Interesting Articles

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Here's one I came across in the Times this morning about two married porn stars:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/fashion/for-kayden-kross-the-family-business-happens-to-be-porn.html?_r=0

'I met Manuel seven years ago on the set of my first porn shoot' is either a very bad or very good opening line. I'm still trying to decide.

EDIT: just finished the article. If Kayden Kross penned it herself, she's a competent writer.

Erica Ambler wrote:

If Kayden Kross penned it herself, she's a competent writer.  

I thought so, as well.

Of course, after reading the article, I had to do some extensive "research" on Ms. Kross.

I hope you made sure her figures were well rounded.

Damning article on Britpop by Taylor Parkes in The Quietus, with a focus on Blur's Parklife.

http://thequietus.com/articles/15092-blur-parklife-anniversary-review

Too much italicisation, needless swearing and so on, but might provide an answer or two to what Ambler wrote in the other thread.

Erica Ambler wrote:

There seems to be something else going on there, because every kid I meet tells me how much they like previous generations' stuff even though making music has never been easier or cheaper. I say go and make some fucking music of your own. Stop stealing the past.

No Blur please, we're British. At least, until the Scots destroy everything. Meanwhile, this should get the screenwriters going:

Ship lost for over 160 years re-discovered

One of two British explorer ships that vanished in Canada’s Arctic over 160 years ago has been found, Canada’s Prime Minister has announced.The find comes over half a decade since Canada re-launched its search for the ships headed by British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, in an attempt to solve an enduring historical mystery.

The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were last seen in the late 1840s. Sir John and his 128 hand-picked crew had set off in 1845 to find the fabled Northwest Passage, but vanished when they became ice-bound off King William Island in the Victoria Strait in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. The mystery has gripped Canadians for generations, with local Inuit claiming that the desperate men resorted to cannibalism before they died. In one of history's largest rescue searches, from 1848 to 1859 crews scoured the seas for the vessels and in turn discovered the Northwest Passage.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it unclear which of the two vessels has been found. They proved hard to find because they drifted in ice for hundreds of miles and the Inuit gave conflicting accounts of where they sank. However, images of the wreck show there is enough information to confirm it is one of the pair.

"I am delighted to announce that this year's Victoria Strait expedition has solved one of Canada's greatest mysteries, with the discovery of one of the two ships belonging to the Franklin Expedition," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. "Finding the first vessel will no doubt provide the momentum - or wind in our sails - necessary to locate its sister ship and find out even more about what happened to the Franklin Expedition's crew."

Kashmira Gander
The Independent, Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Erica Ambler wrote:

No Blur please, we're British. At least, until the Scots destroy everything.

I'm the furthest thing of from a Blur fan, Ambizza. Aside from Pulp and Suede, I despise the whole Britpop era and everything it represented.

Erica Ambler wrote:

No Blur please, we're British. At least, until the Scots destroy everything. Meanwhile, this should get the screenwriters going:

Ship lost for over 160 years re-discovered

One of two British explorer ships that vanished in Canada’s Arctic over 160 years ago has been found, Canada’s Prime Minister has announced.The find comes over half a decade since Canada re-launched its search for the ships headed by British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, in an attempt to solve an enduring historical mystery.

The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were last seen in the late 1840s. Sir John and his 128 hand-picked crew had set off in 1845 to find the fabled Northwest Passage, but vanished when they became ice-bound off King William Island in the Victoria Strait in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. The mystery has gripped Canadians for generations, with local Inuit claiming that the desperate men resorted to cannibalism before they died. In one of history's largest rescue searches, from 1848 to 1859 crews scoured the seas for the vessels and in turn discovered the Northwest Passage.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it unclear which of the two vessels has been found. They proved hard to find because they drifted in ice for hundreds of miles and the Inuit gave conflicting accounts of where they sank. However, images of the wreck show there is enough information to confirm it is one of the pair.

"I am delighted to announce that this year's Victoria Strait expedition has solved one of Canada's greatest mysteries, with the discovery of one of the two ships belonging to the Franklin Expedition," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. "Finding the first vessel will no doubt provide the momentum - or wind in our sails - necessary to locate its sister ship and find out even more about what happened to the Franklin Expedition's crew."

Kashmira Gander
The Independent, Tuesday, 9 September 2014

as someone keen on polar expedition history this is quite something. Reading Andrew Lambert's Franklin book last year got us thinking about the ships and finding one of them sort of brings a closing of a chapter to it. You think what those men went through, what men like Scott and Shackleton went through and look to now.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

as someone keen on polar expedition history this is quite something. Reading Andrew Lambert's Franklin book last year got us thinking about the ships and finding one of them sort of brings a closing of a chapter to it. You think what those men went through, what men like Scott and Shackleton went through and look to now.

Wow! All I can say is: WOW!

