On this day in 1852 there died a man who these days would have been given therapy for his condition. He was, in those unreconstructed times, called a miser. There is probably a pressure group somewhere railing as you read this that the terminally stingy and absurdly mean should never be referred to in such… Continue reading Giving it all away
Month: August 2016
Bull running in England? Why haven’t I heard of it?
Bull running in Lincolnshire? Why haven’t I heard of it? Thankfully because it was banned long, long ago. You probably don’t want to know what happened to each year’s Stamford bull on the feast of St Brice’s Day, but it wasn’t a happy day for el toro on November 13. Rules demanded that while the… Continue reading Bull running in England? Why haven’t I heard of it?
Beastliness and mischief – St Brice’s Day
Firstly St Brice — usual story; orphan boy picked up by a priest. Grown up bad, Brice, or Britius to call him by his given name, sealed his reputation as a man who had not yet seen the light of God after a nun in his household gave birth to his child. Thereafter only a trip… Continue reading Beastliness and mischief – St Brice’s Day
Celestial Mechanics
There are bad and less bad racial epithets and stereotypes. Yank or Limey does not hurt, but in a world of generation snowflake, where people melt into a puddle of offence taken at the slightest insensitivity or viewpoint that isn’t theirs, it is worth noting what it was that 19th century Americans labelled the Chinese, those indentured semi slaves dragged… Continue reading Celestial Mechanics
Who killed Harry Larkyns?
Nowadays the average twentysomething works their way through temporary though deep relationships before permanence happens in the shape of marriage (or something like it). For 19th century women it wasn’t so easy. So we can forgive, if that is the appropriate word, San Francisco shop worker Flora Shallcross Stone. To not appear ‘flighty’ it… Continue reading Who killed Harry Larkyns?
Elegant shopping at Derry and Toms
Great graphic commercial art from the 1920s in this piece from Dave Walker about the department store in Kensington, now long gone… Victoria Station, at a quiet time of the day. Sometime…in the 1920s, I think. A display unit, and some posters reminding you to head for Kensington for high-class fashion and household goods.… Source:… Continue reading Elegant shopping at Derry and Toms
Chin music
Entertainment before a big game is never as star-spangled as that at halftime, but organisers know you must not let the crowd get restive waiting for the main event. It was ever thus, though the acts may have changed a tad from those simpler times before twerking was a thing. The big day in question… Continue reading Chin music