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How Tacky Can Things Get

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Whatever “life-sized” means in terms of breasts… I guess “one size fits all” meets “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all” in this vintage novelty item. Wind it up and watch it do its thing!

Image and text from Silent Porn Star


Filed under: Advertising, Tackieness Tagged: 1973, HMOC, Walking boobs

The Sennett Bathing Beauties

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Billy Bevan flanked by four bathing beauties, 1920s

Mack Sennett (January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the “King of Comedy”. His short “Wrestling Swordfish” was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937.

Beginning in 1915, Sennett assembled a bevy of girls known as the Sennett Bathing Beauties to appear in provocative bathing costumes in comedy short subjects, in promotional material, and in promotional events like Venice Beach beauty contests.

Image and text found at Adventures of the Blackgang

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Filed under: Models & starlets, Photography, Vintage Tagged: Billy Bevan, Mack Sennett, The Sennett Bathing Beauties

Grand-daddy’s Sauce – Part 26

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All posts material: “Sauce” and “Gentleman’s Relish” by Ronnie Barker – Hodder & Stoughton in 1977

The Black Pudding March

("The Soldier-boy’s Dream")
Sung with great effect by the one and only Barry Fielding
(Music by: Harry Butterworth – Words by: M. Stein)

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VERSE 1

A soldier lad was far from home, a-fighting at the war
To win the day for dear old England’s name.
They’d sent him off to do or die as many had before,
To do his best, though he was not to blame.
He thought of his old Mother dear, a-sitting all alone
At supper, and a lump came to his throat.
He took up pen and paper, to send a letter home,
And his eyes were filled with tears as he wrote:

CHORUS:

Send me a lump of your old black pudding,
That’s the stuff that I love most.
Send me a lump of your old black pudding
And a slab of dripping toast.
We’re fighting to make this old world good enough for folks who really care;
So send me a lump of your old black pudding
And I’ll know that you’re still there.

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VERSE 2

A Scottish lad was over there and he was fighting too,
And thinking of his homeland far away.
He thought of all the things his darling Maggie used to do
As they wandered through the heather on the brae.
And then a dreadful longing seemed to fill his Scottish heart
As he pictured Maggie sitting by the fire,
And he wrote these simple words to her – Although we’re far apart,
There’s really only one thing I desire:

CHORUS:

Send me a lump of your dear old haggis,
That is what I’m craving for, the noo,
If I could just get my hands on your dear old haggis
I would know that you’re still true.
I’ve never seen a haggis like my sweet young Maggie’s
And although I’m far from hame,
Just send me a lump of your dear old haggis
And I’ll know you feel the same.

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VERSE 3

An Irish boy lay wounded in the camp that very night,
But the suffering and pain he bravely bore
And he watched the others writing, and he wished that he could write
To his colleen back on dear old Erin’s shore,
But his wound would not permit it, so he just lay back and thought
Of the little patch of green that he called home,
Of the humble little cottage, and the girl for whom he fought,
And his loving thoughts went winging o’er the foam:-

CHORUS:

Send me a parcel of Irish stew, dear,
Wrap it up and send it piping hot.
If I could just dip me bread in your Irish stew, dear
Then I’d know you’ve not forgot.
There’s noboby nearly as good as you, dear
With your taters and your meat,
So send me a parcel of Irish stew, dear
And my life will be complete.

CODA (with gusto)

They’re fighting to make this old world good enough to live in side by side,
So with your stew and your haggis and your old black pudding
You can keep them satisfied!

 

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Filed under: Illustration, Music, Vintage Tagged: Barry Fielding, Harry Butterworth, M. Stein, WW I

The Lure Of The Mad Men – Part 6

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Text from the ad:

Women are soft and gentle, but they hit things. If your wife hit something in a Volkswagen, it doesn’t hurt you very much. WV parts are easy to replace. and cheap. A fender comes off without dismantling half the car. A new one goes on with just ten bolts. For $24.95 plus labour.

And a WV dealer always has the kind of fender you need. Because that’s the only kind he has. Most other WV parts are interchangeable too. inside and out. Which means your wife isn’t limited to fender smashing. she can jab the hood, grace the door. Or bump off the bumper.

