August 18th: Today in 1587 Virginia Dare became the first English child to be born in America. She disappears from history shortly after with the rest of the Roanoke colony. Cute ‘Indian’ story about her here. Anyway, regardless of what happened to her, what a cool name! Virginia Dare! You can imagine a great set [...]

August 17th: Today in 1896 Bridget Driscoll became the first person to be killed by a car. She was struck by a car zooming at the insanely wild speed of 4 miles per hour, though there was talk that the driver may had raced his engine up to 4.5 mph! Madman! Anyway, we can only [...]

Summer Morning Nottingham Canal

Originally uploaded by Tancread.

This is a shot taken as I walked to work this morning on the Nottingham Canal Tow Path. Clear skies, mid 50s with just a bit of mist coming off the water.

August 16th: Today in 1977 Elvis Presley died in his home in Memphis. ‘They’ often say you are either a Beatles fan or an Elvis fan, if I were stuck on a desert island with complete collection of either I would probably take the Elvis collection, as it is bigger….. I like the Beatles about [...]

August 15th: Today in 1057 MacBeth is killed in battle by Malcom III. Them what lives by the sword, dies by the sword. Arrrrr. Sorry, just starting my warm up for for this year’s talk like a pirate day which my family celebrates every year.

National Lampoon is still around! Who would’ve thunk it? I thought they went out of business when I moved on to the Onion. Apparently they make bad movies now and piss off Comedy Central with ad spoofs. Comedy Central, understanding satire, hit back with this. National Lampoon responds with this. The excitment never ends! To [...]

August 14th: Today in 1040 Macbeth becomes King of Scotland by killing King Duncan the first. Apparently not a bad king despite the play….

I enjoyed the original Star Trek. I also liked some episodes of some of the follow on shows, but on the whole I have found all the follow ons to be waaay to sanctimonious and preachy. Here is a nice essay from someone who comes to the same finding while looking at some of the [...]

Werner Herzog has a new documentary movie out about, wait for it, a guy who gets eaten by bears!

August 13th: Today in 1942 the movie Bambi premiered at the Radio City Music Hall. One of the better Disney films this one features more real emotion and danger than most later Disney movies. It also of course has done incredible harm to animal control in America as many American’s only see Bambi when they [...]