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cobrunstrom.bsky.social
William Hogarth died OTD in 1764 conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/w...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comWilliam Hogarth died OTD in 1764When we try to visualise the first half of the eighteenth-century, it’s William Hogarth that starts painting pictures inside our heads. Peter Brook’s little known movie of the The Begg…
On the Anniversary of Agincourt... Cry God for Harry, England and St George. But not too loudly. The 1979 BBC Henry V. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/o...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comOn the Anniversary of Agincourt… Cry God for Harry, England and St George. But not too loudly. The 1979 BBC Henry V.There’s a strong case for saying that Henry V is the most Machiavellian ruler in the Shakespearean canon – far more Machiavellian than Richard III who, after all, lost. David Gwillim, f…
Roll out the Barrel for Mrs Annie Edson Taylor's Birthday conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/r...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comRoll out the Barrel for Mrs Annie Edson Taylor’s BirthdayYes, it was ON THIS DAY that Mrs Edson Taylor became the very first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She got her cat to do it first and decided to go ahead after the cat emerged alive…
Roll out the Barrel for Mrs Annie Edson Taylor's Birthday conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/r...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comRoll out the Barrel for Mrs Annie Edson Taylor’s BirthdayYes, it was ON THIS DAY that Mrs Edson Taylor became the very first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She got her cat to do it first and decided to go ahead after the cat emerged alive…
Counter-Cartographies. October 22, 2026 conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/23/c...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comCounter-Cartographies. October 22, 2026The papers presented are the fruits of a Ulysses Hiberno-French funded project that considers relationality in the Capitalocene. The term “capitalocene” was forged when it became clear …
Reposting on what would have been Leonard Rossiter's 100th birthday. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/c...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com“Come Hither Hubert…”: The 1984 BBC Production of King John.King John was not a good man. He had his little ways. And sometimes no one spoke to him For days And days And days…. (A.A. Milne) This was Leonard Rossiter’s swan-song. I don’t b…
Kiss Me Hardy OR Happy Trafalgar Day conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/k...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comKiss Me Hardy OR Happy Trafalgar DayI had something of a Nelson obsession as a child. Part of it involved having annual holidays on the Isle of Wight – which meant that pausing to visit the HMS Victory on the way was something…
Sensation. By Colin Graham. Like and Unlike. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/20/s...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comSensation. By Colin Graham. Like and Unlike.Full disclosure. There are some arresting and superficially compelling similarities between this life and my own. I am reading about someone whose adolescent socialisation was dominated by evangeli…
"And Swift expires a driveler and a show..." On this day in 1745. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/a...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com“And Swift expires a driveler and a show…” On this day in 1745.Except that he didn’t. Swift certainly died on this day in 1745 (OS), but there’s no record of his driveling especially, and nor was he a “show”. People did not pay good m…
Jonathan Swift and "satiric touches". The 2026 Jonathan Swift Symposium. The dark side of haptic learning. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/18/j...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comJonathan Swift and “satiric touches”. The 2026 Jonathan Swift Symposium. The dark side of haptic learning.“He gave the little wealth he had To build a house for fools and mad; And show’d by one satiric touch, No nation wanted it so much. That kingdom he hath left his debtor, I wish it soon …
Happy Birthday Sexy John Wilkes conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/h...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comHappy Birthday Sexy John WilkesHappy Birthday John Wilkes, forever young, forever ugly. forever sexy. I may have blogged about “Wilkes and Liberty” already. But this is me blogging on “Sexy Wilkes”. In…
Marie Antoinette was abbreviated OTD in 1793 conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/m...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comMarie Antoinette was abbreviated OTD in 1793Her husband had been done back in January. Marie Antoinette was guilty of a great many things. She was culpably foolish, recklessly extravagant and lacking in any sense of social responsibility. Sh…
100 years of Michel Foucault? The "How" of Power. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/15/1...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com100 years of Michel Foucault? The “How” of Power.Born OTD in 1926. A colleague of mine once said – the difference between Derrida and Foucault is that you can actually describe on an A4 piece of paper what Derrida is about but it is very di…
My Dad's never to be forgotten birthday. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/m...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comMy Dad’s never to be forgotten birthday.I’ve been trying to find an image of the sort of calendar that my Dad would buy in bulk and distribute to his friends and extended family every Christmas. It didn’t quite look like this…
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. #CanadianThanksgiving conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/g...
