a bloody mess

Blood transfusions are relatively common and problem free these days but it wasn’t always so.

1665: In England, Richard Lower performed the first recorded blood transfusion in animals. With a crude syringe made of goose quill and bladder, created by famed architect Christopher Wren, he connected the jugular vein of a dog he’d bled to the neck artery of second dog, resuscitating the former.

Wren’s proposed map of London found here

1667: In June, French physician Jean-Baptiste Denis transfused a teenage boy suffering from a persistent fever with nine ounces of lamb’s blood. He attached the lamb’s carotid artery to a vein in the boy’s forearm, without the patient suffering any negative consequences.

image found here

Denis used this procedure on several other patients including a healthy 45 year old man described as having “a coarse personality”. It was hoped that transfusing him with sheep blood might make him more malleable and lamblike. His personality did not alter but as soon as the procedure was over, he jumped up and slit the sheep’s throat. He had only agreed to the experiment in exchange for the fleece.

Jason and the Golden Fleece found here

On November 23, before the Royal Society in England, Drs. Richard Lower and Edmund King gave Arthur Coga, an indigent former cleric, a transfusion of several ounces of sheep’s blood for a fee of 20 shillings; the patient recovered nicely.

There seemed to be a lot of lambs available for these experiments. Perhaps that’s because years ago, people believed that lambs grew on trees. You can read more about this fern and its potential to combat osteoporosis here

In the 16th and 17th centuries this unfortunate-looking plant was widely believed to fruit newly-born lambs. According to an ancient legend, the “vegetable lamb” plant sprouted living lambs as if they were flowers.

t shirt friday 26.2.2010

ok here it is, the last Friday of the month again. February’s t shirt has been borrowed from my son’s house guest, Sascha from Zurich, who also took the photo of me standing on the chair.

This pink poodle actually has a function. I keep telling my son it’s a urinal bottle as it has holes in the right places. For some reason he won’t believe me. Do you know what it is?

Syncopated Eyeball is wearing a t shirt today too. And so is Sledpress

HMH has two t shirts and some amazing photos of the Grand Canyon

malach does wolverine

Kellie realises Arnold is a breast man

Kellie Everts has had a busy life. She started out as a bodybuilder, graduated to stripper, then took to preaching and running her own church. And back in 1972, she had a fling with Arnie

“It was Kellie Everts first body building contest, and she was excited. She was also interested in meeting Arnold Schwarzenneger and Franco Columbu, the biggest stars of this special world. Both of the men, it panned out later, became besotted with Kellie.

(Franco Columbu, Kellie Everts & Arnold Schwarzeneggar when the three met in 1972. This was the beginning of a lot of heat and then a lot of wrath on Arnold’s part. After seeing this picture and a picture of Arnold with Racquel Welch in the same scenario, Kellie realized Arnold is a breast man)

For the moment, her mind was on Franco, but that would soon change. Arnold approached, and both standing there they had a chat. He GLARED at a photographer NOT to take a picture of them. Words passed that we shall not enter here and the next thing you know, Arnold was leading Kellie backstage to a darker and darker area.

image found here

Kellie felt like she was taken over by a magnetic force; like something that came from the sky with magnetic rays and sucked you up into a UFO. SHE COULDN’T RESIST ARNOLD EVEN IF SHE WANTED TO, AND THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, THEY WERE MAKING LOVE.

But they got caught with their pants down, so to speak.

“Kellie, I thought you were MY girlfriend!” said an anguished Franco

Arnold turned beet red as Kellie, completely befuddled, blurted out,

“OK….I can be the girlfriend of BOTH of you!”

Arnold, in a loud voice, protested, “NO,” and Kellie from that moment, began to feel THE WRATH OF ARNOLD.

If you’d like to know more about Kellie’s bodybuilding triumphs (there were many) her popular stripping performances, or her life as the Guru Rasa of the church of MotherGod, read on here. You might also enjoy these testimonials

I met Kellie Everts in 1974 when she had her preaching television show. I went to her house several times for prayer meetings, was highly inspired and saw visions while she was praying. I have always been gay, and have never had any sexual interest in the opposite sex. One night, as I was sleeping alone in my room, Kellie Everts appeared and made love to me. It was the most glorious experience I had ever had. I said, “If this is what it feels like to make love to a woman, I will make love with women from now on.” And from then on, I became attracted to the opposite sex.

