The Echo of a Distant Time 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇩🇪🇩🇰🇨🇦🇺🇦
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The Echo of a Distant Time 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇩🇪🇩🇰🇨🇦🇺🇦
@arthurnewhook.bsky.social
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*John 8:32* Old-fashioned, sick it of all. Anti-populist, independent pragmatist. Girly pics, nostalgia, history, Golden Age of Hollywood. War, tyranny, collapse. Massachusetts Bay Colony 🇬🇧. #StopPutin 🇺🇦 #NeverTrump linktr.ee/arthurnewhook
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Having a proper splash: Dublin-born film and television star of the 1950s, Audrey Dalton, turns 92 today, born 21 January 1934. She is pictured here circa 1953. {photo: Shutterstock; colourised}

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A colourised mid-century candid of Audrey Dalton, circa 1953, captures her in a moment of playful domestic charm. Reclining amid frothy suds in a deep enamel bathtub, she turns toward the camera with a radiant, unguarded smile, her dark hair pinned into a lively curled updo that frames her expressive brows and bright eyes. One leg lifts gracefully from the bubbles as she scrubs her foot with a long-handled brush, a gesture of mischievous ease rather than glamour. The bathroom around her is modestly stylish in its period detail—pale wooden panelling, striped towels neatly folded on a rail, glass bottles glinting on the sill, and a small window shaded by horizontal blinds. The tub’s green-marbled enamel base gleams softly beneath the warm light, rooting the scene in the cheerful intimacy of 1950s colour and optimism.
January 21, 2026 at 7:41 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Plumage: a bird of paradise alighted in a bathroom. Wishing the splendid actress Geena Davis a very happy birthday. Born 21 January 1956.

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A vivid studio glamour portrait of Geena Davis rendered in exuberant mid-century colour harmony. Against a backdrop of glossy, candy-pink tiles, she turns in three-quarter profile, her copper-red hair arranged in sumptuous, sculpted waves that catch the light like polished bronze. Her expression is poised and faintly amused—half-lidded eyes, an almost secretive smile—as though aware of her own artifice. Dark, glinting statement earrings anchor the composition with nocturnal contrast. Though nude beneath the styling, she is enveloped in a vast teal-blue feathered wrap that unfurls across her shoulders and arms, transforming the body into a living study of colour and texture. The bright, balanced lighting saturates every surface, merging Hollywood opulence with editorial precision: a portrait less of seduction than of power made incandescent through hue and poise.
January 21, 2026 at 7:06 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
How many times has he said 'piece of ice' in this bloody speech?
January 21, 2026 at 2:18 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” —George Orwell, a/k/a Eric Arthur Blair, 25 June 1903 to 21 January 1950.

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A warm, sepia-toned interior unfolds like a still from an unmade film: a blonde woman sits at a modest wooden table, her posture bent in quiet focus as she writes in a large, open ledger. The nib of her fountain pen hovers with deliberation, each word seemingly weighed before it touches the page. Her left hand cradles her temple, fingers lost in the soft waves of her hair, her expression intent but weary. To her side, an old valve radio hums faintly, its green dial casting a spectral glow through the gathering smoke of a half-burnt cigarette. In the foreground rests a heavy volume embossed OFFICIAL LEXICON—an artefact of bureaucracy or espionage, hinting at secrets encoded in language. On the wall behind her, a framed portrait of a severe, unsmiling man presides like a silent judge. The composition breathes with stillness and suspicion—a world of whispered reports, private reckonings, and thoughts too dangerous to speak aloud.
January 21, 2026 at 2:01 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Trump now speaking at Davos, blatantly lying through his teeth about the state of the US economy.
January 21, 2026 at 1:44 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
#OTD 1908: New York City's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance prohibiting women from smoking in public. Only one woman was ever cited before Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. vetoed the measure a fortnight later.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulliva...
A painterly, sepia-toned tableau unfolds in the hushed corridor of a municipal building, its atmosphere thick with shadow and civic gravity. Beside a door marked MAYOR’S OFFICE stands a woman of patrician poise, turned in three-quarter profile, her elegance incongruous with the bureaucratic gloom around her. She wears an ivory gown of Edwardian inspiration, its fabric alive with gold embroidery that glimmers faintly beneath the low light; matching opera gloves sheath her arms, and an opulent hat, plumed with pale feathers, crowns her softly curled blonde hair. Between two fingers, a cigarette smoulders, its thin ribbon of smoke rising like an afterthought of rebellion. Her gaze drifts past the viewer—serene, remote, unyielding. At her feet, a discarded newspaper blares the headline Sullivan Ordinance, a relic of scandal hinting at battles both political and personal. Stone pillars, scuffed plaster, and dim, bureaucratic light conspire to make the scene feel half confessional, half cinematic—an aria of dignity against the machinery of power.
January 21, 2026 at 1:28 PM
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“‘Oomph’ is what a fat man says when he leans over to tie his shoelace in a telephone booth.” —Ann Sheridan, very reluctantly known as ‘The Oomph Girl’, 21 February 1915 to 21 January 1967. {Warner Bros. publicity photo, colourised}

