Did you know Thomas Paine was a corsetmaker?

"In London, Paine's revolutionary writings were dismissed as the work of 'Tom the Bodicemaker'..."

Great cartoon fodder, wonderfully deployed:





I'd never noticed this historical fact before. I learned it from a NYT crossword from 2012 that came up in my crossword app last night. Paine wasn't much of a corsetmaker though:

Young Tom's formal schooling ended at twelve, when his father took him on as an apprentice to learn the family trade. Yet an uncertain economy made for a bad climate for a new tradesman, and Paine's efforts as a staymaker (and in several other subsequent careers) failed. After he sailed for America in 1774, he never practiced the staymaking trade again....

So metaphorical!