David H. Montgomery
@dhmontgomery
"A French history podcaster and enormous goshdang nerd after our own hearts" — @andrewvandam. Host of @thesiecle; senior data journalist with @YouGovAmerica.
Are you listening to my history podcast @TheSiecle yet? Per listener reviews: - "well-researched & incredibly in-depth" - "thoughtful, clearly constructed scripts" - "both amiable & authoritative" - "the opening music slaps" Links here! Start w/ Ep. 1: thesiecle.com/subscribe/
BREAKING: Elections Canada says voters will need to write in their desired candidate during the upcoming byelection in Alberta's Battle River-Crowfoot to avoid a massive ballot with more than 200 names. cbc.ca/news/politics/…
Today's Vintage Ad With Unexpected Cats. OK, OK, this one's pretty Expected. I stand corrected.
NEWS: NRSC warns that a new Apple iOS update could cost them $25M+ in fundraising revenue & hurt GOTV The fear: Apple's new Message filter will punt political texts to a separate inbox w/ no alert or notification NRSC memo: punchbowl.news/nrsc-letter/ More in @PunchbowlNews Midday
ICYMI I am live-tweeting France's 1830 July Revolution, as it happened 195 years ago to the day — and things just got real. Link to the first thread in the reply!
No one knows how it happens. Perhaps some of the Royal Guards lose their temper after being hit with stones. Regardless, Guardsmen open fire on the crowd. There are screams. Dead bodies fall to the pavement. #julyrevlive
The desire to eat is one of our oldest evolutionary compulsions. What does it mean to mess with that? vox.com/the-highlight/…
Are you a fan of French history? Check out this series of threads, which required a ton of research and are full of paintings and other illustrations…this is such a wonderful way of bringing history to life.
The sun rose July 28 on a damaged Paris. Dozens had been killed or wounded in street fighting the day before, between Parisians rioting against King Charles X's coup & soldiers trying to put them down. Night brought quiet, but dawn made it clear things weren't over. #julyrevlive
This takes a bit of explaining, but, suffice it to say Lehrer dropped a cheeky reference to a satirical song he wrote into the bibliography of an academic paper he wrote for a certain secretive government agency…and nobody got the joke until it was declassified. A nerd’s nerd.
Tom Lehrer did some work for the NSA, and one of his papers for them contains a possibly familiar reference cheekily tucked into the bibliography 60yrs later, it was declassified when an NSA mathematician got the joke
Charles de Rémusat on the DFL caucus convention process:
Meanwhile, yet another meeting of opposition deputies. Rémusat: "How many useless words are spoken in this kind of meeting cannot be imagined by a person who has not attended one." Eventually, there's a report of soldiers nearby. Fearing arrest, the deputies scatter. #julyrevlive
One of the greatest comic writers and composers ever. RIP Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97 - The New York Times nytimes.com/2025/07/27/art…
For a change of pace, here's a joke from Communist Poland. Wlodek wants to deposit his money, saved carefully in a mattress, to the bank. He walks in. Wlodek: "I want to make sure my 50 zlotys are safe. What happens if someone robs the bank?" Banker: "No worries. The main…
Major reason that Spain was formed from Aragon + Castile instead of Portugal + Castile is that while in both cases the respective claimants and their foreign king husbands were too closely related to be married, Aragon’s forged documents while Portugal’s tried to get real waiver
share your favorite piece of medieval lore
I'm on to day two of my live-tweeting of the events of France's 1830 July Revolution, as they happened 195 years ago to the day.
It's morning on Monday, July 26, 1830, and the Duchesse de Gontaut, royal governess, brings King Charles X his grandchildren. He asks if she's read today's Moniteur. "No, Sire, it is stupid, & no one gets anything out of it." "I fancy it will not bore you today!" #julyrevlive
i have a guy friend who’s 6’2, has an inheritance of £10,000 a year, owns half of Derbyshire. maybe a bit socially awkward; but these kinds of guys used to have game. but women hate him! they say he’s the last man in the world who they could ever be prevailed on to marry