All Purls. No Swine.
Welcome to that most British of festivals–Bonfire Night–Guy Fawkes Night–the Fifth of November. The festival that, when I was a kid, was exponentially bigger than Halloween, as for a few days before, children would push around a wheelbarrow laden with a straw-stuffed effigy of Guido Fawkes, usually dressed in their father’s cast-offs or scrapings from… Continue reading Celebrating that Most British of Festivals: Guy Fawkes Night
I’d like to think that my message to the Telegraph yesterday was the straw that broke the camel’s back: Infuriated by this from the first line of this article: “Seven Asian men have been convicted of the sexual exploitation of two white teenage schoolgirls in Rochdale.” Gosh. I’m so old that I remember the remarks of Labour minister Lucy… Continue reading “Two Tier Keir” Finally Caves and Announces a “National Inquiry” into Britain’s Grooming Gang Scandal
Thus spoke Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, just before agents of his archenemy Oliver Cromwell chopped off his head 376 years ago this month, on January 30, 1649. Personal, political, and religious modesty wasn't his jam, as even a momentary examination of Charles's life will demonstrate. He had, during his years of… Continue reading QOTD: “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown”
Currently working on a post in memory of this lady. Not sure why I'm encountering--especially at my age--the problems I am. She was a child of, and one who was wrecked by, the 1960s and early 1970s. I can’t but laugh, when I see twenty-first century snowflakes (Selena Gomez, I might be looking at you)… Continue reading Marianne Faithfull, R.I.P
A slightly spruced-up post from past days: August 26, 2024, is the 149th anniversary of the birth of John Buchan. Born in Perth in 1875, the son of a Free Church of Scotland minister and his wife, Buchan attended the University of Glasgow as a scholarship student, then moving on to Oxford where--according to Wikipedia… Continue reading Celebrating John Buchan
Today, July 27, 2024, is the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first flight by what was to become the world's first commercial jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet. Almost three years after its 1949 debut, in May of 1952, BOAC (now British Airways) launched the world's first commercial jet-airliner service, flying its Comet 1A between London… Continue reading Celebrating the Early Days of Commercial Jet Flight–By One Who Lived to Tell the Tale
The "David" mentioned in the post title is the patron saint of Wales. He is believed to have been born somewhere in the last half of the fifth century in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and he lived most of his early religious life as a teacher and preacher. He rose quickly through the ranks as a result… Continue reading Send it Down, David! (Please)
Those are the last words spoken by Shakespeare's villainous King Richard III, as he desperately dashed about Bosworth Field, just before being hacked to smithereens by by the opposition--the soldiers of Henry Tudor--after which (IRL, now) Richard's naked body was thrown across a horse (presumably not his own) and taken to Leicester, where he was… Continue reading King Richard III
Dateline June 20, 2024: Happy Summer Solstice! I’m always reminded, on this “longest day,” of the trip that Mr. She and I made to England, and the day we spent at Stonehenge and (just down the road a bit) Avebury. Avebury is another Neolithic Henge, but in this case, the stones surround the village. Once… Continue reading The Summer Solstice, 2024
She was one of those Dad always referred to as a "poppet," an anachronism if ever there was one, and which would probably get him hauled into court--and maybe locked up--today. But considering the pantheon of women he referred to as such--youthful, elderly, married, single, personally known to him and not, I'm inclined to view… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Virginia McKenna!