Cindy Adams' Colonial Christmas

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NY Post's Page Six doyenne Cindy Adams does Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg.

In an era of gents in knee breeches and powdered wigs (men shaved their heads as was the fashion to adorn fancy headpieces of braided ponytail with bowed curl to the side - the swankier the ringlet the greater their female adoration) and ladies in frill bonnets, white aprons, ample cleavage and ankle skirts are to be found in America's premier living history museum.

The menu - "Josiah's Cook's soupe", fowl and veggie "Burnnswick stew" and "sallet" of cucumbers, greens, tomatoes, carrots. 

Huge Dutch ovens stand mid-room with drapes around the bed to retain warmth ... are minor highlights of stepping back in time to 17th century Virginia.

The visit of a lifetime.  The birth of a nation.

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

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was in 1897.

Archival letters and documents reveal the controversies of that extravaganza of 114 years ago.

The illumination and fireworks displays were thought dangerous and a public risk.

Plans to illuminate the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral were modified for the fire hazard it posed.

Well wishers were banned from standing on roof tops for fear of folks falling from the buildings.

A terror threat from royal anarchists meant extra police came out of retirement to ensure public peace.

A row concerning who should cover the cost of the celebration in which the Queen insisted that the Ministers contribute to the day after the immense cost of her diamond jubilee of 1887.  The threat of her cancellation was a concern if she should discover that the Privy purse was on the line to cover all expenses.

The government and Buckingham Palace were forced to modify expenses.

These and other issues preceded the staging of a successful event of which the Queen was well pleased.

Where is Jimmy Hoffa Buried?

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The never-ending undying mystery in the disappearance of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Four decades in his driver reveals Hoffa was bumped off by a mob enforcer and buried in the concrete foundations of the General Motors HQ's in Detroit, Michigan.

He was the boss for 13 years 1958-1971 and off to a meeting with two of his "own people" when he disappeared for good.  The building in question was under construction at that time.

Buried in wet cement.

The book the Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob lays out the life and times of Marvin Elkind - loan collecter, boxer, police informant and mystery buster.

Hadrian's Villa

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Hadrian's Villa ... 

major historic Italian treasure is mired in controversy as officials debate the location of a landfill near the complex. 

Erected by Emperor Hadrian to escape the stench of Rome in the second century AD ~ 18 hundred years later the ruin risks the ravages of pollutants and waste odor from a land fill.

The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Respect the history! paper peddling politi-hacks.

The Snowflake Man

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Perseverance matters...

The first man to photogragh the microscopic snowflake rigged his camera and microscope to photograph thousands of delicate snow crystals he manipulated with the aid of a feather. 

Wilson Bentley of Vermont followed his life's passion and curiosity ~ he educated the world of the fact that no two flakes are alike along with a bounty of beautiful images attesting to nature's magnificent design.

The Roman Colosseum

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The Colosseum crumbling?

Roman officials deny any major disintegration.

Although nearby traffic and subway activities must be hastening any perceived damage to its foundation .... modernity ... who needs it! 

The Dark Side of Dickens

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Soon it will the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens- unsurpassed literary genius whose influence through words forever defined the way we connote Christmas.

Great orator of the Victorian Age.

His Dickensian characters like Mr. Pickwick, Fagin, Miss Havisham, Mr. Micawber, Scrooge, Uriah Sweep, Mrs. Gamp,Wackford Squeers and Mr. Murdstone, David Copperfield, Merdle, Lady Dedlock and Mr. Pecksniff are of cheery memory but he was tortured by the ghosts of his childhood.  He was defensive, cruel to wife and dismissive of his children - a Victorian retinue of social mobility, sexual hypocrisy and tortured genius.  His critics were many but we have surpassed the literary snobs of his age.

His is a triumph of imagination.

Having created his singular vocabulary that is now part of modern language and culture, he explored the poverty, class rigidities, injustics, hypocrisies and easy disposition to criminality of that era. 


A body of work comparable to Shakespeare only ~ Dickens like the great playwright is unknowable despite the many biographies and studies undertaken in his name.

The Korean War

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The Korean War lasted three years.

LIFE magazine has revealed never seen photos from the front lines ~ the conflict took 700,000 lives.

North Korea turned communist in 1948 that led to an emotional and physical clash in 1950 in which allied troops were lost heavily.