Jack, New York City 1979

I put a photograph you sent me on my bedroom dresser. It is the one with Christ in the picture. I’ve been praying to that Christ daily. Well, last night, in the middle of the night I woke up and it was dark in the room and I was attracted to the photo on the dresser and to my astonishment your breasts were aglow with a bright light. I kid you not. It was amazing.

Tom Bird, New York City 1978

best dressed

Inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary were employed in many activities.

image of Warden Best found here

“Carpentry, blacksmithing, shoe cobbling, clothing repair and general maintenance offered the principal activity and labor outlets for prisoners in the first decade or two of prison operation in Colorado. They were also employed in building walls, repairing prison buildings, and in farm and garden work. In the period of 1899 – 1900 about 2,200,000 pounds of farm produce was raised by prisoners.

On March 1909 Thomas J. Tynan was appointed to the office of warden. He made it possible for every man who was willing to work to have employment. Road camps were set up and unguarded prisoners worked away from prison walls for days at a time.

Prison boxing team found here

In 1925 the penitentiary purchased a canning factory and ninety acres of fruit trees, berry plants, vineyards and truck gardens The canning venture proved highly productive. Fruits and vegetables processed and canned included apples, apple butter, apricots, beets, green beans, catsup, cherries of all kinds, corn, peaches, Italian prunes, puree, pumpkin, plums, spinach tomatoes, and tomato juice.

In 1934 a sock-knitting machine was installed at a cost of $29,000, capable of producing one thousand pairs of socks per day at a cost of four cents per pair. Civilian clothing manufacture included suits, dress pants, dress socks, and white shirts. Soaps of all kinds, scouring powder, cold cream, vanishing cream, skin softener, lotion, shampoo, furniture polish, sweeping compound, bluing, ink, and flavorings were manufactured in quantities sufficient to supply all state institutions.

images found here

Warden Thomas J. Tynan went on the assumption that putting men in stripes for ninety days, the usual practice on entering the prison, was the wrong psychology. Beginning early in 1911 he put all new arrivals in blue and made them “convicts of the first class.” If they made good and followed prison routines, they were never subjected to the wearing of striped clothing.

image of prisoners forced to work in drag found here

By law in 1940, a prisoner upon discharge was given $5.00, a suit of clothes, and a railroad ticket. In 1995, a prisoner upon discharge was given $100.00, a suit of clothes, and a bus ticket.

a toothsome bosom

***Nita Naldi played opposite the great lover, Rudolph Valentino in several movies. She won the part of the vamp in Blood and Sand in a very entertaining way.

Nita Naldi found here

A friend of my mother had an apartment on Riverside Drive, and she invited me to come and visit her for a supper party, so I did. There I met Mr. Blasco Ibañez, the writer, the man who wrote Blood and Sand. He had written several scripts such as The Cathedral, which impressed me as being violently communistic, but we didn’t use the word “Communist” in those days.

His theory in The Cathedral was that all the riches and all the things from the vestments to the all the magnificence inside the cathedral—should be given to the poor. Well, if you give everything away to the poor, nobody would have anything anyhow. As our Lord Jesus Christ said, “The poor are always with us.” Unfortunately, myself included.

Amiens Cathedral with sandbag reinforcements (1917) found here

Mama’s friend, Maria Barrientos, had a huge dish of punch in the middle of her salon, and when I met Mr. Blasco Ibañez, I said, “Well, you monster of iniquity! You sacrilegious lout! Now that you’re a success, I suppose you’ll change your entire theories for expediency.”

punch bowl found here

And, my dear, the man got so excited trying to deny the fact that he was a Communist, or communistically inspired, that he dropped his false teeth in the middle of my bosom. I had a very low-cut evening gown on. And Maria Barrientos, who knew me from the time I was 4 years old, reached down in my bosom, pulled the false teeth out, put them in the punch bowl, practically sterilized them (much to the edification of the rest of the guests), and stuck them back in Mr. Blasco Ibañez’s face.

Scarlett’s cleavage found here

So then he screamed at me, “You are Doña Sol; you are a very evil and very wicked woman.” So he decided that I would play the part of this horror, this sadistic demon. And nothing would ever change him. Many others were up for this role, but I got it. He wouldn’t have anybody else do it. I kept saying to him all the time, “How dare you insult me? This woman is a monster; she’s a sex maniac; she’s a sadist, she’s a horror, the worst type.”

image found at Claroscureaux

And he kept answering me back all the time that that would be his revenge.

