Ebook: Ask the past: pertinent and impertinent advice from yesteryear

Want to know how to garden with lobsters' How to sober up' Grow a beard' Or simply how to make a perfect omelet' Look no further. Rather, look backward. Based on the popular blog, Ask the Past is full of the wisdom of the ages--as well as the fad diets, zany pickup lines, and bacon Band-Aids of the ages. Drawn from centuries of antique texts by historian and bibliophile Elizabeth P. Archibald, Ask the Past offers a delightful array of advice both wise and weird. Whether it's eighteenth-century bedbug advice (sprinkle bed with gunpowder and let smolder), budget fashion tips of the Middle Ages (save on the clothes, splurge on the purse) or a sixteenth-century primer on seduction (hint: do no pass gas), Ask the Past is a wildly entertaining guide to life from the people who lived it first.;Intro; Title Page; Welcome; Introduction; A Note about the Texts; How to Impress Girls at a Dance; How to Kill Bedbugs; How to Tell If Someone Is or Is Not Dead; How to Treat Freshmen; How to Chat with a Woman; How to Fart; How to Attack an Enemy Ship; How to Talk about Your Kids; How to Look Good on a Budget; How to Get Rid of a Contentious Man; How to Sober Up; How to Care for Your Cat; How to Trim Your Toenails Underwater; How to Walk on Water; How to Catch Flies; How to Cure a Nosebleed; How to Blow Your Nose; How to Make a Pastry Castle; How to Pack for a Journey; How to Avoid Pregnancy