Take a good look at that bloke and tell me, honestly, is that someone you’d like to ring your doorbell one dark, windy evening no matter what he was bringing. He’s got the look of a prolific serial killer if you ask me. Just look at those eyes – Ted

Image found at VintaGraph

These images are made by scanning overexposed Kodachrome slides without light from above, in other words scanned as though they were paper photos or printed matter. The images were then sized to 1300 pix width in Photoshop and the brightness adjusted to give them an even more transparent feel. Then the hue was adjusted to remove most of the yellow and green and the saturation adjusted rather heavily to dullen the colours left. Then two rounds of watercolour filter was added and the images sharpened. Finally the images were reduced in size to 50 %. At last white frames, titles and signature were added to heighten the watercolour feel – Ted

A do-it-yourself project published in Popular Mechanics in July, 1948

Ideal for  the naturalist, archaeologist or anyone who must do documentary work in the field, this folding desk-and-stool combination provides substantial writing surface along with comparative comfort. The desk folds into a compact case for travelling. In addition to containing all the the essential writing equipment, it also carries a three drawer stool.

Description and plans in
jpg and pdf format HERE

A very delicate soup, cool and refined. Ideal for a hot summer’s day, this soup makes a superb start to a meal. Surprise and delight your friends with this extraordinary, subtle taste. Escoffier once said "Of all the items on the menu, soup is that which exacts the most delicate perfection and the strictest attention." This soup will stand the closest scrutiny and leave a lasting impression.

Recipe HERE

Located inside the Old Boatstore Café in Cornwall, England, in an appointment only corridor, there’s a blue, seemingly normal display case tacked to the wall.

Upon closer inspection, one can see various food articles like crusts of bread, sugar packets, chickpeas, and coffee-stained napkins sheltered under little glass domes, all leftover from the plates of celebrities who have dined at the café. The actress, Mia Wasikowska, for example, has a courgette from her soup on display, while Prince Charles has some bread pudding he chose to leave unfinished.

The café has an open and community-minded atmosphere, priding itself on vegetarian food and locally-sourced seafood, but one must arrange a private tour to view this semi-masticated celebrity collection.

Text and images from AtlasObscura

It never stops to fascinate me what some people find time to do, and what’s more, I love them all for it. This world would have been a lot greyer and duller place without them – Ted

A home movie of a kayak trip up the Hudson River in the 1930s.

Movie found on travelfilmarchive on Youtube

1926 Chevrolet Series V Superior

Acquired by General Motors in 1917, Chevrolet became one of America’s top-selling models within a remarkably short time, Announced in 1923, the Chevrolet ‘Superior’ was a direct competitor to the Model T Ford, offering a better specification at a slightly higher price. This 1926 Series V Superior has the Duco cellulose paintwork which made Chevrolet such a colourful alternative to the ‘black-is-beautiful’ Tin Lizzie from Ford.

1926 Clyno 10.8hp

Clyno of Wolverhampton, originally motor cycle manufacturers, were trading on a fine wartime record when they introduced their first production car, a 10.8hp Coventry Climax-engined model, in 1922. Clyno aimed to rival Morris, and priced their cars accordingly. At their peak, in 1926-27, they were one of Britain’s most popular cars, but a costly new factory and a disastrous 8hp model caused their downfall in 1929.

1926 Fiat 507

From 1923, all new Fiat cars were given a road test on a unique test track six stories up on the roof of the company’s new factory at Lingotto. Even so, the Fiat 507, developed from the earlier 505 in 1926, was a 2.3-litre car of ponderous character. A new feature was the squared-off radiator shell in place of the old pear-shaped cooler.

1926 Panhard & Levassor

Like Daimler, Panhard & Levassor had a long love affair with the Knight sleeve-valve engine, in the case of the French company dating back to 1911, From 1922 to 1939, every Panhard produced had a sleevevalve engine, and bore the initials ‘SS’ (for sans soupapes-valveless) on its radiator. Compared with the eccentric styling of the 1930s Panhards, this 1926 21 66cc, fourcylinder model was totally conventional, but light steel sleeves gave it a good performance.

