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Round Britain By Railway Posters – South Wales

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South Wales, BR (WR) poster, c 1950s.

South Wales (Welsh: De Cymru) is the region of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the southwest of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.2 million people. The region contains almost three-quarters of the population of Wales, including the capital city of Cardiff (population approximately 350,000), as well as Swansea and Newport, with populations approximately 240,000 and 150,000 respectively. The Brecon Beacons national park covers about a third of South Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest mountain south of Snowdonia.

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The region is loosely defined, but it is generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, sometimes extending westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both South Wales and in West Wales — there is considerable overlap in these somewhat artificial boundaries. Areas to the north of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains are generally considered part of Mid Wales.

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History

The South Wales Valleys and upland mountain ridges were once a very rural area of great natural beauty, noted for its river valleys and ancient forests and lauded by romantic poets such as William Wordsworth as well as poets in the Welsh language, although the interests of the latter lay more in society and culture than in the evocation of natural scenery. This natural beauty changed to a considerable extent during the early Industrial Revolution when the Glamorgan and Monmouthshirevalley areas were exploited for coal and iron. By the 1830s, hundreds of tons of coal were being transported by barge to ports in Cardiff and Newport. In the 1870s, coal was transported by railway networks to Newport Docks, at the time the largest coal exporting docks in the world, and by the 1880s coal was being exported fromBarry in the Vale of Glamorgan.

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The Marquess of Bute, who owned much of the land north of Cardiff, built a steam railway system on his land that stretched from Cardiff into many of the South Wales Valleys where the coal was being found. Lord Bute then charged taxes per ton of coal that was transported out using his railways. With coal mining and iron smelting being the main trades of South Wales, many thousands of immigrants from the English Midlands, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and even Italy came and set up homes and put down roots in the region. Very many came from other coal mining areas such as Somerset, the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and the tin mines of Cornwall such as Geevor Tin Mine, as a large but experienced and willing workforce was required. Whilst some of the migrants left, many settled and established in the South Wales valleysbetween Swansea and Abergavenny, English speaking communities with a unique identity. Industrial workers were housed in cottages and terraced houses close to the mines and foundries in which they worked. The large influx over the years caused overcrowding which led to outbreaks of Cholera, and on the social and cultural side, the near-loss of the Welsh language in the area.

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The 1930s inter-war Great Depression in the United Kingdom saw the loss of almost half of the coal pits in the South Wales coalfield and this number declined further in the years following World War II. This number is now very low, following the UK miners’ strike (1984–1985), and the last ‘traditional’ deep-shaft mine, Tower Colliery, closed in January 2008.

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Despite the intense industrialisation of the coal mining valleys, many parts of the landscape of South Wales such as the upper Neath valley, theVale of Glamorgan and the valleys of the River Usk and River Wye remain distinctly beautiful and unspoilt and have been designated SSSI, Sites of Special Scientific Interest. In addition to this, many once heavily industrialised sites have reverted to wilderness, some provided with a series of cycle tracks and other outdoor amenities. Large areas of forestry and open moorland also contribute to the amenity of the landscape.

Text from Wikipedia


Filed under: Actresses, British, Ephemera, Holidays, Illustration, Transportation, Traveling Tagged: British Railways, South Wales

A Little Wild West History – Calamity Jane

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Martha Jane Canary or Cannary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an Americanfrontierswoman and professional scout, known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and for fightingIndians. She is said to have also exhibited kindness and compassion, especially to the sick and needy. This contrast helped to make her a famous frontier figure.’

Acquiring the nickname

Martha Jane was involved in several campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native American Indians. Her unconfirmed claim was that:

“It was during this campaign [in 1872–1873] that I was christened Calamity Jane. It was on Goose Creek, Wyoming where the town of Sheridan is now located. Capt. Egan was in command of the Post. We were ordered out to quell an uprising of the Indians, and were out for several days, had numerous skirmishes during which six of the soldiers were killed and several severely wounded. When on returning to the Post we were ambushed about a mile and a half from our destination. When fired upon Capt. Egan was shot. I was riding in advance and on hearing the firing turned in my saddle and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle as though about to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with all haste to his side and got there in time to catch him as he was falling. I lifted him onto my horse in front of me and succeeded in getting him safely to the Fort. Capt. Egan on recovering, laughingly said: ‘I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.’ I have borne that name up to the present time.”

a1098_jane2.jpgAs reported in the Anaconda Standard (Montana, Apr. 19, 1904): Captain Jack Crawford, who served under both Generals Wesley Merritt and George Crook, stated, Calamity Jane “…never saw service in any capacity under either General Crook or General Miles. She never saw a lynching and never was in an Indian fight. She was simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish, but possessed a generous streak which made her popular.”

