A Stranger's London
Bless you
When somebody sneezes people often call out: "Bless you! it is a custom often thought to date back to the Great Plague in the 17th Century when at least 100,000 people died in London alone.A sneeze was believed to be the first sign of the horrific disease. But it is also said that in medieval times people believed that when a person sneezed his soul momentarily, left his body.
So that the devil could not capture the temporarily unguarded soul, by- standers quickly called "God Bless you". The protected soul would then return to the safety of the body and the Devil would be thwarted.
Found - graffiti girls of 50 years ago
Three women who turned their hands to graffiti at a car factory have been found out nearly 50 years on. And now the naughty trio are to be reunited by the man who turned detective to trace them.Mr Frank Whayman discovered the names Peggy, Vera and Doris on the inside door panel of his 1936 Morris 8 when he renovated it.
He set about finding them with radio and TV appeals ... Peggy, Vera and Doris owned up. Peggy is Mrs Walter, 65, from Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, she said: "The three of us were very good friends and we've not met up for 40 years. We were little devils in those days." Vera is Mrs Vera Owen, 70, today from Littelmore, Oxford: remember the names going on the door for a bit of mischief," she recalled.
Mr Whayman, 59, a college lecturer of Harkness Way, Hitchen, Hertfordshire, plans to take them in the old car - worth £2,250 round the Cowley works in Oxford, where it was built.
Meet a 31p Madonna
A British Christmas stamp has been voted by Italians as the "most beautiful in the world".The 31p stamp, showing a Madonna and Child, was designed by Yvonne Gilbert, and modelled by 25-year-old market researcher Eleanor Craig. Stamp experts in Italy gave the award to Britain after seeing entries from 41 countries.
And it was all done by dropping an amateur model cradling an old bolster in her arms with a sheet and a chemise from a jumble sale. Now Eleanor herself is expecting her first child soon.
"I never use professional models. I prefer family or friends," says Yvonne Gilbert. "I first met Eleanor at the agency where I worked and was struck by her serene look and her beauty. "So when I was asked to do the stamps I thought that she would be a perfect Madonna."
Pain pills hook wife of doctor
A Doctor's wife became so addicted to painkillers, prescribed for a wrist injury, she forged her husband's signature on nearly 300 prescriptions to employers. obtain 62,000 of them.Mrs Heather Jackson, 35-year-old mother of two, is now almost deaf as a result of taking 35 distalgesic tablets a day four times the normal dose, Inner London Crown Court was told.
Mrs Jackson, of Meadowbank, Blackheath, admitted eight charges of forgery since 1980 and asked for 283 other offences to be considered. She was remanded on bail.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Gerald Libby told the court that she may need detoxification treatment for the rest of her life.
A burglar repents
A burglar who stole property worth £2,000 from a church, dumped it and rang to apologise. But the Rev. Brian Grellier, of St. Andrew's Wick, Lincolnshire, still told police. . . who are on the thief's trail."A pair of stick in the muds!
The earth moved for a courting couple who stopped their car on a beach to watch the tide come in.As they whispered sweet nothings they were happily oblivious of the fact that their car was slowly sinking in the muddy sand.
The red-faced pair were counting the cost of their passion because they weren't the only ones to get the sinking feeling at Weston-Super-Mare, Avon. Recovery vehicles from two garages also got bogged down in the mud trying to pull the car out. Now all three vehicles are possible insurance write- offs after spending a night submerged beneath the incoming tide.
The catalogue of disaster started on Monday after teenager Jeremy Mannion, of Bevere Close, Worcester, borrowed his father's B-registration Vauxhall Astra to take out a girl friend.
The total cost of the operation - including the loss of three vehicles - will run into thousands of pounds.
Injured typists sue boss
Two typists who claim they received crippling injuries from working on electronic typewriters are to sue their employersThe women say they will never be able to work as audio-typists again after contracting Tenosynovitis, a complaint caused by wrist bones rubbing together, giving searing pain in arms and shoulders.
Valerie Sear, 43, and Joy Mingard, 40, both of Hillingdon, West London, were forced to give up their jobs at Uxbridge solicitors Turberville and Woodbridge.
A solicitor for the women said yesterday: "We are taking court action in the High Court."
A Chelsea industrial tribunal earlier refused to hear the case because it was not brought within a time limit for claims.
