Word: britons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Burmese anecdote, a newly arrived and impeccably dressed visitor from Britain presented himself at the house of a Burmese dignitary. He was met by a bevy of lovely Burmese girls carrying bowls of water, who said a few words in their native tongue. Anxious to be agreeable, the Briton nodded, whereupon the maidens deluged him, from topper to spats, with cold water. The master of the house laughed & laughed...
...furious Briton presently learned that the girls had formally asked his permission to douse him, and that this was part of a hallowed Burmese spring custom. Last week, Burma was still locked in civil war with the fierce Karens and other insurgents, but the Burmese found time to devote themselves to their own ancient rites. Happy as New Orleans folk at Mardi Gras, they went about laughing and dousing each other with water. It was the Thingyan or Water Festival, the Burmese New Year celebration occasioned by the annual visit of the great god Thi-gya-min (King of Good...
Died. Sir Seymour Hicks, 78, veteran British actor, author and dramatist; in Fleet, England. Sir Seymour (knighted by King George V in 1935) appeared in nearly 100 plays (he helped write 64 plays, authored eleven books), was the first Briton to take a theatrical troupe to the front lines in France during World...
Died. John Milton Berdan, 75, longtime Yale professor of English (1903-41); of cerebral thrombosis; in New Haven, Conn. Credited with influencing many well-known writers (Sinclair Lewis, Stephen Vincent Benet, Thornton Wilder) through his popular "Daily Themes" course, Berdan was consulted by Yalemen Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden before they founded TIME...
...with a sword.* The Oxfordshire lady who owned it figured it was not "a picture anyone would want about the house," sold it to an antique dealer for 50 shillings ($10). The dealer traded it to a salesman for a $56 typewriter, and it was the salesman, a bustling Briton named Henry Eric Wells, who made a small fortune last week from Dido's suicide. He showed the painting to an art expert, discovered it was from the hand of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens (who had painted another well-known Dido in the same pose, and resold...