If it’s news to me, it must be news to you!
Still moving
Another busy week with the hoped-for house move so again a shorter than usual Sunday round-up.
Last words
Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland is selling a telegraph dubbed “Hitler’s suicide note” containing a final message from the Nazi leader which is expected to fetch up to £70,000.
Spudulike
Airbnb is offering you the opportunity to stay in a giant potato originally made to promote the Idaho Potato Commission.
Judge and jury
A senior judge was called up for jury service in a case he was about to preside over but when he pointed this out his appeal to be excused was refused.
Brief Lives
Mathematician Jack Leeming who co-founded the British Space Agency and taught maths at my old school; actor Ken Kercheval who played Cliff Barnes in Dallas; actor Edward Kelsey who played Joe Grundy in The Archers; Wagner’s granddaughter Verena Lafferentz who was close to Hitler; Mira Markovic the ‘Lady Macbeth of the Balkans’; sci-fi author Gene Wolfe; Watergate lawyer Jacob Stein and; former Celtic captain Billy McNeill, the first Briton to lift the European Cup.
“Hoped-for house move”? Is this a clue that you are moving to Hope in The Hope Valley? We all need to live in Hope though I would happily spend a few days in an Idaho potato. Good luck with the house thing. It is of course only done when you have the keys in your hand.
The Hope Valley would be a pleasant place to live, in fact, my wife’s gg-grandmother lived in Bradwell for many years married to the local tailor. However, we like the idea of moving to Buxton which puts you in the heart of the Peak District but with still plenty of things to see and do in the town. We have seen a place we like but it’s all down to how quickly we sell ours. Fingers crossed.
Good luck to you and yours with your house move plans, Mr P. This is no way a dig at your aspirations but wouldn’t you be surprised if someone in Alderley Edge or Bramhall revealed that they had always wanted to move to Harpurhey (or better still, Miles Platting)? No disrespect to the good folk who live in those Manchester suburbs but they must go to bed at night wondering how on earth they can get away from it all with hope of getting to the leafy lanes of Cheshire absolutely light years away. In tracing my family history, I found that my great grandfather had left his home in Kidderminster to work as an iron puddler in Tipton (just outside Birmingham). The area was described as one of the most congested, evil smelling places you could imagine – with the smoke belching out from the furnaces blotting out the sun. He must have thought that he had dropped lucky when he arrived in Dukinfield with its superb views of the canals, the gasworks and sewage works near Plantation Farm and the abattoir down Crescent Road.
My gg-granddad was an iron moulder and ended his days in West Bromwich having moved there from Ashton after his wife died in 1902 which I suppose is you g-granddad’s story in reverse!
Nowt as queer as folk, Mr P.
That would be interesting, a person as judge AND part of the jury.