Blog

Teresa Mary O’Shea, our very own “Two Ton Tessie from Tennessee”, was born in Cardiff to the son of Irish emigrants, a gasworks labourer, and his Lancastrian wife, Nellie. In 1919, at the age of six, she appeared on stage as “The Wonder of Wales”, and, at the age of eight, won a talent competition, … Continued

  As my granny would say, “I have a cold in the nose, dear”. She meant, of course, that she had a runny nose, coryza in medical Latin – in other words, she was discharging clear mucus from the nares, arising from acutely inflamed mucosal epithelium of the respiratory tract! The respiratory tract is the … Continued

A CHRISTMASSY SORT OF STORY ABOUT ICE CREAM   Le Bon Genre No4, 1801   Nobody sensible in Europe had given a tinker’s cuss about any sort of use for ice. In the English winterland, cold killed. It was difficult for most to eat enough to generate adequate body heat. Children were fed beer to boost … Continued

Une marmite Deeply embedded in our culture, but mostly half-forgotten, Marmite has recently become a press phenomenon: open any paper and there is a mention of its unique properties. Love it or hate it; it will have been your parents’ fault most likely, and their parents and their parents’ parents, way back to 1902 when … Continued

  This is not Cinderella’s slipper lost on her run down the steps from the prince’s palace at midnight. This is Marie Antoinette’s slipper lost on her stumble up the steps to the guillotine at midday. On 16 October 1793, it was bought on the spot by Monsieur le Comte de Guernon-Ranville, and was given … Continued

WILL YOU BE ALLOWED ACCESS TO THE COVID CURES? “Catching COVID-19 was a blessing from God” President Donald Trump   The newly accessible COVID-19 treatments are – * RONAPREVE, a combination of the monoclonal antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab, is designed to attach to the protein spikes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus preventing the virus particles from … Continued

SHOCK HORROR – FATHER CHRISTMAS IS AMERICAN! Merry Old Santa, Thomas Nast, 1881 Actually, Father Christmas was Greek, born in 270 in today’s Turkey. He died at the enormous age of 73 on December 6TH, 343. AKA Saint Nikolaos, Father Christmas was also enormously wealthy. As an orphan, Nikolaos had been gifted the profits of a … Continued

Should ‘Refuseniks’ be forced to vaccinate   As you will probably know by now, the New Zealand Government has made COVID vaccination mandatory for doctors, pharmacists, and all other health care workers – each and every one to be fully vaccinated by December; teachers and other workers in the education sector, by January 2022. Groups … Continued

Florentia Lady Sale by Richard Thomas Bott, 1844   What remained of Napoleon on St Helena was about to be ceremoniously shipped back to France aboard the blacked-up frigate Belle-Poule – ‘Le Retour des Cendres’. A devastated Europe had yet to reconfigure itself. In between times, ‘Great Britain’ was busy validating itself, massively fuelled by … Continued

  JOHN BULL taking a Luncheon: -or- British Cooks, cramming Old Grumble-Gizzard, with Bonne-Chére,  James Gillray 24 October 1798   The 29-year-old General Bonaparte was not quite ready to burn himself in his own flame. With his citizen army, he had trounced the Austrian Empire, but he was now rather too much of a public … Continued