Weekend Conversation Starters

[Image]   Twenty thousand leagues under the sea…  That’s where my mind has been for a good part of this week.  I’ve been thinking about submarines of course, but also Jacques Cousteau and [the remains of his 1960s underwater habitats]( where aquanauts tried to live in the ocean for up to a month.  And do you remember that time I went [shopping for a used submarine](?  If you’re in NYC, take a mostly risk-free mission to locate [Coney Island’s abandoned submarine](.  And I’ll leave you with the [last Japanese mermaids, ancient pearl hunters of the sea](.  We are no doubt a brave and adventurous species, but it’s humbling times like these that remind us we are no match for the oceans below that still overflow with so much mystery…  Your weekend conversation starters await (above sea level).  Stay curious, [Nessy]   [The Hushed History of Sex Workers on the Battlefield](  [rapace_the_view_from_the_bedroom_window_of_a_luxurious_feminine_c63d8905-57d6-4fa3-8f8f-a0bfbf848bfb]( Sex and war are seemingly the uneasiest of bedfellows, nonetheless, they’ve have had a most intense relationship over centuries of conflict. As early as the Third Crusade, Philip II of France, horrified with the rampant rape and sodomy in his armies, instructed boatloads of “girls of joy” to be dispatched from France to “re-focus” his…  [Continue Reading](   [Rediscover the Fine Arts Retro Aesthetic of the Babysitters Club](  [337896497_633307055274643_7552076208719788357_n]( Remember The Baby-Sitters Club? If you grew up in the nineties, had a perm or a crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas, you definitely swapped copies with your friends. The series, which details the lives of a group of pre-teens living and babysitting in suburban Connecticut was created by Ann M. Martin, although the majority of…  [Continue Reading](   [Who was the LGBTQ Hero of Civil Rights Behind Martin Luther King?](  [Bayard]( The list of people who attended the March on Washington — Martin Luther King Jr., Josephine Baker, John Lewis and Harry Belafonte — there’s a who’s who of the activists, politicians and celebrities who defined the Civil Rights Movement. But Bayard Rustin, a trusted advisor and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr., who organised the…  [Continue Reading](   [All Aboard the Doomed Art Deco Floating Palace](  [Capsized in New York Harbor]( Seventy-five years after she lay burning and capsized in the New York harbour, the French SS Normandie still holds the record as the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built. She is considered one of the greatest of ocean liners in history, a floating palace of Art Deco majesty so dazzling, they nicknamed her the “Ship of Light” similar…  [Continue Reading](   [Remains of an Underwater Habitat left by 1960s Sea Dwellers](  [Capsized in New York Harbor]( It was an ambitious, otherwordly idea, dreamt up by American military physician, Dr. Bond, deemed too risky and ultimately rejected by the US Navy. Bond then turned to French diving/ filmmaking pioneer Jacques Cousteau and his ‘Calypso’ diving team, who accepted the challenge, never before attempted by man, to build an underwater colony where divers could live under the sea.  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 654)](  [Fy7Rc-LX0AApt6x]( [Continue Reading](   [The Hunt for the Missing Orient Express Trains](  [Orient-Express_05-930x628]( Nothing says old-world luxury quite like the Orient Express. The train of kings, courtesans, spies, storytellers and murderers alike, all elegantly dressed and sipping on Champagne from cut-glass crystal flutes as European landscapes rolled by. The Orient Express, which linked Paris to Istanbul, connecting Europe to Asia on an 81-hour ride operating between 1883 and…  [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](.