Until 2 years ago, I had never heard of The HMS Terror. After perusing through a used book store, I can upon this book and started reading it on a summer vacation to Florida:

THE TERROR by Dan Simmons (2007)


It's a mixture of fiction and sci-fi horror; a sort of liberal retelling of an event many people probably have not heard of. Essentially, the author mixes in local Inuit legend with some facts that were known about the case, and adds an element of suspense/horror sort of like ALIEN. The monster in the novel is a device used to get people to read the novel, and I found it very fascination because there are parts of it I believe were probably very historically sound and accurate: such as how food was canned back then, how men lived on a ship at the time, how they managed to run a heating system on a wooden boat, etc...if you like historical novels about people living in different times and places, this one will probably interest you, and it has the added bonus of throwing in a little supernatural suspense.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316008079

I might just check it out. I tend to be reading all sorts of late.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

I might just check it out. I tend to be reading all sorts of late.

Let me try to rephrase my review of the book; I guess the supernatural element, the alien/monster/creature (which is based off Inuit legend) is sort of the way to get the reader into the story; the path back in time, the way Jack and Rose were fictional characters on TITANIC, but everything else was mostly accurate and historical. Since we don't know what happened to the HMS Terror, the writer has to fill in the gaps. I think I still have that book, and it might be worth reading again.

today's been the day to mark Operation Market Garden (Battle of Arnhem) 70th.

Final leap to honour Arnhem’s fallen

Hundreds of Allied troops jump from planes near Arnhem to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden

Quote :

For his family it was the most fitting way to lay him to rest, allowing him “one last jump” in the process.
On Saturday Cpl William Bloys’s ashes were scattered over the Dutch heathland on which he landed 70 years ago, as he took part in what became one of history’s best-known airborne assaults.
His remains were dispersed by one of around 200 British paratroopers jumping onto the fields near Arnhem used by troops taking part in Operation Market Garden in September 1944.
Cpl Bloys, who lied about his age to join the Essex Regiment at the age of 16, served with the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment during the operation.
His was the only battalion that succeeded in reaching the road bridge at Arnhem, which they had been ordered to capture to allow Allied troops to cross the Rhine. 

