Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

A couple of other interesting historical stories from the Times

The thriving Roman town that slipped into oblivion

I find it interesting that they know the structures of the town, right at the heart of Boadicea's Inceni tribe--'by using a high-resolution geophysical survey and a caesium vapour magnetometer, which measures the changes caused by human activity in the magnetic field of the Earth, they can see beneath the soil without having to excavate.' That's astounding.

Then there's this:

Did Unity Mitford have Adolf Hitler’s love child?

It's mostly a retelling of some rumours that would be difficult to prove, since most everyone who could verify it is dead at this point. But it is an intriguing thought. What would you do if you'd let a quiet life and when you were elderly discovered you were Hitler's son or daughter? It would be stunning. And of course, there's no reason to believe that a child of Hitler's would be evil incarnate, although it would be interesting to see what genetic proclivities might be seen.

The Mitfords themselves were varied in their tastes. Two (including Unity) were connected to fascism. One was a proponent of communism who married Winston Churchill's nephew. One married a man who later became a duke. Another was related to John F Kennedy by marriage. They definitely come across as having strong intellectual passions. Unity Mitford was so overwrought by word of her homeland declaring war on Hitler that she shot herself in the head (she survived as an invalid).

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