It may be that she exaggerated or completely fabricated this story. Even back then not everyone accepted her version as true. A popular belief is that she instead acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to “court calamity”. It appears possible that Jane was not part of her name until the nickname was coined for her.

She certainly was known by that nickname by 1876, because the arrival of the Hickok wagon train was reported in the Deadwood newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer, on July 15, 1876, with the headline, “Calamity Jane has arrived!”

a1098_jane3Another unverified story in her autobiographical pamphlet is that in 1875 her detachment was ordered to the Big Horn River, under General Crook. Bearing important dispatches, she swam the Platte River and traveled 90 miles (145 km) at top speed while wet and cold to deliver them. Afterwards, she became ill. Calamity said that after recuperating for a few weeks, she rode to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and later, in July 1876, she joined a wagon train headed north. The second part of her story is true. She was at Fort Laramie in July 1876 and did join a wagon train that included Wild Bill Hickok. That is where she first met Wild Bill Hickok, contrary to her later claims, and it is how she happened to come to Deadwood.

Deadwood and Wild Bill Hickok: 1876–1881

Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy. By this time (or shortly thereafter) her youthful good looks were gone; her skin was leathery and tanned from sun and wind, she was muscular and masculine, and her hair was stringy and seldom washed.

a1098_jane4In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There, she became friends with, and was occasionally employed by, Dora DuFran, the Black Hills’ leading madam. She became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having traveled with them to Deadwood in Utter’s wagon train. Jane greatly admired Hickok (much later, others alleged to the point of infatuation and claimed she was obsessed with his personality and his life).

The McCormick claim

On September 6, 1941, the U.S. Department of Public Welfare granted old age assistance to a Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick (third married), who claimed to be the legal offspring of Martha Jane Cannary and James Butler Hickok, after being presented with evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson’s Landing, Montana Territory, on September 25, 1873. The documentation was written in a Bible and presumably signed by two ministers and numerous witnesses. However, McCormick’s claim has been vigorously challenged because of a variety of discrepancies.

McCormick later published a book with letters purported to be from Calamity Jane to her daughter. In them, Calamity Jane says she had been married to Hickok and that Hickok was the father of McCormick, who was born September 25, 1873 and given up for adoption to a Captain Jim O’Neil and his wife. No records are known to exist which confirm the birth of a child or establish the existence of Captain O’Neil. During the period when the alleged child was born, Calamity Jane was working as a scout for the army, and at the time of Hickock’s death, he was newly married to Agnes Lake Thatcher.

a1098_jane5Although the father’s identity is unknown, Calamity does seem to have had two daughters. In the late 1880s Calamity Jane returned to Deadwood with a child she claimed was her daughter. At her request, a benefit was held in one of the theaters to raise money for the daughter’s education in St. Martin’s Academy at Sturgis, a nearby Catholic boarding school. The benefit raised a large sum. Calamity got drunk and spent a considerable portion (but not all) of it that same night and left with the child the next day. Estelline Bennett, who was living in Deadwood at the time and had spoken briefly with Calamity a few days before the benefit, thought Calamity honestly wanted to educate her daughter, and that the drunken binge was just an example of Calamity’s inability (which Bennett saw as typical of Calamity’s class) to curb her impulses and carry through long-range plans. Bennett heard later that Calamity’s daughter did in fact “get an education, and grew up and married well.”

After the death of Wild Bill Hickok

Jane also claimed that following Hickok’s death, she went after Jack McCall, his murderer, with a meat cleaver, having left her guns at her residence in the excitement of the moment. However, she never actually confronted McCall. Following McCall’s later execution for the capital crime, Jane continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and at one point she helped save numerous passengers in an overland stagecoach by diverting several Plains Indians who were in pursuit of the vehicle. The stagecoach driver, John Slaughter, was killed during the pursuit, and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on to its destination at Deadwood. In late 1876 or 1878, Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.

