Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eleven

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eleven

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Baker-Kneed

    This is a phrase that seems relatively common during the seventeenth and early eighteenth century and it appears frequently in newspapers and books. The dictionary gives the definition as “one whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough”, in what today would I guess more commonly be referred to at knock-kneed. The knock-kneed term seems to date only from the late eighteenth century so this is perhaps when the two phrases switched in common usage.

  • Memphis – Memphis Martyrs

    Memphis – Memphis Martyrs

    Yellow fever decimated the city in 1878, with this sign noting those martyrs who bravely remained to try and save as many as they could. Perhaps there are similar parallels to the coronavirus today. The disease was spread by the number of river passengers who stopped off in Memphis during their journey along the Mississippi. The epidemic cost the city $200 million and killed 20,000 of its residents, but it also changed its demographics permanently. Many richer white residents moved to cities such as New Orleans and Atlanta, leaving Memphis with a predominantly black and poor white population.

  • Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Martin Luther King’s Eulogy)

    Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Martin Luther King’s Eulogy)

    Part of the eulogy that Martin Luther King wrote on 4 February 1968, when he knew that his life was in danger. He was killed two months later, on 4 April 1968 and part of this eulogy was read out at his funeral.

  • Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Martin Luther King’s Cell)

    Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Martin Luther King’s Cell)

    This is a recreation of the prison cell that Martin Luther King was placed in following his arrest for taking in part in peaceful civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham in April 1963. Whilst in his cell, he wrote what became known as the ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ which called for peaceful protest against the injustices of discrimination.

    Much of the problem in Birmingham was Bull Connor, the city representative whose clumsy decisions accidentally brought the protests to international attention. Members of the civil rights movement knew that Connor and some other city representatives were unlikely to make coherent decisions, hence why they were keen to protest in the city, which was also heavily segregated.

    Martin Luther King controversially encouraged youngsters to get involved with the campaign, similar to that with the current situation with Greta Thunberg and the environmental campaign. Connor however decided to arrest the thousand children on the march and ordered water hoses and dogs to be set on them. Martin Luther King said that evening, “Don’t worry about your children who are in jail. The eyes of the world are on Birmingham. We’re going on in spite of dogs and fire hoses. We’ve gone too far to turn back.”

    President John F. Kennedy at this stage intervened as the crisis worsened and in May 1963 segregation started to end in Birmingham, or at least start to end officially. On 11 June 1963, the President made an announcement from the White House that there would be progress made on civil rights, which led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

  • Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Jim Crow Today)

    Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Jim Crow Today)

    The museum used many different types of exhibits to explain the history of civil rights and this graphic was presented early on in the exhibition route. It is a map of where in four major cities the African American, White, Asian and Latino populations currently live. So, although the Jim Crow laws of segregation no longer exist, it’s clear that the reality on the ground is that they still have a legacy effect today.

    It’s easier to see the New York map in the photo that I took, although the results are similar for the other cities which is clear segregation of blacks and whites. Latino and Asian communities tend to merge between the two, but are still often in their own defined areas of cities. In the home city of the museum, Memphis, the top right image of the four shows that there are very few areas where both communities are living in equal numbers. Much of this relates to white flight when white residents left the inner cities and moved to the suburbs, although that situation is reversing a little more now as city centres become more attractive again.

    The museum didn’t overplay this graphic, but it was a reminder for visitors arriving at the museum as to how division in the United States continues today.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Ten

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Ten

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Baker’s Dozen

    The book defines this as “fourteen, that number of rolls being allowed to the purchasers of a dozen”. This is instantly intriguing because of the fourteen rather than thirteen and usually I’ll tell myself that I need to get out more, but under the current climate, that isn’t happening.

    The meaning of the phrase dates back to when bakers were under a legal duty, and wanted to avoid local humiliation of being put in the stocks or worse, to ensure that they sold the right weight of bread. So, it was easier to add something extra to ensure compliance, so when selling in a larger volume to wholesalers they’d put extra bread or rolls in. Buyers of something smaller would usually be given an extra piece of bread as well, along the same principle.

