The story of the Krampus has been making the rounds lately. For those who haven’t heard, he’s an old-world Germanic mythical creature who terrorizes naughty children at Christmas. Apparently pepper-spray-wielding shoppers at Target aren’t scary enough for Americans these days, because various cities are holding a Krampuslauf, or Krampus parade, this month. One of those cities is Philadelphia, and that’s a tragic heresy — not because it’s unchristian, but because Philadelphia is surrounded by the Pennsylvania German heartland, and the Pennsylvania German tradition has its own Christmas bogeyman, the Belsnickel. Before we go running back to Europe for bizarre new traditions, let’s take a closer look at one of our own. Read on

This is my attempt to show visually the evolution of the political party system in the United States since 1789. It’s got a fair bit of text — it’s quite informative — but you can also just look at the little colored lines. It’s pretty, I think. Read on

Looking for World War I propaganda posters for to build a slideshow for students I came across this visually stunning and unintentionally hilarious morsel (click for a closer look): Read on