***story found here

rolled over, snickering

Back in the days prior to political correctness, Time Magazine reported on a wrestling match

At the end of the circus, as a final and most brilliant attraction, a wrestling match was arranged between a gigantic nameless Bahian Negro and a small, engaging Jap, name unknown. After a few minutes wrestling, the black Bahian had the Jap on his back; but the Jap rolled over, snickering, and at the end of the wrestling he was sitting like a prime minister upon the dark and heaving stomach of his adversary.

image by Namio found here

The Bahian lout fought after the manner of Brazilian capoeira. This is the national style of fighting; it includes blows as well as grips and it was perfected by a huge band of Hoodlums who once terrorized Rio de Janeiro. Even kicks in the head are allowed and the Bahia Negro attempted these, without avail, against his little foeman.

Brazilian fighter, Anderson Silva, found here

The Jap, too, used a style of combat peculiar to his nation; Jiu Jitsu, the gentle and famous art of making an opponent use his strength to encompass his own defeat. Jiu Jitsu must not be compared or confused with another often pictured species of Japanese wrestling in which two 400-lb. bullies stand face to face and each endeavors mainly by pulling at the sparse clothing of his adversary to topple him over. Jiu Jitsu requires enormous training; Jap boys rise early to practice it before taking cold baths. Occidentals, while they will never be as good as lithe little yellow wrestlers, may become proficient by virtue of talent and application.

flexible sumo wrestlers found here

President Roosevelt was very interested in Jiu Jitsu and received lessons from Yoshitsugu (Yoshiaki) Yamashita.

As 1904 was an election year, the incumbent Republican president used his judo training to elicit favorable press coverage. This outraged Martha Blow Wadsworth, an heiress who wintered in Washington and spent her summers at her horse farms in upstate New York.

image of Roosevelt found here

Wadsworth truly, deeply, and profoundly despised Roosevelt. Indeed, she despised him so much that she insisted on duplicating virtually every physical feat he claimed, once riding a relay of fast horses several hundred miles in 24 hours just to spite him. Therefore she wasted no time organizing women’s judo classes with Yamashita’s 26-year old wife Fude. After several months of practice, reporters were notified, and on May 29, 1904, the New York World featured the class in its Sunday supplement.

image of Fude and husband found here

peak condition

Carol Doda was one of San Francisco’s first topless strippers.

image found here

In 1964 she made international news, first by dancing topless at the city’s Condor Club, then by enhancing her bust from size 34 to 44 through silicon injections. Her breasts became known as Doda’s “twin 44s” and “the new Twin Peaks of San Francisco”

She go-go danced the Swim to a rock and roll combo headed by Bobby Freeman as her piano settled on the stage. From the waist up Doda emulated aquatic movements like the Australian crawl. She also did the Twist, the Frug, and the Watusi.

Doda was a witness during the trial of two all-nude dancers who were arrested for indecent exposure and lewd and dissolute conduct, in 1969. Presiding Municipal Court Judge Earl Warren, Jr. moved the trial, temporarily, from the courtroom to Chuck Landis Largo club. There Doda performed to live song and dance numbers, along with a movie entitled Guru You. She was cross-examined by a deputy district attorney about what she hoped to convey to audiences in her act. She responded that the movie represents a satire of pornography…it’s to show people the humorous side of sex. Several members of the 10-man, 2-woman jury kept in check their smiles as Doda explained the 17-minute movie. The deputy district attorney opposed asking her to perform, considering it irrelevant to the case. He was overruled by Warren.

image found here

In 1968 she appeared in The Monkees’ film “Head” for which Jack Nicholson co-wrote the screenplay and Toni Basil wrote the choreography.

“The film rejects plot in favor of a psychedelic trip through a series of parodies of every major film genre, including the Western, the musical, and the war film. These stylized romps are intercut with various surreal scenes, such as the classic sequence where the Monkees are sucked up through a giant vacuum cleaner and then spewed out as bits of dandruff in Victor Mature’s hair“

image found here

Co-screenwriters Rafelson and Jack Nicholson based HEAD on conversations they had with the Monkees while on a vacation. Nicholson and Rafelson can both be spotted briefly on the commissary set. It’s also memorable for Teri Garr’s first line in a motion picture “Suck it before the venom reaches my heart.”

corset friday 19.2.2010

ok so I’m not wearing a corset this week. Synchy and I were having a bit of fun when we took these shots. Hope you enjoy your visit from the nurse…..

