Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Librarians After Closing Time


A tip o' the mouse to Alison Bechdel on whose site I just saw this

The Teeth That Saved the World

Reuters reports on an upcoming item for sale:

"A partial set of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill's gold-mounted dentures, specially designed to disguise his natural lisp, go up for sale this month. The partial dentures, which Keys Auctioneers have catalogued with an estimated value of 4,000 to 5,000 pounds, are being sold by the son of the technician who was commissioned to make them.

A duplicate is on show at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a third set was buried with Churchill in 1965.

According to documents written by the college of surgeons, the dentures were "carefully designed to ensure that Churchill retained his characteristically slurred diction -- a deliberate affectation designed to overcome a childhood lisp. "Churchill lived in fear of losing his false teeth, and hence his speaking voice, and insisted that spare dentures always be on hand," it added.

The auction is at Keys' showroom in Norwich on July 29.

(Reporting by Isobel Coles; Editing by Steve Addison)"

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Paul the Psychic Cephalopod

Paul is an octopus that lives in Germany. He has come to our attention because during this World Cup, Paul has predicted the winner of each match the German team has played. This includes the shock defeat to Serbia (seen above), and today's semi-final loss to Spain. Six games in a row now the prediction has been correct. Is this a miracle? Might God really be interested in football? Who knows ...

Meanwhile, now the Germans are out, what next for Paul? I wonder how much it would cost to sign him for QPR?!

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Oranje Boom

Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands football team celebrating as the Dutch reach the World Cup Final. Ok ok the header is really not very original. Blame it on the heat here! Meanwhile, this fan, who has loved Holland since the 1974 World Cup, is one of millions tonight shouting HUP HUP HUP!

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Pink Pride Piglet


Piglet joined the Jewish lgbtq groups today, marching down Baker Street and Oxford Street towards Trafalgar Square. The sun was hot, but he had protection. Happy London Pride!

btw apologies for the sideways pic - cannot figure out how to turn it round!