It may make you furious, but it won’t make you poor. So when your wife goes window-shopping in a Volkswagen, don’t worry. You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car. Even the breaks.

Sexist ads were not only quite common in the fifties, sixties, and seventies but were used deliberately to make men feel superior to women and there by make them more receptive for the real message in the ad. It was of course impossible to think that a man could hit something with a car, even though statistics would have shown that most car crashes were done by men. But then again, the Mad Men have never dealt in reality, have they – Ted

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Filed under: Advertising, Advertisments, Campaigns, Design, People, Photography, The fifties, The seventies, The sixties Tagged: Female drivers, Mad Men, VolksWagen

Oh Shit!

Julia Margaret Cameron – British Photographer

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535_Julia Margaret Cameron_06Julia Margaret Cameron (née Pattle; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary or heroic themes.

Cameron’s photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864–1875). She took up photography at the relatively late age of 48, when she was given a camera as a present. Although her style was not widely appreciated in her own day, her work has had an impact on modern photographers, especially her closely cropped portraits. Her house, Dimbola Lodge, on the Isle of Wight is open to the public.

Photography
535_Julia Margaret Cameron_02In 1863, when Cameron was 48 years old, her daughter gave her a camera as a present, thereby starting her career as a photographer. Within a year, Cameron became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. In her photography, Cameron strove to capture beauty. She wrote, "I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied."The basic techniques of soft-focus "fancy portraits", which she later developed, were taught to her by David Wilkie Wynfield. She later wrote that "to my feeling about his beautiful photography I owed all my attempts and indeed consequently all my success".

535_Julia Margaret Cameron_07At the time, photography was a labour-intensive art that also was highly dependent upon crucial timing. Sometimes Cameron was obsessive about her new occupation, with subjects sitting for countless exposures in the blinding light as she laboriously coated, exposed, and processed each wet plate. The results were, in fact, unconventional in their intimacy and their particular visual habit of created blur through both long exposures, where the subject moved and by leaving the lens intentionally out of focus. Other photographers strove for vastly different applications. This led some of her contemporaries to complain and even ridicule the work, but her friends and family were supportive, and she was one of the most prolific and advanced of amateurs in her time. Her enthusiasm for her craft meant that her children and others sometimes tired of her endless photographing, but it also left us with some of the best of records of her children and of the many notable figures of the time who visited her.

535_Julia Margaret Cameron_05During her career, Cameron registered each of her photographs with the copyright office and kept detailed records. Her shrewd business sense is one reason that so many of her works survive today. Another reason that many of Cameron’s portraits are significant is because they are often the only existing photograph of historical figures, becoming an invaluable resource. Many paintings and drawings exist, but, at the time, photography was still a new and challenging medium for someone outside a typical portrait studio.

The bulk of Cameron’s photographs fit into two categories—closely framed portraits and illustrative allegories based on religious and literary works. In the allegorical works in particular, her artistic influence was clearly Pre-Raphaelite, with far-away looks, limp poses, and soft lighting.

"Wist ye not that your father and I sought thee sorrowing?"

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Filed under: Article, Photography, Portraits, Vintage photography, Vintage Science Tagged: British photographers, Julia Margaret Cameron

The Sunday Comic – A New Discovery

This Week’s Girlymag Articel – I STRIP

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"The first time I was given the job of stripping at a private party, I was a little bit nervous. I really thought that all the people there would be men, and to be honest, I was afraid they would all try and attack me.

Read the whole article and see the naughty pictures HERE

Warning: Nudity do occur in this article. If you are under age or live in a country where watching images of nude women for some reason is against the law  I take no responsibility if you click the link above. In other words you’re flying solo from here on – Ted ;-)

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Filed under: Article, Glamour, Models & starlets, Nudes, Strip-tease Tagged: Glamour photography, QT magazine, Stripping

An Early Type Of Recycling

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RG-Fabrikken – The Retreading Factory.

The poster is from 1947 so they were early with the retreading, at least round this neck of the woods. On the other hand, I think new tires was pretty scarce on the ground so close after WWII so the business was probably booming  – Ted

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Filed under: Posters, Retro technology Tagged: 1947, Retreading, RG fabrikken

1938 Tatra T97

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The Type 97 is a mid-class saloon car from Czechoslovak car-maker Tatra. It was produced for a short time in the pre-war period, from 1936 to 1939.

