"On my regular lunchbreak stroll in Newmarket, I came across an unfortunate but very amusingly named manicure shop," writes Alastair Belton. "I can see where their thought process was going, but they really failed to nail it."
In love, literally
Victorians were constrained by social conventions of the day when trying to pursue romantic entanglements, but placing a newspaper ad seemed to be a way in which to flirt or chastise. An historian at the University of Exeter examined the classified ads in a London newspaper between the 1870s and 1890s and found a "hotbed of sexual tensions". One example ran: "CAD: utterly miserable and brokenhearted. I must see you my darling. Please write and fix time and place, at all risks. Can pass house if necessary unseen, in close carriage." Another read: "KITTEN, I hope you are happy. I am most miserable. Do write to our house before Wednesday next; I cannot bear a year. Pray let me see you for old love, which is still stronger." These traces of illicit affairs and broken hearts are especially poignant since we often don't know how the story ended; we have no way of knowing if "Kitten" or any other recipient ever read the messages or responded. However, the public nature of these coded messages suggests a level of desperation, and perhaps a last-ditch attempt to rekindle a dying flame, such as in this heartfelt plea: "ALWAYS AT ELEVEN: Dearest, I have obeyed your letter. Have mercy, you are breaking my heart. Never to see you, never hear - save to bid me 'not come'. For God's sake dear love, end this one way or the other. I cannot, cannot bear it. You are too cruel." (Via Mental Floss)
Shoot from the lip
The British Government has admitted "mistakenly" using a spoof poster that suggested parents should shoot children if they had rabies. The image appeared in a magazine for civil servants in a feature on the history of government communications. The poster was produced by the fictional Scarfolk Council, whose Twitter account parodies town life "that did not progress beyond 1979". It was used in the printed version of the Civil Service Quarterly, along with government posters from the past 100 years, including the famous "Careless talk costs lives" campaign during World War II. (Source: BBC)