Korean prisoner exchange



1880s Gold Rush Artifacts

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Seventy artifacts of the California Gold Rush have been unearthed in San Francisco - they include clay opium pipes, French perfume bottles, animal bone toothbrushes, ceramic tea pots from China, English serving dishes, apothecary jars, porcelain dolls and chamber pots.

The items were used in the clapboard houses on Mission, Natoma and Minna Streets between First and Beale occupied by Irish, Swedish, German, Italian and Chinese immigrants.

The California Gold Rush began at Sutter's Mill near Coloma on 24 January 1848.

7500BC Bracelet

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A 9,500 year old obsidian bracelet made of volcanic glass displays craftmanship equal to anything found in a modern age unearthed in a recent excavation.  The piece sheds light on the mysterious Neolithic societies or New Stone Age that peaked in the seventh and sixth millenia BC.

Bawdy Christmas

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Bawdy cards on display for first time in 70 years!

Mayan Doomsday

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Mayan Calendar's end-of-the world countdown to the final day of human existence begins today.

Intolerance by any other name is Intolerance

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Ignorance, prejudice, bigotry or sin know no religion, repudiating integrity
if we hate one faith, we hate all
refusing to accept others as they believe corrupts our purpose as manifestly perceived.

Islamophobia is the message of intolerance, is fear-mongering,
doing unto others as we would have them not do to us.
Contradicts inherently,

Refusing the freedoms of others
          will lead us all to live unfree in the end.

Acts of belligerance will all fail and never stem the exchanges of hate.

Save All-American Muslim on TLC.

visit http://www.myfellowamerican.us/ and share why this opportunity deserves its turn on your TV.

Nazi Past Exposed

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A Nazi sympathizer who was a historian who posed as a resistance hero has been exposed by Israeli and German researchers.

Karl Bosl used a web of lies and half truths to replace his pro-Nazi past with the image of a brave opponent of the Reich by taking onto himself the story of an executed resistance fighter.  Fooling Allied occupying forces in the town of Ansbach he spent decades carefully solidifying his cover.

A book in English and titled, Karl Bosl and the Third Reich has been penned by the researchers Kedar and Herde.

Bosl died in 1993.

Hall That Jazz

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Vanity Fair expertly covers 55 years of New Orleans Jazz as we revisit the wonderous contribution of Preservation Hall to all that jazz!

The Egos Have Landed

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Roger Lewis covers the celebrity biographies of the year:

Including James Curtis' biography of Spencer Tracy ... his times as a drunk and his life changing affair with Hepburn, warts and all. 

Other books are Dyan Cannon's story of Cary Grant and Barbara Sinatra's memories of Frank.

The Moon

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An invaluable archive?

... of the solar system's 4.5 billion year history to be revealed by the meticulous sampling of its lunar craters.

Dicken's Six Gifts to the World

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Inimitable writer of the nineteenth century, Charles Dicken's gifts transcended the annals of literature.

His influence includes the concept of a white Christmas he invented into a cultural phenomenon; Dickensian poverty; the idea of the cinema; a trove of literary characters and more ....

intriguing, no?

La Peregrina

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A pearl's historic journey from Napoleon to Taylor.

A 55 carat, tear drop pearl - La Peregrina - was discovered in the 1500s by an African slave at the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama and became part of the Crown Jewels of Spain in the time of King Phillip II.  Passed to Phillip III it was handed down through the generations until 1808 when Emperor Napoleon named his brother Jose the King of Spain.

With the Crown Jewels in his hands, Jose gifted the pearl to his wife, Julie Clary.  When the marriage dissolved the gem was taken to the United States by Napoleon and later bequeathed to Napoleon III, ruler of the second French empire.  Upon his deposition and arrest, he sold the pearl in England to James Hamilton, later the Duke of Abercorn ... until 1914,

... tumbling forward to 1969 when Richard Burton purchased La Peregrina at auction for his wife of five years, Elizabeth Taylor - outbidding an envoy of the Spanish Royal family sent to recover the jewel.

more adventure tales when Taylor pet ate La Peregrina
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/liz_pet_ate_precious_pearl_VTKn0nCN1vAuhMDnMGbv9H

Culture of Silence

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Since 1945, the Netherlands have been the arbiters of a secret in which tens of thousands of paedophilia victims at the hands of Roman Catholic Priests were ignored.

