“When I was younger …sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” The White Queen I’d like to think I am as cynical as one can be without being antisocial. I distrust conspiracy theories and yarns about extra-terrestrials, though I am often intrigued by the evidence presented in support of them. Which… Continue reading Marvellous… if true
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A Coming Storm, June 6th, 1885; e pur si muove, tre
In the first week of June 1885, London’s beloved horse-racing festival, the Derby Day meeting, was taking place on Epsom Downs. The era’s greatest jockey, Fred Archer, came home first in the two premier races — both the Derby and the Oaks. In the Derby he rode the favourite Melton and won by a head. In… Continue reading A Coming Storm, June 6th, 1885; e pur si muove, tre
Cherished by the Puritans
This is how Chambers Book of Days in 1869 explained Thanksgiving to the British. You just have time to read this before settling down to an evening of “rustic games and amusements”. THANKSGIVING DAY IN AMERICA The great social and religious festival of New England, from which it has spread to most of the states of the American… Continue reading Cherished by the Puritans
“Not a novel experiment”
Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but it appears there are those citizens out there today who believe a majority of street people are in some way comfortable with hand-outs. Those who blame the poor often wonder why do-gooders aren’t practical-minded enough to try to actually find vagrants paid work. Their argument is that the vagrants would not take work if they were… Continue reading “Not a novel experiment”
Diamonds are Forever
Though it’s by no means the full story — to find that you might want go to my book, An Infinite Deal Of Nothing — and it does not even reveal the name of the man who was actually guilty of the biggest con tricks in history, it’s good to see that a part of the… Continue reading Diamonds are Forever
Telephone’s early adopters
An aside into Victorian business life is the fact that when a London solicitors sent a letter on April 27 1885, its headed paper quoted the firm’s telephone number. The number was 1095 and there genuinely were another 1094 phones in businesses and a few private houses that the law firm could have called and been… Continue reading Telephone’s early adopters
Halloween? just call it Christmas
Lacking a Fourth of July or a Thanksgiving, over the past decade British shopkeepers have rushed to stock the Chinese-made paraphernalia of Halloween just to keep their cash tills ticking to tide them over till Christmas when they can begin shelving their supplies of Easter Eggs and Valentine’s Day cards. Too often you hear… Continue reading Halloween? just call it Christmas
More inconvenient truths about global warming
The folklore has it that it is hotter now than it was before. You are told it repeatedly until you are convinced and then you tell someone else. Global warming has gone viral. Is the testimony of history the cure? Here is a story from 1825 and from the little Irish town of Inistioge in County Kilkenny,… Continue reading More inconvenient truths about global warming