A large pair of silk bloomers that belonged to Queen Victoria have sold for more than three times their original estimate. The undergarment, auctioned alongside hundreds of other royal artefacts, sold for £9,735.They appear to be rather smaller than the "supersize" undergarments (waistline 74-105 inches) currently marked in the United States.
Two pairs of silk stockings worn by Britain's longest serving monarch also went under the hammer in Edinburgh - one pair selling for more than £5,000.
“In God We Trust” has been the nation’s official motto for 55 years, engraved on the currency and public buildings. There is no emerging movement to change that. But House Republicans chose to look beyond the absence of immediate threats and instead protect the motto against yet-unimagined threats in the future.Milbank chastises the legislators for wasting time on this bill rather than addressing the economny and the national jobs problem. He focuses on the Republicans, but of note the bill passed by a margin of 396 to 9.
The legislation [“H.Con.Res 13 — Reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’ as the official motto of the United States”] “provides Congress with the opportunity to renew its support of a principle that was venerated by the founders of this country, and by its presidents, on a bipartisan basis.”...
Notably, the House majority saw no need to protect the nation’s other motto, the one from the Great Seal of the United States that also appears on currency: e pluribus unum.
...this is a beautifully made example of protective headwear worn by children in the early 19th century. Pudding caps or bumpers were padded hats commonly worn by small children learning to walk to protect their heads from any falls. It was thought that if children fell too frequently unprotected their brains would turn to a soft pudding-like consistency, hence the name "pudding cap." Children were often referred to as "little pudding heads" because of this belief.Finally I understand the reason for the name of Mark Twain's character "Puddn'head Wilson" (perhaps the term was explained in the book - I don't know).
"Pudding" in England derives from small sausages, and even today the term applies to a wide range of foods, not just the creamy desserts that Americans refer to.That makes complete sense to me.The entry at Victoria & Albert shows a pudding cap [~1775-1800] and describes the hat's name thus; "The nickname of ‘pudding’ comes from the padded roll’s similarity of shape and size to the type of sausage called ‘pudding’, a popular food still eaten today."
I think it's more likely that the idea of soft brains is a later Americanism and it's probably more of a humorous tongue-in-cheek use than a literal belief.
"Yes, sir, he's a dam fool. That's the way I put him up," said No. 5. "Anybody can think different that wants to, but those are my sentiments."Obviously, by Twain's time (1893 for this book), in the U.S. the term was being used to refer to brain damage.
"I'm with you, gentlemen," said No. 6. "Perfect jackass -- yes, and it ain't going too far to say he is a pudd'nhead. If he ain't a pudd'nhead, I ain't no judge, that's all."
Mr. Wilson stood elected. The incident was told all over the town, and gravely discussed by everybody. Within a week he had lost his first name; Pudd'nhead took its place. In time he came to be liked, and well liked too; but by that time the nickname had got well stuck on, and it stayed. That first day's verdict made him a fool, and he was not able to get it set aside, or even modified. The nickname soon ceased to carry any harsh or unfriendly feeling with it, but it held its place, and was to continue to hold its place for twenty long years.
Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor...There are implications that this could echo well beyond this specific firm, because the last major crash was triggered in part by hedge fund losses at Lehman Brothers.
Now, the inquiry threatens to tarnish further the reputation of Mr. Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs executive who had sought to revive his Wall Street career last year just a few months after being defeated for re-election as New Jersey’s governor...
MF Global was seen as having taken on an enormous amount of risk with little room for error given its size. By Friday evening, MF Global was under pressure to put up more money to support its trading positions, threatening to drain the firm’s remaining cash. The collapse of MF Global underscores the extent of investor anxiety over Europe’s debt crisis. Other financial institutions have been buffeted in recent months because of their holdings of debt issued by weak European countries...
If indeed there has been misappropriation of customer funds at MF, how many customers are going to withdraw their funds from other commodities accounts as well as from standard stock/bond brokers, after selling their holdings first? Especially after the frustrating decade-plus we have experienced in the financial markets, why shouldn’t people just move to direct ownership of Treasurys and into FDIC-insured bank deposits?In my world, BTW, a statement that something or someone is/was associated with Goldman Sachs is neither a compliment nor reassuring. I'm not offering any recommendations about this incident or investments in general, and don't want to contribute to fearmongering. Just want to encourage people to be alert and cautious.
The story could hardly be worse. MF Global was not just any old futures firm. It was run by a stalwart of the Democratic establishment and the former leader of Goldman Sachs... A major “risk-off” move could be in the making.