Text from Wikipedia 


Filed under: People, Photography Tagged: Calamity Jane, The wild west, Wild Bill Hickok

Weird London

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Jeremy Bentham’s skeleton: In the South Cloisters of the main building of London’s University College stands a cabinet containing the clothed skeleton of philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). (The head you see is actually Bentham’s wax-covered skull.) The cabinet used to contain Bentham’s entire mummified body, but his corpse didn’t cooperate and he decayed. By the way, Bentham, one of the inspirations for the founding of University College, specifically requested that his body be dissected after death and then preserved in this fashion.

Image found on MadDogs&Englishmen


Filed under: British, People, Photography Tagged: Jeremy Bentham, London’s University College, Skeletons, the South Cloisters

1950 Westcraft Coronado Pullman

This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Barbara Dane

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a1101_barbara_dane_03Barbara Dane (born May 12, 1927) is an American folk, blues, and jazz singer.

"Bessie Smith in stereo," wrote jazz critic Leonard Feather in the late 1950s. Time said of Dane: "The voice is pure, rich … rare as a 20 karat diamond" and quoted Louis Armstrong’s exclamation upon hearing her at the Pasadena jazz festival: "Did you get that chick? She’s a gasser!"

Career as singer

Moving to San Francisco in 1949, Dane began raising her own family and singing her folk and topical songs around town as well as on radio and television. A jazz revival was then shaking the town, and by the 1950s she became a familiar figure at clubs along the city’s Embarcadero with her own versions of women’s blues and jazz tunes. New Orleans jazz musicians like George Lewis and Kid Ory and locals like Turk Murphy, Burt Bales, Bob Mielke and others invited her onto the bandstand regularly. Her first professional jazz job was with Turk Murphy at the Tin Angel in 1956.

a1101_barbara_dane_01To Ebony, she seemed "startlingly blonde, especially when that powerful dusky alto voice begins to moan of trouble, two-timing men and freedom … with stubborn determination, enthusiasm and a basic love for the underdog, [she is] making a name for herself … aided and abetted by some of the oldest names in jazz who helped give birth to the blues." The seven-page Ebony article was filled with photos of Dane working with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Clara Ward, Mama Yancey, Little Brother Montgomery and others.

By 1959, Louis Armstrong had asked Time magazine readers: "Did you get that chick? She’s a gasser!" and invited her to appear with him on national television. She appeared with Louis Armstrong on the Timex All-Star Jazz Show hosted by Jackie Gleason on January 7, 1959. She toured the East Coast with Jack Teagarden, appeared in Chicago with Art Hodes, Roosevelt Sykes, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and others, played New York with Wilbur De Paris and his band, and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as a solo guest artist. Other national TV work included The Steve Allen Show, Bobby Troop’s Stars of Jazz, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In 1961, the singer opened her own club, Sugar Hill: Home of the Blues, on San Francisco’s Broadway in the North Beach district, with the idea of creating a venue for the blues in a tourist district where a wider audience could hear it. There Dane performed regularly with her two most constant musical companions: Kenny "Good News" Whitson on piano and cornet and Wellman Braud, former Ellington bassist. Among her guest artists were Jimmy Rushing, Mose Allison, Mama Yancey, Tampa Red, Lonnie Johnson, Big Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.

In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that’s included in Paredon Records’ FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said, "I was too stubborn to hire one of the greed-head managers, probably because I’m a woman who likes to speak for herself. I always made my own deals and contracts, and after figuring out the economics of it, I was free to choose when and where I worked, able to spend lots more time with my three children and doing political work, and even brought home more money in the end, by not going for the "bigtime." I did make some really nice records, because I was able to choose and work with wonderfully gifted musicians."

Political activism

She continued to weave in appearances as a solo performer on the coffeehouse circuit with her folk-style guitar. She also stepped up her work in the movements for peace and justice as the struggle for civil rights spread and the Vietnam war escalated. She sang at peace demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and throughout the US and toured anti-war GI coffeehouses all over the world. In 1966, Barbara Dane became the first U.S. musician to tour post-revolutionary Cuba.

