Futility Closet

In 1838, Frenchwoman Henriette d'Angeville set out to climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, against the advice of nearly everyone she knew. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow d'Angeville up the mountain to fulfill what she called "a monomania of the heart." We'll also escape Australia in a box and puzzle over a fixed game. Intro: In 1986, Florida bankruptcy judge A. Jay Cristol issued an order inspired by "a little old ebony bird." Puzzling poet S.R. Ford fits 10 guests into nine rooms. Sources for our feature on Henriette d'Angeville: Rebecca A. Brown, Women on High: Pioneers of Mountaineering, 2002. David Mazel, Mountaineering Women: Stories by Early Climbers, 1994. Peter H. Hansen, The Summits of Modern Man, 2013. Nathan Haskell Dole, The Spell of Switzerland, 1913. Francis Henry Gribble, The Early Mountaineers, 1899. Charles Edward Mathews, The Annals of Mont Blanc: A Monograph, 1898. Albert Richard Smith, Mont Blanc, 1871. Delphine Moraldo, "Gender Relations