2 September 2021 - RARE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

 

RARE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT 

MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

 

G'day folks,

Whenever there is an old picture album lying around, I can’t help but pick it up and flip through it. Especially when that photo album has pictures from the early 1900s up through the 1960s or so. 

You can learn so much about life just by looking through old photographs, but what happens when these photographs are actually photos featuring famous people who you have definitely heard mentioned before? These past photos reveal sides of famous people who most people have never seen before. I’m sure more than a few of these will surprise you and some might even make you laugh. Enjoy!

 

Clancy's comment: Who did you see? There were some infamous faces depicted.

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24 November 2020 - GREAT QUOTES FROM FAMOUS WOMEN

 

GREAT QUOTES FROM FAMOUS WOMEN

G'day folks,

To celebrate International Women’s Day, let’s zoom in to some beautiful meaningful words of wisdom uttered by famous people who advocated for women's rights and female empowerment. We think everyone will appreciate these inspirational quotes, irrespective of your stance on the women's rights movement or gender.

 

 

Clancy's comment: Attention all men: Take heed, or perish. 

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5 November 2020 - SOME FAMOUS INSULTS THAT HAD CLASS

SOME FAMOUS INSULTS 

THAT HAD CLASS

G'day folks,

All of us have been insulted at some stage, but here are some classy insults made by famous people.

A Member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows, or of some unspeakable disease."

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"That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies, or your mistress."

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"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

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"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

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"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

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"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

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"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

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"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

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"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

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"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

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"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

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"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

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"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

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"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

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"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

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"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

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"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

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"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

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"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

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"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

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"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

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"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

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"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

Clancy's comment: Mm ... some of these folks were brilliant at sarcastic comments.

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23 July 2019 - THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP IN LONDON

THE OLD CURIOSITY 

SHOP IN LONDON

G'day folks,

Here is a quaint little store that is said to have inspired a famous Dickens novel that was only given its name after the book was released. 

 

 Tucked away amongst the buildings of London’s School for Economics is a small, wood-beamed shop. Dating from the 16th century, its sloping roof, overhanging second floor, and uneven Tudor gabling mark it as one of London’s oldest shops. Dwarfed and out of place amidst one of the world’s most prestigious universities, the little creaking shop, constructed from salvaged ship wood, survived not only the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the devastation of the Blitz. Living in neighbouring Bloomsbury, Charles Dickens visited the quaint shop on a number of occasions. Although the name was added after the novel was released, it is thought to have became the inspiration for his 1841 novel, The Old Curiosity Shop.

 

 

  The Old Curiosity Shop of Dickens’ imagination was the home of a virtuous teenage orphan, Nell Trent, and her grandfather. The tragic tale took place in “one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust.”

 

 The story was originally serialized in 1840, in his weekly periodical, Master Humphrey’s Clock, along with Barnaby Rudge. The Old Curiosity Shop was so popular, legend has it that readers in New York, desperate to find out the conclusion, stormed the wharf of Lower Manhattan when the ship bearing the last installment docked. Oscar Wilde however was less enthused: “One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without dissolving into tears…of laughter.”

 The original shop itself started as a dairy, given as a present by King Charles II to one of his many mistresses. Hidden away on Portsmouth Street just south of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Old Curiosity Shop today is a retailer of high end shoes and is still open for business, as it has been for over 500 hundred years. 

Clancy's comment: What a great survivor, eh? I happen to have a very old framed, and numbered, sketch of this shop which I found at a garage sale many years ago.

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