The costing clerks and accountants at Rowntrees used these in the ’60s, spinning them like magicians’ wands to mystify young marketing assistants. If you needed to know how any change to the KitKat packaging would affect earnings, you just had to watch the magic.
Danish telly eventually offers interesting stuff. Today it was the tale of Hardy Amies of whom it has often been said. And it’s true. But did you know he was an SOE hitman in WWII? OK, you did. But did you know I worked with him on his interior decor range in the 70s? No, you didn’t.
He was an ultra polite, rather uptight man who seemed, if anything, not superior but guarded, for all his talent. With a fascinating cv – see wiki.
Inevitably, I suppose, some hacks are getting carried away by Elizabeth II’s victory in the Long Reign Stakes, by a short Head of State. (That is a horse racing analogy, btw, not a comment on her physical stature.
The fragrant Valerie Hobson has always been cast as a victim, the ever-loyal wife of the errant politician, John Profumo. And good-time-girl Christine Keeler has been presumed guilty of being a conduit for state secrets between Profumo and Ivanov, a Russian spook.
But soft! See today’s Indy. It was Valerie who allowed Ivanov access to the study where secrets lay open to view.
Fascinating innit, when the evidence is finally revealed.
Today is the bicentenary of the Battle of Quatre Bras in which my great grandfather fought. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the perspective, he was wounded and was thus unable to take part in the ‘other battle’ that took place two days later. My GGF lived to be 92 and it was always a source of good-natured irritation that those who had survived that other conflict were more celebrated than those who had survived Quatre Bras.
I heard this story when I was a lad from my father and grandfather; no mention of it was ever made in school.
The geezer in the muddy boots is Dr. Orville Ward Owen a medical doctor from Detroit, the date is May 1911, the place is close to the low tide mark of the River Wye in the shadow of the walls of Chepstow Castle.
What led the man to this place was never explained to me back then, although what he sought was well known to my relatives, and their view was that he was wasting his time and money. He made several visits, one lasting longer than six months. In all twelve or fourteen shafts were driven into the river bottom, some deeper than twenty feet. All he found were some heavy timbers that were the remains of a Roman landing stage, these were not what he was looking for.
Continue reading “Mud, Mystery, Murder, Manuscripts and Madness.”
Well that was then and now it’s well past the closing time, but better late than not at all, so here goes.
All entries responsive to the theme (including Janus with one both late and illegal from Hong Kong) and some with a slightly different take on it. I particularly liked Soutie’s notices (the changing world of announcements could be a subject with almost as much scope as butchered movie titles).
But the prize this month goes to Pseu, a couple of great photos, taken close to home. We tend to forget how much our immediate surroundings also change over time, just look out the window and try to recall how it was when you moved in all those years ago.
Congratulations Pseu. Good Job.
On vacation this week, borrowed a house from my rich business partner, on the beach at Lewes (say Lew-is), Delaware. Got here late Friday night via Delaware City, Delaware (more about which later). Raining today and windy with it, holiday innit?
Lewes (the First Town in the First State) was settled by the Dutch in 1631 in what was to become Delaware (the first state to sign the Declaration) so naturally it is home to the Zwaanendael Museum just a couple of blocks away from here, and perhaps a little more surprising home to the Kalmar Nykel, a replica of the Dutch ship that brought original settlers to Wilmington, Delaware (sixty miles North of here), however, they were Swedes, following me so far?
Here she is back in 2011 on the Bay.
Catching up on some out standing TV programmes on my hard drive I watched a Perspectives show on ITV presented by Michael Portillo and focusing on the life of Pablo Picasso. It’s a lively hour of entertainment about bullfighting, Guernica and Spanish art. Portillo skirts over the many love affairs of the artist and concentrates on Picasso’s artwork and the influences on the man from Malaga.
Nearing the end of the programme Portillo draws on the comparisons between Velasquez’s Las Meninas painting and the many recreations Picasso manufactured. The Picasso variations are rendered in the cubism style.
Boadicea's Chariot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.