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A colourised Warner Bros. publicity still portrays Ann Sheridan reclining on sun-washed sand, the sea breeze implied in the gauzy sky behind her. She lounges on her side, one arm curved at her waist and the other idly poised near a small pile of magazines, her expression both serene and faintly knowing. She wears a high-waisted two-piece swimsuit alive with tropical florals—emerald, cobalt, and coral interlaced in exuberant print—the knotted bodice sculpting her figure in perfect mid-century rhythm. Her auburn hair gleams in soft, stylised waves, while a length of bundled rope rests behind her, lending texture and nautical suggestion. In the foreground, her patterned sandals lie casually in the sand, as though discarded for leisure. The tableau radiates that effortless Warner Bros. polish—sun, wit, and glamour distilled into a single, languorous pose.
January 21, 2026 at 12:04 PM
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The Jazz Age laughter that echoes through the decades. {source unknown}

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A lively, sepia-toned photograph captures two young women in a modest bedroom, dressed in pale, sleeveless slips and caught in a burst of laughter. One lies sprawled across a narrow bed, hands lifted in mock surrender, her legs stretching towards the viewer. On the floor, her companion sits with knees drawn up, playfully clutching the other’s ankle, a ruffled cap perched jauntily atop her head. A discarded stocking dangles from the bedframe, while a pair of dark heels lies nearby—clues to a moment’s mischief. Behind them, a small vanity with a mirror and lamp anchors the scene, its intimate clutter grounding the playful chaos. The photograph feels spontaneous yet composed: a fleeting glimpse of camaraderie and feminine humour from the twilight of the Jazz Age.
January 21, 2026 at 11:29 AM
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Where the classical 'lady and maid' aesthetic meets the cold, digital indifference of the 21st century. {photo: Alisa Verner}

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A softly lit boudoir tableau rendered in tones of cream and rose. On an ornate chaise lounge, a woman reclines with lazy elegance, her limbs stretched along the curved armrest as she scrolls idly through her phone. She wears a sheer blush robe over pale lingerie, the fabric pooling around her like smoke. At her feet, a second woman kneels in quiet concentration, platinum hair bound neatly in a bun as she paints her companion’s toenails—a gesture of unhurried intimacy. The room breathes soft luxury: floral motifs, ivory furnishings, and light diffused through gauze curtains. The palette of porcelain, champagne, and petal pink lends the image an editorial stillness, a modern echo of Rococo indolence—beauty at ease with itself, suspended between service and repose.
January 21, 2026 at 10:32 AM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones elected to Cooperstown. {ESPN 20 January} www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...
Carlos Beltran, Andruw Jones elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones, center fielders who excelled at the plate and with their gloves, were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
www.espn.com
January 21, 2026 at 6:58 AM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Don't you know, this is all Biden's fault. Let us cry some more orange tears...
January 20, 2026 at 9:36 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Like a woman who has seen the end of the world and found it merely 'interesting’. 'Decorated actress Patricia Neal, 20 January 1926 to 8 August 2010. {source unknown}

