h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mrs Potts a ???????

Yes, but in a different movie, namely "Pirates of Penzance," in which Ms Lansbury was a nursemaid who joined the .

It's hard to think of the lovely Ms Lansbury swash-buckling, drinking grog and being a dab hand with cutless and pistol.

What thinks our resident Pierce, me hearties. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, guess it's me for the black spot next. I've already been given one by our illustrious management here

oh dear, what did you do?

a swashbuckling ms lansbury? no, i don't see that, but it's fun to imagine

and the IT grasses me up to the management for being one of the top ten offenders logged on to non-work related websites, fortunately they only clock it as the BBC

We could start a whole new thread on people we'd like to see swashbuckling Margret Thatcher for instance, though I suspect she'd be rather too good at it

Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt were also in the movie, Pierce. Ruth, the pirate nurserymaid is my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan heroine. Angela has played lots of really tough women (in "State of the Union" and "The Manchurian Candidate," among others, not to mention Sweeney Todd's pie-baking acocmplice, Mrs. Lovett...), and it came as no surprise to me that she could also be a fabulous .

i have heard of gilbert, sullivan, 'state of the union', 'the manchurian candidate' and sweeney todd - but never saw any of them

but i have seen a lot of kline. and linda ronstadt once sang beautifully together with neil young

nortirascal, i think you just mentioned THE advantage of auntie beeb taking over hootoo

Exactly!

Sweeny Todd is the barber in my village town thingy. The cops like him cos he gives threm free pies.

and others a clean shave?

I don't know how many people know this, but there was a time when barbers doubled as surgeons.

... hence the term "barber-surgeon"
(sorry, no knife smiley...)

Right.

This would have been before the discovery of microbes. Sterilizing the barber's scissors and knives to prevent infection was not known to be necessary.

Though on ships and Royal Navy vessels they had saw bones (surgeons) and an impressive array of buthchering tools before the advent of anaesthetic, just a healthy dose of grog to dull the pain. Decks were covered in saw dust to soak up blood and in the surgeons part it was painted red to disguise the blood.

I collect the old cannon balls from the mud flats near where I live (St John's Lake, Plmouth) It used to be the old inert ranges and there is still round shot on the mud, quite a few are 32lb hollow shot with a brass fuse cap, the devastation when that exploded above a deck firing shrapnal in all directions must have been virtually total for a radius of at least fifty metres, based on my technical experience with weapons. Awesome for a simple smooth bore muzzle loading weapon, that's not taking into account grape shot as well firing in basically the same principle as a sawn off shot gun.

aye, back in the old days the "" (usually s shipwright - or his apprentice) would pour some rum on yer wound, then take a hearty swig himself and - if yer was lucky - you might get a healthy dose as well before yer was asked to bite on a bullet while he sawed off the odd limb

those were the days me hearties

Oh ahh; 32 lb shot. Yes you would need a big gun for that. I got to thinking about all the films and stories of seafaring and it occurred to me I don't know how they used to keep warm.

Did they have a bonfire somewhere; it can be quite cold on a windy day up north, the sea smashing over the deck.

Rum has a multitude of uses though.

The film "Master and Commander" had numerous battle scenes and a few scenes in the surgeon's office. It seemed pretty realistic.

Inded it was When I was fool hardy enough to walk across the mud flats there were even 64lb-er's there Too heavy for me to tote back without sinking into the mud and meeting a cold nad grisely demise

What really excited me was the fact these shots were fired from wooden walled ships practicing gunnery before the great sea battles of Cape Cadiz, Trafalger, Nile - give 'em a bit of Empire, me hearties

very civil of you not to mention copenhagen in my thread, norti

Those wooden walled ships were probably made of oak, a superior type of wood. But, yes, it is remarkable that such heavy stuff was carried all around the world in sailing ships.

Pierce, I think I've missed something. Were there some sea battrles in Copenhagen? What happened, and who was fighting against whom?