The battalion was led by Lt Col John Frost, whose character was played by Anthony Hopkins in the Richard Attenborough film A Bridge Too Far, which was based on the battle.
However, having been unable to defend the bridge, Cpl Bloys was among many paratroopers captured by the SS and taken to a prisoner of war camp in Germany.
He managed to escape but was captured once again. He then managed to escape for a second time with another soldier and the pair stole a car in which they managed to make it to American lines.
He last visited Arnhem in 2004 with his wife Doreen, who died six years later. Before his own death in February he described how the horrors of the fighting at Arnhem were still “fresh in my mind”.
“You can never really get it across to people about the horrors of battle. You are speaking to people one minute and then two minutes afterwards their life is finished. It was a terrible battle and was not well planned.”
On Saturday dozens of veterans of the assault, most of them in their nineties and either wheelchair bound or walking with the aid of sticks, watched as around 500 Allied troops jumped out of planes to commemorate the seven-decade anniversary of the Second World War operation.
Cpl Bloys was one of a number of veterans whose ashes were scattered by British paratroopers landing on Ginkel Heath, in a show of respect and camaraderie towards their predecessors.
This weekend his daughter-in-law Rita, who watched the jump with her husband Ian, among a crowd of around 40,000 people said the gesture was first suggested by a paratrooper who attended Cpl Bloys’s funeral in March. Cpl Bloys had died a month earlier aged 90.
Mrs Bloys, 65, said: “It is just an unofficial thing that they offered to do for us. My father-in-law was very fond of the area. In his later years he said he felt that the fighting had destroyed the area, but he came back here often.
“We just thought it would be fitting to leave a bit of him here. It seems like the final thing we can do for him. We are very emotional.”
Mr Bloys, 66, a former electrician for Ford from Hornchurch in Essex, said before the jump: “He never expressed a wish for what he wanted done with his ashes. But especially in the early days he used to come back here. The last time was on the sixtieth anniversary in 2004. He appreciated the way the Dutch people treated him. He was there for a few days and all the young children were asking for his autograph. It was like being a movie star.
“He was in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and then Arnhem but Arnhem was the one he mentioned the most.
“We want to do the right thing by him. This will be his last jump - I think he would appreciate that.”
Operation Market Garden saw more than 40,000 British, US, Canadian and Polish troops dropped behind the German lines at Arnhem in September 1944.
The attack was conceived by Field Marshal Montgomery to inflict a fatal blow on the Germans and bring the war to a close by the end of the year.
The aim of the operation was to capture a series of river crossings in German-occupied territory to allow Allied tanks to cross the Rhine and sweep into Germany.
However, despite early successes, strong resistance prevented troops from capturing the final bridge at Arnhem.
The British unexpectedly found themselves up against the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, leading to one of the most devastating and bloody battles of the war.
After nine days of street fighting between 17 and 25 September, and running out of food and ammunition, British forces were overwhelmed and forced to withdraw. An estimated 1,700 British soldiers lost their lives.
Yesterday Brig Nick Borton. the commander of 16 Air Assault Bde, whose paratroopers carried out yesterday’s commemoration jump, said the event had given serving troops the opportunity to highlight the “humbling exploits” of the Allied airborne forces 70 years ago.
This weekend Les Fuller, 93, who served as a private with 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment, told the Sunday Telegraph the commemoration at the site of the battle bought back “Massive memories. Memories I could hardly tell you about.”
Mr Fuller was badly wounded as he tried to make his way to the bridge. He said: “We had to detour around Oosterbeek and I finally finished up at the Rhine Pavilion where a fellow who had a howitzer across the other side of the river in a brick field spotted me (I didn’t spot him) and that’s when it came to an end for me.
“A fellow named Sgt Robinson, who was the Sgt medic of the 3rd Battalion, happened to come across me and he went up and got the crew of a tank that was parked just up the road to come and pick me up and hand me over for medical attention which I badly needed.”
Saturday's event also included a commemoration service at a memorial at Ginkel Heath and a moment of silence as the Last Post was played, before both veterans and serving soldiers laid wreaths to remember the fallen.
The previous day thousands of cheering residents had lined Arnhem’s streets to look on as 83 British and Polish veterans walked or passed them in wheelchairs as part of a week-long commemoration of Operation Market Garden.
Alec Hall, 92, who was a medic during the battle, said of the commemorations: “It brings back so many memories. It’s like it was yesterday. I often think about those few days.”
Bill Carter, 90, who served as a private with the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment, saluted the landing paratroopers as he watched the drop from his wheelchair, accompanied by three generations of his family - the youngest of which was his 15-year-old grandson William Wilding.
Mr Carter said he was proud to return to the site, adding that the event brought back “a lot of good memories” of the men he served with but also “a lot of sad memories” of the battle.
Tom Hicks from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was another of the veterans attending Saturday’s drop, which was carried out using mainly Hercules aircraft as well as a Dakota from the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The 95-year-old said that Dutch locals had initially thought that they had been liberated from the Nazis when he and his fellow paratroopers landed.
“They brought milk out and flowers and thought the war was over. They thought they were liberated.
“And we knew there was a long way to go before they were liberated. Children [were] holding your hand and skipping... thinking 'oh, back to normal life’.”
The retreat by Allied forces meant that it was another eight months before they secured a victory which ended the war in Europe.
Mr Hicks added: “I think the message is that even though you are beaten, you never give up, even against all odds.”

all from the Telegraph.

I don't know, ever since I first saw the film (A Bridge Too Far) as a kid the battle's held a certain fascination for whatever reason. I got a few books on it over time (Urquhart's book is recommended as is Robert Kershaw's "It Never Snows in September" detailing the German POV amongs other books) and I did it as my main essay at uni' (sadly I "told the story" and only analysed and criticised Monty in the dying embers of the thing).
Anyway. Some of us won't forget.

Grim valedictory article by NATO's outgoing secretary, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The full text is worth reading:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/exclusive-putins-russia-has-been-my-biggest-regret-says-natos-outgoing-secretary-general-9760093.html

Quote :

In our eastern neighbourhood, Russia has shown utter disregard for international law and a brutal determination to redraw borders by force. The pattern is clear. From Moldova to Georgia, and now in Ukraine, Russia uses a mix of economic, political, propaganda and military pressure, to produce instability and manufacture hot conflicts which it can freeze at will. Moscow's masterplan is to prevent its neighbours from choosing their own path so that it can rebuild a sphere of influence.

Russia's behaviour is my deepest disappointment of the past five years. My very first speech as Nato Secretary General, in September 2009, focused on seeking a strategic partnership with Russia. I saw this as a historic opportunity which my generation could not miss.

But while we did expand our practical co-operation in the common fight against terrorism, narcotics and piracy, we never agreed on missile defence. Russia's aggression against Ukraine has challenged our vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace. Despite our efforts since the collapse of communism, Russia clearly views Nato not as a partner, but as an adversary.

Unless Russia changes course, there can be no business as usual, and I expect that engagement with Moscow will remain a considerable challenge for the foreseeable future.

Forgive me for linking an obit' but this lady passed a fortnight or so ago, the last of those involved in Operation Mincemeat, an idea originated by Ian Fleming. I read of it in the Times and the paywall deters me, and now belatedly it has appeared almost word for word in the Telegraph.

A remarkable lady from a time full of remarkable men and women.