563_tatra_2History
The T97 was designed in 1936 as a smaller alternative to the large T87. Instead of a V8, it was powered by a 1.8-litre flat-four engine. With engine power of 29.4 kilowatts (40.0 PS; 39.4 bhp) the car could achieve top speed of 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph). The design was also simplified, using just two headlights instead of three, a single-piece windscreen, and an overall smaller body. Production of the car was canceled after the Nazis annexed Czechoslovakia in 1938, possibly to avoid comparison with the KdF-Wagen. At that time, 508 cars were built. In 1946, production resumed, but the new communist government quickly dropped the T97 in favor of the more cheaper to build and overall ‘more democratic’ Tatraplan, which was named after the Socialist Planned Economy.

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Resemblance to KdF-Wagen / Volkswagen Beetle
Both the streamlined design and the technical specifications, especially the air-cooled flat-four engine mounted in the back, give the T97 a striking resemblance to the
KdF-Wagen of Volkswagen, which later became the Beetle. It is believed thatPorsche used Tatra’s designs since he was under huge pressure to design the Volkswagen quickly and cheaply. According to the books Tatra – The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka and Car Wars, Adolf Hitler said of the Tatra ‘this is the car for my roads’. Ferdinand Porsche later admitted ‘to have looked over Ledwinka’s shoulders’ while designing the Volkswagen. Tatra sued Porsche for damages, and Porsche was willing to settle. However, Hitler canceled this, saying he ‘would settle the matter.’ When Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Nazis, the production of the T97 was immediately halted, and the lawsuit dropped. After the war, Tatra reopened the lawsuit against Volkswagen. In 1967, the matter was settled when Volkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Mark in compensation.

Text from Wikipedia

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Filed under: Article, Automobiles, The thirties Tagged: 1938, Tatra, Tatra T97

Austria

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From the 33rd edition of “XXth Century Health And Pleasure Resorts Of Europe” published in 1933

bok_front_small_thumb[1]_thumbGOVERNMENT – The republican Constitution of Austria, prepared in 1919 makes what remains of Austro-Hungarian Empire into a federal state of 8 provinces. The federal government is given very considerable power, nearly all the revenue being federal, though its expenditure is frequently left to the provinces. When jurisdiction is not determined, it is vested in the Provinces.

The President is elected for six years by the Federal Assembly, consisting of the National Council, whose members are elected for six years by universal suffrage of both sexes over 20 on the principle of proportional representation, and of the Federal Council whose members are elected by the Provincial Diets for their own duration and in proportion to the population of the province. The National Council may be summoned by the Government or by one-third of its members. The Federal Council can only delay a bill and cause it to be reconsidered by the National Council. The National Council may also suggest a referendum. Laws may also be initiated by popular initiative, 200,000 signatures, or half the voters in any three provinces being required.

Provincial Diets are also elected on universal suffrage. Any law passed by them must be submitted to a federal minister for reference, who may enter an objection to it, but the Provincial Diet is still free to pass the Bill again. The Federal Government, with the assent of the Federal Council, can dissolve a provincial diet.

HEAD OF STATE: President Wilhelm Miklas.
Area: 83,857 km2.
Capital: Vienna (Population nearly 2 millions).
Currency: Schilling and Groschen. r Seh. = 100 Gr.
Language: German.
Population: Between 6 and 7 millions.
Density: 80,2 per km2.
Weights and Measures: Decimal System


BATH RESORTS: (curative waters): Badgastein, Goisern, Villach-Warmbad.

DANUBE RESORTS: Linz, Vienna.

LAKE RESORTS: Igls above Innsbruck, Ober-Dellach and Pdrtschach on the worthersee. (Car’lnthian GOLF-CLUB).

MOUNTAIN and SUB-ALPINE RESORTS: Badgastein, Igls, Innsbruck, Ober-Dellach, Pörtsehach, Semmering, Villach.

WINTER SPORT RESORTS: Igls, Innsbruck, Semmering, St. Anton.

