For those incensed over the waywardness of justice these days, where ‘human rights’ trump human wrongs, it’s worth thinking about the way things were. On one evening in April a visiting judge arrived with a fanfare and civic reception to work his way through the prisoners gathered before him at the Spring Assize. The town was Taunton, Somerset; the year was… Continue reading Three murders; three verdicts
Author: martin_hedges
Your seed catalogue for 1797 has arrived
Fresh off the ship from England, five, yes count them, five, different varieties of asparagus seed and 23 different melon varieties. Things weren’t so bad in Philadelphia after the war as long as you could feast on 13 different kinds of radish, or 26 different cabbages. For the previous year’s catalogue in full go to… Continue reading Your seed catalogue for 1797 has arrived
Operation Restore Arugula
What better than a salad lunch on a warm Spring day? As I prepared mine just now I was gratified to learn that the packet that contained the rocket salad proudly carried the logo telling me that the contents had been “honestly grown”. In this modern day, with the FBI, Interpol, European arrest warrants and the like,… Continue reading Operation Restore Arugula
A Moat Defensive
It’s a truth self-evident that history is about questions. Some of them have answers, such as when did so and so live or die. Some are Donald Rumsfeld’s known unknowns; we know that someone was Jack the Ripper but not who, or that the Princes in the Tower disappeared but not why. And some questions… Continue reading A Moat Defensive
I thought you died alone… A long long time ago
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! How about, let’s see, how about adding to that wretched refuse list, convicted assassin. We last encountered the fiery revolutionary Carlo… Continue reading I thought you died alone… A long long time ago
“We had the goods — he knew it”
The Boston Clothing Store, Devil’s Lake, ND, 1906. A more compelling piece of copy writing would be hard to find even today…
“On dit que l’un fut sauvé”
My last folksy yarn about the mad as hell Italians who wanted to scatter bits of Mr and Mrs Napoleon III across Paris that winter evening in 1858 left us in a bad place. We learnt that two of the three condemned men sentenced to die were executed by guillotine, shoeless and in long nightshirts… Continue reading “On dit que l’un fut sauvé”
The lunatic who stole Trump’s stationery
I am probably the last person on the planet to begin to binge watch the TV series about the New York agency industry, Mad Men, which is altogether strange as I met many of those who were prototypes for the series, from David Ogilvy on down. So I Googled some… and found this from Steve… Continue reading The lunatic who stole Trump’s stationery