Something for the Weekend
All posts by Keith
Oddity of the Week: Victorian Slang
Just like every other age the Victorians had a wide variety of slang, much of which has not survived. For example:
Bang up to the Elephant
This phrase originated in London in 1882, and means “perfect, complete, unapproachable”.
Bags o’ Mystery
An 1850 term for sausages, “because no man but the maker knows what is in them”. The ‘bag’ refers to the skin in which the chopped meat is contained.
Mutton Shunter
This 1883 term for a policeman is so much better than “pig”.
Find more at 56 Victorian Slang Terms That We Should Definitely Bring Back.
Book Review: Bare Reality
Laura Dodsworth
Bare Reality: 100 Women, Their Breasts, Their Stories
Pinter & Martin; 2015
This is a fascinating book in which 100 women share un-photoshopped photographs of their breasts alongside honest, courageous, powerful and sometimes humorous stories about their breasts and their effect on their lives. The women come from all walks of life: from a Buddhist nun to a burlesque dancer; ages ranging from 19 to 101; everything from a 32AAA to a 36K bust; entirely natural through surgically enhanced and surgically reduced to bilateral radical mastectomy.
The cover blurb suggests the book will make you reconsider how you think and feel about your own body as well as those of the women in your life. And yes, it may for those who have not thought about these things before. Has it for me? I don’t think so, but the jury is still out. But these women’s perspectives and experiences are certainly revealing, intimate and at times moving.
The stories recounted cover the whole range:
- I hate my breasts — I love my breasts
- I wish they were bigger — I wish they were smaller
- They’re totally non-sensitive — they’re so sensitive it’s painful
- They don’t do anything sexually — they’re my most erogenous feature
- Breastfeeding is so gross — I love breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding is what they’re for — sex is what they’re for
- I love bras — bras are the work of the Devil
- I hated them, so a had them enhanced; now they’re horrible and I hate them more
- I could never have them enlarged/reduced — can’t understand why everyone doesn’t have a boob job
- This is the first time I’ve ever shown them to anyone — I’m nude all the time
- How is it men never learn what to do with our breasts but my girlfriend just knows?
- And of course, why are (most) men so fixated on breasts?
Probably everyone would agree there are a small number of real stunners (though we probably wouldn’t agree which ones) and there are an even smaller number of horrors (like one spectacularly bad boob job); but the vast majority are just breasts — normal breasts — just like you’d see on any topless beach; nothing to get hung up about.
Which is all very much as one might expect so I can’t say I was struck by anything at all surprising. Sad; pathetic; moving; joyous. Yes all of those. But no moment of “OMG how did I not know/suspect that?!”. And in a way I found that disappointing. I had expected there would be something profound about women and their breasts that had passed me by, but if so it isn’t revealed here.
That having been said I did find the book both interesting and compulsive reading. Whether you are male or female, if you want an insight into how women view their breasts this is a must read. I would commend the book to everyone, but especially to teenagers — of both genders, but boys especially — as an essential part of learning, understanding, cherishing and being completely comfortable with your, and everyone else’s, body. To which end we could now do with the equivalent books of male and female genitalia.
Oh, and do not expect the book to be titillating. It isn’t.
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
Photograph of the Week
This week another photograph from the archive. I took this Horse Chestnut blossom from the car while waiting at the traffic lights on the North Circular (A406) at Ealing Common.
Horse Chestnut
Ealing; April 2014
Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Something for the Weekend
Oddity of the Week: State Fair Food
In the US, summer is state-fair season, which means it is a time of sugar- and fried-fat-based comfort snacks that hardly ever appear anywhere except at state fairs. Recently reported examples include: caviar-covered Twinkie (Minnesota), mac-and-cheese cupcake (Minnesota), deep-fried Oreo burger (Florida), deep-fried gummy bears (Ohio), deep-fried beer (Texas) and old favourites such as chicken-fried bacon (Texas), spaghetti ice cream (Indiana), Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich (California), and nacho balls (Iowa; right).
As reported News of the Weird, Yahoo Food and Grub Street.