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A black-and-white studio portrait of actress Patricia Neal, composed with the restrained drama of mid-century Hollywood. She is captured in three-quarter profile against a void-dark background, her head turned back toward the lens, offering a faint, knowing half-smile that feels both inviting and inscrutable. A single key light defines her face with sculptural precision—glancing off the bridge of her nose, cheekbone, and the subtle sheen of her lipstick, while the opposite side dissolves into velvety shadow. Her hair, arranged in immaculate rolled waves, frames her brow and jaw with elegant symmetry. The fitted, semi-transparent blouse she wears shimmers faintly where the light grazes its swirling pattern, hinting at texture without distraction. Between her relaxed fingers, a cigarette burns quietly—a pale, vertical spark amid darkness—completing the image’s aura of poised intimacy and understated noir sophistication.
January 20, 2026 at 6:01 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
‘This is sell America.’ Trump's heightened rhetoric regarding a Greenland acquisition triggers a significant economic backlash, with global investors withdrawing in droves from the former United States and its beloved, senile dictator. {CNBC 20 January} www.cnbc.com/2026/01/20/s...
A painterly, richly textured illustration captures a young woman standing on a crust of snow before an immense wall of blue-white ice—a glacier rising like a frozen cathedral beneath a sky of cold, diffuse light. She faces the viewer directly, expression unreadable, her dark hair braided into two neat plaits beneath a blunt fringe that frames her pale, wind-reddened face. Her attire blends modern and ancestral forms: a cropped, fur-edged brown top and short skirt trimmed in pale pelts, practical and symbolic against the polar austerity. In her right hand she holds a small GPS or radio device, its plastic surface a jarring note of modernity in this elemental setting. To her left, a weathered wooden signpost leans into the snow, bearing two inscriptions—one in an Indigenous script, the other in bold English capitals: THIS IS NOT A REAL ESTATE DEAL. The composition fuses beauty and indictment, myth and manifesto, the human figure standing solitary and unyielding against the frozen monumentality of a threatened world.
January 20, 2026 at 5:35 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Protesters in Davos, Switzerland, burn American flags ahead of Trump’s visit. {Dnyuz 20 January}
‘F*** Trump’ Protesters Burn U.S. Flags in the Street as President Jets in for Summit
Protesters in Switzerland raged against President Donald Trump ahead of his visit to the country for the annual World Economic
dnyuz.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:12 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Carney, without naming names, starkly illustrated how the rules-based international order has been shattered, receiving a standing ovation. {NYT 20 January} www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
A painterly, softly textured portrait depicts a young red-haired woman against a muted sepia backdrop, the surface rendered like aged canvas brushed with time. Her long chestnut hair, cut in a straight fringe, frames a pale, luminous face marked by cool grey-blue eyes—eyes that hold a balance of introspection and muted defiance. Draped around her shoulders is a Canadian flag, worn not as display but as garment: its white field gathers at her collarbone beneath a lightly clasped hand, the red bands cascading down her arms in soft, creased folds. The fabric’s faint translucence catches the studio light, tracing her form with quiet sensuality while keeping the composition chaste and contemplative. The restrained palette of warm umber, softened flesh tones, and deep crimson infuses the image with an air of remembrance and solitary pride—part patriotic reverie, part intimate self-portrait of spirit and identity.
January 20, 2026 at 4:57 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Former DHS official warns that demanding extensive social media data from foreign visitors could lead to empty seats at the World Cup and Olympics, and invite reciprocal treatment for American travellers abroad. {Stewart Verdery 20 January} www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
A painterly, film-noir-inflected illustration depicts a blonde woman seated alone in an airport lounge after dark, her solitude illuminated by the sodium glow filtering through vast, rain-streaked windows. She wears a sharply tailored dark coat over a pale blouse, her hair styled in polished 1940s waves that catch the amber light. Her gaze drifts beyond the glass towards a waiting airliner, its fuselage blurred by drizzle and distance—a vision of motion suspended. In her hands she holds a tablet turned slightly towards us, its screen displaying a web of icons and lines under the heading Social Media Vetting—a modern tangle of surveillance and algorithmic judgement. On the table beside her, a passport and a scatter of forms lie open like evidence of quiet intrusion. The palette of muted gold and steel blue, rendered in textured, cinematic brushwork, evokes an atmosphere of poised melancholy and low-grade paranoia, where progress and privacy sit uneasily side by side.
January 20, 2026 at 4:24 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
As if the Mediterranean itself was merely a backdrop for her own private thoughts: Brigitte at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. {photo: Kay Lasch}

