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Dolls

"...The (V&A's) new doll archive: rows of stark grey metal shelves, from which dozens of bisque, wax, wooden and vinyl faces stare out...   (One) has articulated legs and arms, so its owner could walk it about the room (move a leg and the arms move robotically in time); it has luxuriant and adult-looking blond curls that I am loath to touch.  Most curiously of all, inside its rosebud mouth is a row of tiny white teeth, pointy and sharp." by Rachel Cooke. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/aug/29/doll-face-museum-childhood-review "What, another doll?" The Drawing Room, with a Whole Lotta Sewin' Goin' On. Now everyone recycles, Wombles had to get another job. My three-storey Georgian dolls house in its entirety. I've always liked dolls.  Walk around my house, and this would be self-evident.  I have three dolls' houses.  Well, two houses and one shop, to be precise, in various stages of completion.  Several

Katrina, 5 Years On

"The giant storm levelled virtually everything standing along 100 miles of coastline. In all, it killed 1,800 people in seven states, and caused $90bn (£58bn) of damage. It wreaked colossal damage on the region's oil, forestry and tourism industries. More than one million people were left homeless... At its height, four-fifths of New Orleans was under water, to a depth of 20 feet. Today, more than a quarter of the pre-Katrina population of 450,000 have not returned." Source: Hurricane Katrina:  The storm that shamed America , by Rupert Cornwell - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-katrina-the-storm-that-shamed-america-2057164.html

Laurence Gardner

"It is with great sadness we announce that Laurence Gardner passed away on the 12 August 2010, after a prolonged illness. "Laurence Gardner is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Distinguished as the Chevalier de St. Germain, he is a constitutional historian, a Knight Templar of St Anthony, and is Presidential Attaché to the European Council of Princes. Based in England, he is author of The Times and Sunday Times bestseller, Bloodline of the Holy Grail .  "Laurence Gardner's (other) books include Realm of the Ring Lords ,  Genesis of the Grail Kings ,  Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark ,  The Magdalene Legacy , and  The Shadow of Solomon ." Source:  http://graal.co.uk/ It was probably around six years ago that I first encountered Laurence Gardner's writings, after my friend Jon had been enthusing about Gardner's very different version of both Biblical and European history.  So I read one of his books, Genesis of the Grail Kings , and