I'm writing this one in a whisper so that I don't upset the cat. You see, on this day in 1848, his namesake, Count Metternich, was overthrown by rebels in Vienna during the Year of Revolutions. All Hell was let loose all over Europe in fact by people demanding the vote, more food, the setting up of republics, more food, the end of aristocracy and the power of the church and more food. Louis Philippe's palace was destroyed the previous month in France. Venice broke away from Austrian control. There were barricades and burnings and running battles in just about every European capital.
Except London. To be fair, we did have a Chartist rally (the Chartists were those lunatics who wanted the vote and five other ludicrous demands) but it was typically British. The petition of 5 million names demanding reform actually contained less than 2 million and they included the Duke of Wellington (who would have put himself through the shredder before allowing any kind of reform) and Victoria Rex (King Victoria). Others were Pug Nose, Big Ears etc. All of which goes to show how seriously we British took our politics. Incidentally, in this rally, there were far more policemen than protesters (David Cameron, are you listening?)
In other news ...
Jean Harlow, the platinum blonde star of the new talkie screen was born today in 1911. Margot Asquith, when addressed by the star as Margotte, replied, 'the "t" is silent, as in Harlot [pronouncing it Harlow, of course].' But as Temperance Brennan of Bones would say, there is no 't' in Harlow, so that is not only illogical but it is non-consequential and ultimately unamusing. Although we at Maxwell Towers have been known to double up over it. It is one up on the 'pee is silent as in the bath' joke - but not by much.
