The Charivaria section of the Punch magazine is always good for a little amusement, as it pops out pithy comments and witty one-liners each week, based on news of the week previous (here, 3rd Nov, 1920). If t’were written now, it would be one of those emails people forward round the office on a Monday… Read more »
Colonel Bellairs looked at him with the suspicion which appears to be the one light shadow that lies across the sunny life of the bore. “I said so half an hour ago,” he remarked severely, “when we were inspecting my new manure tanks, and you said you did not notice it.” “You were right all… Read more »
Confessedly, as a class, the quadroon women of New Orleans are the most beautiful in America. Their personal attractions are not only irresistible, but they have, in general, the best blood of America in their veins. They are mostly white in complexion, and are, many of them, highly educated and accomplished; and yet, by the… Read more »
Firmly in the “nothing new here” category comes this commentary on a crusade to ban “Penny Dreadfuls” [aka. trashy fiction at the end of the 19th century.] Our friends have been occupied with the case of a half-witted boy who consumed Penny Dreadfuls and afterwards went and killed his mother. They infer that he killed… Read more »
Captain Thomas Pound. On August 8th, 1689, this pirate, with five men and a boy, sailed out of Boston Harbour as passengers in a small vessel. When off Lovell’s Island, five other armed men joined them. Pound now seized the craft and took command, and declared his intention of going on a piratical cruise. The… Read more »
Reconstituting my lost blog — hoorah for the Internet Wayback Machine. I’ve lost some, but not much, given I’m such a lackadaisical soul. This is obviously the best of quotes to begin again with. Let them pile up costly and lofty monuments–reaching heavenward; let the artist cut their names and virtues deep into the enduring… Read more »