In orphanages, boardings schools and seminaries country wide, abuse was systematically covered up to protect the reputation of the church.  A scandal more widespread than that in Ireland.

Elizabeth Talylor

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Elizabeth Taylor auction is a resounding, runaway success!

Nazi Recreation in Norway

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Photos have emerged of German soldiers hamming it up in Norway, taken four months before the holocaust in that country.  Beginning in November 1942 the Jewish population were sent to the death camps.

Nazi leader Reichskommisar Josef Terboven is pictured in many of the photos - as ruler of Norway during the occupation, he was hated by both the Norwegians and his own men.

An album compiled by an anonymous source and seized by Allied service men as a souvenir after the war sought to undermine the view of the Reich as violent and murderous.

The album will be auctioned today.

Cleopatra Wig

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The Wig worn by Elizabeth Taylor in 1963's Cleopatra ~ the most famous in film history ~ will go on sale and is expected to fetch 10,000 pounds.

Hottest Women of All Time

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In a recent voted list of the Hottest Women of All Time, Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch topped the list at #3 and #2 respectively.

Beauty fades, style is forever.

Great Dickens Manuscript

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The manuscript of Great Expectations by the maestro wordsmith Charles Dickens has been reproduced!

Brought back to great life, the fragile 1861 manuscript is in its original binding and reveals Dickens' rewording of phrase - a tradition soon lost with the delete button on computers that wipe away any corrections or re-wording of brilliant writers for generations to come.  Lucky are we to have this tangible gift.

The bicentenary of his death occurs next February 2012.

Hitler's Desk

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A brass ceremonial desk on which Hitler wrote the Munich Pact before the second world war has sold at auction with more than a 1000 Nazi relics.

Auctioneers say the auction reveals a boom in the trade of Nazi relics.

Bronze Age Site

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A 3,000 year old Bronze Age site has proven that early Britons in East Anglia were skilled boat builders, sailors and accomplished fishermen.

The site revealed hundreds of objects including six boats, swords, spears, wooden spoons, beads, ropes, baskets of wicker and buckets.

The settlement is believed to have burnt in approximately 800BC.

"Titanic sank this morning"

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Eight telegrams sent by Bruce Ismay after the sinking of Titanic have been put up for sale.  Ismay was the managing director of Titanic's owner, the White Star Line shipping company.  His first message was sent eleven hours after the tragedy at 1:00pm on 15 April 1912, the others followed until April 18th.


Declared the "Coward of Titanic" for deserting the ship while women and children were aboard, admitted at a later enquiry that he looked away at the moment of Titanic's sinking - opiates were adminstered to Ismay to help him cope with the shock.


Once rescued by Carpathia, Ismay retired to the doctor's cabin where he remained until the ship's arrival in New York.  He resigned his position as head of the White Star Line and lived as a recluse until his death in Ireland in 1937, aged 75.


The auction of his telegrams and the responses from the New York office will be auctioned as part of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic, they are reported to be in mint condition.


The auction will take place on December 13th in New York.

Historic Vintage

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The oldest vintage in history, a 1,650 year old bottle of wine from 350AD has been on display for more than a century. Of Roman origin, the bottle is housed at the Pflaz Historical Museum in Germany.

A Steely Resolve

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See photographs of American resolve after the bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941- a tumult of activity followed the infamous attack as young Americans volunteered in droves for service at war.

A wonderful photographic record to be seen at the link.

The Unseen Portrait of Edward VIII in Royal Robes

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A portrait of the Coronation that never was .... the unseen portrait of Edward VIII before his abdication of the throne for the love of Mrs. Simpson in December 1936.

Comissioned for a special coronation issue for the Illustrated London News that never made it to news stands the coloured portrait was recently uncovered when the publishers moved officers.

Portrait at the link.

The Victorian Venus of Broadmoor

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Broadmoor Hospital for Criminally Insane

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Christina Edmunds

the murdering minx in 1906 ... a scheming image-obsessed temptress was the most notorious inmate of Victorian era Broadmoor hospital for the criminally insane.

These stories were resurrected by a senior archivist, granted unprecedented access - Mark Stevens' Broadmoor Revealed has become an internet hit!