Carolyn Hester (born January 28, 1937, in Waco, Texas) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s folk music revival.

Biography
Carolyn Hester’s first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. In 1960, she made her second album for the Tradition Records label run by the Clancy Brothers. She became known for "The House of the Rising Sun" and "She Moved Through the Fair".

Hester was one of many young Greenwich Village singers who rode the crest of the 1960s folk music wave. She appeared on the cover of the May 30, 1964, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. According to Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times, Hester was "one of the originals—one of the small but determined gang of ragtag, early-’60s folk singers who cruised the coffee shops and campuses, from Harvard Yard to Bleecker Street, convinced that their music could help change the world." Hester was dubbed "The Texas Songbird," and was politically active, spearheading the controversial boycott of the television program, Hootenanny, when Pete Seeger was blacklisted from it.

After failing to convince Joan Baez to sign with Columbia Records, John H. Hammond signed Hester in 1960. However, Hammond has a different recollection of events. In his autobiography, "John Hammond on Record," he maintains that he passed on Baez "..because she was asking a great deal of money while still a relatively unknown artist." That same year Hester met Richard Fariña and they married eighteen days later. They separated after less than two years.

In 1961, Hester met Bob Dylan and invited him to play on her third album, her first on the Columbia label. Her producer, John H. Hammond, quickly signed Dylan to the label.

Hester turned down the opportunity to join a folk trio with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. With Mary Travers the trio found stardom as Peter, Paul, & Mary. Although Hester collaborated with Bill Lee and Bruce Langhorne, she concentrated exclusively on traditional material. In the late 1960s, unable to succeed as a folk-rock artist, she explored psychedelic music as part of the "Carolyn Hester Coalition", before drifting out of the music industry of the period.

Hester has disputed David Hajdu‘s depiction of her marriage to Fariña in his book Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña. She also identified supposed exaggerations in his description of the relationships among Dylan, Baez, Hester, and the Fariñas. Hester denies that Fariña was so close to Dylan, as some rock historians claim, and strongly disputes that Fariña was in any way responsible for Dylan’s success, as Hajdu insinuated. Hajdu also suggested that Hester had an ongoing rivalry with Baez and her sister Mimi. To this day, Hester maintains that, on the contrary, she did not and does not know Baez well, and that they never were rivals, personally or professionally.

In 1969, Hester married the jazz pianist-producer-songwriter, David Blume, the composer of The Cyrkle‘s 1966 Top 40 hit "Turn Down Day." Together they formed the Outpost label. They also started an ethnic dance club in Los Angeles.

In the 1980s she returned to recording and touring. She and Nancy Griffith performed Bob Dylan’s "Boots of Spanish Leather" at Dylan’s Thirtieth Anniversary Tribute Concert at Madison Square Garden in 1992.

In 1997, Hester toured Germany for the first time. Her tour manager was Dirk Stursberg of M&K Management. As a friend, she visited his home and bought a Teddy from his wife’s company, the Teddy Atelier Stursberg. A year later, Hester played in a festival in Denmark.

In 1999, Hester released a Tom Paxton tribute album. She appeared on the A&E television Biography of Bob Dylan in August 2000.

Blume died in the spring of 2006. Hester closed the dance club, Cafe Danssa, a year after her husband’s death.

She continues to perform and tour with her daughters, Amy Blume and Karla Blume. They recorded her latest album, which was released in 2010, We Dream Forever.

Text from Wikipedia 

I have two great records with the Carolyn Hester Coalition, “Carolyn Hester Coalition” from 1969 and “Magazine” from 1970 but they are unfortunately in a format that WordPress don’t allow. This is pure prog rock and completely different from the music in these videos. I’ll see if I can find a converter on the net and post some cuts from these records later on – Ted

Marathon was a French automobile manufacturer established by a group of engineers under the leadership of a rally enthusiast called Bernard Denis. Prototypes for a lightweight sports coupé were presented at various motor shows starting with the 1951 Frankfurt Motor Show and the cars were produced between 1953 and 1955.

