History – Page 21 – Boadicea's Chariot

The unkindest cut of all

If you’re squeamish, read no further! This is about a song tradition to rival rock.

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Charity away from home

Down in the smoke in Berkeley Square –
Sans nightingale, at J Walter T –
Then the Prince of Wales -they took me there
To see the famed Sweet Charity.

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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Please excuse me for borrowing Juvenal’s oft-quoted line. But the horrific conclusions of the recent enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 must remind us all of its relevance once again. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19582072

Liverpool supporter - Hillsborough disaster: Two decades of hurt

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Summers of love

Bravo’s pop-dates-post reminded me of this. It was BIG in August 1967 and continued to be the iconic music for the summers of love.

PS If you are moved to tears, why not write a pome about your lost love? https://charioteers.org/2012/09/02/the-next-poetry-competition-lost-love/ Continue reading “Summers of love”

Degrees of usefulness

I’ve noticed that the underside of cherished colleagues’ collars heats up at the mention of certain ‘degree’ courses, with particular reference to more practical subjects formerly confined to apprenticeships and polytechnic curricula.

Personally I don’t get offended by conferring on them the title of ‘degree’, any more than I mind a crowd of cardinals calling themselves a ‘college’. Nobody is fooled into believing they have suddenly acquired much-sought-after academic status – which is after all reserved for many subjects which are practically useless, like my own field of classical languages, literature and history. Continue reading “Degrees of usefulness”

The once and future frontier

Apologies for hogging the headlines this morning but I was struck by the similarities between the US Airforce’s latest, if flawed brainchild and the highly successful craft we all knew in the ‘fifties.

Not being of a scientific bent, may I be allowed to comment on the amazingly prophetic illustrations from 60 years ago?

Do we owe both to the pioneering efforts of experts in the infamous Peenemünde laboratories in the ‘forties? Or was Leonardo da Vinci the real originator of rocket science?