Obama Inauguration

Sarasota-Manatee Herald-Tribune (News Section)

dated Wednesday 21st January 2009

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This US broadsheet shaped newspaper is quite unfamiliar in the UK – our broadsheet size being the same depth but almost twice as wide.

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Barack Obama had defeated Republican candidate John McCain at the Presidential Election back in November 2008, but as is traditional, was not Inaugurated until January 20^th 2009. He was the first African-American to become President and for many this was far more important than the man’s politics.

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There was also a wave of relief that the dark days of Bush’s administration following 9/11 were over. Optimism was the order of the day and Obama the messiah who would lead the America people to a bright new future - give or take a financial meltdown or two!

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“Don’t look now, Michelle, but there’s a weirdo in the audience who thinks she can levitate.”

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Although born in Connecticut, George W Bush was raised in Texas and was Governor of the State before becoming, like his father George H W Bush, President. Since 2009 he has kept out of World affairs. Some would say ‘thank goodness’.

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There was a sigh of relief heard around the World when George W Bush finally left the White House. I believe that the West was in more danger during his Presidency than at any time since the Cuban Crisis of 1962.

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...Or to put it more succinctly.

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The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces to fly in combat when the Tuskegee 332nd Fighter Group saw action in Sicily and Italy in 1943.

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In October 2008 ex-‘American Idol’ finalist Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7 year-old nephew were murdered by Jennifer’s ex-brother-in-law William Balfour. He was sentenced to 3 terms of life imprisonment in July 2012. His father Raymond Balfour was sentenced to 30 years for murder in 1987.

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Gary McKinnon was accused of hacking into US Military computers in 2001 and 2002 and, amongst other charges, of deleting important files. In the atmosphere of paranoia and fear that followed the 2001 World Trade Centre attacks the British Government enacted the 2003 extradition treaty with the United States which did not require the United States to provide contestable evidence before requesting the extradition of a suspect. McKinnon and his supporters have spent the years since then fighting against his being sent to the USA.

I wonder how many millions of dollars the US Military spent on ‘security consultants’ when they set up their systems. They should be glad it was someone as comparatively ‘harmless’ as McKinnon who found a way in.

Random Ad - Trains to Southend (1930's)

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Day trip to Souffend? Plate of jellied eels on the pier? The wa'er splash at the Kursaal? And a ride on a puffer train? What more could ya want, Squire?

Random Cutting - Robert Service dies (1958)

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I'm not a poetry lover but when, many years ago, I read the opening lines of The Shooting of Dan McGrew I was hooked on Robert Service –

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a rag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.

My other favourite is ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’ –

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

Princess Margaret Wedding

Daily Sketch dated Saturday May 7th 1960

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In 1953 the new Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Margaret Rose, accepted a proposal of marriage from RAF Group Captain Peter Townsend. Unfortunately Townsend was divorced and with Margaret now 4^th in line to the throne, the Queen, the Church of England and the British Government all opposed the union. After a couple of years Margaret finally gave in and announced that she would not marry Townsend. In 1960 she decided to get hitched to society photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon). Their very stormy marriage lasted until 1978 when they finally divorced.

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The Queen not smiling at a State occasion, well there's a surprise.

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I think there is some photographic trickery going on here – I can definitely see a join across the middle. If only they had had Photoshop.

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Taxi driver Thomas Leslie Harvey decided to decorate his mother’s house as a surprise while she was in hospital. He opened a cupboard door at the top of the stairs and found a mummified body.

His mother, Sarah Harvey, had always told him that the cupboard contained some leftover items belonging to former wartime tenants.

64 year-old Sarah was questioned by the police and eventually identified the body as that of a former tenant Mrs Frances Knight, who was estranged from her husband. One night in 1940 Sarah found Mrs Knight dead and instead of reporting the death she put the body in the cupboard. Over the following years she carried on collecting Mrs Knight £2 weekly allowance from the Post Office.

In the subsequent trial Mrs Harvey was cleared of murder but was found guilty of obtaining money by deception and was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment.

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As mentioned before in this post, the Pop comic strip is one of my favourites. I must admit I didn’t realise it lasted so long, although this is obviously a different artist to the 1933 example. In fact I have just consulted the oracle and find that Pop’s creator John Millar Watt left the strip in 1949. It ended in this year of 1960.

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This small piece heralded one of the most famous spying incidents of the Cold War when CIA pilot Gary Powers was flying a U2 high altitude jet over Russia and was shot down on May 1st by a ground-to-air missile. Powers was tried, found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 10 years but was exchanged for a Russian KGB spy in 1962.

