Today’s WTF Moment
Russian Beard Taxing
Found this blurb from a little while ago on Euronews:
September 5, 1698. Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposes a taxes on beards as part of a effort to westernise his nobility. The Tsar had just returned from a tour of Europe (where most men were clean shaven) and was determined to revolutionise Russian society, culture and even fashion. As a result of the new beard tax, all men – except peasants and clergymen – had to pay 100 roubles for a copper or silver ‘beard token’, which had a moustache and a beard engraved onto it. The token also bore the message ‘the beard is a useless burden’. The Tsar was not the first leader to fiscally punish the facially hirsute: England’s Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I had launched a similar war on whiskers in the 16th century. The Russian beard tax was finally abolished in 1772.
Famous Hobos: Patti Labelle
When I first saw this photo, I thought it was a covert shot one of my neighbors had taken of me leaving to go to the grocery store. The guy in back is making the same face my roommate’s kitten does every time he sees me so.. It was a relief to learn it’s actually just Patti Labelle.