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Filed under: Article, Facts, Holidays, The thirties, Traveling Tagged: 1933, Austria

Victorian Inventions – Part 28

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From “Victorian Inventions” by Leonard De Vries published by American Heritage Press in 1972

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Monsieur A. Gamonet of Lyons, France, has invented a practical apparatus for persons unable to swim. A handle operated by the bather’s right arm actuates a rearward acting propelling device which is constructed so as to collapse when pulled forward, and to spread open when pushed back, resulting in a forward movement. Inflated India-rubber bags afford the necessary buoyancy to the swimmer.


Can you actually be said to be swimming when you sit upright in the water with a rearward acting propelling device sticking out of you ass. I think not. Back to the drawing board Monsieur Gamonet – Ted

This concludes the series on Victorian Inventions so I’ll see if I can’t find a new subject that interest me enough to make it worthwhile building a new series for Mondays – Ted ;-)

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Filed under: Article, Facts, Retro technology, Vintage Science Tagged: Devises, swimming, Victorian invention

Determination

The DeZurik Sisters And Their Original Yodeling Style

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575_dezurik_01The DeZurik Sisters (also known as The Cackle Sisters) were two of the first women to become stars on both the National Barn Dance and the Grand Ole Opry, largely a result of their original yodeling style.

Background
Born and raised on a farm in Royalton, Minnesota, Mary Jane (February 1, 1917 – 1981) and Carolyn Dezurik (December 24, 1918 – March 16, 2009) were part of a family of seven. Their father Joe played fiddle, their sisters sang, and their brother Jerry played accordion and guitar. Inspired by their family and the sounds of the animals and birds around them, they developed an astonishing repertoire of high, haunting yodels and yips that soon had them winning talent contests all over central Minnesota. In 1936, they signed a contract to appear regularly on Chicago radio station WLS-AM‘s National Barn Dance, and were 575_dezurik_02hired in 1937 to perform on Purina MillsCheckerboard Time radio show, where they sang as The Cackle Sisters.

In 1938, the sisters recorded six songs for Vocalion Records: “I Left Her Standing There” (Vocalion 4616-A), “Arizona Yodeler” (Vocalion 4616-B), “Sweet Hawaiian Chimes” (Vocalion 4704-A), “Guitar Blues” (Vocalion 4704-B), “Go To Sleep My Darling Baby” (Vocalion 4781-A) and “Birmingham Jail” (Vocalion 4781-B). Those six songs were the only tracks the duo would ever commit to shellac, although some recordings exist of their appearances on Checkerboard Time.

Both sisters married musicians they had met at WLS. Carolyn accepting a proposal from Ralph “Rusty” Gill, a singer and guitar player, on September 1, 1940, and Mary Jane saying yes to Augie Klein, an accordionist, before the 575_dezurik_03month was out. In 1943, Gill and Klein were drafted into World War II and Mary Jane had taken what proved to be a short-lived retirement to look after her new family. Carolyn joined Sonja Henie‘s Ice Review for a year or so, afterwards returning to Minnesota for a series of appearances on radio station KSTP-AM. Mary Jane rejoined her sister in 1944, doing road dates with Purina and regular shows at Nashville’sGrand Ole Opry.

Rusty was discharged from Army in 1946 and returned to WLS with his old band, The Prairie Ramblers. Mary Jane retired next year, so Carolyn recruited their sister Lorraine, and the new DeZurik Sisters returned to WLS in Chicago. By 1951, after a stint at Cincinnati’s WLW-AM and WLW-TV, 575_dezurik_04Lorraine had retired and Carolyn had joined the Ramblers as their new female vocalist, filling a decade-long vacancy created by the absence of trick yodeller Patsy Montana. Carolyn and Rusty moved back to Chicago, where they began appearing with the Ramblers on the daily variety show Chicago Parade, airing on WBBM-TV and WBKB-TV.

Lorraine lives in Washington state with her husband. Rusty lives in the Chicago area, although Carolyn died in March 2009.

Years after the height of their fame, Carolyn recalled that the DeZurik Sisters achieved their sound simply because she and Mary Jane “listened to the birds and tried to sing with the birds.”

