Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]
Discussion
V41LEY said:
Trivia question for stamp collectors (I can’t find the answer) - who was the first black face on a British (ie UK - not territory, dependency, commonwealth etc) postage stamp. Thought it would make a good pub quiz question.
My first thought was the Penny Black, issued in 1840, but I think that it was justthe background that was black, don’t think that Queen Victoria’s face was.
akirk said:
coppernorks]Any reason that some green traffic lights have slats [ vertical louvres as it were said:
on them ?
Isn't that to direct the light - i.e. to stop it being confusing to those waiting at another point who might see green and go?akirk said:
Isn't that to direct the light - i.e. to stop it being confusing to those waiting at another point who might see green and go?
Been there, done that, a set of traffic lights 30yds in advance of the set you are sitting at turn green and, well, I'm not proud, bit embarrassed but no harm done
whitesocks said:
I’ve always wondered what it must have been like in Germany the day after they surrendered in WW2. Imagine being an ordinary German citizen waking up thinking “What’s going to happen now?”
Sit tight and hope the allies get to you before the Russians do. Or start walking/riding/driving West to improve your odds.
(Or, depending on what you’ve been up to, get on the phone to your priest to get him to help you get to South America)
whitesocks said:
I’ve always wondered what it must have been like in Germany the day after they surrendered in WW2. Imagine being an ordinary German citizen waking up thinking “What’s going to happen now?”
If you watch the old (awesome) TV series "The World at war", they touch on that- pretty much destitute Germans fleeing west with anything they/their horse can carry. Many of these people would have suffered through the starvation of WWI, too. The allies made them visit the campsA s
t time to be alive, I recon- Too young to enjoy the Belle Epoque, but here- have industrial warfare, starvation, followed by global ignomy, hyperinflation, fascism, a holocaust, another mechanised collosall defeat, complete global disgust, defeat by the soviets and a place in the centre of the new cold war.If you're really lucky, you'll live to see some cool cars and see the wall come down before you peg it. Unless you live in the East, when you will die owning a trabant.
Or choose China or Soviet Russia, probably just as horrible.
glazbagun said:
Unless you live in the East, when you will die owning a trabant.
If you're lucky.The post WWII period was by the sounds of it an absolute hellhole for most people in Europe. Trying to pick up the pieces and figure out where you fit in. The Soviet Union and other countries expelled millions of ethnic Germans from their territory in what was one of the biggest movements of people in history. Not many people had sympathy for them, but it was a horrible time.
whitesocks said:
I’ve always wondered what it must have been like in Germany the day after they surrendered in WW2. Imagine being an ordinary German citizen waking up thinking “What’s going to happen now?”
Having just read the previous 6 posts about louvred green lights, and still having them in my mind, I went straight into this WW2 one, and thought, “Christ, did the Germans wake up to funny traffic lights?”I spoke to my German daughter-in-law’s mother about her experiences immediately after the surrender, (not on the first day), she said that all she could think about was if and when her husband would be released, he was captured by the Americans near Aachen.
She was okay in Bielefeld, the British army were stationed there after the surrender, plus a few Americans, she said that they were okay, and treated everyone right.
Her husband got back home in early 1947.
Frank7 said:
Having just read the previous 6 posts about louvred green lights, and still having them in my mind, I went straight into this WW2 one, and thought, “Christ, did the Germans wake up to funny traffic lights?”
I spoke to my German daughter-in-law’s mother about her experiences immediately after the surrender, (not on the first day), she said that all she could think about was if and when her husband would be released, he was captured by the Americans near Aachen.
She was okay in Bielefeld, the British army were stationed there after the surrender, plus a few Americans, she said that they were okay, and treated everyone right.
Her husband got back home in early 1947.
The kicker here is that there is a definite answer to the louvered traffic lights question [ the point of this thread ] whereas what the average German thought on waking up to the German capitulation does not have an definitive answer.I spoke to my German daughter-in-law’s mother about her experiences immediately after the surrender, (not on the first day), she said that all she could think about was if and when her husband would be released, he was captured by the Americans near Aachen.
She was okay in Bielefeld, the British army were stationed there after the surrender, plus a few Americans, she said that they were okay, and treated everyone right.
Her husband got back home in early 1947.
A case of the ill-educated not reading the thread title.
Frank7 said:
V41LEY said:
Trivia question for stamp collectors (I can’t find the answer) - who was the first black face on a British (ie UK - not territory, dependency, commonwealth etc) postage stamp. Thought it would make a good pub quiz question.
My first thought was the Penny Black, issued in 1840, but I think that it was justthe background that was black, don’t think that Queen Victoria’s face was.
coppernorks said:
The kicker here is that there is a definite answer to the louvered traffic lights question [ the point of this thread ] whereas what the average German thought on waking up to the German capitulation does not have an definitive answer.
A case of the ill-educated not reading the thread title.
Whatever. It was just an interesting idea for a question I had. Even if it does'nt exactly match the topic.A case of the ill-educated not reading the thread title.
Oh yeah, nice assumption you made there
Edited by whitesocks on Tuesday 20th October 23:03
V41LEY said:
Trivia question for stamp collectors (I can’t find the answer) - who was the first black face on a British (ie UK - not territory, dependency, commonwealth etc) postage stamp. Thought it would make a good pub quiz question.
Well, no living person other than the monarch (and his/her consort) can appear on a stamp, and prior to 1924 (?) there were no commemorative stamps, i.e. they were all "definitives", the normal everyday stamps showing just the monarch's head. The first non-white person I can think of to have appeared on a GB commemorative stamp is Ghandi in his centenary year, 1969. Nelson Mandela appeared on a stamp with QEII in 2016. There may well be others.coppernorks said:
The kicker here is that there is a definite answer to the louvered traffic lights question [ the point of this thread ] whereas what the average German thought on waking up to the German capitulation does not have an definitive answer.
A case of the ill-educated not reading the thread title.
Really? I've read the thread title several times now, and I can't see the bit that stipulates that a definitive answer must exist. Could you elucidate, and help us poor inferior people understand?A case of the ill-educated not reading the thread title.
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