Kate Summerscale is the author of the bestselling book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher , which was turned into a telly series. I haven’t read the book or seen the series. But after reading The Haunting of Alma Fielding , I’ll certainly need to add her work to my (growing) reading list. The beginning, middle and end—part 1, the ghost hunter, part 2, the ghost and part 3, the ghost—brings the reader from the pre-second-world-war offices of the...

Printed on a postcard, My Wife and Mother-in-Law, and distributed as a novelty by an unknown French artist (1888). They are both in the picture; find them? (p254-5). An old woman with a hooked nose, and her chin tucked into her fur coat is in one picture. The elegant young woman in the other. Initially, I couldn’t see the old woman, just the young. I tried rotating it. Blocking out parts of the picture and concentrating on where her long chin...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$3,394.00 ) Week - 36 Just a Quick Post! ------------- I’m back from vacation, got stuff to do home wise.. --------------------------------- Didn't want to skip the week as there were things actually happening. Natural Shrimp (SHMP) made a big run up during the week after revealing a very positive contract for distribution. On Friday one of the financial blogs pushed what amounted...

It’s been lovely to read a few Halloween / Samhain creeping onto the site. Keep them coming. Meanwhile, as usual, it’s very hard to choose just one Poem and Story of the Week so have a good of what’s been posted this week - there are lots of gems. Our Story of the Week has to be celticman’s Creeping F-ing Jesus. I suppose it’s very unusual to have Story of the Week twice in a row, but it’s so moving and well-written and you must read them if you...

One year ago this month we lost this chap, leaving a huge Chocolate Labrador-shaped hole in the hearts of everyone who knew and loved him. Ironically, we were just about to publish the first collection of stories about Packham, and his companion India, as a paperback to raise funds for TURN Education. Caroline, TURN's founder, decided we should go ahead, in Packham's memory. The original idea was to sell these at Open Days etc. but the pandemic...

The Trick, BBC 1, BBC iPlayer, Writer Owen Sheers and Director Pip Broughton. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0010s10/the-trick A drama based on a true story has to be factual—with lots of room for interpretation—for script writer Owen Sheers and Director Pip Broughton. Man-made climate change brought about by burning fossil fuels is simpler and more complex. We are reliant on experts to interpret the world for us. We are reliant on...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$3,377.97 ) Week - 35 Things That Go Bump in My Head! ------------- I wear a hard hat on the jobsite to avoid things that go bump on my head! --------------------------------- Dirt. There is value in dirt. Someone once told me real estate is the only commodity no one is making more of! We may assume therefore that most things of value extracted from said real estate are equally...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000xnzx/storyville-raising-a-scho... Since 1970, 1677 school shootings in the US, ranging from pre-school to high schools. 528 deaths and 1626 injuries. Sue Klebold (Colorado). Tom, there’s a shooting going on at Columbine. They think that Dylan may be one of the shooters. I heard through the window them saying that there was 25 dead. And if Dylan was hurting people, in the way I thought he was, I prayed he...

This is more difficult every week, in my experience. Story of the Week among some stiff competiton is Celticman's 'Vermin', a powerful piece leavened by some of Jack's deft comic touches. https://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/vermin Poem of the Week goes to Gothicman's 'The Senile Neurologist.' Best read aloud to appreciate its scansion and flowing rhymes, it is both funny and sad at the same time, which is no bad thing. https://www.abctales...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$3,396.55 ) Week - 34 Things That Annoy Me! ------------- Drivers who stop at the end of the on ramp, People who drink lite beer, Cowboy’s fans! --------------------------------- Trying to think of all that is annoying in life can be a time consuming endeavor. I drive frequently so many of my favorite annoyances are travel related. I drove ride share for a couple of years before the...