The cars
The cars were derived from a design by Hans Trippel with a silhouette not unlike that of the Porsche 356, and it has been suggested that the manufacturer’s founder, Bernard Denis, dreamed of producing a French Porsche equivalent.

The first car, like several lightweight sports cars appearing in France at this time, was powered by the two-cylinder boxer engine from the Panhard Dyna X (and later the Panhard Dyna Z) which produced at this stage a claimed 42 hp from 850 cc of cylinder capacity. There was a coupé version, branded as the Marathon Corsair, and a roadster, branded as the Marathon Pirate.

History
The technical enthusiasts who established the Marathon car business purchased the design from Hans Trippel (1908–2001) who had been released from war-related imprisonment in 1949 and at this point was based in Stuttgart. Trippel had constructed his prototype in 1950: it already featured the stylish fast-back (and possibly Porsche inspired) body work andrear-hinged doors that would define the Marathon Corsair. Trippel’s steel-bodied prototype was propelled by a Zündapp 600 cc engine producing just over 18 hp.

In order to fit the larger Panhard engine, the Marathon team were obliged slightly to adapt the rear of the car, which lost a little of the cleanness of form that had characterised the Trippel prototype. At the front they also had to raise the level of the head-lights in order to conform with French regulations. By the time the car appeared at the Brussels Motor Showin January 1953, these changes had been effected, and the car’s name had been changed from Trippel to Marathon.

In June 1953 Marathon’s first pre-production prototype was presented to Gilles Guérithault who was managing editor of L’Auto-Journal, and who thereby obtain exclusive details of the car which would debut in production form only in October at the Paris Motor Show. By then arrangements were in place to produce the car at the Societé Industrielle de l’Ouest Parisien (SIOP) factory in the Boulevard de Dixmude on the western side of Paris, previously the manufacturing location for Rosengart automobiles.

The production cars were not steel bodied, but were constructed from a material initially christened at the plant “polyester”, but which is better understood as a series of layers of glass fibre and resin, a lightweight material that would become popular with low volume producers in the UK and elsewhere for “fibreglass” car bodies. The Marathon was something of a pioneer in this respect, and the resulting light body combined with an engine delivering more than twice the power of Trippel’s original prototype gave rise to a level of performance that was, by the standards of the time and category of the car, very lively indeed. The top speed was approximately 150 km/h (93 mph).

Text from Wikipedia

And then, in 1958, there finally was yet another way to scare the living daylight out of your kids – Ted

Image found at ImmoralTales

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

A Good Deed

I’m a hot drink drinker. Coffee, tea, cocoa, toddies, you name it, I drink it. And anyone who drink as much coffee as I do know that  crap like instant coffee will never brings you better flavour than ground coffee. Besides if it’s all coffee wouldn’t that naturally make it 100% coffee, so what’s the need for making a point of it.

That old “get your money back” trick always work, because if you don’t find instant coffee a better tasting coffee you think there’s something wrong with you as everybody else seems to do. And who wants to look like an idiot just to get a few cent back on a product.

Nescafé’s instant coffee was just one of many products in the food and drink sector that turned up in the early fifties where the lure was plain laziness. Instant this and that flooded the marked like there was no tomorrow  – Ted

Old time religion Guilt Trip postcard No Date
Image from Collection Jim Linderman

As  a kid I was at Sunday school only once. I was there with my four year older sister and it was a Christmas party. We got soda pop and sweet rolls. When it was time to go home I asked if we would get soda and rolls the next Sunday as well and was told by the ancient lady that run the school that that was only for very special occasions. They never saw me again. Strangely, I feel no guilt – Ted

Jean Rosemary Shrimpton (born 6 November 1942) is an English model and actress. She was an icon of Swinging London and is considered to be one of the world’s first supermodels. She appeared on covers such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Elle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Newsweek, and Time magazines. She starred alongside Paul Jones in the 1967 film Privilege.

