Tag: History

My Spa Visit or How I Dealt With Election Stress

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I shuffled into the dimly lit room in ungainly rubber slippers and shrouded in a voluminous white robe. The first thing I saw was a thick black rubber hose coiled on the far wall. Ominously, there was a drain in the floor beneath it. In the center of the room stood a bed rather like one you would see in an operating room. It was covered in plastic wrap with a small folded towel laid in the middle. Above the bed a strange device hung from the ceiling. Continue reading “My Spa Visit or How I Dealt With Election Stress” →

On My Bookshelf – Make Do and Mend

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This little book is a new addition to my bookshelf, acquired on this year’s summer trip to London. After a walk around St. James’s Park we visited the Churchill War Rooms, the secret underground headquarters where Winston Churchill and his staff planned the war effort, safe from enemy bombs. The place is a claustrophobic rabbit warren of tiny rooms where Churchill and scores of staff often slept overnight during the Continue reading “On My Bookshelf – Make Do and Mend” →

On My Bookshelf – Turning Tides

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Turning Tides

At a dinner party in Berkeley some years ago I met a visiting history professor from the University of Leuven in Flanders. Naturally I told him I am half Flemish. When I tell people that they usually just assume that the other half is English. But the professor didn’t assume. “What’s the other half?” he asked. When I responded “Irish” he reared back in mock horror and said “Goodness, what a volatile combination!” My family has had a few laughs over that ever since, blaming our volatile combination for any number of sins.

In consequence of this heredity Continue reading “On My Bookshelf – Turning Tides” →

The Dagenham Idol

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The Dagenham Idol
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My Dagenham Idol replica

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few years ago I received a mysterious Christmas gift from my San Francisco brother. I opened the long, narrow box to find a crudely formed human figure made of wood. It looked like something you would find in the “exotic” home décor aisle at Pier 1 or World Market, along with the carved elephants and brass Buddhas. Standing 18 inches tall the figure was armless with a disc shaped head, a rudimentary nose, and a single eye. Just above the legs a round hole was an ambiguous indicator of gender. I stared at the figure for some time wondering what on earth my brother was thinking Continue reading “The Dagenham Idol” →

On My Bookshelf – Etiquette Problems in Pictures

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Etiquette Problems in Pictures

Browsing the bookshelves in one’s own home can be as adventurous as browsing in a library. Sometimes I come across long forgotten treasures, like this little book, a gift from my sister. She wasn’t hinting that I needed such a book, she assured me in her dedication:

“Do not suppose that the purpose of this gift is to indicate that you are habitually ill bred! However, with this book never again need you fear committing the inappropriate blunder.”

The book was published in 1922 by Nelson Doubleday, appropriately enough in Oyster Bay, New York, the Long Island hangout of America’s upper crust Continue reading “On My Bookshelf – Etiquette Problems in Pictures” →

On My Bookshelf – Saints and Scholars

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Saints and Scholars

It was the middle of math class and I was bored as usual. So I surreptitiously opened a book on my lap and began to read. At the front of the class the formidable Mrs. Mulley droned on. She was an extraordinary bent old crone who looked something like a desiccated stick insect. She and her daughter, Miss Mulley, constituted the Math department of my convent high school. They always seemed to walk the corridors together, Miss Mulley, pudgier and straight backed, trailing her mother at a respectful distance. They both wore their hair in elaborately coifed buns that seemed to defy the law of gravity. On this day my transgression did not escape Mrs. Mulley’s eagle eye. I was so absorbed in my reading Continue reading “On My Bookshelf – Saints and Scholars” →

On My Bookshelf – Biggles Flies to Work

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Biggles
My copy
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First edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this Biggles book in a London bookshop on one of my visits home. I was surprised to see that Biggles was still popular enough to justify reprints. Perched in the cockpit of his Spitfire in goggles and helmet, silk aviator’s scarf flying, Biggles was the epitome of a thoroughly British war hero. This collection of stories about his post-war exploits with the Air Police was first published in 1963. As you can see from the images above, the early editions had far more appealing covers.

Pilot James Bigglesworth was the creation of Continue reading “On My Bookshelf – Biggles Flies to Work” →

Mr. Jefferson’s Books Go to Washington

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The British perpetrated many insults upon the American people when they burned Washington in 1814, perhaps the worst to contemporary eyes being the destruction of the Library of Congress. Over 3,000 books went up in flames. But the disaster had the unintended consequence of making the national library better than ever. At his home Monticello in Virginia former President Thomas Jefferson read an account of the loss in the newspaper Continue reading “Mr. Jefferson’s Books Go to Washington” →

On My Bookshelf – The Wayfarer’s Book

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My father must have bought this little book at a used bookstore because, although it lists no copyright date, it was probably published in the early 1900’s. It goes back to a time when there were no hikers or even walkers, but ramblers and wayfarers. The author belonged to a Rambling Club and wrote this guide to the sights of the English countryside for city and town dwellers who ventured into Continue reading “On My Bookshelf – The Wayfarer’s Book” →