A Public Service Announcement: You were warned! [thanks to Madam Arcati for stumbling across this one]
It's another snippets post today, dear reader:
- Bag madness news: Jane Birkin's original "Birkin Bag" recently sold in auction at Sotheby’s Paris for the gob-smacking sum of 8.6 million euros (£7.4m; $10.1m)! How ridiculous. It looks like a tatty old school satchel!
- God news: Stephen Sondheim's vast archive is now available to view at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. I wish. Maybe one day, one of our own venerable institutions - the British Library, perhaps - might be able to bring it for an exhibition over here in London...
- Because we can, can, can news: Bonnes nouvelles! The landmark sails at the legendary Moulin Rouge are turning again, a year after they unceremoniously collapsed.
- Down memory lane news: It's 75 years since Andy Pandy first came to play on our TV screens. Repeated for decades after its launch in 1950, it was indeed on telly when I was a tiny tot - and continued well into the 1970s, when they started making new episodes. [It's been remade since with CGI, for fuck only knows what reason.] And the inspiration for the beloved puppet's design came from a most unexpected source - a familiar face on our screens to this day.
- Woke-gone-mad kids' clubs news: Girl Guides can now earn badges for activities such as "fandoms", being a "booktivist" and sharing their "guiding sparkle", apparently. WTF?! Whatever happened to traditional badges like Cook, Cyclist, Dairymaid, Domestic Service, Embroidery, Entertainer, Horsewoman, Interpreter, Knitter, Laundress, Minstrel, Naturalist, Needlewoman, Poultry Farmer or Scribe?
- Royal traditions news: It's "Swan-Upping" season on the River Thames!
- And finally: RIP, the craziest-of-crazy frontmen of heavy rock, Mr Ozzy Osbourne!
Let's ROCK!!!
And the weather? Grey.
Here in sunny California, we've had several days that have been the unrelenting gray of a Swedish B&W movie from the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteIngmar Bergman is alive and well and living in San Francisco? Jx
DeleteAndy Pandy always gave me the willies. I hate ventriloquist dolls and marionette puppets. While we didn't have the show here daily, it was shown here and there in the wee hours of the morning on our public station.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that Andy Pandy crossed the Atlantic!
DeleteI'm not overly fond of ventriloquist acts, either. They were always around on telly when I was younger, as I recall - Ray Allen with "Lord Charles", Shari Lewis and "Lambchop", Keith Harris and "Orville", Roger de Courcey and "Nookie Bear", and so on. A hangover from the age of "variety" shows, I guess. Jx
Oh, I loved Andy Pandy! And I liked the other ventriloquist acts as well. I also loved Pipkins!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link!
Sx
Oh, Pipkins! That was a weird show... Jx
DeleteI love (good) ventriloquists! We both thank you for the great laugh we got from the first meme! I just reread it and laughed all over again! Sometimes you can just picture the scene.
ReplyDeleteI can picture me doing just that... Jx
DeleteI loved Andy Pandy and once you know who he was based on, the resemblance is amazing.
ReplyDeleteSome clever so-and-so in the puppet world should do an "old Andy Pandy" version, complete with one of Mr Atterbury's signature jackets! Jx
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