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A black-and-white photograph captures Brigitte Bardot at the water’s edge during the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, poised between youthful spontaneity and cinematic allure. She leans lightly against the overturned hull of a small wooden boat, one hand tracing its rim, the other resting idly at her side. Her strapless swimsuit, pale and sculpted to a narrow waist, gleams beneath the hard Mediterranean light, turning her silhouette into an emblem of modern sensuality. Her long dark hair tumbles in a heavy fall over one shoulder, framing her face and catching the sun beside a pair of bright hoop earrings. With her head tilted back and eyes closed, she seems lost in the warmth of air and sea, an image of languid ease. Behind her, the still harbour, moored boats, and hazy whitewashed buildings dissolve into the glare, completing a scene that radiates effortless Riviera glamour.
January 20, 2026 at 3:25 PM
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A mid-century siren who has conquered her own hearth. {source unknown}

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January 20, 2026 at 2:47 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
“Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman - or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.” —George Burns, 20 January 1896 to 9 March 1996. {photo: Getty Images, 1993}

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A colour portrait captures George Burns seated with composed authority in a striking red modernist armchair that seems almost to glow against the pale, minimalist backdrop. Dressed immaculately in a light-grey pinstriped suit, a pale-blue shirt, and a dark tie patterned with small white dots, he exudes the easy precision of a performer long accustomed to the spotlight. His round spectacles catch the light, accentuating the dry intelligence in his lined, expressive face. In one hand he holds a short cigar aloft, suspended mid-thought, as if savouring both the smoke and the punchline yet to be delivered. A neat pocket square and subtle lapel detail underscore the old-world polish beneath his urbane nonchalance. The composition distils Burns’s persona to its essence: wit, restraint, and the quiet confidence of a man who has mastered the pause.
January 20, 2026 at 1:25 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
A garden sprite who has found a most unusual throne: Audrey Hepburn, 4 May 1929 to 20 January 1993. {photo: Edward Quinn, c. 1951; colourised}

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A colourised outdoor portrait captures Audrey Hepburn in a moment of radiant, effortless charm, seated astride a gleaming green frog sculpture upon a neatly kept lawn. She wears a pink-and-white striped knit top with a modest crew neck, tucked into pale, high-waisted shorts that define a graceful, youthful silhouette. A navy cap shades her dark, softly waved hair, while simple open-toe sandals complete the look with unstudied ease. Her posture—knees bent to either side, hands resting lightly upon the frog’s polished back—conveys both composure and playfulness, as though caught mid-laughter between takes. Behind her, a luxuriant wall of palms and tropical foliage forms a vivid green backdrop, with hints of pale architecture glimmering through. The image radiates sunlight and joie de vivre: mid-century leisure refined by Hepburn’s innate poise and unselfconscious delight.
January 20, 2026 at 12:46 PM
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Remembering one of the greatest thespians of the 20th century, Barbara Stanwyck, 16 July 1907 to 20 January 1990. Pictured alongside George Brent in this poster for the classic Baby Face (1933, WB).

