All About Eve was voted by The Independent to be the best film ever made. Directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz, the story concerns theatre but is truly about the snake pit that was Hollywood at the time of the film’s release, 1950. The protagonist of the film is an aspiring actress, Eve Harrington, who becomes the secretary, then understudy, then rival of the first lady of the theatre, Margo Channing. Eve is false to the core but exudes a vulnerability that fools all bar Margo’s dresser who sees through her act. The film examines two universal types of woman: the one who is afraid of aging, and the young woman who is waiting to replace her. This is perfectly articulated by Margo: “There’s one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not…being a woman. Sooner or later, we’ve got to work at it, no matter how many other careers we’ve had or wanted.”
The cast of the film are simply fantastic! Bette Davis is wonderful as Margo Channing, eyes lighting up like danger lamps at the smallest sign of a challenge. Anne Baxter is brilliant is Eve, and George Sanders is perfect as the cynical theatre critic Addison deWitt, winning himself an Oscar as a result. You seriously have to head to sky.com/hd and watch All About Eve.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria was a tower built on the island of Pharos at Alexandria in Egypt between 280 BC and 247 BC. It was built with the purpose of guiding sailors into the harbour there when daylight was no longer there. For many centuries, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the tallest man-made structures on Earth and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Lighthouse was lit by a fire as it was a little too early in history for gu10 led bulbs! After Alexander the Great died at aged 32 of a fever, Ptolemy Soter announced himself king in 305 BC and ordered the construction of the lighthouse shortly after. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was completed during the reign of his son, Ptolemy Philadelpho. It is reported by Strabo that Sostratus had a dedication inscribed on the lighthouse in metal letters reading “Saviour Gods”. This has not been verified however, and in 2 AD, Lucian the satirist wrote that Sostratus in fact inscribed his own name onto the lighthouse.
Today on my iPad I learnt all about Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. I treat my iPad to all the best iPad accessories as I use it so often and for such a variety of activities.
The play has generated much criticism from the feminist camp. Katherina’s final speech is read as being offensively patriarchal and feminist. Indeed as Stevie Davies writes, the response to the play “is dominated by feelings of unease and embarrassment, accompanied by the desire to prove that Shakespeare cannot have meant what he seems to be saying; and that therefore he cannot really be saying it”. The play is simply too harshly misogynistic, a celebration of female submission and of patriarchy.
Dana Aspinall asserts that an Elizabethan audience would similarly have been shocked by the play’s harsh misogyny. “Since its first appearance, some time between 1588 and 1594, Shrew has elicited a panoply of heartily supportive, ethically uneasy, or altogether disgusted responses to its rough-and-tumble treatment of the 'taming' of the 'curst shrew' Katherina, and obviously, of all potentially unruly wives.”
It is unsure where grandfather clocks first received their name, ‘grandfather clock’. The term appears in John Dryden Ovid’s 1817 son, ‘Ovid’s Art of love, Remedy of love, Art of beauty, and Amours’. The song goes as follows; "My grandfather's clock was too big for the shelf,/ so it stood 90 years on the floor;/ it was taller by half than the old man himself,/ though it weighed not a pennyweight more./ it was bought on the morn of the day he was born/ and was always his treasure and pride,/ but it stopped short-never to go again-/ when the old man died."
The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the name ‘grandfather clock’ to an 1876 song called ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’ however. The origins of the term are unsure. Unlike herrenuhren watches, grandfather clocks commonly measure 1.8-2.4 metres tall and are weight-driven pendulum clocks. The grandfather clock as we now commonly perceive it was developed in 1670 by English clockmaker William Clement.
Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt (2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian author and adventurer pertaining to the Republic of Venice. Casanova’s autobiography, Histoire de ma vie (Story of my Life) is held to be one of the most authentic sources of the norms and customs of 18th century European social life.
Love and sex, for Casanova and his contemporaries of the upper class, were casual and not associated with the seriousness of the 19th century Romantics. For nobles who married for social connections rather than love, bedroom games, flirtations, and short-term liaisons were common. Casanova’s personality was ruled by his ever present sensual urges; “Cultivating whatever gave pleasure to my senses was always the chief business of my life; I never found any occupation more important. Feeling that I was born for the sex opposite of mine, I have always loved it and done all that I could to make myself loved by it.” Casanova also noted that he used “assurance caps” at times to prevent impregnating his many women. I am sure he must have ordered a flower delivery for one of his numerous mistresses!