Biography
Born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and brought up on a farm, Shrimpton was educated at St Bernard’s Convent, Slough. She enrolled at Langham Secretarial College in London when she was 17. A chance meeting with director Cy Endfield led to an unsuccessful meeting with the producer of his film Mysterious Island; Endfield then suggested she attend the Lucie Clayton Charm Academy‘s model course. In 1960, aged 17, she began modelling, appearing on the covers of popular magazines such as Vogue,Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair. During her career, Shrimpton was widely reported to be the "world’s highest paid model", the "most famous model", and the "most photographed in the world". She was also described as having the "world’s most beautiful face". She was dubbed "The It Girl", "The Face", "The Face of the Moment", and "The Face of the ’60s". Glamour named her "Model of The Year" in June 1963. She contrasted with the aristocratic-looking models of the 1950s by representing the coltish, gamine look of the youthquake movement in 1960s Swinging London, and she was reported as "the symbol of Swinging London." By breaking the popular mould of voluptuous figures with her long legs and slim figure, she was nicknamed "The Shrimp". Shrimpton was also known for her long hair with a fringe, wide doe-eyes, long wispy eyelashes, arched brows, and pouty lips.

Shrimpton also helped launch the miniskirt. In 1965, Shrimpton caused a sensation in Melbourne, Australia, when she arrived for the Victoria Derby wearing a white shift dress designed by Colin Rolfe which ended 10 cm (3.9 in) above her knees. She wore no hat, stockings or gloves and wore a man’s watch, which was unusual at the time. Shrimpton was unaware she would cause such reaction in the Melbourne community and media.

In her article "The Man in the Bill Blass Suit", Nora Ephron tells of the time when Jean Shrimpton posed for a Revlon advertisement in an antique white Chantilly lace dress by Blass. Minutes after the lipstick placard was displayed at the drugstores, the Revlon switchboard received many calls from women demanding to know where they could buy the dress.

Shrimpton was once engaged to photographer David Bailey. They met in 1960 at a photo shoot that Shrimpton, who was then an unknown model, was working on with photographer Brian Duffy for a Kellogg’s corn flakes advertisement. Duffy told Bailey she was too posh for him, but Bailey was undeterred, and he and Shrimpton subsequently had a relationship for four years, ending in 1964. During the affair, Bailey was still married to his first wife Rosemary Bramble but left her after nine months and later divorced to be with Shrimpton. Shrimpton’s first photo session with Bailey was in 1960 (either for Condé Nast‘s Brides on 7 December 1960 or for BritishVogue). She started to become known in the modelling world around the time she was dating Bailey. Shrimpton has stated she owed Bailey her career, and he is often credited for discovering her and being influential in her career. In turn, she was Bailey’s muse, and his photographs of her helped him rise to prominence in his early career. Shrimpton’s other most celebrated romance was with actor Terence Stamp. She married photographer Michael Cox in 1979 at Penzance register office when she was four months pregnant with their son Thaddeus (born in 1979). They own the Abbey Hotel in Penzance, Cornwall, now managed by Thaddeus and his family. Her younger sister Chrissie was also an actress, linked to both Mick Jagger and Steve Marriott of the Small Faces.

On 26 January 2012 the story of her relationship with David Bailey was dramatised in a BBC Four film, We’ll Take Manhattan, with Karen Gillan playing the part of Shrimpton. Shrimpton is namechecked (as "Jeannie Shrimpton") in the 1986 Smithereens song "Behind the Wall of Sleep".

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A digital recreation of an article published in “Dolls And Dolls”  Magazine Vol1 No8 oct 1968
 June Larkin has been a tomboy ever since she can remember. "What else, being raised with five brothers?" she asks. She’s from a North Dakota farm and had to pitch in with the chores along with her brothers. She also joined them in recreation and games and can ride, hunt, fish and play baseball as well as any male can.

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 ;-)

Image text:
To the pure all things are impure – even Marie Prevost in a two-piece bathing suit. Someone once said that "Beauty is God’s hand-writing." We believe it. Don’t misunderstand: this is not a defence of this water babe. She needs no defence. If this is a "bathing picture" such as the censorial-minded folks object to so strenuously,then we give them up as hopeless – Joel Feder

Image found at lafinlarry

1804
Richard Trevithick successfully demonstrates a steam railway engine for the first time in the world, at Penydarren, Wales, 22 February.