Quotes
It’s time for another selection of interesting, amusing and though-provoking quotes encountede over recent weeks.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
[Charles Darwin]
As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.
[Will Durant]
Apparently dudes are being jackasses on the internet again? Must be a day ending in “y”.
[@cjlemire on Twitter]
Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
[George Bernard Shaw (allegedly)]
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
[Friedrich Nietzsche]
When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is ignorance.
[Chuang Tzu]
As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.
[Haruki Murakami]
[W]e need to grow the fuck up … Society needs to come to terms with the fact that some of us like pleasurable pursuits. A person shouldn’t feel guilty or shame for being naked any more than someone should feel guilt or shame for enjoying a ripe peach … If it really bothers you, maybe you need to take a long look at yourself and figure out why it bothers you. Just because you’re offended doesn’t give you the right to keep someone from enjoying their own body and the environment.
[Mark Haskell Smith, Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist’s Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World quoted at https://naturistphilosopher.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/book-review-naked-at-lunch/]
Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn’t there, and finding it.
[Oscar Wilde]
I was reading a book which included the phrase “in these days of political correctness” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with political correctness. That’s just treating other people with respect.” I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect” and it made me smile. You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening. I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”
[Neil Gaiman]
The behaviour of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.
[Robert Conquest]
A measurement of length frequently used by Leonardo is the braccio. The word means ‘arm’, and is thus equivalent to the old English ell (no longer in use as a measure but still heard in ‘elbow’, which is where your ell bows).
[Charles Nicholl, Leonardo da Vinci: The Hights of the Mind]
Ten Things #20
In The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon she gives various lists of things, which are often long and detailsed. So as part of thinking up subjects for “Ten Things” I’ve taken Sei Shōnagon’s subjects and reused them — so some will appear here from time to time. This is the first.
Ten Things that Fall from the Sky
- Rain
- Meteors
- Aeroplanes
- Sunshine
- Morsels of roast pork (at least in the world view of our cat)
- Surprises
- Frogs (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animals)
- Autumn leaves
- Snow
- Bird shit
Weekly Photograph
A week or so ago when we met up with our friend Katy and her children for lunch in Ealing we also took a stroll in Walpole Park, where I spotted these magnificent Agapanthus.
Agapanthus
Ealing; August 2015
Click the image for a larger view
Your Interesting Links
And more, and more, and more
Yes, we are doing well at present for interesting links to items you might have missed the first time round. Here is the latest instalment, and again I promise you nothing too hard by way of science!
What is it that makes wet dogs smell so? Here’s a brief look at some of the chemistry.
There are definite advantages to being female, and if you’re a cat one of them is that you can have splotchy fur.
Most moths can only make noise by rubbing their legs or wings together, but the Death’s-Head Hawkmoth has a built-in flute. They also eat honey.
We all know that seeds can last a long time just by observing what happens when you turn over an undisturbed piece of ground. But how long can seeds really survive?
And from seeds we’re now on to food … We’re often told that western society eats too much meat and we should cut back. While this would undoubtedly be good for our health, can meat ever be eco-friendly?
Have you ever stopped to think about what cooking oil you use? Well some scientists have and the results may surprise you.
Scotch eggs originated in Scotland, didn’t they? Except they probably didn’t.
Who has ever had hiccups after a meal? Or maybe some other time? But why do we hiccup?
So now to some different aspects of lifestyle. What (if any) are the scientifically proven benefits of yoga? Julia Belluz looks at all the evidence.
I wonder how many of you already know these 9 facts about breasts? No, I didn’t!
How to improve your work-life balance by doing one simple thing? You can’t? Oh yes you can! It sometimes takes a bit of discipline, but I did it many years ago and it worked for me.
Next a couple (more) items — here and here — on why family nudity is actually healthy for kids. Girls especially are more likely to grow up with a good self-body image.
And now a quick shuffle across to the history room where first we find a piece on a little known relic of early 17th century London: the York House Water Gate.
Slightly later, but still on the Thames, a piece on the creation of the St Katharine Docks and how they changed the working of the docks.
And finally, from boats to trains. Here’s the low-down on the ghost trains of Britain.