    So the thirteen and fourteen are both logical, bakers would put one or two extra loaves in depending on their experience at ensuring that they were compliant. It appears that during the nineteenth century the Baker’s Dozen started to be defined more as thirteen rather than fourteen, perhaps for reasons of economy. But, it’s an interesting evolution of the phrase and how meaning can shift over time.

  • Croydon – Ibis Styles

    Croydon – Ibis Styles

    I’ve stayed here before, so I do know something about this hotel and it’s one I like, albeit it’s a bit quirky. But Ibis Styles are allowed to be quirky. Anyway, this is another post in my growing series of ‘hotels that refunded my non-refundable booking because of the coronavirus’. The hotel is now closed for April when I would have been going and although they might not have been thrilled to refund, they’ve done so and so that’s another location I’ll make sure that I visit in the future to make up for their loss.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Nine

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Nine

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Badgers

    The dictionary defines this as “a crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered”. Used as slang in the criminal fraternity, I can’t imagine that this was ever very common. It’s perhaps something which used to keep communities in fear as the books I’ve looked at suggest that the murder rate was relatively low in the eighteenth century. It’s an intriguing phrase though….

  • Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Freedom Riders)

    Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Freedom Riders)

    The first time I had heard of the Freedom Riders was at this museum, a group of very brave passengers who deliberately rode on inter-state buses to contest those states who enforced segregation on these services. Due a decision by the US court, it was decided that inter-state passengers did not have to segregate, but in reality, they were forced to in some states.

    This is a very dramatic recreation of the Greyhound bus, one of two buses (the other was operated by Trailways) that were heading from Washington DC to New Orleans. They were heading to Birmingham, but the Greyhound bus which was about an hour ahead pulled into the city of Anniston in Alabama. The occupants were attacked with the police refusing to intervene, other than to eventually escort the damaged bus to the city limits.

    When the bus reached the city limits, it was attacked by mobs, many attached to the KKK, who slashed its tires and set fire to it. The occupants were nearly burned alive, but managed to flee the bus and were then attacked again by the mob. They then managed to get to Anniston Memorial Hospital where the medical staff weren’t keen to treat the freedom riders. Fearing that their hospital would be attacked if they helped them, the freedom riders were asked to leave, which they did.

    The attacks shocked the United States, or at least a portion of it. Robert F. Kennedy, the US Attorney General, intervened to allow the Freedom Riders to continue their journey. He then distanced himself from the aims of the civil rights activists, saying he wouldn’t intervene in constitutional matters. Robert F Kennedy wanted the rides to end because they were embarrassing the United States and he urged the riders to “cool down”. James Farmer, one of the most important civil rights figures, replied “we have been cooling off for 350 years, and if we cooled off any more, we’d be in a deep freeze.”

    Looking down on the bus, another powerful and troubling exhibit presented by the museum clearly with plenty of background information. As for the city of Anniston, it has seen its population fall every decade over the last half century and one organisation branded it the most dangerous city in Alabama.

  • Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (I Am a Man)

    Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (I Am a Man)

    This is one of the displays at the National Civil Rights Museum which relates to the sanitation strike which took place in Memphis. Black workers were paid less than their white colleagues, and treated more harshly with fewer opportunities, which led to a strike and march where they had posters with the “I am a Man” slogan on them.

    It was this strike that what the reason that Martin Luther King came to Memphis, and was sadly assassinated whilst staying in Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel.

    The above article was published by a local newspaper at the time, and there was some surprise amongst the ‘whites’ that the issue had escalated. But paternalism and the concept of inequality were always the main issue that underpinned everything.

    The phrase, which is perhaps better known more recently in some quarters today with Will in the Inbetweeners using the phrase (in an unrelated manner) when trying to buy alcohol in an off-licence. The phrase though dates back to the late eighteenth century, when a tract was published with the title “Am I Not a Man and Brother?” and it became used in the anti-slavery movement. It’s a very powerful line.