In 1970 Dane founded Paredon Records, a label specializing in international protest music. She produced 45 albums, including three of her own, over a 12-year period. The label was later incorporated into Smithsonian-Folkways, a label of the Smithsonian Institution, and is available through their catalog.

In 1978, Dane appeared with Pete Seeger at a Rally in New York for striking coal miners.

Blues singer and role model

When she was in her late 70s, Philip Elwood, jazz critic of the San Francisco Examiner, said of her: "Dane is back and beautiful…she has an immense voice, remarkably well-tuned…capable of exquisite presentations regardless of the material. As a gut-level blues singer she is without compare." Blues writer Lee Hildebrand calls her "…perhaps the finest living interpreter of the classic blues of the 20’s." In a 2010 profile on Barbara produced by Steven Short of KALW in San Francisco, Bonnie Raitt said "she’s always been a role model and a hero of mine – musically and politically. I mean, the arc of her life so informs mine that – she’s – I really can’t think of anyone I admire [more], the way that she’s lived her life." The interview is archived on the KALW website.

Text from Wikipedia 

 

Barbara Dane – Livin’ with the Blues – 1959 – The whole LP


Filed under: Blues, Folk music, Folkrock, Jazz Tagged: Barbara Dane, Favourite Female Singers

Downhill The Swiss Way

Portraits Of The Very First Bond Girl, Linda Christian

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Linda Christian was a Mexican-born, United States-based film actress, who appeared in Mexican and Hollywood films. Her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film, Tarzan and The Mermaids (1948). She is also noted for being the first Bond girl, appearing in a 1954 television adaptation of the James Bond novel Casino Royale.

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Text and images from vintage-everyday


Filed under: People, Photography, Portraits Tagged: Bond girls, Casino Royale, James Bond, Linda Christian, Tarzan films

Elton John Trains With George Best And The Los Angeles Aztecs In 1976

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Rock star Elton John, new part-owner of the Los Angeles Aztecs, kicks a soccer ball during a photo session for the L.A. Aztecs of the North American Soccer League at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Looking on in the background are, Lee Atack (8); George Best (11), former Northern Irish soccer star who had recently joined the LA team; and John Mason (16). The player at right is not identified.


Filed under: Music, People, Photography Tagged: 1976, Elton John, George Best;Los Angeles Aztecs

The Forgotten Ones – Jeanne Carmen

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Jeanne Carmen
(August 4, 1930 – December 20, 2007) was an American model, pin-up girl, trick-shot golfer, and B movie actress.

Early life and career

Jeanne Laverne Carmen was born in Paragould, Arkansas. As a child she picked cotton before running away from home at age 13. As a teen, she moved to New York City and landed a job as a dancer in Burlesque, with Bert Lahr. Later she became a model, appearing in several men’s magazines. She also became a trick golfer, appearing with Jack Redmond.

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While in her 20s, she came to Hollywood and appeared in B movies such as Guns Don’t Argue and The Monster of Piedras Blancas. She played both brassy platinum-blondes and (with her natural dark hair) sultry Spanish women.[Carmen’s smouldering good looks, hourglass figure, and striking green eyes quickly landed her on the big screen in 1956 playing a feisty Spanish senorita named "Serelda" in The Three Outlaws, a Western based on the same events as the laterButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and co-starring Neville Brand and Alan Hale, Jr as Butch and Sundance. She was then cast by producer/director Howard W. Koch as an Indian girl in War Drums alongside Lex Barker of Tarzan fame. Koch took a liking to Carmen and cast her in his next flick for Warner Bros, the teenage rock n roll juvenile delinquent themedUntamed Youth in 1957 co-starring Rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran, which inspired Cochran to cover the song "Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie" for her.

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Carmen also appeared as a femme fatale in Portland Exposé alongside Frank Gorshin who later gained fame as the "Riddler" on the Batman series. She also appeared in the Three Stooges short subject A Merry Mix Up playing Joe Besser‘s girlfriend "Mary." The short is notable for the Stooges playing three sets of identical triplets.