Showtime. Reflections on the proposed restoration of Public Executions. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/10/s...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comShowtime. Reflections on the proposed restoration of Public Executions.If I absolutely, positively, had to be executed – by any means and at any point in history – I believe I would elect to be hanged by Albert Pierrepoint and his team at Pentonville Priso…
59 Years without Clement Attlee conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/10/08/5...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com59 Years without Clement AttleeYes, Clement Attlee died 59 years ago today. There’s a lot of love for Attlee these days, and rightly so. And a surprising variety of people want a piece of him. Even Theresa May invoked h…
We'll Always have Paris: Lord Edgware Dies, by Agatha Christie - pondered. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/w...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comWe’ll Always have Paris: Lord Edgware Dies, by Agatha Christie – pondered.The first anti-semitic suggestion appears about three pages into the book. This same insinuation is central to the plotting of the whole narrative insofar as the eagerness of a Jewish person to acq…
Whaaaah, whaaaa, whawawah whawawa Whaaaa, whaaaa, whawawah etc. etc. "Love Me Do" was released OTD in 1962. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2022/10/05/w...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comWhaaaah, whaaaa, whawawah whawawa Whaaaa, whaaaa, whawawah etc. etc. “Love Me Do” was released OTD in 1962.1962. The Beatles’ first single release. Some people remembering this event were underwhelmed by “Love Me Do”. John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi was sniffy about it, though she was fa…
Yawn, so-called "trigger warnings" and Shakespeare. And privilege. Lots of privilege. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/10/04/y...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comYawn, so-called “trigger warnings” and Shakespeare. And privilege. Lots of privilege.I was rather sad to read that the very wonderful Felicity Kendall has taken exception to learning that the RSC’s all female production of Julius Caesar directed by Phylida Lloyd comes with co…
Stooky Bill. The World's First Television Star. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/s...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comStooky Bill. The World’s First Television Star.On this day in 1925, “Stooky Bill” became a sort of star of a sort of version of television. Transmitted as an image from John Logie Baird’s laboratory in Hastings, “Stooky…
Proportional Representation. Building supra-majorities? conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/09/30/p...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comProportional Representation. Building supra-majorities?The reaction to Andy Burnham’s speech yesterday got me thinking about my experience with the Irish voting system. Going PR is a bit like buying an EV – I think. It’s a bit initial…
Nelson must fall? It's his birthday today. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/09/29/n...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comNelson must fall? It’s his birthday today.There are lots of Nelsons. Dublin’s Nelson fell back in 1966. Montreal still has a Nelson, though he tends to go unnoticed. If London’s Nelson ever falls, it will be from a great hei…
And in the end... Happy Birthday Abbey Road conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2019/09/26/a...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comAnd in the end… Happy Birthday Abbey RoadYes, it was released OTD in 1969 – the proper “last” Beatles album. Let It Be was released in 1970, but it was recorded (almost entirely) in early 1969 and in trying and stressfu…
The Lifeboat. Hell is Other People. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/09/25/t...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comThe Lifeboat. Hell is Other People.I’d never seen this before. How did it take me so long to see it? Like Rope and Rear Window, this is a film that makes a very cinematic virtue out of a fixed location. Perhaps only Sydney Lum…
Happy Anniversary of "The Devil's Tower" becoming a US National Monument. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/h...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comHappy Anniversary of “The Devil’s Tower” becoming a US National Monument.I’ve never seen it in the flesh (and it looks more like flesh than rock). In my mind’s eye of course it’s made of mashed potato – its grooves painstakingly applied by Ric…
Happy Birthday Augustus (OTD - 63 BCE) conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/09/23/h...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comHappy Birthday Augustus (OTD – 63 BCE)I can’t remember when I’d not heard of Augustus. The French historian Louis Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemonts declared of him in 1688: “Il suffice de remarquer ce qu’on a dit, que il ne d…
Anyone feeling like helping me make up a panel on Irish oratory on the eighteenth-century for the Zaragosa conference next year? @ecisociety.bsky.social #ECIS
Happy Birthday Lord Chesterfield. You can always depend on a parent's conditional love... conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/h...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comHappy Birthday Lord Chesterfield. You can always depend on a parent’s conditional love…There was one thing Chesterfield made absolutely clear to his son – his “natural” i.e. illegitimate son that is. Essentially he reiterated the point that ‘I’m not you…
Being beaten by giants. Toxic nostalgia and survivor bias. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/09/21/b...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comBeing beaten by giants. Toxic nostalgia and survivor bias.Why is it so hard to imagine that life might be made better for generations yet to come? Why is it so hard to celebrate examples of how life really is better now than it was? As a child in the 1970…
Trust Nobody. Fifty years of Televisual I Claudius conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/09/20/t...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comTrust Nobody. Fifty years of Televisual I ClaudiusYes, I Claudius debuted OTD in 1976. I was but a child. But for some strange reason, I was allowed to watch it. “History Innit” must have been the excuse. Having rewatched the series (a…
For the Anniversary of Fawlty Towers, first broadcast OTD in 1975, I give you The Fawlty Code - a deliberately stupid and paranoid numerological Dan Brown thriller. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2015/09/19/f...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comFor the Anniversary of Fawlty Towers, first broadcast OTD in 1975, I give you The Fawlty Code – a deliberately stupid and paranoid numerological Dan Brown thriller.OTD in 1975, the first episode of Fawlty Towers was first screened. A few years ago I scribbled this – a kind of over-extended joke about paranoid conspiracy theories. This comes in chapter…
Why we love Samuel Johnson. On this his birthday. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/w...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comWhy we love Samuel Johnson. On this his birthday.Samuel Johnson shares a birthday with Christopher Ricks. And Russ Abbot. That’s pretty special. He also shares a birthday with Matthew Prior’s death day. Matthew Prior died on Samue…
Tobias Smollett died OTD in 1771 and I've probably been unfair to him... conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/09/17/t...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.comTobias Smollett died OTD in 1771 and I’ve probably been unfair to him…Literature, said Roland Barthes, is what gets taught – which means that eighteenth century literature is radically different from what it was when I was an undergraduate. When I was a student…