Daily History Picture: Blitz Reading March 21, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDaily History Picture: Bikini Fine March 20, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesIf I Were Your Husband I Would Drink It: History of a Joke March 20, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
That Joke The words are famous and supposedly came out in a verbal duel between Lady Astor (Britain’s first active woman MP) and, from a different wing of the Conservative party, Winston Churchill. Lady Astor: ‘If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee.’ Churchill: ‘Nancy, if I were your husband I […]
Daily History Picture: Romanian Soldiers WW1 March 19, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
WW1 Romanian soldiers: consensus is Romanian officers terrible; Romanian rank and file tough and effective.
Mermaid Monday: Grimsby Lady March 19, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
This report came out in 1809 in the wake of the famous Caithness mermaid letters. Last week, whilst a sloop belonging to Beverley, was at anchor in Hawk Roads, near Grimsby, a boy on board saw the appearance of a woman at some distance, whom he supposed by some accident had unfortunately fallen overboard a […]
Spell: Grow a Little Man! March 18, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
Location Germany, mid Europe? Aim to create a small living man Ingredients horse manure, semen, a gourd, some human blood. Method (i) Hollow out the centre of the gourd and place ripe horse manure with the semen inside it. (ii) Seal the gourd up. (iii) After forty days, or after the semen begins to move […]
What Happened to William Hare? March 17, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Introduction William Burke and William Hare were two ne’er-do-wells who, in 1828, discovered that murdering people in the Edinburgh slums and selling their corpses to doctors made for good money. They were finally arrested after an incredible sixteen men and women had been done away with. Burke was tried, found guilty and hung; his common […]
Daily History Picture: Roma Children Prisoners March 16, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesBuddhist Sets Himself on Fire in Ancient Greece? March 16, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient
Say it quietly, but there is a strong case to be made that, a score of years before Christ was born, a Buddhist monk came to Greece and set himself on fire in a public display of piety. Sources c. 20 BC an Indian embassy made its way into the Mediterranean to pay tribute to […]
Daily History Picture: Russian WW1 Artillery March 15, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesThree Beggar’d Tales March 14, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
This is a French story about a beggar in London (though recorded in a London newspaper…) The beggar in question was, it seems, in the habit of sitting at one of our bridges, accompanied by a dog with a placard inscribed ‘Blind’ attached to his neck, and was fortunate enough to awaken the charitable sympathies […]
Gay Fairies: When and Why March 14, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern
Introduction It was only a matter of time… In English ‘fairy’ has several different meanings. The primary one is, of course, a supernatural creature with or without wings. But somewhere down the list is a gay man. Where does this idea come from and when did it gain currency? Who Cares? It could be argued […]