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Later years

In 1998, Carmen was the subject of a TV biography titled "Jeanne Carmen: Queen of the B-Movies", on the series E! True Hollywood Story. The show stated that Carmen maintained a "dangerously close friendship with Marilyn Monroe and The Kennedys" and that after the death of Monroe, Carmen was told to leave town by Chicago mobster Johnny Rosselli who was working for Chicago Mob Boss Sam Giancana. Carmen, believing her life was in danger, fled to Scottsdale, Arizona, where she lived incognito for over a decade. Carmen abandoned her platinum blonde locks, had three children and lived a quiet life, never mentioning her prior life in Hollywood.

Carmen’s last published interview was on November 21, 2007, by SX News, an Australian weekly gay and lesbian newspaper.

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Filmography
 

Year Title Role Notes
1951 Mike and Buff Princess Jeanne Episode: "Princess Jeanne"
1953 Striporama Venus Beauty Uncredited
1956 The Three Outlaws Serelda  
1957 War Drums Yellow Moon  
1957 A Merry Mix Up Mary  
1957 Untamed Youth Lillibet  
1957 Portland Exposé Iris  
1958 I Married a Woman Camera Girl Uncredited
1958 Too Much, Too Soon Tassles Uncredited
1958 The Millionaire Mary Evans Episode: "The Wally Bannister Story"
1958 26 Men Lili Mae Turner Episode: "The Last Rebellion"
1958 Born Reckless Rodeo Girl  
1959 The Monster of Piedras Blancas Lucy  
1959 Riverboat Janine – Blonde Girl in Stagecoach Episode: "A Night at Trapper’s Landing"
Uncredited
1959 Have Gun – Will Travel Blonde Glamour Girl Episode: "Tiger"
Uncredited
1960 Tightrope Francie Episode: "The Chinese Pendant"
1961 The Dick Powell Show Nikki Episode: "Three Soldiers"
1962 The Devil’s Hand The Blonde Cultist Credited as Jeannie Carman
2005 The Naked Monster Mrs. Lipschitz  

Text from Wikipedia


Filed under: Actresses, Glamour, Models & starlets, People, Photography, Pin-ups, Pinups, The fifties, The sixties Tagged: American glamour models, B movie actresses, Jeanne Carmen, Pin-up girls, Trick-shot golfers

Saturday Quiz: Guess That Ass

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Let’s see how well you have studied classic celebrity backsides visitors.
The question is simple; Who’s famous ass is this?

Tip: She was born Jo Raquel TejadaSeptember 5, 194o

And last week’s ass belonged to Tallulah Bankhead as some of you guessed ;-)


Filed under: People, Photography Tagged: Guess That Ass, Saturday Quiz

This Week’s Girliemag Article – The Raine Is Not In Spain

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A digital recreation of an article published in Blaze Magazine Vol2 No1 from 1961
heading

 

ill_001Suzanne Raine is not from Spain, and as you can see, she’s far from plain. She’s one big hunk of good old American Girl, and she’s rarin’ to go … for a good time, that is. Our lithe, luscious, lovely cover girl is a fun lover at heart. She likes to go places and see people. She’s very big on jazz, thinks Miles Davis is “The Living End.”

Read the whole article and
see all the 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 ;-)


Filed under: Article, Glamour, Models & starlets, Nudes, The sixties

The Sunday Comic – A Monumental Memory

Rest In Peace Phyllis Dorothy

Is It Just Me…

Illustration By Félix Meynet


This Week’s Softdrink – Sidral Mundet

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Sidral Mundet is a Mexican apple-flavored carbonated soft drink produced by FEMSA S.A de C.V and distributed in the United States by the Novamex company, which also distributes the Jarritos and Sangria Señorial soda brands.

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History

Sidral Mundet was first bottled in 1902 by Don Arturo Mundet, who produced the cider-flavored beverage. Basing Sidral Mundet on the "limonada" or "gaseosa" drinks that were popular in Mexico at the turn of the 20th Century, he utilized the pasteurization technique to keep the drink sterile in the bottling process. The drink has been renowned in Mexico for its nourishing and hydrating abilities and has sometimes been used as a home remedy for stomach aches.

In 1988, Sidral Mundet was introduced to the US through Novamex and has since become a popular soft drink in the Hispanic American market.

Varieties

Sidral Mundet is available in three flavors: red apple, green apple and yellow apple.