Patricia Davies - obituary

Patricia Davies was the last of the team behind Operation Mincemeat, the subterfuge which allowed the Allies to invade Sicily

Quote :

Patricia Davies, who has died aged 93, was the last surviving member of the clandestine group in Naval Intelligence that in 1943 launched Operation Mincemeat, a brilliant subterfuge that significantly altered the course of the Second World War.


The plan of Operation Mincemeat, as told by Ben Macintyre in his book of the same name and in a BBC documentary, was to drop a dead body in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain and hope the Nazis would find it. The body was dressed as a Royal Marines officer, and was attached to a briefcase containing a series of official-looking but faked letters indicating an Allied plan to push back against Axis forces in southern Europe by invading Greece and Sardinia — and not, as expected, Sicily.


The Nazis took the bait: believing the false information to be true, they diverted massive forces to Greece, enabling a successful Allied invasion of Sicily.


Patricia Davies (née Trehearne) was 18 when the war started and had just left Roedean, the private girls’ school near Brighton, when a friend of her father’s, a Royal Marines colonel, recruited her to work for Naval Intelligence.


She worked in the Admiralty, first for Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond novels), who was assistant to the Director, and later in a secret division called 17M, located in a small stuffy room in the basement of the Admiralty building.

A dozen people worked there, reading decrypted Axis communications sent from Bletchley Park and preparing daily summaries for the top brass. “There were 12 people in that room,” she later recalled, “and there was enough air for six. Everyone smoked, and the room was a sea of smoke. The room was lit by fluorescent lights that made everyone look blue.”

The idea for Operation Mincemeat originated with Ian Fleming (who got the idea from a 1937 detective novel called The Milliner’s Hat Mystery, by Basil Thomson). Fleming elaborated the ruse in a memo which lay dormant until it was taken up by the head of 17M, Commander Ewen Montagu.

The plan required finding a suitably unmarked corpse and kitting it out to look like a Royal Marines officer on a secret mission. The corpse of a vagrant was found, and work began on creating a complete identity and life story for it. It was given the name Major William Martin, and put into a uniform, and into the pockets of the uniform were placed the painstakingly forged ephemera of a real person’s life: theatre ticket stubs, bus tickets, a letter from a bank manager and even an engagement ring for a fictitious fiancée.

“We were all in on the plot,” Patricia Davies recalled in one of the interviews she gave in later life. “We were enthralled by the whole idea, and did everything we could to elaborate it.”

The required veil of secrecy was never penetrated. “We were all terrified by the Official Secrets Act, and thought we’d end up in the Tower of London if we gave anything away,” she said. Her parents thought she was working as a filing clerk. The secrecy lasted only as long as necessary: a few years after the war ended, Montagu published his own account of Operation Mincemeat and it was made into a film, The Man Who Never Was (1956). “Churchill was kept informed, but he did rather dine out on it, which was another reason the story began to come out,” Patricia Davies recalled.

Her personal contribution to the preparation of Major William Martin was to address, in her fine handwriting, the envelope (to General Sir Harold Alexander, C-in-C, Middle East) containing the false Allied invasion plan.

On April 30 1943 the body of William Martin was deposited in the sea off the east coast of Spain from a naval submarine. It was intercepted by a fisherman, brought to Spanish authorities, and before long Nazi intelligence became interested. After an agonisingly long wait (mainly due to the ineptitude of Nazi spies), the contents of William Martin’s briefcase became known to the Nazi command, even allegedly reaching Hitler’s desk. Eight divisions were diverted to Greece, leaving Sicily barely defended.

The Allies invaded Sicily in July. One of the British officers involved in the successful invasion was Lieutenant Denis “Paddy” Davies. He and Patricia became engaged on VE-Day, May 8 1945 — Davies proposed to her in the thick of the euphoric crowds that were swarming around Buckingham Palace to celebrate the victory. They married in July that year.

the Operation Mincemeat team

Quote :

Patricia Helen Trehearne was born in London on July 18 1921, the eldest of three children, and grew up in Surrey, Sussex and Devon. Her father, Edward Trehearne, was a lawyer; her mother, Nell George, was an amateur opera singer. Patricia’s younger sister, Anne, was evacuated to Canada during the war, and in adulthood was fashion editor of Queen . Their brother, John, was a farmer .

After the war, Paddy Davies was chairman of the cosmetics companies Lenthéric, Yardley, Momy and Germaine Monteil. He and Patricia had three children: Charlotte MacKean, a psychotherapist; Annabel Merullo, a literary agent; and Mark, a banker. Paddy Davies died in 2010.

They lived in West Sussex . Although for much of her life post-war she talked little about Operation Mincemeat, she was in demand as an interviewee before and after the publication of Macintyre’s book. Asked by a German television interviewer what she did during the war, she replied, with characteristic sharpness: “Well, I tried to ensure that as many of you were killed as possible.”

Patricia Davies born July 18, 1921, died July 22, 2014