Andrew @generalising@mastodon.flooey.org
Librarian and occasional researcher. Opinions of course my own. Scholarly communications, historic MPs, Wikipedia, inter alia other things. Misplaced Scot.
Joined Nov 2022
Huh, this one is interesting. One of the odd myths that crops up regularly is that it is somehow illegal to die in Parliament, or that various legal fictions are applied to not record it as such.
The Law Commission did a note on such myths a few years back which mentioned four cases of people dying in Parliament, but interestingly not this chap. http://web.archive.org/web/20230602214519/https://lawcom.gov.uk/app/uploads/2015/03/Legal_Oddities.pdf
"students these days don't respect their teachers!"
meanwhile, in 1828:
"The Sandman is making a legend for a girl". Love the worldbuilding-through-jargon approach.
Finally finished up the le Carré reread last week while convalescing. Always think of this bit when up on the Heath in the winter.
Moved onto A Murder of Quality - really surprised by this. Were crank-started cars still floating around in 1962?
Unclear from this whether or not he thinks nuclear war would threaten jobs.
Been rereading Call for the Dead (1961) and this little exchange never fails to delight me. Always love the little fragments of social history you run across like this.
(George Smiley tried to keep up with the modern world, just not always very successfully...)
today's #wikipedia oddity: a step-by-step guide to using a cafetière that somehow manages to leave me, who uses one daily, nonetheless confused about how it works.
Apropos of this, it turns out the first appearance I can find of the phrase "war on motorists" in the British press is even earlier - 1902. Although the limit then was 12mph...
Vexatious litigants, Victorian version.
(TM Healy, "Letters and Leaders". I have my doubts about how exactly accurate this story is, but it's a good one.)
1951 travel guide for visiting (west) Germany: passports straightforward, breakfast light, tea doubtful, politics is fine but don't mention the weather
Really struck by this picture of the 2022 cabinet reshuffle board (via https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1703042940417806507) - I remember back in 2017 people were saying "finally having those standard photos will be interesting, bet they'll get used everywhere", and turns out: yes, yes they did.
(I think I remember spotting them in a photo of someone's briefing book at PMQs as well?)
Apparently middle age has well and truly caught up with me: am reading Trollope. Seems like leadership contests have not changed much since 1867.
Better scan needed but very pleased with this: near-infrared photography! IR sensitive film with a 720nm filter on the lens to cut out almost all visible light (there's a tiny bit of deep red left to focus by)
Second image is a normal phone shot at the same time, desaturated into B/W. Note the differences in the trees especially.
Librarian and occasional researcher. Opinions of course my own. Scholarly communications, historic MPs, Wikipedia, inter alia other things. Misplaced Scot.
Joined Nov 2022
