Nearly 100 years before Sir Richard Doll’s proof that smoking and cancer were linked and way before the tobacco lobby cranked up its PR campaigns, a scientist in 1855 studying the adulterants and poisons that went into commonplace foods sold in England also looked at what went into tobacco. While he was describing the… Continue reading “Died from excessive tobacco smoking”
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Brits have always hit the Yuletide bottle
The British malaise, getting publicly legless over the holidays, seemed like a recent phenomenon until I saw this from the New Year, 1865…
Those weren’t the days my friend
For the last act in an operatic tragedy that was real life in the 19th century read this story from March 1888 of a husband, a wife and a business failure. The welfare state was brought into being by stories such as this, in the same way that Factories Acts sought to stop workers dying… Continue reading Those weren’t the days my friend
Those were the days, my friend
Reviewing a bankruptcy of a Birmingham umbrella manufacturer in 1862 (as you do), I came across this eye-watering indicator of the relative economic strengths of John Bull and Uncle Sam back then . Hand over $17,300 and they gave you £1,862. Oh yes and a shiny silver half crown, as 2s 6d (or two shillings and… Continue reading Those were the days, my friend
No safe space
There is a charming story to be found in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, though it’s a tad un-pc, as it reminds millennial snowflakes that all countries have had a past. A kind descendant has donated memorabilia of one of the first holders of the Victoria Cross. He was young lieutenant who had the guts… Continue reading No safe space
All cattywampous
Buses, eh. They’re like new words. You wait forever and then two come along at once. Still reeling from the fact that the word colporteur was a thing (‘Ah, mais oui, but he eez ze American who eez making those songs for Fred Astaire n’est ce pas?’), I was introduced in passing to another newbie… Continue reading All cattywampous
What are words worth?
As Talking Heads alumni band Tom Tom Club once sang: “What are words worth?” Well quite a lot when you think you knew a few of them and in the space of a day you encounter two — make that three actually — brand spanking new ones. The first is colporteur. No, not some some… Continue reading What are words worth?