Text from Wikipedia

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Filed under: Article, Music Tagged: Original Yodeling Styles, The DeZurik Sisters

Moxie’s – Comic Strip Background – Part 7

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Moxie’s Café’s Regular Patrons – Part 6

torvald_small
Torvald Trall
Traurigmyr
Heavily Drinking
Sheep Farmer
Accordion Terrorist
st_peter_small
St Peter
Pearly Gate Guard
Drops by to
check on
Theodora Olava
simen_small
Simen Naava
Skjulerud
Unidentifiable
Man From
National Security
sveinung_small
Sveinung “Snuser’n”
Back Stabberud
Truthbendng
Tacky N
ewspaper
Journalist
hilmar_small
Hilmar Hartvig
Tingleberg Bang

Unsung
Post-classic
Composer
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Chopsie
Magda Helene’s
Envelope Glue
Addicted
Chihuahua

Click the figures to get to know them better


Filed under: Comix, Humour, Illustration, Moxie's - background stories Tagged: Moxie’s Café, Regular patrons

This Week’s Softdrink – Kinnie

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493_kinnie_03Kinnie (Maltese pronunciation: [kinːiː]) is a soft drink from Malta. It was first developed in 1952 by Simonds Farsons Cisk.

Kinnie is amber in colour, has a bittersweet flavour, and is drunk straight or mixed with alcohol to create a long drink.

History
Kinnie was first produced in 1952 as an alternative to the cola drinks that proliferated in post-war Europe.

Kinnie’s recipe is kept secret. However the official website provides further information about its ingredients, suggesting that Kinnie owes its bittersweet taste to the blend Maltese 493_kinnie_01Mediterranean chinotto bitter oranges, combined with an infusion from a dozen different aromatic herbs and spices such as anise, ginseng, vanilla, rhubarb and liquorice. Only natural ingredients are used.

As the health awareness increased over recent decades, a Diet version for Kinnie appeared in 1984. In 2007, a new low calorie version of Kinnie called Kinnie Zest was made available. This has a slightly darker colour and a stronger orange flavour, and is advertised as only having one calorie per bottle.

493_kinnie_02Sales locations
Kinnie is exported to Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Albania, Libya, Hungary and Canada. Kinnie is also available for direct purchase by consumers in Europe via on-line distribution partners based in Germany and Italy.

In recent years, Simonds Farsons Cisk also started to franchise Kinnie production overseas. As a result, Kinnie is now produced under licence from Farsons in Australia and deals are being struck with partners in Eastern Europe and South Africa.

In March 2009, it was announced that Farsons were going to make Kinnie exports into Russia. In the summer of 2010, Farsons and Kinnie UK Limited soft-launched Kinnie and its two variants in London’s West End, reaching almost 100 trial outlets by September 2010.

Bottled Kinnie is now available from amazon.co.uk

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Help Needed
I need your help visitors, both in suggesting sodas and soft drinks from around the world and in giving your opinion on the ones presented if you know the product. And you can start with giving your opinion on the ones posted already or reading what other visitors have written  – Ted

List of Soft drinks and sodas posted already
Visitors soft drinks and sodas suggestions and comments


Filed under: Food & drinks, Soft drinks and sodas Tagged: Kinnie, Maltese sodas, Maltese soft drinks

Jesús Helguera – Mexican Painter

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Jesús Helguera (May 28, 1910 – December 5, 1971) was a Mexican painter. Among his most famous works are La Leyenda de los Volcanes, La Leyenda, Popocapetl & Ixtaccihuatl, Hidalgo, "Rompiendo las Cadenas", El Aguila y la Serpiente, and Juan Diego y la Virgen de Guadalupe.

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Early life
Jesús Enrique Emilio de la Helguera Espinoza was born to Spanish economist Alvaro Garcia Helguera and Maria Espinoza Escarzarga on May 28, 1910 in Chihuahua, Mexico. He lived his childhood in Mexico City and later moved to
Córdoba in the state of Veracruz. His family fled from the Mexican Revolution to Ciudad Real, Castilla la Nueva, Spain and thereafter moved to Madrid. Jesús first gained interest in the arts during primary school and would often be found wandering the halls of the Del Prado Museum. At the age of 14, he was admitted to the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes and later studied at the Academia de San Fernando. Helguera later married Julia Gonzalez Llanos, a native of Madrid, who modeled for many of his later paintings and with whom he raised two children.