Text from Wikipedia 

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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

Related articles

Filed under: Food & drinks, Soft drinks and sodas Tagged: Apple-flavored, Carbonated, Don Arturo Mundet, Mexican sodas, Sidral Mundet, Sodas, Soft drinks

The Life & Times Of Aunt Mabel – Part 25

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Time for a little background stuff now visitors. A look into the young Johnny’s family history. And we start in the late fifties at Skegness beach. From the left we have Johnny’s great aunt Gertrud, a troubled soul with a taste for WWII Nazi military effects and post war Berlin trivia. Standing is Johnny’s mother in her young days and sitting on the ground is a young Mabel. Next is Johnny’s grandfather, Conrad, a man so under his wife’s thumb that one hardly heard him speak unless told to by Johnny’s grandmother, Bertha , the substantial woman to the right with a firm grip on her handbag.

As you can see the grown up stick to the time honoured practice of totally avoiding getting sun on 90 % of their bodies. leaving most of their skin looking like sour skimmed milk seen through the sheerness of a condom.

Johnny’s grandfather and his sister are as their name might indicate of German decent, something that didn’t make the family all that popular in the post war years. Gertrude’s fascination with Nazi memorabilia and the decadent Berlin thirties did nothing to dampen this lack of popularity.

As you can see, Mabel was a rather shy child. Who would have thought that, but her mother, Bertha, was a kind of woman that absorbed about 97 % of the family’s attention, deliberately I may add. She had a voice they could have used as an air raid siren and the personality of a hippopotamus with a severe toothache. Besides, she had a right hook that could knock a grown man into the intense care unit and permanent coma.

091Anyone who has been to an English sea side resort knows that one of the entertainments organized for the working classes the frequent such places is ‘dress up` competitions. The only one in the family to participate while the family was in Skegness was of course Bertha, who simply told the rest of the family that if they dared to rain on her parade they had to take the consequences. They wisely joined the audience.

Bertha dressed, as you can see, up as Josephine Baker. She had just heard of Bakers costume, never seen any pictures of it, so this was the best she could do. Needless to say she did not win. On the other hand, a male competitor pinched her bottom and she knocked him unconscious to the audience’s great enjoyment.

Well, this was a little glimpse into young Johnny’s family background. I hope this makes you look at our aunt Mabel with kinder eyes from now on. More family background will be posted at a later point in time – Ted

Related articles


Filed under: Humour, Tackieness, The fifties Tagged: Aunt Mabel, Family history, Skegness, Sunbathing

Doin’ The.…

This Is Where Sting Was….

Hiroshi Yoshida – Japanese Painter & Print Maker

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Hiroshi Yoshida
(吉田 博 Yoshida Hiroshi?, September 19, 1876 – April 5, 1950) (‘Hiroshi’ – generous, ‘Yoshida’ – ‘lucky rice field’) was a 20th-century Japanese painter and woodblock print maker. He is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the shin-hanga style, and is noted especially for his excellent landscape prints. Yoshida travelled widely, and was particularly known for his images of non-Japanese subjects done in traditional Japanese woodblock style, including the Taj Mahal, the Swiss Alps, theGrand Canyon, and other National Parks in the USA.

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Biography

Hiroshi Yoshida (born Hiroshi Ueda) was born in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, in Kyushu, on September 19, 1876. He showed an early aptitude for art fostered by his adoptive father, a teacher of painting in the public schools. At age 19 he was sent to Kyoto to study under Tamura Shoryu, a well known teacher of western style painting. He then studied under Koyama Shotaro, in Tokyo, for another three years.

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In 1899, Yoshida had his first American exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art (now Detroit Institute of Art). He then traveled toBoston, Washington, D.C., Providence and Europe. In 1920, Yoshida presented his first woodcut at the Watanabe Print Workshop, organized by Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin-hanga movement. However, Yoshida’s collaboration with Watanabe was short partly due to the Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, 1923.

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In 1925, he hired a group of professional carvers and printers, and established his own studio. Prints were made under his close supervision. Yoshida combined the ukiyo-e collaborative system with the sōsaku-hanga principle of “artist’s prints”, and formed the third school, separating himself from the shin-hanga and sōsaku-hanga movement.

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Text from Wikipedia


Filed under: Art, Paintings Tagged: Hiroshi Yoshida, Japanese painters, Japanese print makers
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