Notices by M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club), page 19

@checkervest @georgieboy Oh, no question people from all social classes have always been looking for ways to improve their appearance: a cleaner shirt to wear to church on Sunday, or a fancier dress for a wedding, for instance.

And obviously the wealthy have always had more possibilities for how they change their appearance than others do.

@georgieboy @checkervest
Thanks, that's a more useful article. But it suggests that the original interlocutor might have been right about the general public: "During the early 1900s [in the US] makeup was not excessively popular. In fact, women hardly wore makeup at all. Make-up at this time was still mostly the territory of prostitutes, those in cabarets and on the black & white screen."

The history before 1900 seems to refer mostly to the aristocracy.

@georgieboy @checkervest
I confess to my own ignorance on the history of makeup, and Wikipedia cosmetics wasn't very helpful either. Certainly there is a very long history of use by the wealthy, but I wonder when use became widespread in Western societies...

My grandparents were all born into farming families, but unfortunately they're not available to tell me if their parents used makeup.

@byttyrs @restioson
I don't believe in inevitable historic progress either; though I haven't read *Our Better Angels*, so possibly it would convince me that humanity is growing less violent over the centuries.

Putting that aside, Prof. Pinker is a cognitive psychologist, so his statements about the brain and individual behaviour are more likely to be well-founded than his historical theories.

To me, *The Blank Slate* seemed plausible and informative.

@xvu Louisbourg, Port Royal, the Halifax Citadel, the Annapolis Valley. Fossils at Joggins. St Andrew's, NB.

@restioson @byttyrs Regarding human nature, may I suggest reading *The Blank Slate* by Steven Pinker? He argues that there is such a thing, and that recent research allows us to make some useful observations about it.

@fitheach
The surest way for #BorisJohnson to take over from Prime Minister May was to sabotage her Brexit deal as insufficient. Now, whether he resurrects her deal as is, extracts further concessions from the EU, or crashes out, he can just blame Mrs. May.

I have general respect for *The Economist*, but it's hard to imagine them saying anything good about one of the chief culprits behind #Brexit, even if he were Lord Palmerston reborn.

@fitheach
I speculated a month ago that perhaps he deliberately lost against Theresa May, so that she would take any blame for a failed #Brexit.

It's possible, though overall #BorisJohnson seems like a gifted improvisor rather than a strategist.

@fitheach To quote from that Atlantic article I linked to:
“I don’t think I’ve ever taught anyone who learned quicker,” Clive Williams, a teacher of his at Ashdown House, the boarding school he attended before Eton, recalled in Gimson’s biography of Johnson. Williams described how other teachers would discuss the new “fantastically able boy” in the common room and how they had noticed something “rather special” about him.

So he was smart as a boy at least.

@fitheach Well, it seems that he is much more intelligent than he appears, has unusual ability as a writer and debater, and he has some political cunning, having made it to the top of the greasy pole. His greatest talent seems to be personal charm.

OTOH, his personal life has been rather shambolic, so that's a mark against his discipline & strategic sense.

Overall, #BorisJohnson's talents seem more suited to achieving power than using it wisely. A no deal #Brexit is very likely.

@fitheach
It didn't (alas) give me any insight into his skills as a leader, an administrator or a negotiator.

Was #BorisJohnson a competent mayor of London, so far as you can tell?

#ukpol

@fitheach
I read an article on #BorisJohnson from #TheAtlantic last night: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/boris-johnson-profile/594379/

"Johnson’s rare gift is to combine unabashed elitism with popular appeal: for the £180 ($225) bottles of wine and for spaghetti with tomato ketchup; for Homer, his favorite author, and Dodgeball, his favorite movie."

I have a better understanding now of his character.

#ukpol

@victoria
"I would be happy if this code was publicly attributed to me" is a very good checklist item.