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A vividly coloured, painterly poster for the 1933 film Baby Face exudes the lush, provocative glamour of early Pre-Code Hollywood. Dominating the composition’s upper left, Barbara Stanwyck’s face looms in close-up—her blonde hair haloed in gold and carmine tones, eyes angled downward with a knowing, faintly predatory calm. Crimson lips and a dark fur collar frame her features in chiaroscuro contrast, setting the visual key of allure and danger. Her name, Barbara Stanwyck, runs boldly along the left edge in stylised Deco type, while to the right a smaller inset portrait of George Brent offers a composed counterpoint: dark-suited, observant, his gaze implying both fascination and caution. Beneath his likeness, the text reads “with George Brent” and “Directed by Alfred E. Green,” while the upper corner carries the Warner Bros. Vitaphone insignia. The poster’s saturated palette and crisp geometry fuse seduction and threat—sin, ambition, and beauty all advertised in one electric image.
January 20, 2026 at 12:26 PM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Never imagined I would see basketball blueblood Indiana win a national championship in football. Who is next? Kentucky? Duke? Kansas? Regardless, congratulations to the Hoosiers on a phenomenal campaign, and to Miami on their impressive run. {ESPN 20 January}
How Indiana won college football's national championship
The program that was once the least successful in all of FBS is now the national champion.
www.espn.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:50 AM
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A masterclass in subversion and perspective. {source unknown}

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A tightly framed, low-angle photograph captures a scene glimpsed from floor level beneath the partition of a tiled restroom cubicle. On the left, the lower legs of a standing woman appear in dark, strappy heels—poised, motionless, and cropped at the calf. Opposite her, another woman kneels on the cool tiles, her light pleated skirt pooling around bare knees and thighs pressed to the floor. Between them lies a small, pale garment, casually discarded, its folds introducing a note of disruption within the otherwise sterile geometry of grout and tile. The lighting is harsh and functional, flattening the scene into tones of grey and white, while the composition—anonymous, voyeuristic, and tightly contained—conjures a charged atmosphere of secrecy and staged transgression, where intimacy and surveillance uneasily converge.
January 20, 2026 at 9:59 AM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
Knotwork as calligraphy; her gaze, the signature. {source unknown}

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A carefully staged, provocative photograph depicts a young woman arranged in a bondage tableau upon a low, black platform before softly illuminated cream curtains. Her upper body rests close to the edge of the frame, head lowered, hair falling loose around her face, while her legs are drawn sharply upward—bound together at the ankles with white rope that stretches taut toward an unseen anchor. The pose compresses her body into a sculptural arc, both constrained and exposed. She meets the camera’s gaze directly, her eyes darkened with heavy shadow, mouth slightly open in an expression that feels more stylised than spontaneous—a performance of transgression. The flat, even lighting and neutral domestic backdrop heighten the image’s tension: pale skin and white rope standing out starkly against the dark platform, transforming restraint into formal composition.
January 20, 2026 at 9:47 AM
arthurnewhook.bsky.social
A predator in pearls and silk: Lilian Bond, captured by the lens of Alfred Cheney Johnston, circa 1928.

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A black-and-white studio portrait presents actress Lilian Bond in an intimate three-quarter view, her bare shoulders and upper chest enveloped by a sumptuous satin wrap that glimmers under the key light. She holds the fabric close with crossed forearms—an artful gesture that suggests both modesty and design—drawing attention to the elegant line of her collarbones and the fluid drape of the material. Her hair, parted deeply to one side, is styled in the polished, undulating waves emblematic of late-1920s sophistication. Bond’s gaze meets the lens directly: cool, measured, faintly insolent. Her dark, perfectly outlined lips and kohl-rimmed eyes convey a poised self-awareness, while a single long earring and a slender, sparkling bracelet punctuate the monochrome composition with notes of brilliance. Behind her, the blurred hint of foliage dissolves into soft light, lending the portrait a sense of cultivated allure and early-Hollywood poise.
January 19, 2026 at 6:04 PM