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Career
Jesús first worked as an illustrator at the Editorial Araluce working on books, magazines and comics with many of his published works done in gouache. He became a professor of visual arts at a Bilboa Art Institute at the age of 18 and worked for magazines such as Estampa. Helguera was forced to move back to the Mexican state of Veracruz due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and following economic crisis. Upon his arrival, mural making was en vogue and he was hired by Cigarrera la Moderna, a tobacco company, to produce calendar artwork printed by Imprenta Galas de Mexico. Much of his work reflected his own fascination with
Aztec Mythology, Catholicism, and the diverse Mexican landscape. His paintings showed an idealized Mexico and it was his romantic approach that gave his paintings the heroic impact that eventually made him famous. In 1940, he created what is arguably the most famous amongst his paintings, La Leyenda de los Volcanes, which was inspired by the legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. It was later purchased by Ensenanza Objectiva, a producer of didactic images for schools. Many of his paintings would later be reproduced in a variety of different calendars and cigar boxes reaching households and businesses throughout Mexico.

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Text from Wikipedia


Filed under: Art, Paintings, Portraits Tagged: Jesús Helguera, Mexican painters

Empty Underground Train Station

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Picture taken in the central underground train station under the National Theatre in Oslo while I was waiting for my daughters’ train to arrive. The platform is actually not empty, but extremely long. This is the far end and all the people are hidden behind the signpost and staircase in the middle of the picture. It looks very cosy and warm there, but that is just a trick of the light, the place is a dull, unimaginative grey but my digital Nikon Coolpix 3200 camera that I always carry in my pocket read the light like this. The image is not filtered in any way.

This is one of the tunnels leading down to the underground station and in the light of completely different types of light fixtures you can see the same dull grey concrete that covers the wall down at the station – Ted


Filed under: Photography Tagged: Oslo, Underground train stations

Round Britain By Railway Posters – Isles of Scilly

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The Isles of Scilly (/ˈsɪli/; Cornish: Syllan or Enesek Syllan) form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula ofGreat Britain.

Although the Isles of Scilly are still part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall, and some services have been combined with those of Cornwall, since 1890 the islands have had a separate local authority. Since the passing of the Isles of Scilly Order 1930, this authority has had the status of a county council and today is known as the Council of the Isles of Scilly. The adjective "Scillonian" is sometimes used for people or things related to the archipelago. The Duchy of Cornwall owns most of the freehold land on the islands. Tourism is a major part of the local economy, along with farming and agriculture. Natural England have designated the Isles of Scilly as National Character Area 158.

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Ancient history
Looking across Tresco, one of the 5 inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly 45 km (27.96 mi) from the coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom

576_Isles of Scilly_08Scilly has been inhabited since the Stone Age and until the early 20th century its history had been one of subsistence living. Farming and fishing continue, but the main industry now is tourism.

The islands may correspond to the Cassiterides (Tin Isles) visited by the Phoenicians and mentioned by the Greeks. However, the archipelago itself does not contain much tin—it may be that the islands were used as a staging post.

576_Isles of Scilly_04It is likely that until relatively recent times the islands were much larger and perhaps joined together into one island named Ennor. Rising sea levels flooded the central plain around 400–500 CE, forming the current islands. There were ten islands in Roman times, but some of these, including Tean, are now under the sea. Ennor was the largest island and its name is a contraction of En Noer (Moer – mutated to Noer), meaning the ‘great island’.

Evidence for the older large island includes:

  • A description in Roman times describes Scilly as "Scillonia insula" in the singular, indicating either a single island or an island much bigger than any of the others.
  • Remains of a prehistoric farm have been found on Nornour, which is now a small rocky skerry far too small for farming. 
  • At certain low tides the sea becomes shallow enough for people to walk between some of the islands. This is possibly one of the sources for stories of drowned lands, e.g. Lyonesse.
  • Ancient field walls are visible below the high tide line off some of the islands (e.g. Samson).
  • Some of the Cornish language place names also appear to reflect past shorelines, and former land areas.
  • The whole of southern England has been steadily sinking in opposition to post-glacial rebound in Scotland: this has caused the rias(drowned river valleys) on the southern Cornish coast, e.g. River Fal and the Tamar Estuary.

