Time to banish the family to the bottom of the garden so you can get on with this “important work”
Happy invoicing!
- A High-End Mover Dishes on Truckstop Hierarchy, Rich People, and Moby Dick - Finn Murphy moves rich people's possessions around the USA: ”At the top of the pass, high up in my Freightliner Columbia tractor pulling a spanking-new, fully loaded custom moving van, I reckon I can say I’m at an even 12,000 feet… The man I’m moving, known in the trade as the shipper, has purchased a $25 million starter castle in a hypersecure Aspen subdivision. He figures, no doubt accurately, he’ll be safe behind the security booth from the impecunious widows and mendacious foreign creditors he ripped off, but I digress. I’m looking downhill for brake lights. I can probably slow down, but there’s no chance of coming to a quick stop. If I slam on the brakes I’ll either crash through the vehicle in front of me or go over the side.”
- ‘You don’t understand, Captain. He has a gun’: The hijacking of Flight 1320 - The hijacking of a short-haul flight in 1970 led to profound changes in air travel security: ”There were no indications that Eastern Flight 1320 from Newark to Boston 50 years ago would turn into a skyjacking, much less one that would help reshape how we fly… Before it, the major carriers could get away with treating the threat of hijacking as barely more serious than an air traffic delay, and with letting passengers walk onto planes without even bothering to screen them. After it, everybody knew better.”
- Hemingway Was Once Quarantined with his Wife... and Mistress - ”The true story of how Ernest Hemingway, his wife Hadley, his mistress Pauline Pfieffer, his son Bumby, and the nanny spent a summer on lockdown.” And you thought you had it bad
- At the Very Beginning of the Great Alaska Earthquake - In 1964, the second-largest earthquake ever recorded (it was the largest at the time) struck Alaska. Jon Mooallem records people's first impressions as it happened: ”The world and everything in it appeared to be convulsing. Genie’s eyes were seeing it, but her mind couldn’t organize all the discordant information into a coherent story. Suddenly, through the windshield, she watched the road roll away from the car. The pavement didn’t break apart; it was still solid. But it rolled, wavelike, as though some humpbacked shadow creature were surging under its surface, heading for town.”
- LACO At Home - Unable to perform for live audiences in the current situation, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is making its concerts available online: ”The coronavirus pandemic may prevent us from gathering together to share music in person, but current circumstances will not prevent LACO from providing you with exquisite, enduring, personal musical experiences. We are happy to announce that the musicians of LACO have generously volunteered to share a wide variety of audio and video options during this time.”
- The untold origin story of the N95 mask - ”How did a flimsy polymer cup become the most significant health device of the 21st century? It all started in 1910 with a little-known doctor who wanted to save the world from one of the worst diseases ever known.”
- Snag Films - For when you've finished iPlayer: ”For those of us looking to discover something different, SnagFilms has over 2,000 movies, TV show episodes, eye-opening documentaries and exclusive original comedy shorts. There is something to watch for everyone!”
- The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever - Yet more from the “you think you have it bad” department: ”Ole J. Benedictow describes how he calculated that the Black Death killed 50 million people in the 14th century, or 60 per cent of Europe’s entire population.”
- The polygons of DOOM: PSX - Fabien Sanglard has appeared here before with his reverse-engineering of old games (his books dissecting Doom and Wolfenstein 3D are worth reading too). Here, he explores how Doom was implemented on the original Sony Playstation: ”I regretted not being able to take a look at one mythical console of the mid-90s, the Sony PlayStation. I had the opportunity to touch upon it when I was writing the Game Engine Black Book: DOOM two years ago but I wanted to go deeper. My curiosity was so great that I decided to relax my rules and use DOOM instead of Another World at a pretext to dig in.”
- Splendid 20th Century Pictures of British Woolworths - ”The British version of F.W. Woolworth Company was founded by Frank Woolworth in Liverpool in November 1909… The first British shop opened at 25 – 25A, Church Street and 8, Williamson Street Liverpool [18] (the street addresses of the different entrances) on 5 November 1909 with a performance by a full orchestra, circus acts and fireworks.The shop was an immediate success with large queues outside.” This is the sweet counter at the Oxford Street store in December 1950, including delicious-sounding “Catarrh Pastilles”
Happy invoicing!
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