Back in the USA Powers was criticised for not using the self-destruct on the plane before ejecting and therefore letting the Soviets investigate the wreckage.

He was a civilian test pilot until 1970 and then became a helicopter pilot for TV companies. He was killed in a helicopter crash in 1977.

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In 1955 Peter O’Donnell (also creator of Modesty Blaise) and Alfred Sindall created the cartoon strip ‘Tug Transom’. It featured the adventures of a cargo boat captain (wow! move over James Bond) and lasted in the Sketch until the paper closed down in 1971.

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Lots of goodies here – ‘Ivanhoe’ starring Roger Moore, ‘Sea Hunt’ with Lloyd Bridges (father of Jeff and Beau), ‘M Squad’ with Lee Marvin, ‘77 Sunset Strip’, ‘The Four Just Men’ with one or more of Richard Conte, Dan Dailey, Jack Hawkins or Vittorio De Sica, ‘Colonel March of Scotland Yard’ with Boris Karloff sporting an eye-patch, ‘Dial 999’ with Robert Beatty and ‘Robin Hood’ played by Richard Greene.

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About 700 of the Fairthorpe Electron Minor kit cars were produced between 1957 and 1973. A partially restored 1960 Electron Minor would set you back about £9000 today. Ugly little thing, isn't it?

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The 1960 FA Cup Final was between Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wolves won with a 3–0 victory that included a Blackburn own goal.

Random Ad - Toffees (1910's)

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World War 1 advert for Mackintosh's Toffee-de-Luxe. All her fingers appear to be the same length and her nails are oddly short.

Random Cutting - Driving (1914)

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"By Gad, Sir, no jumped up little Napoleon is going to tell me how to drive, War or no War! Slow down? Use lights? Whatever next? Let the memsahib get behind the wheel? Tosh and nonsense! Pass the brandy!" 

Edward Heath Escapes Blast

The Daily Telegraph dated Wednesday October 23^rd 1974 (Miniature Edition)

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I think these miniature editions were printed as souvenirs for visitors, but I stand to be corrected.

This was part of the IRA’s sustained bombing campaign in England that followed the Bloody Sunday shooting by the British Army of 13 demonstrators in 1972. The campaign lasted though 1973 and 1974. Edward Heath was the Leader of the Conservative Party at the time of the bombing in Brooks Club, he had lost the General Election in February 1974 to Harold Wilson.

I can’t help but lose sleep over the use of the apostrophe in “Brooks’s”.

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John Dean served as the White House Counsel to US President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. He became involved in the plot to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building in Washington and the subsequent cover-up of Nixon’s involvement. When criminal charges were brought against all the key plotters Dean became the prosecution’s start witness. 

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As Vice President, Gerald Ford automatically became President of the United States when Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and he had become Vice President when Spiro Agnes had resigned over bribery allegations, so he was never elected. He later pardoned Nixon for his part in Watergate.

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The 29 year-old Palm Beach waiter Michael Wilson moved into 77 year-old millionaires Rachel Fitler’s mansion, but in December 1974 staff evicted him, against, according to Wilson, Miss Fitler’s wishes. They never married.

Rachel Fitler died in 1990. 

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Ah! Sun, sea and the Norwalk Virus for only £20 a day!

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The Stone of Scone had been stolen properly back in 1950. See this post.

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US comedian and King of the Slow Burn, Jack Benny died of cancer 2 months later on Boxing Day 1974.

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£81million taken and only £17million recovered - and they say crime doesn’t pay.

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The first Act to cover automatically processed personal data was the Data Protection Act of 1984 and has been replaced by the Data Protection Act 1998. How effective the legislation is can be judged by the number of companies, that you have never dealt with directly, that appear to know your phone number, e-mail address, age and how many payment protection policies you have had in the last 10 years.

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Edward Woodward was probably best known on TV as “Callan” and later as the star of “The Equalizer” and on film as the star of “The Wicker Man”.

Michele Dotrice, a regular on British TV sine 1961 was, of course, the ever put upon Betty in “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em”, which starred Michael Crawford.

Edward and Michelle married in 1987. He died in 2009.

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As mentioned above Edward Heath had lost the 1974 General Election back in February 1974 so this advert seems a bit on the late side. In fact the next Conservative to move into number 10 was Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

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Given the involvement of Private Detectives in the hacking scandals that led to the downfall of the ‘News of the World’ and to the Leveson Enquiry, the claim that such methods had been ended back in 1974 seems a little premature.

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I can just imagine that if that had happened today there would be a YouTube film going viral as we speak.