Jenny Haniver

Bahama Hand Prints

Ruth Clarage

http://www.bagshawsstlucia.com/

Once an important source of wealth in the Greek islands. The sponge industry was centered in the Dodecanese island of Kalymnos. A variety of social and environmental mishaps led to the near collapse of Greek sponge fishing by the 1980s.

These and more via the totally committed people at divingheritage.com

(I decided to be very slightly lazy about preparing posts before I go on vacation, so this will be the first in a short series featuring traditional industries of Greece, which is where I am right now).

Apologies for the long absence – We’re up and running again on Wordpress through Jon’s diligent efforts.  Thanks to schwa for the many years of hosting service.

Now to get back in the habit of posting – I’m hoping to get in a few posts a week over the month of September, despite looming (but most welcome!) houseguests and vacation.

Server issues, I think. Sorry!

The Online Archive of California recently launched a redesigned Website, enhancing access to stuff like this:

In and around my hometown, 1852-1936.

British, 1735-1814.

“All the remarkable eccentricities which have yet been the characteristic of any man, however celebrated, may all hide their diminished heads before Martin Van Butchell.”

“He humorously paints [his] poney, some times all purple, often with purple spots, and with streaks and circles upon his face and hinder parts…His bridle is also exceedingly curious; to the head of it is fixed a blind, which, in case of taking fright or starting, can be dropped over the horse’s eyes, and be drawn up again at pleasure.

“After embalming [his wife's] body, he kept her in her wedding clothes a considerable time, in the parlour of his own house, which occasioned the visits of a great number of the nobility and gentry. It has been reported, that the resolution of his keeping his wife unburied, was occasioned by a clause in the marriage settlement, disposing of certain property, while she remained above ground: we cannot decide how far this may be true, but she has been since buried.” — The Lives and Portraits of Curious and Odd Characters: Compiled from Authentic Sources, T. Drew, 1852 via Google Book Search.

“Nevertheless, he was considered a good dentist for his time, and he was extremely popular with his patients.”

It’s rare that my obsession with fashion cults collides with my interest in legislative politics. Even rarer do I find occasion to agree with Trent Lott about something. But here it is:

“In the late 1990s, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott decided the time had come to revive a long-forgotten Senate sartorial tradition. He selected a “nice and warm” day in the second or third week of June to be designated Seersucker Thursday. “

Women Senators started participating in Seersucker Thursday in 2004, through the leadership of Dianne Feinstein.
“Seersucker is the South’s fashion gift to the nation,” said a Lott spokesman in 2007.

Well played: Ben Nelson, Dianne Feinstein and Trent Lott. Try again: Olympia Snowe (black?!?!?! stockings!?!?), and Norm Coleman in his clown suit.

Seersucker Thursday is usually the second or third Thursday in June, but I don’t think they announce it until the day before. For some reason I have a note that it will be June 11. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.