British history documentary: click for more on Cromwell and Robin Hood

British scientists announced this week that infamous 17^th century Puritan revolutionary Oliver Cromwell habitually ‘slathered himself in only the finest quality women’s creams . . .which would have made him smell like flowers.’

The scientists’ surprising findings came after they examined pots of lotions believed to belong to Cromwell, who despite his notoriety for trying to ban Christmas and being a ‘self styled Moses’ was apparently ‘obsessed with his appearance.’

“This is real top-of-the-range stuff — like going into Harrods and shopping from the most expensive make-up counter,” Study chief Sally Pointer told reporters, “It shows appearances were important even for a person like Cromwell, who was very godly, with personally very strong puritan convictions.” (The Sun)

As leader of the Roundheads army he successfully defeated the royalists and co-signed the death Warrant of King Charles 1 and when he died in 1658 from malaria was buried in Westminster Abbey as England’s effective head of state.

However less than 18 months later, Charles 11 returned to the throne and Cromwell was ‘posthumously executed’ with his head stuck on a pole outside Westminster Abbey for three years and his body thrown into an unmarked burial pit in Connaught Square (ironically just outside Paul Oakenfold’s London townhouse of today).

http://www.olivercromwell.org/faqs4.htm (Oliver Cromwell- and why he tried to ban Christmas: ‘generally, it was a period of leisure, of eating and drinking to excess, of dancing and singing, gambling, gaming and stage plays (though modern-style pantomimes did not emerge until the eighteenth century), of drunkenness and sexual immorality, a period when normal rules and self-control did not apply, a period of deliberate inversion and ‘misrule’ . . .’)

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

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A new study of mobile phone use patterns of 3 million people has revealed that women ‘drive the formation of romantic relationships’.

Study co-author Professor Robin Dunbar told the BBC analysis of phone calls and texts showed that ‘pair-bonding is much more important to women than men.’

“It’s the first really strong evidence that romantic relationships are driven by women,” the Oxford University professor suggested, “It’s they who make the decision and once they have made their mind up, they just go for the poor bloke until he keels over and gives in.” (BBC: http://bbc.in/IAP3KQ )

Details of the survey emerged just as leading marketing agency Carat unveiled a new ‘purchasing demographic’ of ‘young urban men’ who they suggested represent ‘a move away from the ‘player’ and ‘metrosexual’ archetypes of previous decades’.

The decidedly prissy ‘millennial’ men are ‘happy-go-lucky about life’, enjoy strengthening bonds between friends and family and sipping ‘a good glass of wine with dinner at a restaurant’ with the wildest ones enjoying ‘outdoor – mostly healthy – activities.’

“The study has shown clearly that these men are leaders, not followers,” Carat expert Asher Vorster declared in a press release announcing the results of their latest Consumer Connection Survey.

“They enjoy the so-called simple things in life, enjoy giving back and are extroverted and social,” he claimed. (BizCommunity.com: http://bit.ly/JDqpYH )

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

English heritage have erected a blue (actually black!) plaque paying homage to David Bowie on the London street where he posed for the album cover of his seminal 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The blue plaque scheme was first instigated in the 1860s to commemorate a link between locations and a famous person or event, with most of the 850 odd London plaques marking residences where iconic characters (such as Karx Marx and George Orwell) lived.

Guardian writer Dorian Lynskey hailed Bowie’s new plaque as ‘a reminder of how powerful an electric current pop could generate in less enlightened times’ and paid tribute to his incredibly bold androgynous invention.

“To gay fans Bowie’s early 70s identity was a lifeline, while to those who didn’t identify as such it was a demonstration that sexuality isn’t a simple binary but a sliding scale,” said Lynskey, “Pop music was the perfect forum in which to explore and debate it.” http://bit.ly/HeRMrz

Bowie’s importance in reducing homophobia was previously recognized by the Sunday Times who hailed him as ‘a sexual trailblazer his importance can’t be exaggerated’.

“A good five years before the New Romantics, Bowie had spear-headed a fresh approach to the male psyche, “ the Times pointed out on 2005.

“After Ziggy (Stardust), young men, mainly teenagers- realised that a flamboyant appearance didn’t necessarily mean effeminacy. Perhaps more significantly, their girlfriends didn’t either,” the paper said.

More recently the Daily Mail speculated that his massive popularity over four decades was driven by him ‘inventing provocative sexual ambiguity long before the rest of the world caught up’ and noted that Bowie practiced what he preached with enthusiastic indiscretion.

“Friends from the rock star’s youth tell a disturbing story of how he pulled his van over one night to pick up an unwashed female vagrant from the roadside,” the Mail recalled, “And would gladly have had his way with her if the other members of his first band, the Mannish Boys, had not made her get out.” (Daily Mail: http://bit.ly/hGCvOW )

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff