Saturday, 28 May 2022

Butterfly evolved from breaststroke in the 1930s

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Butterfly, strangely enough, evolved from breaststroke in the 1930s, when practitioners discovered that an out-of-the-water arm pull was fas...
Friday, 27 May 2022

The second is a house for one of her relatives whose job it is to look after her wigs

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[Dolly Parton's] house itself is less revealing than the two buildings alongside it, out of range of my camera. If we are to trust our g...
Thursday, 26 May 2022

The Coal Miner's Daughter Museum is one of the oddest museums I have ever visited

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The Coal Miner's Daughter Museum is one of the oddest museums I have ever visited. Perhaps the oddest thing about it is that half the la...
Wednesday, 18 May 2022

It's like abroad: no one would want to go there if they hadn't been told it existed

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'The three reasons for it [marriage] given in the Prayer-book have always seemed to me quite inadequate,' agreed Mr Prendergast. ...
Tuesday, 17 May 2022

I can think of no entertainment that fills me with greater detestation than a display of competitive athletics

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'Frankly,' said the Doctor, 'I am at a loss to understand my own emotions. I can think of no entertainment that fills me with gr...
Monday, 16 May 2022

Epileptic royalty from their villas of exile

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This was the first meeting since then, and from all over Europe old members had rallied for the occasion. For two days they had been pouring...
Saturday, 14 May 2022

Small nondescript German States of which five-sixths of the subjects are Palace officials, and the rest charcoal burners or innkeepers

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The millionaire thought he had once heard of Posen, but he wasn't sure; he rather fancied it was one of those small nondescript German S...