Showing posts with label Cholera Babe Parade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cholera Babe Parade. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

A Fatally Fascinating Sequel

In our last post, we went all cryptic about what Dirty Harry might or might not have done in relation to some urinal or other. Uncle Sean explains, in this thrilling sequel, what was actually going on:
My apologies for the vagaries of my recent clippings. We had the great pleasure of visiting Coit Tower, which of course brought to mind the scene with Mrs. Westwood. So the loo pictured, the tower's actual loo, was shared in the spirit of architectural and filmological bog edification.
As for the resolution of the scene, that remark was meant to be ambiguous; let the mind of each individual make of it as they wish.
We don't know about you, but WE UNDERSTAND ALL THE AMUSING CONNOTATIONS NOW.

In other correspondence-related news, Shewee Fiend Friend sent us this festive picture of a cholera babe!

The top painting is a portrait of Kitty Fisher by Joshua Reynolds.
View the full Cholera Babe Parade here.

Look at this cholera babe I just found in the New York Public Library!

Looks like she has cholera anyway
Apologies for shitty phone quality

For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of the Cholera Babe Parade, a cholera babe is, as we so memorably put it in our classic post Woof! Cholera Babe Parade!, "a red-hot Victorian babe in the process of dying from cholera".

In other news, it has come to our attention that there is some competition or other, which is considered important by many people, and determines which restaurant is currently regarded as the best. Apparently, the Danish restaurant Noma was considered the best in the world until very recently. As it happens, we have a very lovely picture from Noma, which Audiologist Friend sent us not too long ago:


We are woefully unqualified to determine restaurant quality (our usual modus operandi when in a food-and-drink-serving establishment is to stumble to the bar and ask for the second cheapest whisky), but we certainly think this Noma toilet looks excellent! It's got a vertical toilet roll, which we decided last year was the ideal bog roll placement, and everything looks very clean, comfortable, and well ventilated. What this picture doesn't tell us is whether the facilities in Noma are afflicted with subjunctive taps - a particularly Danish disorder.
We shall have to continue pondering, no doubt.

We had originally planned a rampant feminazi video for this post, but then we came across this one! It was so festive, and the dudes in it so lovely, that we had to post this instead. Enjoy!



Festive video - Pjammerz Dubai, pjamming to Lloraras Por Mi by Chapa C

Related Reading
Our by now classic post about Dirty Harry: Gunning for Greatness
The original Cholera Babe Parade
Rumours, a Teaser, and More Epistolary Action (With Useful Facts about Everyone's Favourite Toilet Country)

Sunday, 6 April 2014

Woof! Cholera Babe Parade!

It's no use struggling against the unavoidable: the Cholera Babe Parade has been conga-ing inexorably in our direction, and now it's here! It was bound to happen sooner or later, so we may as well bow to the inevitable and bid the Cholera Babes welcome as they thrust their way into our lives and take over everything.
Discerning readers may be scratching their heads, wondering what in the name of arse a Cholera Babe actually is. Put simply, it's a red-hot Victorian babe in the process of dying from cholera! The symptoms of cholera include, Wikipedia informs us,
[d]iarrhoea and vomiting of clear fluid. These symptoms usually start suddenly, half a day to five days after ingestion of the bacteria. The diarrhoea is frequently described as "rice water" in nature and may have a fishy odour. An untreated person with cholera may produce 10 to 20 litres of diarrhoea a day. Severe cholera kills about half of affected individuals. Estimates of the ratio of asymptomatic to symptomatic infections have ranged from 3 to 100. Cholera has been nicknamed the "blue death" because a person's skin may turn bluish-gray from extreme loss of fluids. 
If that's not sexy we're not worthy of gazing at pictures of be-cravatted Austen heroes!

Other symptoms of cholera include, as Unreasonably Attractive Friend noted, the sudden appearance of "a lower-cut dress".
Image from Wellcome Images.

Shewee Fiend Friend says:
"I like how she still does her hair. If I had cholera and was starting to look like a zombie,
I don't know that I would bother with making sure I had excellently coiffed hair."
Image from Berndt Tallerud's Skräckens tid: Farsoternas kulturhistoria (Stockholm: Prisma, 1999), p. 127.
Originally an etching by A. Gerardin, 1832, from H. Vogt's Das Bild des Kranken.

Woof! A (very attractive) friend of ours says,
"Haha, the first one looks familiar.... I believe I saw it in the bathroom mirror this morning".
Image from Wellcome Images.

Shewee Fiend Friend remarks, amusingly, "She didn't bother to do her hair I see. Standards are slipping".
Kick-Arse Suffragette Friend says, and we can only agree, "Them's some sexxy toes".
Image from Wellcome Images.


Shewee Fiend Friend continues her diverting quips, commenting,
"It looks like you're required to wear these hats if you're too dead to do your hair".
Image from Wellcome Images.

"A woman extravagantly equipped to deal with the cholera epidemic of 1832; 
satirizing the abundance of dubious advice on how to combat cholera."
Image from Wellcome Images.

"A mother looks askance at her daughter, whom she suspects of having contracted the cholera."
Image from Wellcome Images.


A French doctor delighted to have found a genuine cholera victim/babe.
Image from Wellcome Images.


The babe to out-babe all babes: Florence Nightingale! Here she is tending to cholera victims in the Crimea.
Image from Wellcome Images.


Dr Jekyll's vaporiser is effective against cholera, rheumatism and yellow fever.
Wouldn't surprise us if it was a hell of a hangover cure, as well.
Image from Wellcome Images.

London water - frequently the cause of cholera.
Image from Wellcome Images.

Turns out he knew something, John Snow.
7 September, 1854: Dr John Snow breaks the pump handle in Broad Street, to prevent the spread of cholera! HUBBA HUBBA!
Image from Wellcome Images.


Stay tuned for the Cholera Babe Pin-Up Calendar. (We meant to write a book about this in future, but it turns out someone already has.)


Other reasons a lady might turn black and blue:


Festive video: Jane Austen's Fight Club

Related Reading
More about John Snow and cholera: Plumbing, Blessed Plumbing
The Vikings had issues with clean water, too. Jorvik: In Rude Health
Help people get access to clean water: The Privy Counsel Helpfully Sort Out Christmas!
A comical tale about cholera in the wild, wild West: A Rootin', Tootin' Toilet Tale
More historic health hazards: Book Club: Cocoa and Corsets
Pestilence and Hygiene
Syphilis, Bathing, and Dentures. You know It Makes Sense
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