1813
William Hedley builds Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly as colliery locomotives.

  The Puffing Billy The Locomotion

1843
The Grand Junction locomotive works are transferred from Edge Hill, Liverpool, to Crewe. Swindon Works (GWR) opens on 2 January. The LSWR begins to build its own engines at Nine Elms.

(Above) Thomas Russell Crampton (1816-88) patented his rear-drive locomotive, Liverpool, in 1843.

Great Western

1847

No broad-gauge locomotive has been preserved, but this view of a replica of Iron Duke originally built in 1847, under steam, gives an indication of their imposing appearance. Even as mid-century approached, and speeds of up to 60mph (96km/h) became common, the enginemen were denied a cab.

(Above)  The GWR 4-2-2 Iron Duke, built in 1847, represents Daniel Gooch’s standard express type. This would remain the basic traction of GW mainline services until the abolition of the broad gauge in 1892.

(Above) Named after Jenny Lind, a Swedish singer popular with mid-nineteenth century British audiences, and designed in 1847 by David Joy, this neat 4-2-2 was built as a works venture by the Leeds Engine Foundry and sold to the London Brighton & South Coast Railway. Many were also exported.

1850
The brick-arch firebox, to facilitate coal burning, is developed on the Midland Railway between 1850 and 1859.

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

GOVERNMENT
– A constitutional monarchy, set up by the Constitution of 1830, which has undergone considerable alteration. The King acts through his ministers and has a right of veto which has fallen into disuse. The legislature consists of a Chamber of representatives of 187 members elected for a term of 4 years by universal suffrage of males over 21, and of a senate which consists of the following:I. Senators elected by the same method and electorate as representatives;
2. Provincial senators elected by Provincial Councils, and 3. Eminent citizens co-opted by 1) and 2). Parties run mainly on political lines, but are affected by occasional differences between Flems and Walloons’, and by religious differences.

Head of State: King Albert I.
Area: 30,444 kme.
Capital: Brussels (Population nearly one million).
Currency: Belgas, francs and centimes, I Belga = 100 cts.
Languages: French and Flemish.
Population: About 8 millions. Density: 262,6 per km².
Weights and Measures: (decimal system).

SPORTS AND PASTIMES
(Places recommended)

BATHING: Albert Plage, Blankenberghe, Breedene, Coq-sur-Mer, Heyst-Duinbergen, Knocke-Le Zoute, Middelkerke, Ostend, Wenduyne. Westen de, Zeebrugge.

GOLF: Blankenberghe (near to), Brussels, CeqMer, Duinbergen, Heyst, Knocke-Le Zoute, Ostend, Spa.

HORSERACING: Ostend.

OPERA: (famous Opera House): Brussels.

POLO: Ostend.

SAND SAILING: Ostend.

SHOOTING: The Ardennes generally.

TENNIS: (English Clubs or International Tournaments): Brussels, Knocke-Le Zoute, Ostend, Spa. (Courts are oj course found in all tourist resorts).

TROUTFISHING: The Ardennes generally.

YACHTING: Ostend.

FOR SIGHTSEERS
(Places recommended)

CATHEDRALS: Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent (Gand).

CAVES and GROTTOES: At Han-sur-Lesse, and Rochelort.

PICTURE GALLERIES: Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels.

PICTURESQUE OLD TOWNS: Bruges Dinant, Ghent, Namur.

TOWER (famous Belfry): Bruges.

WAR MUSEUM: Zeebrugge.

The represent some of the best-known sights of kind. Information regarding other churches, museums, galleries, etc. can always be obtained locally through the Bureau de Renseignenienis, or from the Hotel porters.

The Battlefields, War Memorials and Cemeteries can be visited from Brussels, Fumes, Ypres, or any place on the Coast.

The marked in Kairouan, Tunisia 1899.

I was there in 1995 and apart from the odd car it looked just the same – Ted