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Clip of the Week: April 17, 2024
On April 17, 2024 by ElyseYou’ve heard of the movie “Death at a Funeral,” but what about “Arrest at a Funeral?” While conducting a funeral in Woodgrane Park Cemetery, Joseph Barker, an undertaker, of Shoreditch, was arrested. Yesterday he was charged at Lambeth with feloniously receiving three pairs of feather plumes and three pairs of horse velvets, well knowing them
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Clip of the Week: March 20, 2024
On March 20, 2024 by ElyseAnd you thought losing the ring was the worst way the best man could ruin the wedding: An Essex clergyman has adopted a novel form of punishment for kissing. While a wedding was in progress the two principals rose from the chancel steps, where they had been kneeling, to advance to the rails of the
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Clips of the Week: February 21, 2024
On February 21, 2024 by ElyseI’m pleased to present the latest edition of Second Glance History’s wildly popular self-help series, with advice on everything from traveling, pickpocketing, writing, getting vaccinated and eating healthfully to breaking a lease, pulling off a practical joke, being a Good Samaritan, becoming a juvenile delinquent and breaking a world record. Today, we’re exploring personal finances
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Clip of the Week: February 7, 2024
On February 7, 2024 by ElyseThey say love is blind, but try telling that to the millions of single (and not-so-single) people on dating apps. In an era when getting a date for Valentine’s Day or any other day is purportedly easier than ever with thousands of potential partners at our fingertips, it can all feel a little superficial. Back
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Clip of the Week: December 27, 2023
On December 27, 2023 by ElyseGreetings from the future! This week, I’m blogging from The Land Down Under and preparing to ring in 2024 a few hours earlier than normal. Along with the usual champagne, dancing and hat ticklers, I’m celebrating with killer spiders, fish and snakes, copious amounts of vegemite and inexplicably, haunted church bells: A practical joker at
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Clip of the Week: December 13, 2023
On December 13, 2023 by ElyseThis year, Santa Claus is all about saving the environment. Instead of giving naughty children polluting coal—and delivering it with exploitative reindeer labor—he’s now sending sustainable, all-organic gifts through the postal system: Here is a regulation that forbids live animals being sent through the post, but in spite of that many curious Christmas gifts in
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Clip of the Week: November 1, 2023
On November 1, 2023 by ElyseIt never hurts to ask: William Walsh, a pensioner, and the oldest living veteran of the [American] Civil War, wrote to Congress saying that his consumption of tobacco was increasing with his years. He said that he was utterly unable to gratify his desire for smoking unless he received an additional twelve dollars monthly. The
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Clip of the Week: October 4, 2023
On October 4, 2023 by ElyseReason #37,852 not to wander into the wilderness alone: Mr. Farrier, the Colonial Secretary of Honduras [present-day Belize], while exploring the interior of the colony, was overtaken by a drove of peccaries, and was compelled to scramble up a tree, dropping his rifle in the performance. The whole pack gathered around his perch, grunting and
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Clip of the Week: September 6, 2023
On September 6, 2023 by ElyseWho needs to get around with planes, trains, automobiles, boats or even legs? The Barcelona correspondent of the Daily Mail reports that Louis de Rougemont has been completely eclipsed by Captain Wall, the sea crocodile tamer. The latter wagered that he would cross the sea from the Island of Majorca to Valencia, a distance of