576_Isles of Scilly_05Offshore, midway between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly, is the supposed location of the mythical lost land of Lyonesse, referred to inArthurian literature. This may be a folk memory of inundated lands, but this legend is also common among the Brythonic peoples; the legend of Ys is a parallel and cognate legend in Brittany.

Scilly has been identified as the place of exile of two heretical 4th century bishops, Instantius and Tiberianus, who were followers ofPriscillian.

576_Isles of Scilly_07Norse and Norman period
At the time of
King Cnut, the Isles of Scilly fell outside England’s rule, as did Cornwall.

In 995 Olaf Tryggvason became King Olaf I of Norway. Born c. 960, Olaf had raided various European cities and fought in several wars. In 986 he (supposedly) met a Christian seer on the Isles of Scilly. In Snorri Sturluson‘s Royal Sagas of Norway, it is stated that this seer told him:

Thou wilt become a renowned king, and do celebrated deeds. Many men wilt thou bring to faith and baptism, and both to thy own and others’ good; and that thou mayst have no doubt of the truth of this answer, listen to these tokens. When thou comest to thy ships many of thy people will conspire against thee, and then a battle will follow in which many of thy men will fall, and thou wilt be wounded almost to death, and carried upon a shield to thy ship; yet after seven days thou shalt be well of thy wounds, and immediately thou shalt let thyself be baptised.

The legend continues that, as the seer foretold, Olaf was attacked by a group of mutineers upon returning to his ships. As soon as he had recovered from his wounds, he let himself be baptised. He then stopped raiding Christian cities, Path to Rushy Bay beach in Bryher, Isles of Scilly Cornwall UK.and lived in England and Ireland. In 995 he used an opportunity to return to Norway. When he arrived, the Haakon Jarl was facing a revolt. Olaf Tryggvason persuaded the rebels to accept him as their king, and Jarl Haakon was murdered by his own slave, while he was hiding from the rebels in a pig sty.

With the Norman Conquest, the Isles of Scilly came more under centralised control. About twenty years later, the Domesday survey was conducted. The islands would have formed part of the "Exeter Domesday" circuit, which included Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, andWiltshire.

In the mid-12th century there was reportedly a Viking attack on the Isles of Scilly, called Syllingar by the Norse, recorded in theOrkneyinga sagaSweyn Asleifsson "went south, under Ireland, and seized a barge belonging to some monks in Syllingar and plundered it." (Chap LXXIII)

"…the three chiefs—Swein , Þorbjörn and Eirik—went out on a plundering expedition. They went first to the Suðreyar [Hebrides], and all along the west to the Syllingar, where they gained a great victory in Maríuhöfn on Columba’s-mass [9 June], and took much booty. Then they returned to the Orkneys."

"Maríuhöfn" literally means "Mary’s Harbour/Haven". The name does not make it clear if it referred to a harbour on a larger island than today’s St Mary’s, or a whole island.

576_Isles of Scilly_02It is generally considered that Cornwall, and possibly the Isles of Scilly, came under the dominion of the English Crown late in the reign of Athelstan. In early times one group of islands was in the possession of a confederacy of hermits. King Henry I gave it to the abbey of Tavistock who established a priory on Tresco, which was abolished at the Reformation.

Text from Wikipedia


Filed under: British, Ephemera, Holidays, Traveling Tagged: British Railways, Isles of Scilly

The Bugster

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578_bugster

Take one Beetle bodyshell…

…mount it to a Boxster chassis…

…and you get a Bugster! Brilliantly simple, right?

Well, no, hideously complicated. But well worth it. 270bhp of mid-engined tomfoolery in a classic shape, liberally smothered in a controversial shade of Lamborghini grey. Click here for the full gallery.

Image found at FourLeanHounds – Text found at SuckSqueezeBangBlow


Filed under: Automobiles, Facts Tagged: Beetles, Boxters, Porche, VW
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