70s is having a kaftan friday and gnukid sports the boxers

sin on a tiger skin

British novelist Elinor Glyn, coined the phrase The “It” Girl about Clara Bow and wrote the erotic potboiler “Three Weeks”

Written in six weeks, it eventually sold some 5,000,000 copies, and featured a wildly romantic Balkan queen who greeted her lover from a reclining position on a tiger skin with a red rose between her teeth. The book was boycotted in Boston, blasted from pulpits, and celebrated in an anonymous ditty:

Would you like to sin

with Elinor Glyn

on a tiger skin?

Or would you prefer

to err

with her

on some other fur?

image of Eartha Kitt found here

With her red hair, green eyes, and powder-white face, she drew men in Paris and London like so many iron filings. When she was 26, four house-partying young gallants threw each other into a lake at 3 a.m., competing for her favors. This intrigued a longtime socialite bachelor named Clayton Glyn, who decided Elinor was just the girl for him.

image of Elinor Glyn found here

For the honeymoon at Brighton in 1892, Clayton hired the public baths for two days so that his “Lorelei” could “swim up and down alone, naked, her long red hair, which when uncoiled reached her knees, trailing in the water behind her.” But in a short two years all the romance had gone from their marriage.

image found here

Hollywood “discovered” Elinor Glyn in 1920, when Famous Players-Lasky offered her $10,000 and traveling expenses to write an original scenario  and to give the stars—Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino and half a dozen others—her pointers on the art of love.

image of Valentino found here

Coming from the tiger skin lady, these views were strangely staid (“Touching ought to be reserved entirely for the loved one”) and sometimes cynical (“It is wiser to marry the life you like, because, after a little, the man doesn’t matter”).

During the eight years previous to her death in 1943, checks were doled out to her by her bankers, and she was free to dabble in her pet enthusiasms, automatic writing and reincarnation. She was quite certain that she had roamed the palace of Versailles during a previous existence, but apparently no one thought to ask her about her plans for the next incarnation.

The image above came from here. It really doesn’t have anything to do with Elinor Glyn but it puts me in mind of palaces and reincarnation and I thought you might like it too

“Jessie Clarke, a Melbourne social worker, daughter of diplomat Herbert Brookes and his wife, Ivy, herself the daughter of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, dressed up for the Centenary of Victoria celebration ball in 1934, marking the colony’s foundation. Her head-dress represents Yallourn Power Station, her cloak shows Victoria’s irrigation scheme, and her crinoline is painted with scenes of Melbourne.”

sisters play havoc

Little June Havoc could dance on point at age two.

Baby June was appearing regularly around Seattle, once as part of the bill on Anna Pavolva’s farewell tour, inspiring her mother to change her billing to “Baby June, the Pocket-sized Pavlova.”

Soon she was launched in vaudeville and also appeared in Hollywood movies. She couldn’t speak until three, but the films were silent and she could cry for the cameras when her mother told her dog had died.

June had a big sister, Rose Louise. Their mother, also named Rose, wanted stage careers for her children.

Madam Rose taught the girls to lie about their ages to truant officers and railway train conductors, steal blankets and sheets from hotels, and sneak out without paying. She wasn’t above sabotaging rival acts and was masterful at conning well wishers out of money with her genteel, brave-but-helpless single mother act. June later said that after the age of five, she never believed anything her mother said. A tiny, delicate looking woman, Rose nevertheless once managed to push a hotel manager out of the window.

By the late 1920s, vaudeville was dying and Dainty June was getting too big for a kid act. The girls never knew their real ages until they were grown. June thought she was 13 when she eloped with Bobby Reed, but she was probably three years older. A furious Rose jammed a gun into Bobby’s chest and pulled the trigger but the safety catch was on. (She later pulled a gun on Louise’s first husband too, but it wasn’t loaded.)

With backing from Rose’s father, they recruited a half dozen unprepossessing adolescent girls who wanted a career in show business. Louise made babyish costumes for them, and they hit the road as Madam Rose’s Dancing Daughters with a pig named Porky and an act in which they held dolls. The act wasn’t a success.

image found here

The act was renamed “Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes,” and they worked their first burlesque house, The Missouri Theatre in Kansas City. It was then that Rose Louise Hovick changed her name to Gypsy Rose Lee

Meanwhile, Dainty June, now billed as June Havoc, had worked her way back from obscurity. After her smash performance in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey in 1940, she went on to a long and distinguished career in movies and on Broadway.

Rose (senior) died in 1954. In later years, she had run a lesbian boarding house and farm. One of her guests was shot at a party, and the verdict was suicide, but her grandson, Erik Preminger, is quoted in a Vanity Fair article saying that the victim was Rose’s lover, and that Rose killed her in front of many witnesses after she made a pass at Gypsy.