Song 28: Mabel Normand, Stevie Nicks

This is a Stevie Nicks solo song and really quite an obscure one. It's hidden away on her 24 Karat Gold album which is mostly obscure, never previously released stuff. Mabel Normand was a silent movie star, comedienne, director, producer and then studio owner and probably one of the most famous women in America in the 1910s. To give you some idea, the first film in which Charlie Chaplin played his tramp character was 'Mabel's Strange Predicament', but her later life story after that is a sad one. She was involved in two separate criminal scandals, her career declined as the silent era ended and she died in her 30s of TB.

Since it's an obscure song, I don't have an official video or live performance to share with you. However, I did find this really rather good fan video on YouTube which features Miss Normand herself.

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Just when you think Team Corbyn can't get any worse...

How China saw the recent state visit

Which aliens would it be best to be invaded by?

The world has a new species of giant tortoise.

The phrase "politically correct" is now considered politically incorrect.

"Manchester United's Bastian Schweinsteiger may sue over Nazi dolls" (Serious point here – the doll is wearing Germany army uniform. Not everyone who fought in the Germany Army during the war was a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, so it gives the wrong impression to refer to this as a ‘Nazi’ doll. What it is, is a German Army doll. It’s easy to dehumanise ordinary Germans by calling them ‘Nazis’.)

Here's a teenage boy who's worked things out.

Contrary to earlier Phligm Phlagms, our solar system is NOT a vortex.

What dress size would Marilyn Monroe be today? Somewhere between an 8 and a 10, depending on the shop.

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"Seumas Milne will finish Labour off"

I wonder if the Ugandan league is included in Football Manager...

The D&D monsters based on cheap Chinese toys.

Why We Should Defend The Right To Be Offensive. (I reserve the right to believe that some of the comments on this article were made by idiots.)

Tax credits are complex and expensive. Why not simply a negative income tax?

Good advice for writers, especially of non-fiction. This article grabbed me early on when he took the piss out of Neil ‘my hair will blow ever so attractively in the wind if I stand on this clifftop’ Oliver.

37 brilliant Halloween costumes

Are we seeing the beginnings of a new species in north America?

Paedophiles should be allowed to adopt. (How could that possibly go wrong?)

Former Labour minister: "Labour has jumped the shark."

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The best business schools now recruit people with both experience of industry and teaching ability. (…and so does my university, which is how I’m there. However, since the business school is only in its second year, it might be a while before we catch up with Harvard…)

Japan is more low-tech than you might think.

...and Sony has just finished making Betamax cassettes. (I bet there are still fanboys out there arguing that the picture quality is better than VHS.)

Not for the first time, I thought we'd reached Peak Guardian, but no!

The sad tale of the man who designed the Diamond Jubilee Barge.

Visiting every Toby Carvey in Britain with a blind photographer.

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding (Actually, they’re more things you might like to avoid than really appalling sins, but hey.)

A really nice map of Expert D&D Module X1: The Isle of Dread

'Virtue signalling' is not virtue. Good point. (And I am aware of the irony of linking to this post using social media.)