The Dickensian cast also includes Dr. William Minor, paranoid surgeon and random killer; brilliant artist Richard Dad who murdered his father having mistaken him for the devil; or Edward Oxford, failed assassin of Queen Victoria who was labeled a 'hysterial imbecile' but learnt six languages including Latin and to play the violin in prison.

The "chocolate cream poisoner," Edmunds, remained at Broadmoor for 35 years, she was middle-class, educated and of independent means. Her symbol of obession was the married Dr. Charles Beard.  After her alleged near poisoining of Mrs. Beard - her pointless poisoning of random people eventually led to her undoing.

Was she mad? Debates raged that Edmunds was was a faker who got away with murder.

She was the Victorian venus of Broadmoor ... get it on your Kindle.

Marilyn's Corset

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A corset worn by the icon Marilyn Monroe is a valuable collector's item ~  the corset from the 1957 film Bus Stop has sold at auction for a tidy sum.

Google locates Rock n Roll Iconic Streets

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Remember iconic street scenes that epitomized rock n' roll history on famous album covers?  Google maps has located all these streets for posterity ~ check them out!

Winston Churchill

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Churchill is Britain's greatest gentleman of a hundred years.

Classic Films Starring Insurance

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Of all things in this world ... Insurance ... is my least favourite of these.

See classic films dedicated to the fraud, mystery and mayhem that truly brazen insurance scams can provide.

Double Indemnity  (1944)
Save the Tiger (1973)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Sleuth (1972)

Titanic Survivors

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A book on what happened to the survivors of that cataclysmic event.  A range of similar symptoms was telling behaviour now understood to be post traumatic stress disorder.  There were suicides.  And mental hospital stints. 

Silent screen actress Dorothy Gibson reenacted her survival in a quickly dispatched film on the catastrophe but the realities came crashing back and she later turned her back on acting for the rest of her years.

The socialites Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife became pariahs after they escaped in a life boat of 12 that easily held 65 people.  Blamed for failing to help save the lifes of some who perished.

The shadow of social stratification extended even to the collection of bodies of which first class corpses where brought back initially, while third class corpses received their burial at sea.

The much younger widow of John Jacob Astor, 19 year old Madeline lived a long and checkered life, she died mysterioulsy in 1940.

J. Bruce Ismay, Titanic's creator and author of the decision to short change the ship by 48 life boats that would have saved all who perished, he escaped on a life boat despite the gentleman's decree to save the women and children - he became a recluse hiding in stunned disbelief at the sinking of Titanic.

The wreck of Titanic overshadowed the lives of its 705 survivors.

The sinking of Titanic predicted the end of an opulent era of immense wealth and privilege ... the frst world war would soon follow to forever wipe away the wealth of many.

Hitler in Liverpool

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Evidence of Hitler's life in Liverpool in England.  The structure later flattened in Luftwaffe blitz.

Happy Birthday Mr. President

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Marilyn Monroe's breathless birthday song delivered in a sexed up whisper was the result of her last minute dash through back stage and harried search to find a stage entrance in time to sing happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy.

The real and mundane story behind this famous tale.

Versailles Face Lift

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St. Catherine's




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Restorers begin the painstaking work of bringing this 17th century master edifice back to life

Sinatra Estate

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Famous Sinatra estate for sale.

Chase Manhattan Bank heir Dora Hutchinson commissioned the house in the late 1940s ~ completed in 1951 the wealthy socialite used the house for massive A-list parties.

When she tired of the scene and fled for New York she left the house in the hands of her long term tenant Frank Sinatra.  And as we say ... the rest was history.

50 years later the simply named Farralone will be on the market.

The Dodge Dart

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not the Dart



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Dodge brings back the Dart ~ sold from 1960 - 1976 its latest incarnation is based on the Alpha Romeo Giulietta!

Starvation Recipes

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As the Greek people tighten belts for a bumby economy a timely recipe book Starvation Recipes with a compilation of WWII recipes has been published.

Historian Eleni Nikolaudou's research of 6,000 newspaper clippings that spanned the years 1941-44 while the Greek people endured Nazi rule is now a book.  Recipes that maximise savings with unusual indredients to create meals, sparing absolutely all waste - it is the go-to book when supplies falter and cash runs scarce.

Truly original contribution to knowledge.

African Americans in the Civil War

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Come And Join Us Brothers

The photographs are Life.com fantastic!