forgotten heroes and in books that never got published... They’re stories lost in between battles: the little ways in which soldiers discovered [the art of homemaking in a World War dugout]( or the unspoken scars of women who worked in munitions factories and became known as the [“Canary Girls”]( because of the WWI poisons that turned them yellow. And what about the time France [built a replica of Paris]( to avoid a massive air raid strike? Or we could talk about the real no-go zone of France, [a forbidden no-man’s land roughly larger than the size of Paris]( where no one has been allowed to enter for nearly a century because of an impossible amount of human remains and unexploded chemical munitions yet to be recovered from the battlefields of both world wars. My instinct is that these are the kind of stories we need to keep alive to help us remember and relate and begin to understand. Stay curious, [Nessy]   [That Time France Built a Replica of Paris in WWI](  [bizzarre]( In Paris, every first Wednesday of the month at noon, without fail you can hear the eerie wail of an air raid siren from wherever you are in the city. They’ve been going since pre-World War II and have these monthly tests to make sure everything is in working order– or to serve as a spooky reminder of what life was like during wartime (that’s the theory I’m going with anyway)...  [Continue Reading](   [An Off-the-Curriculum Introduction to BDSM & Fetish Art History](  [bizzarre]( A little slap and tickle – kinky or otherwise – has been good medicine for us down the ages. Public consumption of the practice of BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism) really came into its own during a ‘golden age’ of fetish art in the mid 20th century. Fetish art has…  [Continue Reading](   [The Art of Homemaking in a World War Dugout](  [bizzarre]( It all started with one photograph that caught my interest, and then through the course of today, I think I’ve easily gone through about 10,000 photographs, searching through various archives for another glimpse into how soldiers made a home for themselves on the front line.  [Continue Reading](   [100 Rooms and 70 Secret Doors: Washington DC’s Quirkiest Secret](  [8495269871_e2c5443983_b]( When most people think of secrecy in Washington, DC, they probably think of the FBI, the CIA or the Pentagon. But just south of Embassy Row, nestled behind the façades of five row houses, there stands an icon of kitsch, African American history, and rock and roll: the Mansion on O Street. Is it a…  [Continue Reading](   [Meet the Mama of Dada](  [beatrice-wood-1908]( We need to talk about Beatrice Wood. The last surviving member of the American Dada movement, the ceramicist, the artist, the writer, the actress, the lover, and let’s not leave out, the inspiration behind the headstrong character of “Rose” in the movie Titanic. Beatrice was born at the end of the 19th century, and died…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXIII)](  [Appartement-dans-le-Castel-Beranger-H.-Guimard-Paris-16-11]( 1. A Parisian Apartment For Sale in the Iconic Art Nouveau Hector Guimard Building  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessy Keyholder? [Apply now to unlock the Vault!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To read more from MessyNessyChic visit the Blog]( and make sure you keep getting these email by adding contact@messynessychic.com to your address book or whitelist us. Our postal address: In a Café, Paris 75001 Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](.