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Strange how well animation and sweetly harmonising voices go together in these old 30s cartoons - I don't know what could be more reassuring. Do you think Hugh Harman just determinedly waited for someone called Rudolf Ising to come along, or were they perhaps having a drink together one day when they went, Hey, hold on a minute...
This one is a sort of goldfish version of the Wizard of Oz - perhaps intentionally, since it came out in the same year.
The part of Wapping where I occasionally have to go to work is typical of London in its squashing together of incongruous things. Wailing bankers mill around the bottom of the Lloyds building, Tower Bridge swarms with confused tourists - then on the other side of the river, beyond all the restaurants, there's a completely different atmosphere.
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It reminds you that being on a massive tidal waterway near an estuary, this bit of London is basically by the sea. It even smells of seaweed.
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Tourist boats and speedboats go by, creating waves that clang the garden barges together, and geese fly overhead:
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Small Londoners appreciate the wildlife:
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Adult visitors have more important things on their minds - where to eat:
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Of course, there's no escaping the essential city sounds - ye traditional London surveillance helicopter, plus drills, sirens, planes and other people's mobile phone conversations:
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In these hard times we'll all have to make our own clothes, according to the newspaper style sections. At least it's an opportunity to branch out and reintroduce some forgotten garments. For instance, the pelerine:
The muffatee:
Engageantes, or puffy undersleeves:
The calash, a very useful-looking sort of retractable hat:
Or why not just brighten up last year's boots with a distracting boot ruff:
See also:
The Science Museum's online History of Medicine exhibition has as you might expect plenty of curious objects - like mole hands from Norfolk that warded off cramp:
mummified birds:
and eye-catching good-luck amulets:
What's surprising is how attractive some of the trappings of illness were - elegant bronchitis kettles:
Staffordshire feeding cups for invalids:
Backrests for the bedbound:
Smart medicine chests:
Containing all kinds of delicious-looking medicine:
Of course, anything can look appealing if it's presented in the right sort of case:
See also:
Honeyland, a sweet little cartoon from Harman-Ising. See, I knew spiders were evil and here's the proof. More scared of me than I am of them - ha! I don't think so.
