Learning Skills

Article of the day for January 10, 2019 is John/Eleanor Rykener . John Rykener was a sex worker who was arrested in December 1394 for performing a sex act in women's clothes with John Britby in the Cheapside area of London. The Lord Mayor questioned him on the offences of prostitution and sodomy; a record of the interrogation was found in the 1990s in the City of London archives. Rykener introduced himself as Eleanor. He told the mayor that he had sex with both men and women, including priests and nuns, and that he had paid sexual encounters in Oxford and near the Tower of London. There is no evidence that he was prosecuted for either crime; prostitutes were not usually arrested in London during this period, and sodomy was pursued in ecclesiastical courts. Rykener has appeared in studies of English social, sexual and gender history and as a character in at least one modern work of popular historical fiction. His story has been adapted for the stage.

With a high of 55F and a low of 33F.

By RUTH FRANKLIN from NYT Books https://nyti.ms/2VE8DT0

By JENNIFER SZALAI from NYT Books https://nyti.ms/2LZySyD

By FIAMMETTA ROCCO from NYT Books https://nyti.ms/2QxeLsn

Article of the day for January 9, 2019 is Walking Liberty half dollar . The Walking Liberty half dollar is a silver 50-cent piece that was designed by Adolph A. Weinman and issued by the United States Mint from 1916 to 1947. In 1915, the new Mint director, Robert W. Woolley, incorrectly believed that he was not only allowed but required by law to retire coin designs that had been in use for 25 years. He began replacing the Barber coinage: dimes, quarters and half dollars bearing similar designs, first struck in 1892 by long-time Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber. Weinman's design of Liberty striding towards the Sun for the half dollar proved difficult to perfect, and it never struck well, which may have been a factor in its replacement by the Franklin half dollar beginning in 1948. Nevertheless, art historian Cornelius Vermeule considered the piece to be among the most beautiful US coins. Since 1986, a modification of Weinman's obverse design has been used for the American Silv...

By CONCEPCIÓN DE LEÓN from NYT Books https://nyti.ms/2RiMv1K