Hitler's assault on 'degenerate art' - that deemed to be decadent or harmful to the Nazi project - affected not only visual artists but also some very talented musicians. Mahlerman picks out some of the best examples of the Entartete Musik... Almost exactly eighty years ago Adolf Hitler, exercising his recently ... Read More...
Month: July 2013
The Wikiworm is where I take a weekly look at some of the weirder wikipedia pages to be found - today's trivia may involve an explanation for the dreaded (and almost certainly fictional) iron maiden... A Drunkard's cloak or Schandmantel was a type of wooden barrel used in several countries for the ... Read More...
Noseybonk may have provided the definitive guide to the art of arguing on the internet (in this very reasonably priced e-book available from Dabbler Editions), but, as Frank discovers, the roots of Blogmanship stretch far back into the past... I have been reading Thomas Nashe, Elizabethan master of invective and intemperate prose. ... Read More...
Jonathon Green introduces a 16th century printer and 'compiler of cant' who arguably produced the very first dictionary of slang... Bokes be not set by: there tymes is past, I gesse; The dyse and cardes, in drynkynge wyne and ale, Tables, cayles[1], and balles, they be now sette a sale Men lete theyr chyldren ... Read More...
Suggestions for a fun family day out this summer... By some distance the least impressive museum I have ever visited is the Tomato Museum on the island of Guernsey. I think I was about fourteen when we went, so you can imagine the impression a tomato-based attraction would have made on ... Read More...
Henry wonders whether a 'Good Pub Guide' actually has any pubs in it... Due to the capricious workings of the UK Border Agency, we went on holiday to Norfolk last year rather than France as originally planned. One of the highlights of the trip was the pub next door to our ... Read More...
In which Nige goes for a walk in the Surrey Hills... Against the hot blue sky, the terraced knoll loomed enormous, its summit lost in a shimmering heat-haze. The grassy flanks seemed to radiate a reflected heat, enfolding us in a weighted, thyme-scented silence, enhanced rather than disturbed by the monotone ... Read More...
A nautical theme this week, as Brit selects pieces from a great movie soundtrack... Not only is Patrick O’Brian’s 'Aubrey-Maturin' series of books one of the great reading experiences available to mankind but it has also spawned a fine movie in Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The ... Read More...
Today on my weekly trawl through the weirder recesses of Wikipedia I find details of an odd law still available to Americans to this day... The Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress that enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. ... Read More...
This week, a dramatic recreation of a notorious Incident... Scene One. The Monkey House at Central Park Zoo, New York, on the 16th November 1906. A FOREIGN GENT and a RESPECTABLE LADY are standing by the cage of KNOCKO THE MONKEY. FOREIGN GENT : Good morning, madam. RESPECTABLE LADY (Turning to look at ... Read More...
