Albert, Madge, and Her Majesty…

But first…
Dulltown, UK: Today’s quotation is from John Steinbeck’s amusing and gripping 1945 novel, Cannery Row:
The rooster who had challenged the sunrise of this very day lay dismembered and clean in water in the five-gallon can with peeled onions about him, while a little fire of dead willow sticks sputtered between the stones, a very little fire. Only fools build big fires. It would take a long time to cook this rooster, for it had taken him a long time to achieve his size and muscularity. But as the water boiled gently about him, he smelled good from the beginning…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The 1954 Gadgets Annual must have been a handy book to have around the home, packed with interesting items from the previous year’s Gadgets Magazine; good old compiler, W N Shaw – he did a fine job!

Now then, what’s this on page 152, sitting nicely between Make Small-Part Holders From Labels, and The Correct Proportions of the Union Jack? (Which is actually in error – I once looked up how to lay out the lines and colours of the thing properly in my Book of Flags – I needed to paint one for some awful theatre production I was rather foolishly persuaded to be involved in.) Yes, today’s featured item involves our national flag too.

‘Albert…’
‘Eh?’
‘Your tea is getting cold…’
‘Oh, yes, Madge dear, so it is…’
‘I see you’ve got your nose buried in that silly magazine again, I thought you’d stopped getting it!’
‘Oh, Billy-next-door passes his copy over the back fence when he’s finished with…’
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit rude Albert? Reading at the breakfast table?’
‘Yes, dear, it is! I’m sorry, but I was thinking about Her Majesty…’
‘Her Majesty?’
‘Yes, dear, it’s Her birthday coming up soon…’
‘Birthday, Albert?’
‘Yes dear, it’s round about the time of the twins, Janet and Brian’s, birthday – we could have combined party…’
‘Will Her Majesty be coming Albert?’
‘Well, no of course not, but we could have cake and buns and games and stuff, and I could do an amusing magic turn, and make a bit of a patriotic show of it…’
‘I see…’
‘Madge…’
‘Yes dear?’
‘Do we have any ferric ammonium sulphate in the house?’
‘I’m pretty sure we don’t Albert.’
‘Sodium silicate?’
‘Mm, let me think… No…’
‘Oh, pity… What about a bit of sodium ferrocyanide?’
‘I don’t think so dear, but I could have a look in the bathroom cupboard…’
‘Madge…’
‘Yes, Albert?’
‘You are making fun of me, aren’t you?’
‘Yes dear… Pass your cup over, I’ll top it up…’